But the point I'd like to make is that as a young'un Warhammer Fantasy and 40K had a surprisingly positive impact while I was growing up. These games have also helped me in numerous ways as a grown up too -well, about as 'grown up' as I'll ever be.
As I was writing the title for this article I couldn't help but think about the desk guy in Starship Troopers who proudly shakes Ricco by the hand and says "Good for you! Mobile infantry made me the man I am today", before he slides over to the desk next to him, revealing that he's lost both of his legs in addition to having a bionic arm.
Does this mean I'm a positive, yet crippled husk of a man? Nope -and surprisingly, neither is my wallet!
Anyway, before we get side tracked, let's start at the beginning...
The year is 1994 and there is no internet
I cycled over to a friend's house to spend the day playing video games, go for a bike ride, play football in the park -whatever. When I arrived I found a dining room table covered with regiments of skeletons, zombies, ghouls and ghosts fighting an army of rat men, rat ogres, rats and giant hamster wheels.
From there my fate was sealed and following day I went to Lakeside in Thurrock with my parents to the Games Workshop store and bought my first box of miniatures - 10 plastic Orcs.
"He'll never stick with it!" insisted Mum (while baulking at the price of £5 for a box of 10 little men). How wrong she would be...
But little did she know how much playing with little toy soldiers would help me to learn, which is something she's praised many years later.
Art
The first thing I learned from the Warhammer Hobby was how to paint -badly. As a kid with no money I only had my father's old paints and brushes for his model railway. But I still painted those Orcs to a fine standard. I'd always been a keen little artist, but it was from painting miniatures that my love of painting truly developed.
English
In 1994 there was no Black Library and no Dan Abnett -actually he was working on 2000ad and my parents wouldn't let me have it, saying it was too violent. So I got my regular dose of well written violence from the Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40K army books. As I continued reading, I learned lots of new words, like eviscerate, acquiescence and baroque. In terms of learning, Games Workshop books were a darned sight better than Seamus Heaney or whatever wet political drivel they had us reading at school!
Maths
Having a firm grasp of the rules helped me to gain a firm grasp of maths. Probability in particular. I fondly remember a particular maths lesson when we were being taught about the use of dice and their relation to probability. Every kid who played Warhammer walked all over the class boffins in that one!
The Man I Am Today
So what have all these skills learned from wargaming helped me to achieve in my life?
Well, for starters, I studied Fine Art and English Literature at University. After that I went into a writing career and from that I progressed into SEO (search engine optimisation) which heavily revolves around content and various clever internet marketing strategies.
Now I write regularly while devising and executing all kinds of cool strategies online every day -and I love every minute of it.
To further my learning of SEO, I created the Space Wolves blog. So it's strange to be 'giving something back' to the Warhammer hobby after it has given so much to me.
So I just wanted to say "Thanks Warhammer, you made me the man I am today!"