I'd suggest that while there are lots more in the way of rules, figures, terrain items, etc., and a great amount of personal interaction via the Internet, that the hobby is not as healthy as it was in its growing period of the 1960-1980 period when most of the gamers I know took it up as their hobby.
I think that a fairly honest appraisal of the hobby would show that there are certain treads that run though it that are not healthy in the long run.
1: The death of Bricks&Mortar stores has eliminated a place for public awareness, attracting new walk in types, social gatherings, open public gaming, and communal contact. I understand the reasons for this, but I still think it has really hurt the hobby in terms of new members, social acceptance and growth. Since I'm not burying my head in the sand I do realize that there are lots of completing interests for folks today that did not exist years ago, but still feel my opinion is valid.
2: The death of many the small local convention. It is great that there are a number of large(r) regional conventions, but years ago there were a much large number of small conventions that rented a hall, or were located at a B&M store for a day or weekend over the course of the year. Locally promoted they allowed a hobbyist to go to a fair number of conventions within a few hours driving time, attracted new gamers and helped to prompt the idea of a hobby community as well as allow establishing personal relationships with many local fellow gamers.
3: I realize that shopping via the Internet is great and I enjoy it myself. I used to spend months waiting for a black & white figure line drawing catalog to arrive from Scruby or Mini-Figs UK back in the early 1970s, and then months more for the product to ship after enduring bank purchase hell if buying from overseas. The growth of B&M shops in the mid 1970s was great, not only did I have a place to touch and see figures, but I also got to meet other gamers. A result was that where ever I moved in the 1970s and 1980s there was usually a large local group of like minded gamers, willing and interested in gaming in just about any period and scale with the restrictions that we all faced back then of limited periods and scales. Today the Internet allows, and the lack of B&M stores and local conventions forces any new gamer to stumble on to a local group by accident (next door neighbor, fellow employee, church member, visited a general purpose hobby shop which had some gaming produces, GW store in area and they are young, school teacher, etc.).
The growing fragmentation of the gaming community...this is more of a problem for historical gamers as they and the hobby age. I've noticed over the past 10 plus years the growing tendency for local "communities" of gamers to now consist of many, many small groups that have very little interaction with other small groups, even if they are only a few miles apart. They may divide by period of interest, set of rules, social interests, etc., but there is a tendency in my opinion of the hobby moving away from an open community that was public and accepting interested folks, to one of private games and shared interests within much smaller groups that are hidden from public view. Tie this trend with the move to fewer larger regional conventions often great distances away, death of B&M stores, and the noticeable lack of "replacement" younger gamers, and one can observe the stagnation that is the hobby today.
I note that the large regional conventions are not posting increasing numbers of gamers attending. While there are more vendors out there selling, an aging hobby population with increased income would account for the survival of most of them due to their mom and pop type operations (and there is a steady disappearance of many while others start). I'd suggest that there are not any more (historical) manufacturers today that are supporting a staff of full time employees than there were 20-30 years ago. I'm not talking about the mom and pop operations, but the major brands. It would be interesting for a major convention like Historicon to put up its numbers of paid entry, and the actual number of such who played a game (not total number of folks in all games, but the number that played at least one game). I'd suggest that there are a lot few gamers than total attendance at most conventions. Chose your own reasons for why.
I live in the greater Milwaukee-Madison-Chicago region of the US, and have to say that I'm lucky in that there are several small B&M stores in Milwaukee (with limited historical inventory), a large one in Mount Prospect (again, with limited historical inventory) and a large historical store in Madison (with limited fantasy inventory). I don't know of any, but there may be some in the Chicago area that I don't know of that have not closed down during the past 5-6 years leaving none as far as I am aware of. Not a whine as I have to say that most of the independent game stores I've visited over the years have been poorly managed and operated (I'll point out here that The Last Square in Madison is the nicest and professionally store I've ever run across for many reasons such as size of inventory and replacement/turn, well lit, clean and orderly), but it is a sign of the decline of the hobby in an area where hundreds of thousands of college students and staff make up a significant population to recruit from, and a potential huge general population is not served.
I see the increasing withdraw to the private gaming rooms, basements and garages of small groups, with the untidy emergence of some few members to attend the major regional conventions, mostly to shop, to be a sign of decline. The games, rules, figures and terrain are vastly improved since the 1970s, but the overall health of the hobby is not.
Years ago news groups were interesting, and helpful to new gamers wanting help getting started, as well as a place to share insights and thoughts on rule sets, historical resources and the shared hobby experience. Today one is forced to visit the various boards and Yahoo groups, many of which are good, but all in effect are contributing to a fragmentation of the hobby, as well as a decline in widely shared interests and resources.
I've often thought that a move from this news group to a moderated news group would be in the interests of the hobby, and a safe guard against the nasty and bitter off subject topics, as well as the ugliness that some members have revealed in their posts that caused the former population, and potential new comers to drift away. I now believe that it is too late without major restructuring, and that the hobby has lost its largest and clearest voice for growth.
Back to Table of Contents -- Game! # 10
To Game! List of Issues
To MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2004 by George Phillies.
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com