Health of our PBEM community

[Steel God]

If you could attract a small percentage of the people who play World of Tanks, War Thunder and other FPS wargames to the world of hexes that might help the community grow. All of these games are multiplayer only, and they have made their creators vast amounts of money.

You might be surprised at how many "history buffs" there are in these FPS communities. Not to deny that there is a lot of toxicity in there as well.

I have spent a massive amount of time playing these FPS games as well as many hex-based "proper" wargames (SP, PzC, WitP etc.). They are a lot more similar than you might think from a cursory glance. It's all "puzzles".

I played around in both World of Tanks and World of Warships (Call Sign Fair Damsel there) in my years (2011 to 2019) that I could not dedicate time to playing "proper war games" and I agree with you that there is much in common between those and these.....but the primary difference is visually.  Those games tend to attract visually, and only serious players drill down to understand the nuances enough to solve the puzzles, these games by WDS don't visually appeal, they are almost pure mental challenge, so they tend attract the less easily bored types from jump street.  For my part I enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of the mid-tier games in in WoT and WoWS, but the dedication and money that was required to compete at Tiers 8-10 was a bridge too far for me.  I confess it was a psychological barrier because I didn't want to spend money to compete on what was a "free game" when I signed up.....I know, that's silly since I'll gladly plunk down $40 for a new PzC game and not think twice about it, but I guess since they're not telling me it's ever going to be free it feels less deceptive to me, and I absolutely loath being deceived (unless it's on the battlefield in which case if you can pull it off I tip my hat to you).  Once upon a time the Blitzkrieg members joined the game Tribal Wars and created a clan, and we achieved great things for a good while.....but man was that game a money pit  

Anyway....you're right, there is a lot of real war gaming talent in the games, sadly drowning in an ocean of trash talking.