Warhammer 40,000 (40K) is the most popular miniature wargame. While gameplay is a large part of engaging with Warhammer 40,000, the miniatures are often bought and painted. These painters spend hours painting the models in deep concentration. Drawing on interviews and journal entries of a participant study of 14 painters over a six-month period, this presentation explores whether miniature painters achieve a flow state, whether this creates a feeling of greater mindfulness and how this impacts their overall mental health. Results from this study indicate that this experience is meditative, meaningful and positive for their mental health. Using the definition of flow outlined in Mihaly Csikszentmihaly’s book Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness (1988), flow is a state of pleasure had when an individual concentrates on a specific task. Csikszentmihalyi (1990) from his studies on flow stated that this particular state of mind involves both immersion but also importantly a sense of not feeling your own body. While this has been applied in video games theories, little work has been done on this flow state during activities like painting. This paper will also explore how the overall world building of the science fiction universe of 40K improve immersion and flow state through a painters playing of the game, engagement with the lore, and personal narrative forming of their models.
Author bio
Dr Tara B. M. Smith is an early career interdisciplinary academic that works in the fields of science fiction, literature, religion and popular culture. Currently she is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at the Harvard Divinity School, Boston, writing on religious ideas and experiences of people that paint and play within the science fiction “grim dark” universe of Warhammer 40,000.
