Perceptions and Realities

[Steel God]

The perception of our hobby, and certainly mine until recently, is that we are a rapidly aging group of men and there is no new generation coming behind us to replenish our ranks.  Certainly if you pay attention to the Birthdays that are reported on Blitz Members there's an awful lot of 6s and 7s and in those ages these days.  My experiences in PBEM during 2024 have altered my perception of that reality however, and I have found myself engaged with a string of opponents vastly younger than myself.  Since the beginning of the year I have crossed swords with:

A young man from China, a graduate University student, and leader of a war gaming club at University.
An American Ex-pat living in France and recently graduated from University and a passionate student of the French Campaign.
A young man just last week graduated from University in Florida and 3 years younger than my youngest daughter, and in many ways like looking into a mirror when we discuss things we like and our points of view.

All of these players are in their 20s, and as passionate about war gaming as I was in my 20s.  When i was in my 20s the world was a vastly different place and most 20 something war gamers thought they were very much alone in the world or at best one of a small group of "weirdos" who met down at the local gaming store, or a friends basement to play once a week.  When the internet exploded and PCs replaced our table tops, we suddenly perhaps perceived the hobby to be bigger than it was, so in comparison today we may view that it is shrinking and dying.  I suggest that just as with Fog of War on a Battlefield, our perceptions and realities may not always align.  It is possible that our hobby as a group is smaller as a percentage of a whole, but that whole number has grown as well, so that the actual number of players may be a constant or actually some percentage of growth.  Without knowing a damn thing about WDS' business model I do know they wouldn't bother making the games if they saw no future in it, so that's encouraging too. 

I have no agenda in posting this, just sharing a stream of thought as it spills from my brain, thinking perhaps others may find they have similar thoughts but not similar experiences.  There are newer, younger players out there, the hobby has a life and a future, and if we wish to assist in that the best thing we can do is engage and encourage those younger players.

To all my opponents past, present and future, I wish you Good Luck and Good Gaming.

[typhoon]

Great post and I do hope the future is bright. I might add it’s why places like the Blitz are so important  as it allows a passing of the torch and all the amazing knowledge accumulated in the grey matter and empty spaces between our ears.
   Also when you think about it these games as cared for by WDS still stand the test of time again our hobby is in the best hands.

[smurf309]

The perception of our hobby, and certainly mine until recently, is that we are a rapidly aging group of men and there is no new generation coming behind us to replenish our ranks.  Certainly if you pay attention to the Birthdays that are reported on Blitz Members there's an awful lot of 6s and 7s and in those ages these days.  My experiences in PBEM during 2024 have altered my perception of that reality however, and I have found myself engaged with a string of opponents vastly younger than myself.  Since the beginning of the year I have crossed swords with:

A young man from China, a graduate University student, and leader of a war gaming club at University.
An American Ex-pat living in France and recently graduated from University and a passionate student of the French Campaign.
A young man just last week graduated from University in Florida and 3 years younger than my youngest daughter, and in many ways like looking into a mirror when we discuss things we like and our points of view.

All of these players are in their 20s, and as passionate about war gaming as I was in my 20s.  When i was in my 20s the world was a vastly different place and most 20 something war gamers thought they were very much alone in the world or at best one of a small group of "weirdos" who met down at the local gaming store, or a friends basement to play once a week.  When the internet exploded and PCs replaced our table tops, we suddenly perhaps perceived the hobby to be bigger than it was, so in comparison today we may view that it is shrinking and dying.  I suggest that just as with Fog of War on a Battlefield, our perceptions and realities may not always align.  It is possible that our hobby as a group is smaller as a percentage of a whole, but that whole number has grown as well, so that the actual number of players may be a constant or actually some percentage of growth.  Without knowing a damn thing about WDS' business model I do know they wouldn't bother making the games if they saw no future in it, so that's encouraging too. 

I have no agenda in posting this, just sharing a stream of thought as it spills from my brain, thinking perhaps others may find they have similar thoughts but not similar experiences.  There are newer, younger players out there, the hobby has a life and a future, and if we wish to assist in that the best thing we can do is engage and encourage those younger players.

To all my opponents past, present and future, I wish you Good Luck and Good Gaming.

cool:)

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

Also, for those who play against the AI only, remember, if you have time to only play a turn or two against the AI, you have time to play a turn or two against an email opponent. No excuses. As soon as I found out about email, I jumped in feet first. I have been having so much fun ever since. I used to worry about winning. Now, not so much. I like the battle and strategy part of it more than anything else. Like reading a great book that you just can't put down. The ones you read 5 or 6 times or more. At the end of the time, you look around. I haven't lost any money on the results and I haven't lost any sleep over any result. But, I did have way more fun than if I had played against the computer. Just try it. You won't regret it.

[Liebchen]

Also, for those who play against the AI only, remember, if you have time to only play a turn or two against the AI, you have time to play a turn or two against an email opponent.  No excuses.  As soon as I found out about email, I jumped in feet first.  I have been having so much fun ever since.  I used to worry about winning.  Now, not so much.  I like the battle and strategy part of it more than anything else.  Like reading a great book that you just can't put down.  The ones you read 5 or 6 times or more.  At the end of the time, you look around.  I haven't lost any money on the results and I haven't lost any sleep over any result.  But, I did have way more fun than if I had played against the computer.  Just try it.  You won't regret it.

This, 100%.

[zovs66]

When the internet exploded and PCs replaced our table tops, we suddenly perhaps perceived the hobby to be bigger than it was, so in comparison today we may view that it is shrinking and dying.

I would tend to disagree here, the "tabletop" community and the amount of wargames still in production or being produced is still very much a thing. The biggest contributors right now to the board wargaming jantra is Compass Games, Decision Games, GMT, MMP and a whole host of independent publishers. The most successful in my mind is both GMT and MMP. GMT still holds tournaments and conventions once or twice a year and so does MMP, but the winner and king if you will as the Advanced Squad Leader community and MMP and all the third party publishes for ASL.

I am on several Discord channels and all they talk about and play are board wargames. Granted a vast majority of those folks are using VASSAL or VASL (for the ASL side) to play board wargames.

But to your point about recruitment of young blood, there is a series of dialogs in the Discord community on the same topic, in the ASL ones in particular. 

At any rate, board wargaming (tabletop if you will) is certainly not dead and has not been replaced.

[Smedley]

I agree that we are all getting long in the tooth...... However, there are lots of young people getting into board gaming. I think the hobby will live on after we are gone.

I am a big fan of ASL and go to 5 or 6 tournaments a year. Plus, many smaller gatherings at friends' houses. We tend to treat younger players like the second coming......They are spoiled like grandchildren! This is a good thing and hopefully they will grow to love war games as much as we do.

Rob

[Steel God]

Also, for those who play against the AI only, remember, if you have time to only play a turn or two against the AI, you have time to play a turn or two against an email opponent.  No excuses.  As soon as I found out about email, I jumped in feet first.  I have been having so much fun ever since.  I used to worry about winning.  Now, not so much.  I like the battle and strategy part of it more than anything else.  Like reading a great book that you just can't put down.  The ones you read 5 or 6 times or more.  At the end of the time, you look around.  I haven't lost any money on the results and I haven't lost any sleep over any result.  But, I did have way more fun than if I had played against the computer.  Just try it.  You won't regret it.

This, 100%.

I'm in complete agreement with you and Josey on this.  I was literally shocked when I learned not too long ago that by far the biggest customer base of WDS only plays these games against the AI.  I mean, it's about as fun as playing a board game solo I guess, but seriously who plays with themself when they can play a live opponent?  The absolute worst player I've played outperformed the AI and I don't care how much they "improve" it, it'll never match even a bad players skill in a game because of the 10's of 1000's of possible moves that need to be considered each turn.  These games simply are not Chess.  My own personal feelings on the matter are that with the exception of a few solo players for whom PBEM isn't practical, the vast majority of solo players simply are too insecure to deal with playing another human.  They view losing as some sort of stain, when it's just......not winning.  The play is the thing, winning is a bonus.

[zovs66]

Not to mention but you also gain some new found friends along the way.

I currently have 19 games going on with 13 different folks.

If I was tinkering with the AI I'd have less then 2 games going on and I'd be bored.

[Mr Grumpy]

Well this is a subject I have discussed a lot on this forum and in private conversations, in the last two decades of being at the club I have seen some really significant changes, literally hundreds of players have come and gone, reported games have ebbed and flowed and many people have predicted that more graphic driven strategy games would see the death of this “old fashioned” style of games………….and here we still are, you can still feel the pulse even if it is not as strong as it was in the past!

My perception is that many people who have been negative about the future of these games at the club have based this opinion purely on the forum traffic, and yes we certainly don’t see the same level of posts that we did ten years ago, but because I receive automated emails each time a game is registered I have been aware that there has been a steady flow of members playing these games even when the forum activity has been almost zero.

So may our hobby continue for many years, I think it is undoubtedly true that more older players drop off the edge than younger players join, but I can see the club reaching its 30th birthday in 2029 no problem, I will certainly be here and as long as I can find 10 opponents I will be more than happy.

So long live our PBEM hobby and long live the Blitz !!