That being said, even before I started having less time I started paring down the games I collect and play. Primarily, I'm sticking with Warmachine, Rezolution, Superfigs, and Savage Worlds. But the last three have a lot of multipurpose figs and I like a lot of variety in my alternates and proxies; their strength is that they are so variable, and that appeals to me a lot, as it takes me a while to learn new rules.
(Oh, and yes, I have my large, multi-purpose 40k Guard army for when I want to drag them out, but I'm not picking up much if any new for them, so no sweat there.) (And I'm still scouring the prepainted plastic games for large packs of cheap figs for Star Wars and D&D, but that's, you know, different. Heh.)
But yes, fewer games, fewer armies. Working on completing what I already have. And as I slim that down, I have been leaning less towards the 'line up two armies worth of guys and shoot it out' games, and more towards scenario/plotline driven games. (See also.) I did these at the convention I used to hit regularly in Pennsylvania, and it's a lot of fun. I just need to focus my energy some on putting these together to run for people around here, so I can spread the love.
So instead of picking up new armies, or more figs for the armies I already have, I've been keeping an eye on a lot of the smaller companies, that are seemingly vanity projects by cool sculptors, and looking for figs that catch my eye, or that would work well for a selection of the games I dig, or other dreams.
Like Hasselfree, which does lots of cool figs and cute figs that I could do different things with. Like these figs that are clearly not the Scooby gang. Or, for any fans of the new Doctor Who, this kid.
(Side note: I also get to learn exciting new sub-subculture words like "lacepunk".)
It helps that I've rediscovered my love of pulp as well, as there's also an explosion of pulp minis and 'weird war' minis coming out this year. Nazi zombies? Yes please.
(And God help me, but the idea of getting a bunch of teddy bear toy soldiers cracks me up to no end.)
Do they directly apply to any of the games I've decided to play? Directly, no. Indirectly, sure. And I am a big fan of proxying or using alts, so I think in the long term it evens out.
So, yeah. Gaming time is down, but it will be back. And gaming money is down a bunch, but I'm still finding things I dig.
(I could also expand this my writing about my displeasure with the recent decline in quality in the prepainted plastic minis I love to buy online, or how eBay is going to be pissing me off about that soon for unrelated reasons, but I doubt anyone's still reading at this point.)
Anyways. Rambling, as the title promised.