When I started wargaming it was back in the early 1990s and I was in middle school. I got into Warhammer Fantasy Battle first. I bought White Dwarf and I bought and painted figures. I was never able to play anyone though. No one I knew was as interested in buying, assembling and then painting their army. But I didn't care I liked the miniatures and loved the background.
I am in this hobby because it IS a hobby. I am into 40k because I LOVE the background. I would have stopped playing a decade ago if I wasn't so in love with the gimdark 40k universe.
All of this makes me the type of gamer that I am. I build armies because of their fluff, and because I think they'd look really cool as an army on the tabletop.
My gaming group, D-Company is another reason I am so involved in the hobby still. We are a gaming group that doesn't have a store to game at. We game in our basements. Almost everyone in my group has their own table in their house.
Every year we put on events at Rock-Con, Rockford Illinois' annual gaming convention, and we also put on an annual 'Big Game' and this year it looks like we will be putting on a tournament as well.
Forgeworld and home-brew rules are welcome in my group. One thing we have been striving for recently is to play this game the way WE want to play it.
I recently did an experiment with one of my friends. I have been complaining about the new Chaos Marine Codex since it first came out. I think its deplorable how GW stripped it of everything that made the 4th edition codex cool. Well my friend and I did a test. I played an army built from the old codex and he played an army built from the current one. the result? a tie!
Anyway, that is what I mean, My gaming group is awesome because we allow stuff like in our ranks.
Well enough for now, I've published more stuff today than I probably should have in a whole week, but whatever.