Shrapnel Games Blog

Yeah, yeah, I hear the groan.

“What? Don’t these type of articles pop up every few months? And really, considering that this kind of Chicken Little talk has been going on for years and we’re still playing wargames doesn’t that completely negate the premise?”

Sure, the whole “Everyone start stocking up on meeples, wargaming is dying!” is about as cliché as the whole “If Star Wars fought Star Trek who would win?” debate that rears its head ever so often but it’s because often the discussion is what we’ve heard before. Someone throws out the fact that wargames (and for sake of argument let’s throw all forms of wargames—board, computer, miniature–into one category for now) don’t sell as many copies as they used to and then someone throws out that there’s a wealth of companies out there putting out games, and we go round and round.

I’ve had this discussion with folks, I’m sure you’ve have, we’ve all had. Last weekend though I realized that the problem with the debate is the fact that no one has been truly addressing the issue. We’ve been looking at the physical products, which right now look pretty good. We’re living in an age where you can find a wargame on almost any possible topic, in a variety of forms. So sure, when you’re living in a gold castle it’s pretty hard to see that the potential problem is not that the walls aren’t glittering enough, but that the mines that gave you all that gold are beginning to dry up.

What sparked this was last weekend we had a five player game of Twilight Imperium (yes, it’s Ameritrash and not a true wargame, the original plan was to play Pax Romana but we ended up with one player too many). Looking around the table at the age of 36 I was the youngest player. The next oldest player was in his late forties, and the oldest player in his late sixties. Therein lies the problem.

The vast majority of wargamers aren’t getting any younger. As someone in my mid-thirties I represent the young guard, but I first discovered wargames decades ago. In fact, talk to most wargamers and they will tell you the same thing, it was decades ago that they first came onto the scene. Many of them were older than I, as were the designers and publishers. Your typical wargamer is pushing near the half century mark, and many designers are even pushing along further.

As far as the typical wargamer discovering them in the ‘70s I can’t even think of a single wargamer that discovered them in ‘90s, or for that matter a single wargamer I’ve met under the age of 30. Yet strangely we’re living in the true golden era of wargames. Designers have decades of experience to draw upon. Easy access to computers have both improved the quality of components and given rise to an entire industry of desktop publishers, allowing truly esoteric game designs to see the light of day. The Internet has made social networking between gamers easy. No more shuffling off PBM turns via snail mail. But even with all that the hobby isn’t attracting fresh blood.

That’s the big question. That’s the question that needs to be asked. Why is the interest level in consims at an all time low? Why is it an old man’s hobby?

You hear people talk about how kids today have too many distractions, too many flashy gadgets for them to want to sit down and push cardboard counters around a map of Europe. Sorry, I can’t agree with that. That type of argument is a crutch. Are you trying to tell me that before the Internet and cell phones everyone just sat around their house at night starting at the walls? Look, people have always found ways to occupy their leisure time. Sure, in the ‘70s we didn’t have the Internet but I can’t recall ever having nothing to do. So don’t tell me that because we have a 1000 channels of crap, and iPods, and Xboxes, and so on and so on that’s caused the problem. If kids wanted to wargame, they’d find the time. Which leads us to…

Growing up I always had an interest in history, especially military history, and discovering that there were games that allowed me to replay history…huzzah! How many kids today are interested in history, or the world around themselves? Ragging on the next generation may be a sign of getting old but c’mon, I guarantee that more kids today know about who’s who on American Idol than they do about famous individuals throughout history. So maybe that’s the problem. No one cares about history or world events anymore, the world is now entirely driven by pop culture.

Let’s talk a minute about so-called “gateway” games. I’m sure you’ve heard someone toss out that games like the collectible miniatures game, Axis and Allies from WOTC, are good to introduce newcomers into the hobby. Does anyone really picture little Johnny moving from this to Terrible Swift Sword? And tell me something, when you started wargaming did you need a “gateway” game to get interested? Games are easier than ever before, with decent manuals and easy to play mechanics (examples include A Victory Lost by MMP, Sword of Rome by GMT, Blood and Steel by L2).

When I started thinking about doing this blog I did a quick search to see if this subject has come up recently and if so, to see if anyone has advanced the argument. Interestingly I came across an article that was published just weeks before called “The dying art of war-gaming” by Michael Peck, published at TSJOnline (the article can be found here). This particular article wasn’t exactly what I was looking for though since it focused mostly on the link between military training and wargaming. It was also rather brief. But in the article Peck refers back to an article he wrote for Armchair General.

Peck’s article for Armchair General (here) entitled “The State of Wargaming” (nice to see that unlike the editors at TSJOnline the Armchair General editors didn’t hyphenate wargaming!) was a better look at the hobby. In the article Peck touched about what I’m talking about here, but it seemed more of an observation than a diagnosis. Quoting from his article we have:

“Anyone who goes to conventions and hobby shops can see that it’s a hobby of graying baby boomers who increasingly find it difficult to find opponents for face-to-face play.”

And:

“These are businesses without deep pockets, run by aging baby boomers. It won’t take much in the way of illness or divorce or even eventual mortality for these companies to fold. Will there be anyone to replace them? Will the next generation of designers try their hand at historical simulations, or will they opt for the more lucrative eye-candy games?”

Computer wargaming figures prominently in Peck’s article and of course Combat Mission is trotted out as one example of cross-over appeal, having sold 100,000+ copies. The reason this game had sold so many copies, according to Peck’s thinking is:

“I suspect that it’s the 3-D graphics that gives Combat Mission crossover appeal to a mainstream audience accustomed to the flash and sizzle of first-person-shooters.”

How many times have we heard that line of thinking? Gee, it must have been because it had 3-D graphics! Really blocky, ugly, pixelated 3-D graphics, but 3-D graphics nonetheless. That’s what drove all those Quake and Half-Life fans to the game! (As a side note, does anyone know if the follow up titles sold just as well?)

First of all has there ever been any real correlation between the graphics and the number of people playing? Beyond anecdotally? But here’s something to chew on. Tim Brooks’ (you know Mr. Brooks, right?) game 101st: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy sold just as well as the later Combat Mission and it had 2-D graphics and was in 256 colors!

Here’s another 2-D game that keeps on going and going, the Steel Panthers series. If you read our newsletter Frag! you’ll notice a section that lists the top three selling games for the previous month. The enhanced CD version of winSPWW2 has consistently been in the top three since its release, except for once or twice (and then to be replaced by its sister game, winSPMBT). And how old is the Steel Panthers series?

So really I suspect that you need to look at the game more than anything else. Obviously some games strike a greater chord with gamers, and 3-D graphics have little to do with it by themselves. They may enhance the perceived entertainment value, but if Combat Mission was a dog of a game to begin with they wouldn’t have made a difference. Another factor is probably everyone loves World War II. You could probably make a Bob Hope first person shooter and it would sell, as long as it was in WWII.
Ultimately it’s not the graphics that will make the difference. Computer wargames go hand in hand with other wargames. More people need to discover them, and in turn this goes back to the entire blog piece. Most gamers under the age of 30 are as interested in computer wargames as they are in paper wargames.

Can anything be done to interest a new breed? Don’t tell me shiny graphics and dumbing down the games is the answer. If that’s the case we might as well throw up the white flag. Perhaps wargaming is like a mythical dragon who sleeps for centuries and then awakens, terrorizes the realms for a few decades, and then goes back into hibernation. Consider that wargaming began in the late 19th century, and yet it was not until nearly a century later that wargaming really began to become popular. Let’s see you had H.G. Wells’ Little Wars and the Jane’s naval game around the turn of the century and then how many other wargames until Charles S. Roberts came along? And what was it in the ‘60s that caused the hobby to flourish? Too many nerds afraid of girls and the free love so they started hiding out in basements and needed something to do?

Maybe that’s the future. We’ll wargame for another ten, twenty years and then too many gamers will have died off, or at the very least their eyesight will have gotten so bad that the average counter will need to be the size of a piece of toast. (Hmm, reprinting classic wargames for the sight impaired seems like a good business to get into at some point.) Then we’ll be left with the occasional DTP wargame, or computer game, and who knows, maybe in another hundred years there will be a resurgence in the hobby. In the meantime we’ll be up in the great beyond, playing for eternity. Imagine being able to game with folks like Napoleon or Rommel. Why, with an eternity we may even get to finish SPI’s The Campaign for North Africa!

Until then on your kid’s next birthday get them a book of history. Teach’em well.

Over and out,

Scott