Wargaming Doomed?

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: TonyE
Where do I find these "wargame conventions"? I went to Origins one year but it would be a far stretch to call it a wargame convention. Though it was great to meet the guys from Matrix and Larry Bond [:)]

In the US or in Europe ?

In the US there's Historicon - 4 days, 4000 wargamers and numerous smaller conventions - buy an issue of Wargames Illustrated to get all the places and dates or go to their website.

In Britain there's a wargame convention almost every week - no kidding - and even over here in Flanders there are 3 rather well attended ones with the top one, Crisis in Antwerp, getting 1500 wargamers - and growing. Over the years I went to over 10 of those conventions to demo Matrix games so I think I've got a good feel for how lively the wargame scene is.

Even a regular gaming convention like Spiel in Essen has a solid wargame component and the guys from Slitherine/Matrix were there manning a booth last year.

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: Shark7
Yep, you seem to have hit on the thing that keeps wargaming alive...we don't get new young blood, we get new mature players. It's almost as if we are programmed to look for more depth out of our games the older we get.

Yup - and selling to that 40+ niche is actually an excellent niche to sell to from a company's pov. Kids are grown up, the mortgage is paid off, the career has advanced up to a point where money is not an issue anymore. 40+ guys have money to spend on their favourite hobby, witness the killing Harley Davidson is making selling their bikes to this category.

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[Anthropoid]

Wow, that is a nice list, Thanks sterckxe

ORIGINAL: sterckxe

ORIGINAL: Slick Wilhelm
Wargaming will not die, only the wargamers themselves will change. Right now it's our turn to support wargame developers, and we will eventually pass the baton down to the younger generation.

Another point I'd like to annoy doomsayers with - any guesses how many pc wargames got released last year ?

47

That's about one every week and also about 5 times the number of releases of 20 years ago.

Here's the 2010 list :

Panzer General Forever
HistWar : Les Grognards
Hearts of Iron II - Arsenal of Democracy
Napoleon : Total War
Silent Hunter V
Panzer Campaigns - Sealion
Naval Campaigns - Midway
Strategic Command 2 - Global Conflict
Field of Glory - Rise of Rome
Achtung Panzer : Kharkov 1943
Theatre of War 2 - Kursk 1943
Rise of Prussia - Frederick the Great
Us and Them
Scourge of War : Gettysburg
Across the Dnepr - Second Edition
Field of Glory - Storm of Arrows
Ancient Warfare Series - Greek Wars
World War One - Gold edition
Ironclads : Schleswig War 1864
Day of the Spears II
Battles from the Bulge
First world War Campaigns - France '14
Squad Battles - Red Victory
Hearts of Iron III - Semper Fi expansion
Storm over the Pacific
WWII (outflankstrategywargames.com)
Making History 2 - The War of the World
Close Combat : Last Stand at Arnhem
Field of Glory - Immortal Fire
Hegemony : Philip of Macedon
PGX3 - European Theatre of Operations
BBC Battlefield Academy
Decisive Campaigns: The Blitzkrieg from Warsaw to Paris
Combat Mission : Afghanistan
Hannibal : Rome and Carthage
Ironclads: Chincha island war 1866
Theatre of War 2 - Battle for Caean expansion
Middle East 1948-2006
Revolution under Siege
World Supremacy
PT Boats : South Gambit
Theatre of War 2 - Battle for Caean expansion
Fields of Glory: Swords and Scimitars
Panzer Campaigns : Kharkov '43
Gary Grigsby's War in the East
Battlefield Academy - Blitzkrieg France
Squad Battles - Modern War

Wargames are doomed - my rear lower backside.

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[Obsolete]

That's about one every week and also about 5 times the number of releases of 20 years ago.

20 years ago, the number of computer gamers may have been much smaller than 1/5 though?

[Zakhal]

There are wargamers and boargamers in my town. They just dont make lots of noise about their hobby. You kinda have to look for them to find them. But if you do youll bump into them eventually. 

[Jeffrey H.]

ORIGINAL: sterckxe

ORIGINAL: TonyE
Where do I find these "wargame conventions"? I went to Origins one year but it would be a far stretch to call it a wargame convention. Though it was great to meet the guys from Matrix and Larry Bond [:)]

In the US or in Europe ?

In the US there's Historicon - 4 days, 4000 wargamers and numerous smaller conventions - buy an issue of Wargames Illustrated to get all the places and dates or go to their website.

In Britain there's a wargame convention almost every week - no kidding - and even over here in Flanders there are 3 rather well attended ones with the top one, Crisis in Antwerp, getting 1500 wargamers - and growing. Over the years I went to over 10 of those conventions to demo Matrix games so I think I've got a good feel for how lively the wargame scene is.

Even a regular gaming convention like Spiel in Essen has a solid wargame component and the guys from Slitherine/Matrix were there manning a booth last year.

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

And don't forget CONSIMWORLD, although it does tend to reenforce the OP about 'dying hobby'.

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: Zakhal
There are wargamers and boargamers in my town. They just dont make lots of noise about their hobby. You kinda have to look for them to find them. But if you do youll bump into them eventually. 

There's this guy at work who's been there about 5 years. A couple of times a week we have work-related contact, did a major project with him etc. so I thought I knew him pretty well. Only last month I found out he was an RPG'er. I dunno, but sometimes I think that gamers don't go advertizing their hobby like sports fans do, but maybe they should - wear a Matrix Games T-shirt on casual friday like the sports guys or something like that

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[Yogi the Great]

Maybe because sometimes when we tell someone we play war/strategy games they give us a strange look.

Do they think we're crazy? [&:]

Or is it we really are crazy? [X(]

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: Yogi the Great

Maybe because sometimes when we tell someone we play war/strategy games they give us a strange look.

Do they think we're crazy? [&:]

Or is it we really are crazy? [X(]

I give people who get up at 4 am to go fishing that same look - doesn't stop them from gushing about their hobby ...

Might be the games == kiddie activity == not for grownups thing

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[KG Erwin]

Ah, wargaming IS a peculiar hobby, but I've been playing them for over 40 years, and if anyone regards me as eccentric, then so be it. [;)]

[bairdlander2]

The reply I get is is "Oh,wargames?You mean like Starcraft?"[&:]

[Anthropoid]

I've come to think of gaming and surfing as (sort of) like reading. Granted, it does not involve the wholesale consumption of sentences and presumably of information as does reading, but it involves concentration and active mental adaptation. In fact, it probably involves those more than reading does in many instances. Its sort of like the neurobiological equivalent of weight lifting for brain addicts. My wife calls it mental masturbation, and maybe it is that to a certain extent, but I also think it is a form of meditation and mental training.

[Yogi the Great]

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

My wife calls it mental masturbation,

Well, I suppose that explains why once you start, you just can't stop.

[Anthropoid]

Damn! My arm is sore . . .

[junk2drive]

When people ask casually what I do with my free time or what is my hobby, I tell them I play games on my computer. If they ask for more I tell them wargames. If they don't get it or think of FPS games, I tell them it is more like chess, moving pieces around and stuff.

[stuman]

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

Ah, wargaming IS a peculiar hobby, but I've been playing them for over 40 years, and if anyone regards me as eccentric, then so be it. [;)]

+1

[ilovestrategy]

You know, we need to invite the spam bots over to this thread to see what THEY think of the doom of wargaming. They are part of the community too! [:D]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: stuman

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

Ah, wargaming IS a peculiar hobby, but I've been playing them for over 40 years, and if anyone regards me as eccentric, then so be it. [;)]

+1

Warspite1

+ 1

I've always taken the view that I should not be ashamed of my hobby. Since I was at school, and then all through my working life I have always proudly told anyone that would listen (even after they started edging away from me) that I was a wargamer.

Now thirty years on, as I sit here in my basement, playing with my favourite toy soldiers while listening to We'll Meet Again by Vera Lynn, I am still proud of the fact that I am a wargamer. I may be alone and childless, I may have no real friends, but hey, I am proud of what I am.

Mother, she's just a stranger. She's hungry, and it's raining out!

[Yogi the Great]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

I may be alone and childless, I may have no real friends, but hey, I am proud of what I am.

Welcome to the wargamers group therapy sessions we call discussion forums.

[Anthropoid]

I love children . . . baked, boiled and fried.