Riddle me this Veeky Forums

Riddle me this Veeky Forums.

Why is the image of the average warhammer/tabletop gamer some fat smelly neckbeard the world over?

>live in UK
>play comp scene for WH fantasy for a few years
>be around people from all walks of life playing warhammer for many years
>never once play against a fat smelly neckbeard who is obnoxious
>get one out of those three things sometimes but never the holy trinity

is it literally just America that pushes this image? Is this true even in America?

>is it literally just America that pushes this image?
Maybe.
>Is this true even in America?
That's at least 2/3rds of the player-base here.

>murrica

I'd say no, though those types are overrepresented in the hobby compared to the general population. I've know maybe 2 people that fit all three of those.

I will say that most of them are socially maladjusted /somehow/. I'm an introvert and socially awkward at times, another guy I knew had a pretty severe temper, another was lazy as fuck as never took care of himself or washed his clothes, a few were overweight, a few just had those senses of humor that never evolved past the age of 11. Every one of these people had more things good than bad about them, but the things wrong with them you didn't see much outside the FLGS (I assume since those types usually stay inside like me)

In all Veeky Forums surveys that have been done, our median build is skinny scraggly vaguely-metalhead.

Negative stereotypes will always spread easily, for many reasons.

Firstly, people feel the need to complain more often than issue praise, confirm others complaints, and spread others complaints for humour and social binding. Secondly, people spread negative stereotypes of groups they are not a member of because it reinforces themselves/their group.

So one encounter with someone who is an asshole, one who is overweight, and one who smells gets melded together and exaggerated over an entire group.

Yes its true in America. More than 2/3 in my experience.
My flgs has a handful of decent guys, but a ton of autists, neckbeards, and just obnoxious full-blown retards. Luckily its huge, and theres always at least a couple decent guys hanging around.

The Games Workshop in Scottsdale is a den of social retards. They contantly argue, rules lawyer, and only run netlists. The regulars there are almost all jobless, all but one are overweight, and I wouldnt associate with any of them in a million years. Even the flgs neckfats seem like normal, friendly people in comparison.

Most RPGers I see are shy, svelte long haired young adults, and likewise when there were those threads about posting pics of themselves on Veeky Forums, that's what I saw there too.

Of course when I was in the Army, things were a little different, as then it was shy, svelte, short haired young adults.

I live in one of the most normie parts of the world, and I found some fat people playing, and even a few with both, never smelled another player (apart of obnious colony) but the three never. I think it's only in america too.

I see someone has taken psychology courses.

My FLGS didn't have overweight neckbeards, but is overrun by 11 y/o playing unpainted armies and not knowing half of the rules, and as noisy as one can be.
I'm not sure which is worse.

Because it used to be
Then Magic the Gathering sucked them all up

>That guy in the top right
I can see why MTG got those guys though. It is a bigger scene with a much lower bar of entry. Honestly a lot of wargamers I have met seem like nice guys. Sure there are some annoying teenagers playing 40K with unpainted armies, but it certainly isn't as bad as magic. It depends on the game of course. I went to my store's weekly Saga event and everyone was at least 40 and wearing a kilt (I live in the US) which is either great or terrible depending on who you are.

I used to play 40k in the UK and there were a few checking all 3 boxes.
Most have one or two, but a skinny smelly neckbeard is really not all that much better than a fat one.

My local store has a number of overweight patrons but I never see them act inappropriately. And despite the rather cramped quarters I've never smelled any BO in the room so Hygene seems pretty good.

I've seen players there get angry or disappointing but even then they were courteous and never stared arguments.

My nearest FLGS is nothing but stereotypical unwashed racists, but those that I've visited farther from home have been full of pleasant people. It really depends on the location, I think. When a "bad crowd" of smelly jerks moves into a store, it's a struggle to attract a more classy crowd and vice versa.

WHen I walked into a warhammer shop for the first time I saw the following
A 14 year old painting his first army, dressed pretty normal, not shitty
A chubby but not too fat guy who was cool enough to show me the armies dressed in an average tee
A tall skinny guy with long hair and looked like a metalhead
shorter guy with a slightly muscular build wearing a band shirt
A girl new to warhammer being taught how to play with her new unpainted army
The owner was short, chubby, wearing a polo, and was bald with a slight neck beard but was trimmed to actually look half decent
Over all a great first experience everyone was really nice

>Why is the stereotype the worst-case scenario?

Because that is how negative stereotypes work. When people think of a group they're not comfortable with, they think of the worst possible member of that group.

Nothing bad here

And this guy who bought his first army
Age of Sigmar, Skaven and Seraphon

Looks like a wonderful group! I was a little disappointed when I visited the GW store in New York City, as it was VERY small and VERY empty, so I'm happy to see an example of the store with an active and healthy community.

Well the first group was from a gorkamorka event they had, but i was told at any given time they have 4 or 5 people in the shop
Heres another pic from the same event. It was taken from the painting area and you cant see the cash register.

I would say about 30% of the ones I've encountered have either been gross, autistic, confrontational, or all 3.

At the local GW, it's just skinny, awkward teens, and going there is so painful.
At the quality FLGS, it's mostly average dudes, the odd fat weirdo, the occasional chubby girlfriend.

How do so many unemployed weirdos afford to wargame?

Only one of my friends is fat and has a beard. I don't think he's smelly, but I haven't really tried to check.

Mothers dime, or inheritance
>tfw you dont get either

Autism/neet/mommy dearests bucks

In the last 5 years I have only run into one fat smelly neckbeard but it was also a 1500 pt Jokaero army led by Karamazov so he gets a pass

They also might have a part time job and a low cost of living because they don't have kids, spouses, loans, etc.

>implying that guy has enough time to keep his gains and paint his army

Plastic grey army here he comes!

Kansas City Missouri??

Shit, you're not from Glendale, CA are you? I had almost the identical experience at my LGS

Of The only 3 fat guys none are smelly in our shop and one is a tall tanned dude who has a well trimmed set of facial hair, and is more like mako Rutledge ala overwatch as his arms and shoulders are visibly ripped under his modest clothing, sad part is he's chill but a raging anti-weeb, where as the rest of the store are average, raging weeb, or antisocial neet types, the whole fat nerd trope needs to die, everyone is just blandly normie now

This looks like 2nd edition WHFB? Is it 2nd edition?

6th

Ignoring all the plastic state troops/knights, the general on the griffon in the top right is from 6th.

When I go to the local store, at least 90% are overweight and probably half of them are obese.

I reckon it's because tabletop stuff used to be desperately uncool and the refuge of social rejects. Over the years it's become less stigmatised but since the culture was built unwashed neckbeards it rebuffs many people who don't fit that stereotype, both passively and actively. It also lets stuff that would be unforgivable anywhere else slide, like never fucking washing or being an obnoxious piece of shit.

>Comp scene for warhammer fantasy

Fite me @ call to war f a m.

Tabletop gamers tend to be more 'normal' than those from most related hobbies I think because there is an undoubtable social aspect to the game.

And fantasy players tend to be more normal than 40k players because 40k attracts all the edgelords.

I was at a big tabletop garage sales a week back.
There was one single person fthat fitted the stereotype, out of something like 600 people.
But he's the only one from that event that is engraved into my memory. A landwhale smelling worse than rotting french cheese tends to stay in mind.

Other communities have different stereotypes, because I don't think you find smelly neckbeards elsewhere.

Neckbears don't paint even with all their unemployment time in their hands.

That's at least 2/3rds of your population, bro