"Worried about the hobby? 2 out of 10!" Topic

You were asked – TMP link

How Worried Are You About the Future of the Hobby?

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

Average response: 2.35

Wow what a load of old worry bugs TMP members are!

This poll has been run, and re-run, several times over the past 25+ years. The results are more favorable this time around, compared to the previous polls that I (vaguely) remember.

I just watched a video about the Adepticon Game Convention, in Milwaukee, WI USA. This past year, 2025, it apparently attracted 10,000+ attendees. however, it is primarily aimed at Warhammer 40k fans (Sci-Fantasy miniatures gamers).

I have no idea how many people attend more historical oriented game conventions in the USA. I've been reading doom & gloom posts about the historical gaming hobby dying ever since the mid-1990's. It reminds me of the, "Bring out your dead! <Gong!>", scene from Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail movie: "I'm not dead, yet!"

There sure seems to be a lot of highly active historical gamers in my local neck of the gaming world, mostly Bolt Action, I believe. I have no fears for any genre of war games, at this time. Particular rules sets, Yes; the hobby at large, No. Cheers!

I started wargaming with Avalon Hill's Gettysburg around 1965. I subscribed to the very enthusiastic General, Panzerfaust and Strategy and Tactics. No doom and gloom there!

I started playing with miniatures around 1974. The various journals and so on did have their Cassandras and prophets of doom. However, 50 years later, the patient is somehow still thriving.
Ah. The "greying of the hobby!" 🙄 Let's be honest here. The "kids today" ALWAYS had better things to do. Girls, for one. They have better things to do today, too. And yet our group has just had some college kids join for AK-47, Neil Thomas Ancients and a few others. And one is painting Epic ACW.

The Hobby™️ has been dying for half a century. And will continue to be dying (in the minds of the perpetually gloomy) for another 50 years and beyond.
Me? I'm working on 28mm Comanches and SYW Grenzers.

I am not worried. Nothing, hobby-wise, can go wrong for me. I am 82, I have 50,000 painted figs from just about every period in history. Lots of terrain so I can keep playing for a lifetime. Multi-thousand unpainted figs that I might work on. I have some young friends (50+) who like to game, and a son/grandson who will play. I am good, what happens to the rest of the hobby is not a concern:)

I think the hobby is in a great place as long as we have an expansive view of miniature gaming. I don't know that historical miniatures will ever have the exalted place we always imagined it did. Other miniature games continue to draw well--the GW games, Star Wars games, and the plethora of games I don't know. But this is miniature gaming's golden age, with so many games available and the only obstacles being time and money. I've been doing this for well over 50 years and have been a president of NHMGS and a convention director for longer than I'd like to admit.

If there is anything I regret about where we are is that it seems less home-grown. I'm not sure it's bad, but it is certainly different and somewhat more corporate.

I don't know that historical miniatures will ever have the exalted place we always imagined it did.

Yeah. That's key. 😄
We have always been fringe. We were fringe to boardgames. When DnD came out, it made us fringe to miniatures. So now, we're fringe to "The Warhammer Hobby", or "The Games Workshop Hobby", or whatever it's officially called.
So, we're not as important as we think we are, and never were.

The only hobby that I have been affiliated with that I fear for is stamp collecting.

"I think the hobby is in a great place as long as we have an expansive view of miniature gaming."

Sort of the point, isn't it? For myself, the little car in the box does not make Monopoly a miniatures game, nor the carboard counters HMGS (formerly East) is using to pad numbers. But there's always someone with a more expansive view. And "the hobby" covers just about anything. RPG's? Chess? Bird-watching?

I'm old enough that the problem can't get much worse in my lifetime--which is probably why so many of us aren't worried--but anyone who thinks there are happy days ahead for historical miniatures gaming needs to attend a historical miniatures convention.

What makes conventions the measure of health for the hobby?

This is sort of like The Baseball Hall of Fame voting. Some writers believe in a small hall and only the best should get in. Others believe in a big hall and their view of what is hall worthy is wider.

We're kind of in that same place with miniature gaming. First, I'd responded to the question about the future of the Hobby, which is further refined by the miniature wargaming hobby. So miniature wargaming-big hall. Historical miniature gameing--small hall.

If the question is strictly about historical miniatures I'd say that's more limited. Do the 40K guys and the Star Wars Legion players become more than Konflikt 47 players. Do they pick up a copy of Bolt Action or even SAGA? Can't say. But if you're hoping that it becomes the 1970's or 80's again and we start playing Empire III or WRG 7th, it's not going to happen.

I'll be running Enfilade #34 Memorial Day Weekend. We'll have nearly 300 attendees and 120ish games and 80% of them will be historical. We had more in 2019 and we've lost our entire Canadian contingent (about 10% of our total,) but we'll be fine.

I too have been hearing about the grey of the hobby for 50 years. And I don't really see it.

I also agree that historic gaming is a fringe hobby perhaps not always, that's what it has become. It does not attract main stream folks (some have argued here that they have no desire to bring in new blood.)

You want to see hobbies declining look at living history or the SCA ( I am only speaking of the US.)