US and THEM

Us and Them...

This is a central tenet in the way of life - either you are for or against something. I think it doesn't have to be that way though. Really deep down inside at some point we are all the same. You can find good in something as well as bad. It's a two way street if you stop to think about it for a moment.

So it could be just 'us' if we drop our boundaries and preconceived perceptions. We can all be together and I've seen it happen - it's truly a beautiful thing. Really we all want the same things in the end. To me the Horus Heresy 30k game from Forge World demonstrates this to be true. In a game where all things are Space Marines there is actual balance and every army has lots of awesome things that are very exciting. The most fun I had ever was playing in a 30k campaign and everybody who participated said as much... It was not so much about winning as having a good time and enjoying each other's company. It took me a long time to understand - sure some times I forget in the heat of the moment.

Of course in 40k there are many races and not all are created equal but I do think just about every army had its day in the sun so to speak and it could always happen again.

We choose our armies for various reasons but I think it's safe to say each person chose theirs for something about it that drew them into the game. Some people stick with the same race while others go from one to another trying to find the one that's right for them. The hobby can be many things for many people but we really all want to have fun.

So I talked about how really deep down we are all the same. While that is true we are unique too which means there are differences and these are the things that make us each individual.

Sometimes there are things that we are not used to and how we deal these differences are part of what define us.

We can accept, deny, ignore or try to change these differences more to our own liking. The 'us' versus 'them' type of thinking really comes into its own for these types of situations.

In regards to our hobby my line of thinking is to accept most anything in terms of what people want to play as long as it's battle forged. I don't like Comes the Apocalypse allies especially when I see things that are chosen to simply make an army more winning at the expense of its own theme. I did finally come to realize this is me not accepting something because it's different from what I like so I learned how to accept it.

The more we can accept the better we are for it. It's important to be very honest with yourself when you find something different not to your initial liking. You need to know truly why you don't like it. I remember the parable about one person who drew a circle around their self to isolate then someone else drew a bigger circle with everyone inside of it. To me that's the ideal to which we should aspire.

So in conclusion everyone picks an army to play for their own reasons - it might because they like the background or think it's competitive... A lot of times the reasons are in between these two ends of the spectrum. Everybody enjoys a win now and then and we all want to have a good time. Try to be accepting of other people's armies even if it doesn't appeal to you. We all rub off on each other which can lead to us being more alike.