"Top 10 of most important people in wargaming ?" Topic

Oops, John Hill too

Don't forget guys like the quite well known Curt Schilling of the Boston Red Sox - okay, he's not into MINIATURES wargaming, but he has sure raised the profile of board wargaming (his gaming company, multimanpublishing or MMP, bought the rights to many of the old Avalon Hill games when they were sold off, including Advanced Squad Leader and the Great Campaigns Of The American Civil War series. They also bought out The Gamers who produced a large and well respected bunch of games). He never fails to take an opportunity to pimp Advanced Squad Leader or other wargames and is a great figurehead for the hobby.

No, I'm not a Red Sox fan, I don't even like baseball, but you can't ignore the man's contribution.

The most important person in gaming is "the customer". It's a shame that some companies don't see it that way.

In addition to the others mentioned, I nominate
Leo Cronin.

Here is what the Courier's A TIMELINE OF THE HISTORICAL MINIATURES WARGAMING HOBBY ( link )
has to say about him: "1966 … Leo Cronin first to suggest in print, fantasy gaming, in particular a "mythical war game" based on the Fellowship of the Ring. In Wargamers Newsletter" and "1969 … NEWA demonstrate first skirmish wargame, with each figure representing one person, at MFCA gaming convention. Game is Irish Rebellion, 1920-21 by Leo Cronin, wins Best in Show award."

He still puts on his Irish Rebellion games at Historicon.

Each of us, because without "Each of us" in the hobby no one cares about any of this. As Delljohnb says, basically it's "the customer." And, hardly anyone realizes this in the administrative structure of the hobby, least of all - way too many companies. And, to whom do hobby organizations give awards? They give them to people who write rules, produce figures, manufacture terrain, and publish hobby magazines. The people who are the hobby are generally ignored unless attendance slips at a convention. When attendance slips the wailings and lamentations begin, and a few administrators are publically sacrificed in a bloody attempt to regain favor with the vagaries of ill-defined cosmic forces.

The hobby should (and rightly so) primarily be all about the hobbyist - not organizations and not manufacturers and not publishers. I'm grateful for all these nice people and their contributions (to a hobby they enjoyed) through the years, but there are hundreds, if not thousands of others who did equally well by the hobby who remain largely unknown. They are the ones who kept/keep the hobby alive in thousands of venues around the globe where they have no access to large conventions or populations. They are the ones who begin promoting the hobby in areas where it never existed before. They are the ones who continually bring in new hobbyists. They are the ones who go unnoticed because without a commercial product to make them visible, they remain unknown and unsung.

So my vote goes to "Each of Us," because we are the hobby.

What about Scotty Bowden?? He wrote "Empire" for the Napoleonic Wars and other rules sets IIRC.

How about leaving out Hitler and putting in the German General Staff - who did extensive wargaming to test their theories.

Others for consideration:

Ray Johnson

Fred Vietmeyer

Joe Morschauser (still, AFAIK, the ONLY hobby miniatures rules designer to be published by a major US publisher)

C. A. L. Totten (author of 'Strategos - An American Game of War', the first published American wargames rules)

Robert Louis Stevenson

Greg Nowak

Gosh I would think Napoleon, Caesar, Hannibal, and Alexander would be on someone's list? Without the great captains of history we would not be wargaming to begin with...
VR
James Mattes

Yeah, first guy to start a proper war has to be in there.

HG Wells
Nafziger
Ian Heath
Duncan Head

Has anyone mentioned Livermore - the 19th Century US guy?

He's an early pioneer.

Also John Bennett (spelling?) - one of the founders, and first editor of the society mag, of the Solo Wargames Association.

Oh, and on a personal note - I'd like to nominate daivd Nash whose book "Wargames" was the first to fire my interest in wargames as opposed to 'playing with soldiers'.

Cheers,

Martin

I greatly respect the contributions of many in the hobby but I still think the people I game with are #1. DJCoaltrain explained it in more detail.

anyone who made rules I like to play, and anyone that will play wargames with me, thats about all I will vote for.
PS also people that actually do the work at game cons, cause they really rate high in my gaming world.

One thing about the above lists: while Simundson or Dunnegan may belong because the question was about "wargaming" the field narrows quite a bit.

I was introduced to minitaures by Featherstone and Young - although my introduction to Navals was using Pratts rules reprinted by Featherstone.

So I guess Featherstone and Young are my big names. But who stared the 1st companies dedicated to miniatures production for gaming rather than toy soldiers?

Has anyone mentioned "steve Jackson" ?