Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: vonRocko

ORIGINAL: Orm

What shall we talk about?

I suspect that is at the centre of it. Most subjects have been discussed so much already. When someone opens such a discussion anew the answers are often "we already talked enough about that". And that is kind of the end of that attempt.

And political stuff is out. And current economics as well. And weird theories...

*sigh*

I agree. Outside of girls and sports there is not much we can discuss.

warspite1

I think, politics and religion aside, there is still plenty to discuss - but there does not appear to be the interest in doing so. The rules on what can be discussed haven't suddenly changed - they've been the same for the 8-years I've been here.

For example, this is a wargaming forum and I am surprised that historical topics (war and even general history) are not of more interest - but fair enough, if people aren't interested then they are not interested. As I said, I definitely think this place is getting quieter - except for the spammers who seem to be taking over [;)]

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist

warspite1

I may be wrong as this is just my perception, but the number of regulars - and certainly those that are willing to post - seems to have reduced over the last few years. But I've noticed that too in the game forums. Look at the WITW and the WITE forums, look at the MWIF forum, same for Wars of Napoleon and Scourge of War Waterloo. Even DC:B - which got such positive feedback when it first came out, seems to have gone very quiet. No one has done an AAR for about 4 months and comment is few and far between.

Maybe I am seeing it wrong but it (the forums) don't appear to be as healthy as once was....

Your sentence is a bid ambiguous here but: WITW seems quit, agree with it. I don't care that much because i am mostly interested in the eastern front. WITE forum is very active, both in AARs, game questions and WITE 2/general discussion. WIF has a good number of AARs running. And there still is WITP AE, this is a very special thing...
It is of course sad that DC: Operation Barbarossa is so quiet, some AARs would be great

warspite1

Yes, of those I mentioned, WITE is the most active. I guess its about our own ideas of what is a "good number". You say there is a good number of AAR's running for MWIF. There are, I think, 5 going at present. For such a big game I don't think 5 is exactly great - and the usual discussion you would expect on game tips and the like just isn't there. You didn't mention SOW or WON so I assume you agree on those? DC:B is the biggest surprise for me though. Maybe almost all forums go that way eventually? Maybe I am judging by WITP-AE (which appears to be a unique case) and shouldn't be.

sign up to testing, fills the day and evenings and give many plenty to do, i sign up everywhere and at any given time can more than a couple of the go, so spread my day out with an hour or more on each, this way i don't get bored, they get the results so we are all happy, just a thought, but if you need something else to talk about, what about pets?

we all love them

ORIGINAL: Orm

There are still lots of nice people logged onto this forum. But, to me, it feels like it has become a more quiet place. Somewhat boring, actually. [:(]

I suppose that this is my point of view only. And that I could do more and open up more discussions.

I liked to have plenty to look at while I wait for my opponents move. Now it is not much new to begin with, and looking it over goes way to fast.

I think things just go in cycles. Some years have more games that are interesting to me and some years are slow. Long gone are the days of buying game after game hoping for one I really like.
I've been much more selective since 2010, before that I bought some just to support Matrix.

For me Matrix is about wargames, I go to other sites and sources for news and interesting stuff (aka fluff).

Maybe 2017 will bring some gems to play, I wait and will see.

ORIGINAL: zakblood

sign up to testing, fills the day and evenings and give many plenty to do, i sign up everywhere and at any given time can more than a couple of the go, so spread my day out with an hour or more on each, this way i don't get bored, they get the results so we are all happy, just a thought, but if you need something else to talk about, what about pets?

we all love them

warspite1

I used to have a pet rat. An albino who was bred, along with his brothers and sisters, as snake food. He (Boris) was fun - and quite happy to sit on my shoulder while watching TV.

ORIGINAL: flipperwasirish

ORIGINAL: Orm

There are still lots of nice people logged onto this forum. But, to me, it feels like it has become a more quiet place. Somewhat boring, actually. [:(]

I suppose that this is my point of view only. And that I could do more and open up more discussions.

I liked to have plenty to look at while I wait for my opponents move. Now it is not much new to begin with, and looking it over goes way to fast.

For me Matrix is about wargames, I go to other sites and sources for news and interesting stuff (aka fluff).

warspite1

Well that seems to be a general consensus - and certainly reflects what is happening on the GD forum (although doesn't explain the other game forums). I think that as per others I will limit my time here in future to the odd game site - e.g. MWIF - and look elsewhere for the general topics of conversation.

I think the issue is the old guard is simply dying off and not a lot of new blood is coming into the hobby. Back in the board game era the big competitor to board wargames was D&D and games like the card game Magic. But these games co-existed in the same market places and were at the same big game conventions, so new up and coming gamers were at least exposed to the hobby and enough new blood came in to replace the losses time imposed on the old timers who checked out.

Today the big video intense twitch and jerk games that new gamers are exposed to do not co-exist in similar markets with complex wargames so the cross-over exposure is limited and not a lot of new blood is coming in to replace our losses. I don't doubt that the hobby could attract new blood if the games were put under the eyes of the new gamers, but with so much flashy graphics games to choose from how can you hold someones attention long enough to get them to actually look into a less flashy but more complex game?

What the hobby needs is a really good crossover title that would draw gamers to this site/forum and get them to spend the time in the forums long enough to possibly get interested in a game that appeals to their intellect rather than just good looking eye candy.

This thread in the WitP AE forum gives a good idea of just how many old time forum contributors have passed on. A lot of the names were guys who made huge contributions to the health of the forum and I've not seen much new blood come along to replace their level of input.

tm.asp?m=3701684

Jim

In an attempt to meet the challenge and raise the excitement levels ...

here is a story about a giant badget terrorising an English village

Giant badgers spreading terror and alarm over our green-ish and sometimes pleasant land, reminds me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL6CDFn2i3I

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist

warspite1

I may be wrong as this is just my perception, but the number of regulars - and certainly those that are willing to post - seems to have reduced over the last few years. But I've noticed that too in the game forums. Look at the WITW and the WITE forums, look at the MWIF forum, same for Wars of Napoleon and Scourge of War Waterloo. Even DC:B - which got such positive feedback when it first came out, seems to have gone very quiet. No one has done an AAR for about 4 months and comment is few and far between.

Maybe I am seeing it wrong but it (the forums) don't appear to be as healthy as once was....

Your sentence is a bid ambiguous here but: WITW seems quit, agree with it. I don't care that much because i am mostly interested in the eastern front. WITE forum is very active, both in AARs, game questions and WITE 2/general discussion. WIF has a good number of AARs running. And there still is WITP AE, this is a very special thing...
It is of course sad that DC: Operation Barbarossa is so quiet, some AARs would be great

warspite1

Yes, of those I mentioned, WITE is the most active. I guess its about our own ideas of what is a "good number". You say there is a good number of AAR's running for MWIF. There are, I think, 5 going at present. For such a big game I don't think 5 is exactly great - and the usual discussion you would expect on game tips and the like just isn't there. You didn't mention SOW or WON so I assume you agree on those? DC:B is the biggest surprise for me though. Maybe almost all forums go that way eventually? Maybe I am judging by WITP-AE (which appears to be a unique case) and shouldn't be.

Yes, looks like we have different ideas of "active" and "good number".
I agree with SOW and WON but i hardly care about this so I only take note of this when scrolling down to my subforums of interest.
Its sad that DC:B is so quiet. This game can produce some very interesting AARs.
Finally, most things are subjective, we would need some statistics (which do not include spam [:D]) to prove one side wrong.

WITP AE is a special phenomenon, nothing for me but it is great that it has such a good long term community (like, to lesser extent, WITE).

About history/military history topics in a wargaming forum: I tried to create such a discussion here, maybe you remember the US Army vs. Wehrmacht efficiency comparison . Thread was closed soon, I still believe it was completely unjustified but Admins have more experience how discussions can develop then me. But it is hard to discuss history because it is so closely connected with "economy, politics and history" which is forbidden. I am always interested to discuss 1900-1950 related history, tactics, wars etc. but I won't make another attempt on my own because last time I put a lot of work in the first post to start a discussion about the army organisation thing it was immediately closed and I won't waste time to write a useless article again.

ORIGINAL: warspite1

....

Yes, of those I mentioned, WITE is the most active. I guess its about our own ideas of what is a "good number". You say there is a good number of AAR's running for MWIF. There are, I think, 5 going at present. For such a big game I don't think 5 is exactly great - and the usual discussion you would expect on game tips and the like just isn't there. You didn't mention SOW or WON so I assume you agree on those? DC:B is the biggest surprise for me though. Maybe almost all forums go that way eventually? Maybe I am judging by WITP-AE (which appears to be a unique case) and shouldn't be.

its a wee bit misleading to say this (I think you are basically right ... but). Some games seem to have a community on the Slitherine boards - Pike and Shot is one. So if I want to check on developments etc, prob best to go there. AGEOD is another. If I want to discuss their games, I do it over there, equally I would stick an AAR on their forum (its hard to do both as you need to use a different syntax to link to images on here). I tend to only comment on the AGEOD game boards here if there is a particular reason such as answering a question and so on.

Also some games, for most people, seem to have a natural life span. I think it says a lot about the quality of design behind games like WITP:AE that it is still so active (I don't have it as my grasp of naval warfare is *ahem* limited).

As to the general section. The effective ban on politics etc does keep a lot of topics off the agenda. The problem is any such discussion runs the risk of getting a bit antsy, not least as you do not have the mediating aspects of a face to face discussion. Its a bit of a loss, but to cope with it means putting a lot of effort into managing it. An eg is the Paradox general boards - I've not even bothered to look at that for years but it is accepting of a relatively wide range of discussions but I know they have to put in a lot of moderating effort and to keep it well away from their game related threads.

I think our esteemed brethren Jim Burns may have the right of it. Even on this forum people talk about the new Pokemon-Go thing, which is simply antithetical to what 'most' of the rest of us have a passion for. Strategy games were THE thing. Then came MMO's. Console games. Now it appears to be apps (which anyone with 3 brain cells should avoid, but that's another discussion).

Grogheads pulled a lot away from here and Wargamer.

While you are here, I would love to read an update on Schwerpunkt's WW2e game on your website, Wodin. I own it but having trouble finding any type of forum for the game, although I have an update link. Can't believe it's still not finished [:(]

ORIGINAL: rosseau

While you are here, I would love to read an update on Schwerpunkt's WW2e game on your website, Wodin. I own it but having trouble finding any type of forum for the game, although I have an update link. Can't believe it's still not finished [:(]

This is there new forums....

http://dogsofwarvu.com/forum/index.php/board,116.0.html

Was just about to link to DoW:)
 
My Blog may also be getting a section of that forum at some point:)

Much appreciated. I did do a PBEM almost a year ago, but have laid low on this game since then. Thanks again.

I think its because we are all getting old.

Let's talk about our yards. I used to have a great yard, almost all buffalo grass. It rarely needed mowing and it needed very little water. then we got dogs...they ran around and killed most of the grass. Now I have weeds and a bit of Bermuda. Whenever I water, I get a back porch covered in doggy prints. Nice yards are incompatible with Labradors and labra-doodles. But, in the beginning, I thought buffalo grass was much better than the Bermuda and ST. Augustine yards I have had in the past.

ORIGINAL: solops
I think its because we are all getting old.

I just recently retired and I have tons of things to do, no boredom here! [:)]

I have been retired since 2009. Hence my focused and intense interest in the ongoing yard vs. dog issue. Retirement allows you to concentrate on vital issues like that. The dogs don't like it when I drive the tractor into the yard. I think the front-end loader creeps them out.