Welcome to the seventh issue of Simulacrum and the first to be published using Adobe PageMaker 6.5. You may notice several changes to the layout. Some of these were a result of new constraints, due to either the increased sophistication of the software or the decreased sophistication of the editor. Or both.

Other changes were simply a result of the opportunity to make them, in defiance of, and utter disdain for, the universal maxim that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We here at Simulacrum revel at the opportunity to live dangerously and fly in the face of conventional wisdom, and are prepared to get our jollies wherever we can find them. The adrenalin rushes have begun.

When I began this enterprise in April 1998, I resolved to give it eight issues (nominally two years, in the language of the masthead) before I measured its success vis-á-vis the bottom line. I may be a bit premature, but it seems to me that the economics of publishing a quarterly journal (or at least this particular quarterly journal) are holding their own, so all you lifetime subscribers can breath more easily. Simulacrum has no reason to do an SPI (Linus was right: one mistake and you pay for the rest of your life) just yet.

The elevator from Simulacrum’s hayloft penthouse.

And now for something completely different.

Ever since our hobby began its slow and inevitable decline from its heyday in the late 1970’s, more and more people have been commenting on the difficulty of finding face-to-face gaming opponents. Presumably, as we’ve been getting older, our discretionary time has been declining and we’ve had fewer opportunities to arrange gaming nights with the boys. In addition, our friends have moved away, and getting together for a game night is almost impossible. So it came as quite a surprise to me to discover, from my reading of some of the early hobby magazines, that this very issue has been a problem since at least 1975. In fact, I was amazed at the number of people who were, in the mid-to-late 60’s, reminiscing about the good old days of wargaming. Games were smaller and simpler, rules were less complex, opportunities were aplenty and prices were lower. Sound familiar?

Plus ça change...

I’ll have one more harangue before I go, thank you. This one deals with the fog of war. For as long as I can remember and, judging from the literature, long before that, gamers have lusted after that Holy Grail, the fog of war. To be more precise, they claimed to lust after fog of war. I’m here to tell you that when the fog of war has in fact been provided, gamers turn up their noses and turn to other games. The Columbia Games’ block games represent just about the maximum amount of fog of war that gamers are willing to tolerate.

So I have no patience when it comes to discussions of the merits of the fog of war. There, I feel much better now, thank you. This issue contains two free offers, one described on page 5 and the other on page 8. You would do me a great honor if you were to cast your eyes over these, and perhaps take it upon yourself to contribute to Simulacrum and our hobby.

Let me close with the text of an email I received in February:

My name is Jim, I am the new Wargames Producer at gamers.com. I have recently been hired and given the task of creating a database of every wargame ever made, whether board, PC, magazine, etc. I recently put out a call on the Usenet for assistance and was contacted by someone (Mongo!, find out who squealed -ed) who recommended I get in touch with you at Simulacrum.

We would gladly subscribe to your journal if you are set up for that, but I would also like to know if you would be willing to share your current database of games. I have been scouring the web for data and have compiled quite a list, but I fear the task presented to me may be impossible in the end, given the lack of any currently available books with a complete list of games made dating back to our hobby’s inception. If you know of a book that I could look for that would help me out, that too would be of great assistance. We are also trying to list publishers, box shots, links to fan sites or articles, and brief descriptions of all the games, if possible, so if you can think of anything else I might need please let me know.

Thank you for your time.

I offered to negotiate rights to use the list, but he declined. I’m sure you’ll join me in offering this gentleman our best wishes.