Not much Traffic

[demjansk1942]

I don’t see much action in this section over the last few months.  I go to BGG and Tube.  Hope everyone is just busy with gaming!

[W8taminute]

It's been quite at a lot of the gaming forums I go to as well.  Weird...

[Jarhead0331]

Sadly, I think tabletop gaming is losing a lot of ground to the digital war gaming market. Digital games take up less time and space and have been proven to save marriages.

[demjansk1942]

Good comments guys but I watch all the mainstays on y tube and the games keep going up in price.   I guess the best place to post is Board game geek since you get the specific help right away

[Jarhead0331]

Good comments guys but I watch all the mainstays on y tube and the games keep going up in price.   I guess the best place to post is Board game geek since you get the specific help right away

Well, if there is something specific that you want to ask about or discuss, then just post about it. Doing so, you might not get many responses here, but if you don't post about it, you clearly won't get any responses!

If you don't ask, you don't get. 

What do you have to lose?

[W8taminute]

I agree.  My recent trip to a brick and mortar war game shop left a bad taste in my mouth regarding current prices.  I do however still love board gaming and suspect that when I retire I will have the time to play them.

Today however, putting in 8 hours at work, coming home and dealing with chores means limited gaming time.  At least a computer game can be fired up very fast and the cat can't knock game pieces off of a paper map.  Haha!

[ArizonaTank]

I think "physical" mini gaming may be descending into a hard spot that it will may never recover from. But "virtual" mini gaming may thrive. However, technology may step into the market in a way that is yet unseen.

I am an old mini guy...I probably have a few hundred pounds of pewter and lead in my closet, most of it unpainted.

I have enough 15mm Nappys to put on quite a battle. But I doubt I will ever use those minis again.

Its not just computer games keeping me from breaking out the little guys, but its also actual the virtual representation of mini games that keeps the lead in my closet.

Table Top Simulator for example can do a really good job in laying out a virtual table with 3d virtual minis, spread out in huge battles like the old fellas used to do with their 25mm Napoleonics in my youth.

I can paint decently, but I never really liked doing it... Therefore the attraction of "virtual" minis, with no painting needed is huge for me. Add in the fact that it is easier to find players using TTS for remote games and the technology is a lock in my book. Sadly this does not help the guys selling pewter troops and gaming terrain. The guys selling rules can still do OK. 

So is "virtual" mini wargaming still mini gaming?  I would argue that it is.

However, I suspect that technology may someday swoop back in to save old fashioned minis. If relatively inexpensive pre-painted minis could be produced, letting you buy a pre-painted army for a hundred bucks or so; physical mini gaming might come back. For example, Hero Forge 2.0 promises to use 3D color printing technology to produce some very nice miniatures. As planned, these would be too expensive to buy whole armies, but  if the cost comes down, it could be a game changer.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

My tabletop group is a shadow of its former self.  Covid scared off a lot of people initially.  Then poor government policies and draconian "safety" protocols drove off other once in person meetups were allowed again.

I still meet with some friends to play face to face but we don't get a chance to bust out the big games as player counts are way down.  A few clubs have just started up again but I haven't attended because  all the new restrictions (masks on at all times, must show your papers with medical info to enter, max 4 people per table, must maintain distancing) make it sound like too much of a hassle.

Not being able to play as much as before and not being able to set up some of the eye-catching games has me posting less often.

Also, I've run out of shelf space so I'm not buying many new titles.

[Phantom]

I like board games but like many struggle with the cost, the space and often most of all, learning new rules & implementing them. The growing "board to PC" conversion market is a godsend for me, I've now got a few board games on PC (Twilight Struggle, Pavlov's House, 1775 & 1812 etc..) and for me they tick all the right boxes regarding the issues I had. All the ones I've had so far have been good implementations. I'm hoping one day most board games will be available in this format.

[W8taminute]

Not to be a trouble maker but the flipside of physical to digital conversions is that it is much harder to visualize the strategic overview of the map in digital format vs. the physical format.  One must have a gi-normous video screen to fit the whole map on screen at a reasonable magnification. 

[Phantom]

Not to be a trouble maker but the flipside of physical to digital conversions is that it is much harder to visualize the strategic overview of the map in digital format vs. the physical format.  One must have a gi-normous video screen to fit the whole map on screen at a reasonable magnification.

I'd agree for some conversions (certainly big map games) where its far easier to get the big picture overview with a glance at the whole map rather than disjointed scrolling, or flipping between multiple screens. That said, for many games - including the ones I've mentioned above, its not such an issue, in fact Pavlov's House for example is a one screen game (IIRC)

[Sir Slash]

W8 a troublemaker? Who could conceive such a notion?    War in the East is the most massive game I've ever played and viewing the on-screen situation is daunting but I can't imagine how long it would take to set-up a physical version of the game.    I love that no matter how big it is, it's always right there on my computer when I want to play it. And with Steam I don't even need the same computer. This is a Golden Age of Wargaming for me.

[acctingman]

Nothing (imo) beats moving miniatures across the table. I like a good PC game like the next guy, but the banter that goes along with moving my troops/tanks/minis across the table while I chat with my gaming buddy just cannot be topped.

Brick and mortar stores are dying (for minis). It's all online and the massive influx of 3d printed stuff is slowly killing off the ability to walk into a store and buy most minis (especially WW2 stuff). Lots and lots of Warhammer, but that's not my bag.

I'm even entertaining the idea of getting a 3d printer, but a friend of mine owns one so I throw him a bottle of resin from time to time (and a pizza on me during game sessions) and BOOM. Beautiful mini's that are a fraction of the cost of the retail ones. However, while this liberates my pocket book, I also know that this is hurting the miniatures manufactures out there, so I try and temper it by buying as much stuff as my wallet allows from the game makers.

[Karri]

I never got into miniature gaming because it was simply so expensive (and probably is even more expensive now). I don't think it really got much traction beyond USA/UK anyways. Perhaps for WH40K. I did have tons of toy soldiers to play with though.

Boardgames have been replaced by computer games for the most part. The former simply can't go into the same detail as the latter.

[acctingman]

I never got into miniature gaming because it was simply so expensive (and probably is even more expensive now). I don't think it really got much traction beyond USA/UK anyways. Perhaps for WH40K. I did have tons of toy soldiers to play with though.

Boardgames have been replaced by computer games for the most part. The former simply can't go into the same detail as the latter.

yes, miniature games can be expensive. If you have access to a 3d printer or own one, it is not (beyond the initial setup costs)