 Editor in Chief Bill   | 31 Jan 2023 2:06 p.m. PST |
You were asked – TMP link Where Do You Wargame?And the top answers were: 22% said "your home"
17% said "someone else's home"
17% said "game show or convention"
11% said "game store"
9% said "your basement" |
| JMcCarroll | 31 Jan 2023 4:55 p.m. PST |
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 Herkybird  | 31 Jan 2023 4:58 p.m. PST |
I am surprised those of us who wargame at clubs didn't make the top 5! |
 etotheipi  | 31 Jan 2023 5:26 p.m. PST |
I'm surprised "someone else's home" isn't greater than "your home". |
| Stryderg | 31 Jan 2023 5:40 p.m. PST |
No clubs around these parts. Now that I think about it, there are no 'someone else's home' either. |
| Cavcmdr | 31 Jan 2023 7:33 p.m. PST |
Our club meets in a pub. We meet twice a week and the landlord built us a big terrain cupboard that holds our 6' x 4' boards and tables behind. We keep drinking and buying food so no room charge is made. ;-) |
| ezza123 | 31 Jan 2023 11:51 p.m. PST |
Our club meets once a week in the basement of a pub. We use a pool table for the landlord made a removal 7' x 4' top to use as our playing area. The clearance under the table gives us enough space to store terrain. As with Cavcmdr, we are not charged for use but do buy food and drinks. Ezza |
| Martin Rapier | 01 Feb 2023 12:44 a.m. PST |
I suspect weekly club meetings are a luxury which is less available to our North American cousins. |
| martin goddard | 01 Feb 2023 3:31 a.m. PST |
Our chairman has come up with a very novel idea.
We play in the evenings in a supermarket cafe which closes at 5pm.
The ASDA store has been most kind in helping us.
Some supermarkets in the UK have community rooms too. We are doing it in order to publicise the hobby, get new members and buy weekly shopping at the same time. The advantage to me of meeting at a club is that it is neutral territory. One can see other games, meet new players (and allow new players to meet a whole new set of folk) and play whatever game you wish. The UK is experiencing an advance/increase in game stores with tables in them. Entoyment, Brookhurst hobbies, Boss minis are good examples. martin |
| robert piepenbrink | 01 Feb 2023 9:00 a.m. PST |
eto, think solo wargamers. |
| DeRuyter | 01 Feb 2023 11:31 a.m. PST |
While having a dedicated club space in a rental hall or pub seems to be a UK thing, I am familiar with several clubs in the US that use Church halls for game days. I think Little War TV has a dedicated hall as well. Game stores used to be a popular option as well. Some people in the US have finished basements that can accommodate a large group. |
| nnascati | 01 Feb 2023 4:41 p.m. PST |
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| etotheipi | 01 Feb 2023 6:56 p.m. PST |
eto, think solo wargamers. Yeah, but balancing it with multiple players in non-solo games, I just expected the other balance. Of course, that leads to another poll question … |
| robert piepenbrink | 02 Feb 2023 9:21 a.m. PST |
Martin's right: the combination of lower overall population density and lower percentage of wargamers in the population is lethal to club play in the US. The last game I played in a club facility involved driving 120+ miles each way. That was in northern (and central) Indiana. If you drive west from here, the population density drops off for the next 2,000+ miles. Eto, if you grant "DanaCon" as a convention--annual; 30+ of us in Dana's barn--the last time I played a game with as many as three players in a private home was in the year 2000. Home is solo. Someone else's home is two. I ask a lot of my fellow gamers, but I don't expect them to show up for games once they're dead. |
| etotheipi | 02 Feb 2023 11:31 a.m. PST |
The last time I played a wargame with only two players at my home, someone else's home, a games store, or a convention was …. uhm … 15-20 years ago when SWMBO, DOM, SOM, and I played 'Clix and Mechwarrior tournaments since tourneys are artificially constructed to be PvP. lower overall population density Depends on where you live. Also, while there are a large number of ways you can calculate population density, the US is not near the top of the list (compared to, say the UK, the second largest population (claimed) on TMP), but it does have close to the same percentage of urban population as the UK. The US has a less than 10% lead in average annual work hours (time you can't game … mostly) and way more average disposable income. That's all Kentucky windage, since the actual population of "wargamers" is an enigma wrapped around a mystery wrapped around a chewy nougat center. (I was going to go with my personal fave, peanut butter, but some people might be allergic.) |
| Mark J Wilson | 02 Feb 2023 11:45 a.m. PST |
May be worth rerunning this to see if the club split between UK and US is real. i.e two separate polls |
