"Is Wargaming Getting Too Easy?" Topic

Here's my thoughts on the subject: link

I hear you and agree with your advice. I know I'm generalizing, but many gamers, especially , shall we, say, less seasoned ones, only want to play the game. All the rest is boring and more like work.

But, in the end, it's about what gives you personal enjoyment. The long term hobby will be what it will be.

Good points, Joe. But there is another way of looking at it. You remember in chemistry class you'd get chemical reactions which wouldn't normally happen because they required some unusually high temperature or such--unless you had a catalyst?
I'm no friend of proprietary systems in wargaming, but a "battle in a box" can serve as a catalyst. The newbie can bring home his new toy and play with it that day. He doesn't have to find a group, or order troops, paints, rules and terrain from different sources and wait weeks before he can try a game.
It might be worth distinguishing between something like that Star Wars game, which is pretty much a closed system, and--oh, say two smallish armies a bit of terrain and a two-page set of rules which gets the gamer started in some period without locking him into a particular company and set of rules down the road.
Because if we could get more kids started, there'd be more games and conventions, stuff would be more readily available, and we'd get in more games.

Maybe.

Joe, I think you are spot on. I'm still painting armies in several scales, terrain, etc., but painting has come to a screeching halt in my group and many are gamers who have been in the hobby for close to 40 years. Everyone is spending so much time buying new stuff, playing games where the work is done for you, etc., that big battle games are becoming the rarity instead of the norm. We used to average at least 20 games a year such as F&F, AOR, Age of Eagles, BKC, etc., that could hold 4-8 players. Now we're lucky to get in 10 of those kinds of games or so and the armies aren't growing at all.

For the hobby it's good as gamers are buying like never before, but I wonder where the saturation part comes in. A lot of these games are getting played once, maybe twice, then put on a shelf while the next new thing is played.

I know a great way to encourage Kids Today to take up a hobby that only vaguely interests them.
Let's insist that they do all the work we had to do 40 years ago.

Can't say that I recognise the issue. My local club does play X-Wing and Armada, but also various historical and fantasy games that require building terrain and painting figures. The latest craze seems to be Gaslands which has resulted in masses of modified and repainted small cars. Might just be us being of an older generation, but I see no change in interest in old style games.

Nope, it's not.
It's a hobby so it should be fun. You shouldn't have to do something that isn't fun. I love gaming but I hate painting so anything that alleviates this chore is welcome.

Eh. I make my own terrain and 3D parts that I put together myself.

I also play pre-painted stuff. It's all good at the end of the day since that's the way I choose to play.

It never ceases to amaze me how many folks in this hobby demonstrate this attitude:

link

No. not at all. It is still a lot of work, even if you just run skirmish games. There are plenty of levels of engagement that you can indulge at. It is one of the least monolithic hobbies out there as far as what people do. The difference between someone playing 40K and me painting 30mm zinnfiguren flats to play 18th Century is quite marked.

I didn't like doing a lot of the work that I did 40 years ago, even then.

Attempting conversions for unavailable troops(that often didn't look that great), trying to decipher poorly-written rules, making my own ground cloths and rivers, bending/painting/putting foliage on early Woodland Scenics metals trees, etc. I don't miss any of it.

I actually have more time to paint those big armies, now that there is so much pre-made stuff.

Horses for courses. I think both entry level and time intensive approaches are necessary and valuable. There is no controversy here.

If it is, I must not be going down the easy road.

A couple Facebook groups I belong to, namely Bolt Action, and Test of Honour, are always featuring customized figures, vehicles and terrain. I don't think that having prefinished equipment is making the hobby overall, easier.

Well I like to dream up a scenario and then dig around in the terrain box for what I need. At the moment I need to build a viking longship to make the HOTT stronghold I will need. It might take me some time because I want to scratchbuild it and I need some plans. Long and the short of it is I want to do something that pleases me. One of the joys of wargaming is doing the unique stuff that makes the game work.

I have no problem with out of the box games. In fact if it gets more people involved then it can only be a good thing.

I frequently see comments from people who said they started in boardgames, but then got the miniatures bug.

Only this week a non-wargamer friend bought the new game Scythe. Well guess what? He wants me to paint the game pieces up. Where next for him I wonder?

Don't be an enabler. Show him a brush and where the paint is, and tell'm perfection is a direction, not a destination. The pleasure is in the journey.

I'm with Mick the Metalsmith on both points.

The dealer always gives the new customer a pill to start. The customer will eventually develop the desire to cook in a spoon, fill a syringe, tie off an arm, and inject.

Nothing about this hobby is work to me If it was,I wouldn't do it.

The opposite of "easy" is "difficult." And why on earth would you want a hobby – something you do in your limited and precious leisure time – to be difficult?

Sure, there are aspects of the hobby that are absorbing, even meditative. I used to spend hours painting figures before my eyesight went south, and it was a real pleasure.

But in terms of the actual playing, and the ratio of time spent to fun obtained? I want convenience, in the sense that I don't want to do math or spend hours leafing through a rulebook trying to find the rules.

If doing math is your thing, though, then have at it!

There are significant barriers to entry for wargaming: cost of figs, rules, terrain. Time or expense of painting figs, time to learn complex rules that often have some assumed general wargaming knowledge. Ability to find a place to set up or play games.

It's probably instructive that low figure count skirmish games are popular at the moment.

David F Brown