Grognard Survey

[Annette]

Brian King of Armchair General is conducting a personality test and survey of Wargamers.

The purpose of this grand survey is to analyze the people who play wargames, and try to discover if there is anything inherently "unique" about the personality types of those most drawn to them (both digital and paper).

I can't wait to see the results!

Read about his study and take the survey here:
Wargaming Survey Part I: Understanding Your Local Grognard

[Dave Erickson]

Isn't WarfareHQ a "competitor's" website? I'm just wondering. I was under the impression it was. Maybe they're doing a little market research.

[Tim Brooks]

Hi Dave:

I think you are thinking of Military HQ (I believe that was the name anyway), which was combined with wargamer.com when David Heath of Matrix Games fame bought them. He started MHQ and then bought wargamer and combined the two, or something like that.

WarfareHQ is a very good site with a strong grognard following, you should drop by their forums sometime and say howdy.

[Dave Erickson]

Thanks, Tim. They all run together after a while...

[Atrocities]

I have taken the personallity type test so many times that I know the result before I even see it. ISJT. It was like this when I first took the test back in 90's for my employeer and it has not changed since.

I have noticed lately that a lot of good poeple in the war gaming industry are beginning to sound the alarm over what they consider to be a growing trend toward the end of war gaming as they, and many of us, have come to know it.

It is like they are prediciting the end of an era and that feeling has grown to encompus much of the industry today prompting the question 'is war gaming on its last leg?'

Its not hard to say that the evidence indicates that yes it is on the way out. With more and more kids growing up in the twitch monky market, the appeal and interest that war games once held has been over shadowed by no brainer twitch market of consule games and their instant gratification.

Even now my experience has been, via modding SEIV, that people are not really interested in a long drawn out strategy type games, they want instant results with quick high paced action filled shorter games.

Games that require strategy and a certain amount of skill to play are rapidly being replaced by spawn and die fast paced kill fests. Games like Tribes, a true multiplayer war game with multiple avenues for tactics and strategies has been booted to the bottom of the FPS pile in favor of high paced twitch monky games such as UT2004. The same thing is happening with war games. Games that once held the title of Games of the Year or now fast becoming trash for the land fill.

The stores are only interested in titles that sell and have little time or patience for games that don't fly off the shelves.

The market is refocusing its attention away from the traditional age experienced based market toward the younger Y generation and their ever speeding up life styles. Eventually you will most likely have to be on crack or other in order to have the reflexes to play some of these new games. They are focusing the game play on violence and negativity because that is what sells. To older game players, IE any one over the age of 26, this type of game play has its appeal but is not what we thrive for. But since we are now on the ignor list for game developers, all we have to look forward too are the fast pasted twitch monky market based game geared to feed the ever expanding appetite of the Y generation and their "I don't give a crap - spoiled rotten - to hell with it" attitudes.

Game companies are now fixated upon this new idology of the young, and as a result tride and true game play has been replaced by glitz and glamor. All of this addeds up to spell the beginning of the end of an era.

[Dave Erickson]

Tim Brooks said:
WarfareHQ is a very good site with a strong grognard following, you should drop by their forums sometime and say howdy.

I'm sure it has plenty of fans. But between the reviews of Far Cry, Unreal, Aliens vs. Predator, et al, and the puzzling lack of breadth offered by their PC Wargames forum, I'm afraid there's not a lot there to hold me for very long.

Um, anybody ever thought of starting an e-mag dedicated to indie wargame developers? I think we need one bad! Sheesh!

[Leslie]

I have some background knowledge here that might clean up a couple of detail fragments.

It wasn't Military HQ (to be honest never heard of such a place by that name).

MGO or Military Gamer Online merged with Wargamer back 2-3 years now. MGO and Wargamer were both acquired by Matrix Games (which is basically David Heath).

MGO is now just a name from the past much like Avalon Hill is now just a name and not a place.

Wargamer is still a forum and web site, and is useful in many ways, but being "owned" by Matrix Games, naturally some just assume it's a sub section of Matrix Games. Their recently stated interest in a print magazine will no doubt be an interesting development.

Where Warfare HQ (now Armchair General and Strategyzoneonline)
http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/forums/
differs from Wargamer, is it is not owned by a company that produces gaming software (to my knowledge). They truely are just a group of dedicated military enthusiasts (I am one of them).

I personally think they are more likely to be free of company based bias due to not owning any allegiance to one.

I happen to know your company is well thought of there as well (Annette's remarks are always enjoyed for starters )

[Annette]

Leslie said:
I have some background knowledge here that might clean up a couple of detail fragments.

It wasn't Military HQ (to be honest never heard of such a place by that name).

MGO or Military Gamer Online merged with Wargamer back 2-3 years now. MGO and Wargamer were both acquired by Matrix Games (which is basically David Heath).

MGO is now just a name from the past much like Avalon Hill is now just a name and not a place.

Wargamer is still a forum and web site, and is useful in many ways, but being "owned" by Matrix Games, naturally some just assume it's a sub section of Matrix Games. Their recently stated interest in a print magazine will no doubt be an interesting development.

Where Warfare HQ (now Armchair General and Strategyzoneonline)
http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/forums/
differs from Wargamer, is it is not owned by a company that produces gaming software (to my knowledge). They truely are just a group of dedicated military enthusiasts (I am one of them).

I personally think they are more likely to be free of company based bias due to not owning any allegiance to one.

I happen to know your company is well thought of there as well (Annette's remarks are always enjoyed for starters )

I'm flattered, Les, thanks I think very highly of the folks at WarfareHQ and have enjoyed a warm welcome there. They are very supportive of Major Proctor and ProSim Company's games. I encourage anyone who hasn't been there to visit their new site. They've done a very nice job.