"How worried are you about the future of the hobby?" Topic

Specifically, the miniature wargaming hobby. On a scale of 0 (no worry) to 10 (extreme worry).

0

Not worried at all. It was fine before I started and it will be fine after I go.
It evolves as it needs to, e.g 3D printing, resin, plastic, .pdf rules designed to run on devices and so on.

In general not at all, but personally, as a mature gamer, I am worried by the demise of old figure ranges that I prefer to more modern ones and do worry what will be next.

5.
I expect the miniature gaming hobby to continue, but as a skirmish gaming (partially historical) pursuit.
That has been my experience over 55 years of gaming.
None the less, it is a hobby, and should be the way that participants want.

martin

I'm not worried.

My Games Workshop stock has gone way up and looks poised to stay there, or climb higher.

In addition, my lead (and plastic) mountain is so big that I will not run out of things to make and build during my lifetime.

And I am old enough that even if young people stop playing entirely, there will be enough people to play with until I die or otherwise get too old to play.

I got involved with miniature games around … 1874?
When I got around to reading the hobby magazines, they were worried about the future of the hobby.
Since I'm an Old Fart, I feel it's required that I be worried. You know, keeping up the reputation and all that.
So, I'll say 1.

0 this is a golden age of wargaming.

2 mainly on the supply side, as so many of the old businesses are closing shop and so much of what you see at shows is just identical mass produced blister packs.

Of course collecting discontinued figures is a hobby in itself…

2

I am only interested the historical miniature hobby. When it comes to products and conventions, we are living in a golden age for historical gaming, both in miniatures and board games. I'm concerned that skirmish gaming might dominate the future of the hobby. Locally we always need younger people. However, we have been talking about the demise of the hobby for decades and yet here we all are. I expect it will carry on a while longer.

0 – no threat beyond the sky falling on our heads…

0 – its a hobby why should I worry about it?

0 – I've enough right now to last me, and friends to play with. Not that I'll stop buying.

0 – when I started gaming there were a few dozen sets of 1/72nd figures to use – now there are several thousand.

GW was one little shop in Ravenscourt Park – now there are several thousand

Pick any other measure you like and it's the same.

That's two hobbies, Bill. Fantasy & SF gaming seems to be doing fine. I find the emphasis on small boards with big figures interesting. I'm also less invested. If it went the way of the Hula Hoop, I wouldn't be too upset.

I would like to see historical miniatures gaming continue--partly because I think a knowledge of history is good for a society, and partially because I'd be disappointed to see our little works of art go into landfills. And here the picture is more mixed: many more castings available, but I look at local groups and conventions and can't see who's buying them, especially in horse & musket. If it's just the old guys I see, the bubble will pop very soon.

But as with pretty much all social & political trends, there's not much I can do about it.

0 for F&SF. Maybe 6 for Historicals. Calling them "the hobby" doesn't make them one thing.

While there is some worry about the decline in models and in history as a passion interest that would definitely suggest a problem down the road, there is also the future advances in technology that might invigorate the hobby. We may be on the cusp of a new golden age for toy soldiers, because advances in 3D printing may usher in access to prepainted figures that will entice new players. I have seen demonstrations of these 3D color printers that may in the next five years enable the home-printing of extremely lovely figures as good as the average painter. That may generate a lot of new interest in the hobby with such an easy entry point for people, who may then move into the painting side of things thereafter.

John, you really are old.

0 for me as well. All things ebb and flow over time.

Zero.

I just turned 64. I'm sure that the hobby will be here at least until I am gone. Then it doesn't matter….

Dave

Not at all. The hobby has been a wonderful life long experience. I've enjoyed the heck out of it.

My only concern/worry is my wife getting some financial benefit out of selling my lead when I'm gone, or at the very least passing it on to someone who will enjoy it.

0. Get off my lawn! Dern kids!

I agree with Robert above in that the sci-fi/fantasy genre is almost an entirely separate hobby now. While it is certainly a golden age for miniatures, rules, board games, etc., the big enemies seem to be a glut of products and finding commonality with your fellow gamers.

Not very – lots of options, lots of new stuff/paint/minis out there

Historicals are slowly dying, I fear. That could change, and perhaps will, though I do not see how at this point.

0.

I like to read old magazines from the hobby, and people have been discussing its demise for fifty years, at least. If it were going to demise it would have done so by now.

According to this article:

link

Games workshop is about to become one of the 500 largest companies globally. I'm pretty sure this is wrong, since

link

Says their rank is 2631. Still, that's not chopped liver and it's a $5 USD billion company. That's only a rough indication, but it's a strong signal.

People have literally been doing this for thousands of years. They're not going to stop next year because of computers or 3D printing or VR or AI or cloning or whatever.

10 for historical gaming. I've only met 1 or 2 local gamers under 40. I think RP has the right of it as to the division of miniature gaming. O for F/SF and here I must quote Rhett Butler's last line in "GWTW."

Whilst it would be a pity were historical hobby wargaming to disappear, I can't say that I'm 'worried' about something that is unlikely to happen during my lifetime. Indeed, it couldn't 'disappear' if I was still alive, as I'd still be wargaming, albeit solo, with the troops I already possess.
So 0.

My only worry about the hobby is the wife finding out how much I've spent over the years…

Zero. +1 David Manley.

0. It may change, it may not become my ideal vision, but it will evolve and still exist. At the end of the day, people love playing with toys and this hobby is an excuse to do so while holding it out as some kind of an educational or simulation experience so that we can play with toys as adults and not feel too bad about it.

That is the beauty of this hobby.

Now I do believe that 'Greying of the Hobby' discussions are an evergreen field of hand wringing and gnashing of teeth. That will also never change.

John, you really are old.

Where is autocorrect when you really need it? 🙄

Historicals are slowly dying, I fear.

Is this just a feeling, or do have statistical proof?
Warlord certainly doesn't seem to think so.
Are their product in our preferred scale? 🤔
Nor do Gringos40, Blue Moon, Brigade Games, Pontoonier… I could go on.
My own club is rather static, with no growth. Yet, we do not recruit. We are who we are.
Yet one guy (who has not died 🙄) is happily collecting and painting the Warlord Epic Napoleonics. Jim and I are happily going overboard on SYW in Mexico, Plains Indians, etc. All new purchases, from companies that are happily churning out new historical products.

I would suggest that the number of historical gamers is holding steady. "We" might even be increasing, but certainly not at a rate comparable to video or online gaming.
Until such a reliable survey is done, we can say nothing definitive.
"Kids Today" can't do cursive writing anymore, so there's that.
Things change. And I'm down with that.

Just remember that a well made buggy whip can still go for a good price in the antiques market. So, paint your figures well!

1

Historical gaming is changing, not ending. Other games are growing in popularity.
The real question is, are us old farts doing enough to keep the youngsters interested?

0. Considering the rules, figure ranges and terrain choices available now, as compared to the mid-1970's, why panic about the health of the hobby?

0. Future generations can enjoy whatever they like. It'd be neat to think my interests would hang on, but if they don't, so what?

0. What Parsival said.

0 Seems fine if convention attendees are any way to tell.

A typo, OFM? And here I was thinking you were the kid described in "The Tin Army of the Potomac." (1888.)

It's a zero for me for all the reasons previously stated. I am patiently waiting for the full color 3d printers that are coming.

I've been gaming since the 1960's, and will give the OFM a run for his money, age wise. I'll be happy to regale you with stories of the Earth cooling, if you're really bored.

All that to say this: The first time I read about the imminent demise of historical gaming was in…let's see…the 1960's. And practically every year since. Yet it's still here, still innovating, still breaking new ground. There are more figures, paints, terrain, and reference materials available now than ever before.

Do I mourn the loss of some of the older, classic ranges? Of course I do. But you know what? I can't wait to see what's waiting for us right around the very next corner.

5. I only worry about it from a cost thing. It seems the cost to purchase miniatures has risen substantially over the last 6 to 10 years. Referring to metal and not plastic. Very little interest in plastic.

If I cared about popular hobbies I would golf or something.

Bunkermeister

0, Certainly things will change but as many things what was old is now new. The newer gamers may start doing more large scale battles picking up old collections or going with some of the smaller scales. With the current quality of 6mm and 10mm figures there's no need to make them out of hair rollers:-)

I've been gaming since the 1960's, and will give the OFM a run for his money, age wise. I'll be happy to regale you with stories of the Earth cooling, if you're really bored.

I miss a good rotisserie pterodactyl.

TBH, I started out with Avalon Hill games. At Penn State, a bunch of us board gamers (SPI too!) made a pilgrimage to a gathering in New Jersey. We made a backwards stop in Altoona to play the legendary Trafalgar, with all the plexiglass goodness.
In Joisey, I played my very first Napoleonic miniature game. I was blown away. I think I was a Wurtemburger?
When we got back I started collecting Ancients, and never looked back.
Minifigs were $.25 USD/infantry figure. Today, the lowest price is 10 times that. Can you still assemble armies? Grad students have already obtained 3D printers. So armies aren't gonna be a problem.

Let's be honest, all you old fart Column Line and Square 30mm players. You were thought to be nuts back in 1976. Did Society accept your stupid hobby back then? Be honest. 🙄 You didn't care.
I predict…. That historical gaming will continue, but not in the media or scales we're used to.

I parallel the OFM's timeline if not experience. Discovering Avalon Hill games in Cincinnati in 1972, then SPI, and my gang of former RISK players found a new passion -- then after the family relocated to the wilderness of Corpus Christi, TX, I was still able to find a few kindred wargaming spirits and later at college in Austin, a much wider circle. In the meantime, I'd discovered miniatures -- I remember happily ordering many of those 25-cent Minifigs! -- and D&D and my hobby universe exploded.

Today, I find myself discouraged like RP and Shag when it comes to historical wargaming. Locally and at conventions I attend or follow on social media, the greying of the historical miniatures hobby is unmistakable. I remember these similar complaints back in the 1980s when RPGs were taking over, but I've never seen it as troublesome for the future of this segment of the adventure game hobby as it is now. It's ironic that while the availability of figures has never been better (metals and plastics together), along with accessories like paint and terrain, notwithstanding the issue of costs, the number of people who want to collect and paint and play with historical miniatures may be declining rapidly. Despite efforts made to recruit, so many folks seem adamant about remaining within their circumscribed fantasy and sci-fi orbit.

This is based on USA observations, I should add. From what I see and read, the historical branch of the hobby is doing just fine in Europe, the UK -- don't know about Canada. But Britain especially seems to be still going gangbusters in all sorts of periods. That's the place to be if you seek the center of the wargaming universe!

0. I hope it goes well but not losing sleep about it.

Thanks.

John

0 but I really don't care as I will be long gone. I think things here and now are wonderful but evolution is inevitable whether it becomes holographic tables or 3D printers in every household, things will change but gaming will go on in some form of miniatures be they pewter, resin or AI generated images that appear real.

I too have been hearing this question since the 1880s. So I say 1.

0. Many of my students (mostly 18-22 years old) as well as my daughter's (who is 13 about to turn 14) and my son's (who is 11) friends are as interested in the hobby as much as I am. It appears that the future of the hobby is secure.

10

1. The primary demographic age of tabletop wargamers is 55-74 years old. We're dying off.

2. Public education no longer emphasizes reading and presents a shallow and often distorted view of history. In short, many of younger generations do not value reading or history -- both key to the hobby.

3. Perhaps that's why younger gamers (18-34), if they play tabletop games gravitate towards boardgames and card games. They tend to play quirky social interactive card games like Cards Against Humanity or Exploding Kittens, and if they play boardgames the top sellers continue to be Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride, and Pandemic makes the grade for being a popular co-op game.

So if you want to attract more people to wargaming we should be promoting more games like Perry Bros Travel Battle, or types of Command & Colors games (Memoir, Battle Cry, etc.) as a gateway to draw people in to more complex tabletop wargames, etc.

Hmm…Foyles has a large military history section, and lists 500 titles on its website.

So, someone must be buying them….

There does appear to be a trend towards shorter / smaller games (although Arkham Horror and all of its supplements creates a game that needs a full weekend or more to play). Sf/f long ago overtook historical games – for many reasons. That the figures are cool doesn't hurt.