Are all Wargamers 'Not right in the head'?

First off I should say that this isn't a rant about the sort of people you sometimes encounter at tournaments or shows. Nor is it a self-deprecating dig at the vast number of idiotic tactical blunders I make on a regular basis. No this is something that has just occurred to me about behaviour that seems innate to all wargamers.

I'm talking about our inability to pick a period/ruleset/activity and stick to it for any length of time. Let me give you an example. For various reasons I haven't actually played any kind of wargame or painted any figures for about six months. Yet in that time I've bought three different rulebooks, two painted Napoleonic armies, various bases, dice and paint and a boardgame. That comes to a grand total of £397.46. While that's bad enough I haven't completely read through any of the rule books, played the boardgame (although it can be played solo) or finished re-basing the Napoleonics. YET just in this week alone I've found myself thinking about going back to play 'Hordes of the Things' which led me on to looking at DBA 3.0 and then onto Mantic's 'Kings of War' and, because someone at the club was having a clear out, various figures and rules for 'Empire of the Dead' & SotTR and it's only Wednesday!!!

This got me thinking and I realised I'm not alone. Go to any club and you'll see a number of systems/periods being played but a month later there'll be a bunch of different games taking place as people have 'moved on'. You can also see this in various gaming blogs with people talking about trying out new rules or having theme months and then doing something completely different. It's the same at shows, even if you go with a list you often end up buying a load of stuff you hadn't planned on getting. Either it was 'too good a deal to miss' or you just wanted it so badly that you rationalised it some way. Often by covincing friends to buy into it as well so it's not just you.

So are we as wargamers just wired to be always wanting something new and shiny or are we weak willed wretches being prayed upon by evil companies dispensing their metal/plastic/paper drugs knowing we just can't say 'No!'