Paying Admission to Have Fun

It's 2013, and money is a thing. Most of us have uttered the phrase "I"d love to buy that, but..." at least once this week. We have to cut corners and closely monitor every penny we spend, and it can really get us down.

So go put your wallet somewhere out of earshot, because I'm going to encourage you to spend money on yourself.

Let's kick this off with a story. When I got my license, I inherited my mom's 1988 Ford Bronco II. Here's a photo I pulled from Google Maps.

                                 

I knew going in that this thing would be a headache. My mom, who is very delicate with her vehicles, was getting this thing repaired quite often. But to me, this was a smart choice because I had no up-front cost; the only thing I'd need to pay for is maintenance, and surely that wouldn't outweigh the cost of just buying a newer vehicle. Judging by my use of language, you know where this is going.

In the few years that I had it, I dropped thousands of dollars on repairs. I don't even want to put a humorous picture of a junky car to emphasize this point because I'm just that bitter. At one point, I was calling AAA a few times a month - the tow drivers started remembering me, for crying out loud! By the time I got rid of it, I'm pretty sure the only thing I hadn't replaced was the body.

That first car has forever shaped how I experience driving. Even after 7 years, the slightest hint of a problem in a car has me panicking. If I feel the car shift gears too slowly, or take a millisecond too long to start in the winter, I just know the thing is on its way to the graveyard.

Highway to Hell reference, anyone?

In that underused part of my brain known as logic, I know my experience isn't representative of the average person. If a car lags a little when going uphill against the wind, I know it's normal. It doesn't mean I should frantically prepare myself to swerve across a lane of traffic so I can make it to the shoulder before I cause a pileup with double-digit casualties. But still, I feel the dread.

Let's bring this back to geeky relevance. Around the time I had the Bronco, my friend Brian introduced me to Magic the Gathering, quite possibly the world's most popular trading card game.

Brian started me out with a pretty simple deck. He had me buy a theme deck, which was a sub-par deck that would let you get your feet wet. I started during the Ravnica set, which was a time when the cards were all very flavorful and went together thematically.
                                     

I'll never forget you, Agrus Kos.

Brian, who I didn't realize was a fantastic deck builder and strategist, sat me down and gave me a few upgrades to get my deck moving.

Our first few games went as well as they could have. He made a few casual decks that were a good level for me to play against, and then I started trying to build competitive decks on my own so he could really test himself against his high-level decks.
                                       
Here's how I built decks: I'd find something fun I wanted to take advantage of life life gain, flying, creature spam, etc, and I'd build a deck around it. But everything had to fit together thematically. There was no room for a goblin in my burn deck unless he was carrying fire in his card art. Elves were elves, and there was no way I'd put another creature on the board beside them, even if it was a 100% improvement to the deck. I liked my fun, casual decks and wanted them to be competitive.

What I saw looking at my deck

                                                 
Here's how I imagine Brian built his decks (I can't say for sure, I'm still bad at it): Decide on a primary and secondary win condition. Research cards and abilities that would help him achieve his goal. Test extensively. Do they work together? If yes, play until you find a weakness to fix. If no, fix it and restart testing.

And his                                                   

To complement his willingness to do well, Brian paid no attention to card prices. If the card was the best for his deck, it would be in his mailbox in a few days and ready to crush me. To complement my unspoken theory of "fun decks at the cost of fun games," I bought several decks that only cost me $20-30 and insisted that they'd do well because they looked so fun.

Brian would spend his off-time building decks or reading tournament reports and articles aimed at pro players.

Any off-time I dedicated to MTG was spent exclusively on Building on a Budget, which at the time promised decks costing no more than about $30.

Brian played to win no matter what. I played to win on a budget.

This wasn't necessarily a bad thing for awhile. I'd play my decks against those that were still in their development infancy. I probably won 1/4 of my games, which I was honestly happy with. My decks performed well, and they were often close games. Had we continued playing in his kitchen, MTG would have never lost its luster.

One day, the Building on a Budget author at the time made a budget storm deck using Grapeshot and Empty the Warrens as win conditions. It was a deck that could win consistently, and the only strategic input I had was when to start my combo. After several games spent learning the deck, I decided to accompany Brian to a local magic tournament. I had a rocking budget deck, and I was going make people burn their $400 decks in a mixture of awe and frustration.

That didn't happen. I did win one of my official games and one of my fun games I played against some casual players, but it was a humbling experience. Looking back, I see it as the day I realized that Magic was a game of power, and power comes with a literal cost.

But at the time, I was mad. Wizards of the Coast was forcing me to buy all these expensive cards just to be competitive. I wanted to bring a knife to a nuke fight.

And no matter how many I brought, I still got exploded.

                                 

So I decided not to play their game. I wanted to do well in a competitive environment, but I couldn't because I wasn't willing to pay the admission price.

After all these years I've found a group of casual players with a similar budget, but even now the decks I want to build will be grossly underpowered because I'm playing a $1 version of a $15 card and pretending there's not much difference. I'm using common lands in place of rare lands. I purposely choose bad cards over good ones.

It's bad, but I can't get past my own obstinance that took root years ago. I still haven't truly experienced what Magic is all about because I refuse to use the proper tools. I want a Selesnya Aggro deck, and a Goblins deck with 4 Goblin Piledrivers, and 100 other decks I have sitting in a bookmarks folder labeled "Expensive Fun."

It's not about winning for the sake of winning. If I'm not having fun, I'm done. But in Magic, I think the greatest fun that can be found is when two people can sit down with equally powerful decks and win a battle of wits, not a battle of "who has the least crappy budget deck."
             

                                         

                                                   It couldn't be helped.

                                         





















Let's get back to the point of the article: why it's not a bad thing to spoil yourself. If you saw my video yesterday, you know how excited I was once I pulled the dual-action trigger. Everything about the airbrush lived up to my expectations, and that thrill hasn't worn off after sitting down and putting it to work (more on that later). I spent over double what I planned on spending, but I did so without hesitation for one reason...

I wanted to enjoy it. I originally searched around for the cheapest airbrush I could find that didn't require me to just blow through a hose to supply the air. I read countless stories about people who went cheap, and I probably still would have done it if my wife hadn't been so supportive of me doing it right. For commission painting, an airbrush isn't just a luxury item. If I'm serious about the quality and turnaround of my work, this was a mandatory investment.

Had I gone the route of my previous experiences, I know I'd hate airbrushing, and soon I'd hate painting too. I didn't want to lose my passion, so I spoiled myself. I paid the admission price, and I've never felt so good about a purchase.

So for those of you who have made it this far, thank you. Now go spoil yourself in the things that matter to you. That doesn't mean to go out and buy a $500 pair of those because you need to walk around in life. It means that if you're serious about training for a marathon, don't look at your 8 year old pair of blister-causing shoes and say "Eh, covering my feet is good enough."

                                                                            

Or do the Tour de France on dad's old bicycle.

                         

Don't let a poorly-made product be the only reason you fail at something important to you, simply because you don't want to pay the price of admission.

                                 


To finish things off, I'd like to show you what I accomplished after posting my first airbrush experience yesterday:

14 models mostly basecoated, and 1 primed and ready for me to figure out the color scheme I want to use. Total time? About 4 hours of interrupted work. A good chunk of time was spent cleaning dried paint out of the nozzle (my fault) and trying to fix "overspray" which was messing up the highlights (also, I'm a dad, so there's that disruption factor). After some great advice I received from many fellow painters I'm confident I could do a large batch like this in 2 or 3 hours.


So there it is, my longest post of the year.

See you tomorrow!

I Don't Want To Game On This Planet Anymore

Y'know, it's funny. When I created The AntiThinker, he was supposed to embody an exaggeration of the absolute worst in gamer culture. Turns out, I didn't exaggerate enough...

Patricia Hernandez over at Kotaku points the way to a new candidate for gaming's worst human: A (popular, of course) YouTuber who puts up "how-to" videos instructing his followers on how to harrass female gamers for the crime of playing video games while female - "justified," of course, by the idea that these women are only gaming as a way to "con" poor, helpless men out of their money with sex appeal.

I'm not going to link directly to his stuff, but you can get the gist of it and watch (if you want to) from Hernandez piece HERE.

The whole thing is nothing short of revolting, top to bottom, particularly the sociopathic glee that the guy takes is carrying out and encouraging what's basically a keyboard and a mouse away from what'd be (verbal) sexual assault in the real world. But I'm particularly fascinated/repelled by the argument of him, his fans and too many of the Kotaku commenterati that somehow this is tit-for-tat "payback" because some of the women MAY be using their sex-appeal for attention or even monetary gain - essentially "they're WHORES, so they had it coming."

First off, the thing is... I don't give a shit. Setting aside that I have no real moral objection to (ethical) sex workers in the real world, I see absolutely NOTHING wrong the flirting-for-attention/cash "camgirl" phenomenon in gamer culture or otherwise on the net. People pay ME because they think I'm funny/insightful/whatever, I don't see how paying someone for being pretty/flirty is any different or deserving of "punishment." If you get "conned" out of kicking some paypal credits to this or that person online because she batted her eyes or flashed some cleavage and you felt like a schmuck later... that's on YOU, pal.

Secondly, what experience in real life tells you that this would be "okay" even in a virtual space. Do you imagine that punishing women for being sexy for attention or some other gain is a thing that happens? Do you know what would happen to anyone who walked into, say, most non-shithole strip clubs and spoke/acted towards the dancers the way this kid does to "virtual" women? A trip to the parking lot and a new set of finger-splints.

The Great Airbrush Adventure

No paint on the walls. No missing digits. I have used my airbrush and survived!

Let's get right to the video. Keep in mind it's my first video like this, so you know the only way the quality can go is up!

So what did I learn? My paint was probably too thick, despite the smooth coverage. IPhone movies are horrible creatures to edit (also, I'm terrible at editing). Also, I have an midwest accent that I never knew existed.

But honestly, I love this thing. I probably would have spent an hour or so doing what you watched me do. I still have all my details to do, and a lot of metal that needs to be painted, but I feel like I'll no longer dread painting a new model.

I'm also very excited because I now feel comfortable taking orders for vehicles! I know I'll have a Cryx Kraken to show in the very near future, and probably a few Warhammer 40k vehicles. So subscribe to my YouTube channel and like me on Facebook to keep up-to-date.

See you guys tomorrow!

EPISODE 80: "Collect Calling"

The new episode is now up on Blip! The OverThinker counts off five "classic games" compilations that need to get made already.

REMEMBER: The OverThinker's panel at this weekend's MAGFest is Saturday at 10:00am!

Goodbye Base Coating!

Who has zero patience for base coats and a new air brush to remedy that?

THIS GUY!

That's right. After spending all this time using my hatred of base-coating as an excuse to have some unfinished models, I found a wonderful surprise sitting outside my front door today.

The Iwata HP-CS is often called a workhorse airbrush, and comes highly recommended for beginners. The compressor is nothing special - it's from TCP Global, and has a compressor tank to prevent air fluctuation from the pistons.

Basically, these months of watching YouTube tutorials can finally start paying off. I bought some cleaner and paint thinner today, so I'll start beautifying some pieces of paper and bits of cardboard as soon as the kids get to sleep tonight. The goal is to get familiar with it and then record myself blindly flailing my way through painting a piece of terrain.

But until then, I'd like close with my favorite warning from the air compressor instruction book. I've checked creative writing papers for high schoolers before, so the poor translation wasn't too hard to get through. But this one got an audible laugh from me:

"Never allow the children to touch the working machine or insert the stick into the machine. It will cause the danger of scald or get an electric shock."   It's important to note that there's no stick that came with the compressor or air brush. Apparently kids shoving sticks in the compressor is a common enough occurrence that it warranted an explicit warning. Don't worry, my children have been warned.

See you tomorrow!

Brownshirts (Update)

(Re-post to correct coding error in original post)

hat-tip: POLYGON.

This is how it begins...

I "get" that grief is a powerful emotion that can override common sense and reason, even in the best of us. I understand that, therefore, we are expected to be deferential and sympathetic to even the most awkward, outlandish or uncomfortable expressions of grief: "Oh, it's alright. They're just upset. Let them vent." I get that... but there's a limit to everything. So, I have ZERO problem saying that the folks in Southington, Connecticut who've more-or-less decided to hold a mass-burning of "violent" video games (music and movies, too) as some kind of reaction to the tragedy in nearby Newtown are, whateve their intent, essentially painting themselves as a pack of ignorant, knuckle-dragging, reactionary cretins; and that they deserve to be called-out and shamed for what is - regardless of scale, circumstance or intent - a crime against art, culture and an affront to civilized modernity.


Southington SOS, which purports to be a charitable organization comprised of local business and community leaders set up in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre (which, just to reiterate, took place in a different community in CT) are the force behind this gesture. They put out a press release announcing it, which includes contact information for a local YMCA chairman who is apparently a spokesman for the group (I've contacted him for some clarification, awaiting response.)

Said press-release claims that it isn't trying to suggest that games are "to blame" for the shooting and that it's more interested in getting parents and their kids to "have the conversation;" though it goes to claim that "ample evidence" exists for violent media contributing to aggression, "desensitization" and the usual malarkey... without, of course, providing a source of said "ample evidence" (spoiler: that's because there isn't any.) They'll be rewarding "donations" with $25 dollar giftcards, which seems a little rotten to me since I'm more than certain the victimized town they're supposedly supporting could probably use that money... That the "returned" offending materials will be destroyed and "likely" incinerated was revealed by the Southington School Superintendent, Joe Erardi.

Like I said, these are the sorts of things that happen when people's emotions - especially grief and the impotent rage that comes with it - override common sense, and it only gets worse when it grips a community and becomes a kind of mass-pathology (see: Salem, 1692-1693). Often, the only "cure" for such circumstances is for non (or, at least, less) irrational people to hold up the mirror and point out the absurdity and wrongness of what said community is doing - sunlight, as ever, is the ultimate disinfectant. Which is why I think it's proper to publicize this event and respond (civily!) to Southington SOS; if only to let them know how much damage they're doing, image-wise, to themselves and their purported cause by engaging in such vile and wrongheaded behavior.

Note: If and when the representative I mentioned responds to my call, I will post any details/clarifications he wishes to make at my earliest ability.

Brownshirts

(original post moved to NEW LOCATION to correct a programming error, now found HERE)