Wargaming Doomed?

[diablo1]

ORIGINAL: bairdlander

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

Or worse a game named "Warcraft"

[Perturabo]

I can't play RTS games. When I try to play a game like Command & Conquer or Dawn of War I always wish it would be a Real Time Simulation game, not RTS.
Someone should really make a semi-realistic Wh40k game.

[diablo1]

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

Damn! My arm is sore . . .

My girlfriends arm is sore.....[:'(]

[pmelheck1]

What's funny to me is a lot of the younger folks I know think a war game is any game with any kind of historical content even if it's only a poster they walk past in a FPS.  I know console gamers who think they are hard core wargamers because they play call of duty.  I have mentioned to them that historical settings do not a wargame make.  I have been hearing how wargames and PC games are dying from the first time I started playing them decades ago.  I heard how when the consoles was introduced that PC's would never be used again for games.  Our hobby has always been a small niche hobby and that is never going to change.  Most people I have known and have worked with equate history to root canals without pain killers.  You mention history and game in the same sentance and a lot of gamers automatically hate it unless their is lots of eye candy to distract them.

[diablo1]

Well when I think back my parents played Canasta and Dominos when I was growing up. I think each generation just looks for something "different" from their parents. My son because I introduced him to Ultima and Master of Magic before wargames loves role playing games and fantasy wargames moreso than historical wars. Although he does love the Total War series too. I have no clue what my grandchild will like but I'm pretty sure it won't be grandpa's wargames. lol

What may be doomed is wargames as we know them today. Turn based I think will continue to take a futher seat back to eye candy and real time and first person shooters. It's what our kids kids like today. I have friends who have grand kids and they like pew pew and bang bang games and now the craze is the damn Wii. So that too will probably be part of the future of wargames live action movement instead of sitting on our butts.

Let's face it we're moving into the age of realistic gaming and turn based is going to look pretty boring to our great grandkids.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: diablo1

Well when I think back my parents played Canasta and Dominos when I was growing up. I think each generation just looks for something "different" from their parents. My son because I introduced him to Ultima and Master of Magic before wargames loves role playing games and fantasy wargames moreso than historical wars. Although he does love the Total War series too. I have no clue what my grandchild will like but I'm pretty sure it won't be grandpa's wargames. lol
What may be doomed is wargames as we know them today. Turn based I think willcontinue to take a futher seat back to eye candy and real time and first person
shooters. It's what our kids kids like today. I have friends who have grand kids and they
like pew pew and bang bang games and now the craze is the damn Wii. So that too
will probably be part of the future of wargames live action movement instead of
sitting on our butts.

Let's face it we're moving into the age of realistic gaming and turn based is going to look pretty boring to our great grandkids.

Warspite1

I don't know - may be in future we will still have turn based games but we will be able to voice activate our units!!

"5th BB Squadron sail to hex 3125"
"air cover for this operation to be provided by No.417 Squadron which will fly to hex 3125"
"engage any enemy ships encountered there or on route"

Oh well - just a thought.......

[Perturabo]

ORIGINAL: diablo1

What may be doomed is wargames as we know them today. Turn based I think will continue to take a futher seat back to eye candy and real time and first person shooters. It's what our kids kids like today. I have friends who have grand kids and they like pew pew and bang bang games and now the craze is the damn Wii.

I blame marketing of big companies for that. They are basically creating propaganda against anything that isn't cinematic.

When I grew up, there were gun shooters in arcade saloons, there were FMV games, etc. but somehow they haven't killed turn-based gaming. The same for RTS abominations, FPS games, etc.
What killed some turn-based genres like turn-based cRPG is withdrawal of the large developers, which means that it's impossible to make moderately high-budget titles like Fallout nowadays.
Also, there's a problem of the anti-turn-based, proFPS propaganda that accompanies releases of "reimaginings" of old game series. I'm talking about stuff like Fallout 3 or XCOM. They keep talking about how turn-based/isometric was used only because of technological limitations which is pure lies.

The main problem is that wargames don't have as much exposition to public as they used to. When I was a teenager, there were reviews of wargames in gaming magazines and demos of wargames on cover CDs. Which doesn't change the fact that I have never personally met another wargamer, so they were always rare. But now, most of people don't even know about such a genre.

Also, I think that traditional turn-based games have a bright future on handheld consoles.

[Anthropoid]

ORIGINAL: diablo1

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

Damn! My arm is sore . . .

My girlfriends arm is sore.....[:'(]

Well if you'd pay some "attention" to her from time to time, instead of her playing by herself, maybe she wouldn't have that problem? [:-]

[madgamer2]

ORIGINAL: diablo1

Well what I find interesting and funny at the same time is that article was "republished" 20 years ago in 1990 and well wargaming is still alive and well 20 years later. What I find after 40 years of wargaming is it's just not as exciting as it was 40 years ago. I keep feeling like I'm just playing a circle of the same old games over and over just developed by a different person. Nothing today really jumps out there and says BUY ME, PLAY ME, ABUSE ME for hours. Even Battles from the Bulge which I got yesterday isn't that exciting for me after watching the tutorials and piddeling around with it a little as it's really just another Bulge game using one weird gaming engine. I still don't understand the concept of watching a game play itself (even though it says you can micromange even the developer says "you really shouldn't".) For me wargames just aren't as appealing as they once were. Perhaps it's age (hey mom I finally grew up! lol) or perhaps it's just tired of playing the same old wars and battles over and over. I certainly can't get excited about WitP or WitE as I don't see the fun of moving 1000+ pieces every turn, that works in a rts game but not turn based for me.

I am 70 and I feel a small amount of what you do but I have a slight learning disability involving of all things being forced to write with the wrong hand when i started school. The best way that my Doctor can describe it is that my Right brain is very dominant
which means i should have been allowed to write left handed but in ther 40's it was not allowed in our grade school system. The thing is at times it just seams as if my brain thoughts just sort of wander off on there own.
Playing games like WitP and now starting WitE are things that keep my brain busy. I am not logical enough to be able to play another person as yet but I am happy for now to play to keep mentally active. I also sing and play the acoustic guitar and even write some of my own songs and I volunteer at the local animal shelter at least 80 or so hours a month.
If it is not games then try to find something that does interest you because if you just let yourself get old and not stay active doing something you could be in trouble. If you get into a mental rut you may not get out so my advice is keep going keep doing something. As for games i will never tire of WitE and WitP even though I may never actually finish a game against the AI its the challange of playing the game and to me the ultimate theater of war is either the East front or the Pacific. If I tire of them I play some of the old games on steam but ist the doing that is important. It is not easy as I live alone due to a messed up youth brought on by myself that i do not have a wife and family but I will keep on working to keep some interest in my life and i advise you to do the same.

Madgamer2

[Kuokkanen]

Some claim one wargame, BattleTech by the way, to be dead. Nevermind that new material is published monthly, much of it PDF downloads that cost $$. If someone dares say to my face that BattleTech is dead, I shall slap that person with over 400 page thick Tactical Operations (hard covers too) which was printed in 2008, then continue beating with 25 Years of Art & Fiction from 2009. Add that A Time of War when it starts coming out of the printers... some limited edition has already and been sold out.

Like no way is that game, or wargaming in general, dead! There are still new copies of Risk and Axis & Allies in stores! If wargaming would be dead, or dying, you'd think industry would be shutting down? Looks to me as samekind of BS as computer gaming getting dead, nevermind that new gaming capable graphic adapters are still being sold and one computer game alone can have about as many players (WoW) as there are sales for one given console model.

[Bane_MatrixForum]

Aloha - not sure if people have been over to boardgamegeek.com they have a wargame section - many new, shiny, wonderful, tons of chits, war games.

Been working on the Great War at Sea series - dreadnought era warships.

Also just finished making magic realm - beautiful version that someone created.

[bairdlander2]

I live in a small city pop 800k and the only wargame groups here dont play boardgames they use minitures.I would love to sit down with opponet(s) and roll die,but dont care for minitures.Maybe I will start my own group.

[CavLancer]

Wargaming will, of course, die. "Everything that has a beginning has an end." The question is, when?

[Bane_MatrixForum]

ORIGINAL: CavLancer

Wargaming will, of course, die. "Everything that has a beginning has an end." The question is, when?

So will the sun - let's party [:)]

[CavLancer]

ORIGINAL: Bane

ORIGINAL: CavLancer

Wargaming will, of course, die. "Everything that has a beginning has an end." The question is, when?

So will the sun - let's party [:)]

In a few billion years our star, Sol, will begin its death throes and expand and turn a vivid red, swelling in the sky. When it does this it will encompass the orbit of the Earth. Unless wargaming has made it into deep space it will likely be consumed by the atomic fires. We must act now to save wargaming! The next Voyager should contain a different disc, WitE.

[E]

ORIGINAL: CavLancer
The next Voyager should contain a different disc, WitE.

ROFL! And dump the plaques with Davinci's(?) drawing of a human... make it a hex map of Russia!

[ilovestrategy]

ORIGINAL: E

ORIGINAL: CavLancer
The next Voyager should contain a different disc, WitE.

ROFL! And dump the plaques with Davinci's(?) drawing of a human... make it a hex map of Russia!

I can see some alien now. "Oh good grief, I thought our culture was the only one with turn based gaming weirdos!"

[Erkki]

Its not just the wargames, but simulations as well.

Naval, train etc. but especially (combat) flight simulators have gone from the vast popularity of the mid and late 90s to a "one game per every 5 years" of the 2000s.

Just the WW2 flight simulators. You would think WW2 to be the most popular timeline? Maddox Games' Il-2 Sturmovik was released in 2001. It and its add-ons are still easily best game in the genre now, soon 10 years later. As the matter of fact, there have been no games after it. Arcade action "flying" games not counting. 10 years is a long time. And the next WW2 air combat sim is going to be from the same group, led by the same Russian guy with porno-moustache, hopefully late March this year. [:D]

[CavLancer]

Well I'm going to go way out on a limb here and suggest that space aliens piloting their advanced space ship around the universe aren't going to appreciate a flight sim as much as a good wargame.

I flew a civilian training plane for a total of 20 hours when I was young, but I could not manage to keep a flight sim... flying. Only tried a couple times though. You have fun with them Erkki?

[ilovestrategy]

ORIGINAL: CavLancer

Well I'm going to go way out on a limb here and suggest that space aliens piloting their advanced space ship around the universe aren't going to appreciate a flight sim as much as a good wargame.

I flew a civilian training plane for a total of 20 hours when I was young, but I could not manage to keep a flight sim... flying. Only tried a couple times though. You have fun with them Erkki?

lol that's like me fighting full contact when I was young and I've always sucked at martial arts video fighting games!

This got me thinking, turn based games are great for people like me that don't have "twitchy" reflexes. I also like looking at the situation and thinking for a while before acting.

Warcraft 2 is one of my favorite games of all time but I cannot consider that a wargame. Storm over the Pacific though is my favorite wargame. Today I've gotta push the Nips out of Auckland. Wish me luck!