Now before you all jump on me I know I have covered this subject before [it was in LW 134] but the question was posed again by old friends I met up with a couple of weeks ago for the odd pint and some friendly banter. The discussions really revolved around the question "Where have all the PC wargames gone?" We discussed how publishers categorise their offerings these days and how the PC gaming world has moved on but maybe we had not. The single game is now a thing of the past; everything is a series and any game that is really good has its clones, as others jumped on the band wagon to get a slice of the revenue pie. The volume of games being published is growing but not in the category that we wanted. The conclusion we reached really was that the mass market was aimed at the young and we were now a niche market that had to hunt out what we wanted. The PC wargames that we know and love are those set in history that provide both the constraints and challenges we require, obtained from painstaking in depth research applied with skill and diligence. The games are there; we just need to find them. Once I had recovered from my evening out I started to think about what this really meant and carried out some investigation. First I looked at the glossy magazines / websites. They now have categories for Sport, Driving, Action, RPG, Strategy, (Flight) Simulation, Puzzles and Pastimes and even Budget with a fair few variations depending on which magazine / website you look at. What is missing from the list? Well can you see one called Wargames? Now years ago [and yes I know I am old] wargames lived in a category all of its own. This is where you found such items as Blue and Gray published by Impressions, Battleground Ardennes published by Talonsoft and where you would have put Gettysburg published by Fraxis. It was also the place where the small niche publishers appeared from time to time with their offerings. Now I do not doubt for a moment that these games publishers still exist but they no longer appear in the glossy magazines. It may just be coincidence of course but the recent spate of take-overs and mergers on both the magazine and game publishing front seems to have buried these. Does anybody out there know of any specialist publications still catering for these niche market publishers? If you do, then drop me a line. So just where do you look for these old-fashioned wargame items and which of these categories do they fit into? Well that really does depend on what sort of PC gaming you are looking for. Instant dismissal, I think for Sport, Puzzles and Pastimes, Driving and Action. Under action you will find games like Star Wars - Battle For Naboo published by Activision which is a 3D version of the good old shoot-'em-up but not really a wargame is it? So lets take a look at RPG, sometimes called Adventure. Now this has some possibilities as a number of our members are into this type of gaming but I personally don't view these as coming into my category of wargames. Now Simulation has its advocates but this is really about proving you are 'Top Gun' in whatever craft you happen to be commanding. This could be aircraft and I include helicopters, ships - surface, submarine and space, and even land ships but in modern terms I think they call them Armoured Fighting Vehicles, but these are not in my wargames category. Budget is where everything that's been around a while eventually ends up so it's really a catchall and that leaves Strategy. I looked at the September top ten strategy games and found: 1 Black and White Electronic Arts 2 Age of Empires 2 (Conquerors add-on) Microsoft 3 Earth 2150 Mattel Interactive 4 Startopia Eidos Interactive 5 Zeus Havas Interactive 6 Sacrifice Interplay 7 MechCommander 2 Microsoft 8 Desperados Infogames 9 Theme Park Inc. Electronic Arts 10 Call to Power 2 Activision Now if you can find me a wargame in here then please let me know. Meanwhile I shall continue to play all my golden oldies and search for my wargames. I can always fall back on my board games and miniatures if I either get bored or lots of time on my hands. Whatever else you do always remember that wargaming is our hobby and hobbies are supposed to be fun so enjoy it! [Just got the Total War - Mongol Invasion game. Been well beat to date but the year is young and I will let you know how I got on. Kenn]. Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #136 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com