Last year I moved back to the Midwest and have since began attending many Midwest conventions. Many of these conventions were around when I lived here in the early eighties. While I enjoy these conventions as a means of gaming some new periods and seeing friends from other parts of the Midwest, overall I have witnessed a serious erosion in the attendance of the "old guard" historical wargamers and an increase in the number of attendees involved in other aspects of gaming (ie. roleplaying, fantasy, boardgaming, science fiction, etc.). This change is not bad, rather I believe it reflects a trend. This trend in my opinion is that as conventions expand to include more areas of gaming they lose their appeal to all gainers in general. This reduced appeal is reflected in the reluctance of gainers to incur expenses to attend. As a result, the broader the theme the greater the need for these conventions to draw from their local populations (people who live within 1 to 2 hours of the convention). I would suggest there are more younger gainers then older gainers (I define gainers in the broader sense and thus include fantasy, board games, science fiction, and historical gainers) in each community. Thus the broadening of convention themes will tend to make it into a local convention centered around those areas of gaming with the highest concentrations of younger people. While I continue to show my support for these conventions through my attendance and willingness to host a game, I would like to see a return to more focused theme oriented conventions. I am not really looking for a "Historicon of the Midwest" type of convention. I really enjoy Historicon (I have attended several times including the last two years and recommend it very highly), but I am hoping to see a return to more narrowly defined theme conventions for historical gaming. There are already some conventions/meets which are theme driven. The Seven Years War Association's Midwest Meet fits this class and it attracts players from all over the Midwest who share an interest in this period. Many people travel hundreds of miles to attend the activity and return year after year. I would like to see several similar theme conventions in the Midwest. I guess I would rather drive three hours to spend two days with fifty people I share a common interest with, than spend the week-end in town with three hundred I have very little in common with. If I feel this way, than why do I advocate supporting the "local conventions". As I indicated most of the local conventions are dominated by younger people. Local conventions provide an excellent opportunity to present historical gaming to young people who have already shown some interest in gaming in general. Most likely, less than two percent of these people will seriously consider historical gaming. But that relatively small percentage represents a very high percentage compared to the community at large. Concept: I would like to see a series of Midwestern theme meets. Theme meets provide the caimraderie that all of us seek in the hobby. They are small (usually less than 50 people) and are comprised of friends getting together at a relatively affordable location for a day or two of concentrated gaming in a period of mutual interest. I can foresee at least six theme meets a year including: Ancients, Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Shot & Pike, 18th Century, Napoleonic, American Civil War & 19th Century Colonial Warfare, and lastly 20th Century. Midwestern gaming clubs or period associations would volunteer to host each meet for a given year. Subsequent years could rotate to different clubs or be held by the same club. A calendar of the meets would be published in the fall or winter issues of the various gaming publications. Each location would be no more than 120 miles or so from Chicago (a 2 hour car trip). Hal, I was wondering if you would do a survey of your readership on this concept. If there is enough interest, I would try to put together a calendar for 1994 by contacting different clubs or associations to sponsor a meet. Back to MWAN #63 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1993 Hal Thinglum 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