A Mental Challenge
Three days before he turned 16, after an unhappy childhood in Long Island that he refuses to talk about, Joe was charged with forced assault and armed robbery. Sent to juvenile detention, he could no longer play Warhammer, which he had taken up around the age of 13 as an outlet for his anger. At 18, he joined the Marine Corps, partly to get out juvie and party because he wanted to challenge himself. There, he met fellow soldiers who played Warhammer on Sundays.
After this military stint, which included two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and “enough combat actions ribbons that I can’t properly display them on my chest,” Joe thinks he’s become superior at Warhammer, more capable of strategizing and choosing the most powerful combination of models for his army. Now, he must prove himself to people; if he loses, he’s dissatisfied.
People who know Joe think his aggression at the game board springs from his military training. “Joe is just jaded,” John explains, “He’s kind of angry at the world, really pissed off about the Army. He doesn’t think most people deserve a lot of respect.” Hearing this, Joe just rolls his eyes. He knows John is right – he thinks most people are idiots who can’t get anything done, because they lack a “military mindset.”
A number of the guys I meet in GW have military experience, but they’re not all as aggressive as Joe. Take Eric Jensen, a veteran gamer who Joe calls a “Viking” with a bandana, and who tells you, “I totally understand how Joe is. I grew out of it, but I used to have the same inclinations he has.”
After leaving the military, which was “pretty crazy” but not something he would put himself through again, Joe took the SAT, and says he scored a 1462 out of 1600. He applied to high-status universities, such as Brown and Yale, but believes that the felony on his record ruined his chances of acceptance. Instead, he went to live with his cousin in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. A few disagreements later, Joe found himself sharing a cramped apartment with John, and his roommate James.
In the apartment, they usually play video games like Street Fighter IV. Joe always picks the character Guile, who wears military fatigues and is often considered the most logical choice in the game. Joe memorizes all of the special moves and plays on the defensive, crouching in a corner, letting his opponents think they’ve won, and then springing up and slaughtering them.
Joe says that playing Warhammer stimulates both his need for control and his need for a mental challenge; creating army lists and strategies actually take a lot of thought and planning. The games also keep him busy, since Joe is currently unemployed. But it’s not a stretch to say that for him, Warhammer represents even more than that – it’s a way of life. He references Warhammer at least once in every conversation.
It isn’t always a blast in the apartment, though. Joe says he sends out “at least 20” applications a day to potential employers. Right now, trying to find a job as a chef.
“I’ve been cooking since I was a little kid because my mom can’t cook for shit,” Joe explains. He can’t cook much now, though, because models and paint bottles cover every available space in the kitchen, and Joe’s airbed takes up most of the floor. It’s not fancy living, but after the military, it’s comfortable enough.
Sometimes Joe’s fiancée Joanna stays at the apartment, too. The two met in the way “every good New York love story should start – on a fucking train.” After running into him a number of times at restaurants and clubs, Joanna offered Joe her AIM screen name. Joe recalls, “I’m like, ‘Fuck, I don’t have AIM,’ but I played it smooth. I was like, ‘Yeah. No problem, I’ll hit you up on AIM.’ So I go home and like install AIM for the first time; I was like ‘how the fuck does this work?’ And uh, I figured it out.”
They’ve been dating for a few years, although Joe can never say exactly how long. You ask, and he replies, “We’ve been engaged since December 11, 2008 – no! 2007. Wait – what the fuck is wrong with me? Hold on. Damn it. I turned 23 last year—yeah, so totally 200—wait a minute, something’s wrong here….”
Living with John and James gives Joe a chance to experience normal bachelorhood a way that wasn’t possible in the military, although it does put strain on his relationship, because Joanna never feels entirely comfortable in the apartment. Joe’s Warhammer obsession also causes tension. Sometimes, Joe gets so enthusiastic about his models that he makes them his priority. Other times, he lets off steam by making army lists rather than argue, hiding from his troubles behind Warhammer.
“We’ve had fights,” Joanna complains, “and he’s compared me to ammunition.” She isn’t sure exactly what Joe means by this, but thinks the comparison stems from both Warhammer and his military past.
Joanna is petite with long dark fingers, short hair, and a graceful dancer’s walk. But don’t let appearances fool you – she’s a tough chick, and not afraid to stand up to Joe during their fights. Although she has a degree in psychology, she doesn’t have a job right now either.
James proclaims that he fully supports John and Joe’s gaming habits, even though they take it to the extreme. They talk about Warhammer all the time, and don’t see any problem with that. Most of the gamers I meet in the Eighth Street GW share this love of the hobby, spending four to nine hours per day there, nearly every day. They venture out into the sunlight only to run across the street to Chipotle to refill the cups that came with their bean burritos a few days ago.
John jokingly calls Warhammer and Games Workshop a form of crack cocaine, because once you start going and playing, it gets harder and harder to stop. The gamers are always trying to get a game in, but if they don’t get to play, they either work on building up their armies or they watch others play. No matter what they’re doing, they’re always joking around and laughing with each other. For them, GW is like free therapy, a place to come and forget your problems for a while.
