End of wargamer.com

[HoodedHorseJoe]

Since you're here, can you explain the choice to nuke a huge chunk of the old wargaming content?  I understand the choice to move forward with a new look and direction, but not the choice to get rid of years of content that people still enjoyed.

It's more the fact that you all are having a cracking time dunking on the site when you could have just asked me about it... like you have! So thank you :)

But yes you are right, I'm no longer involved in Wargamer as a website. Alex (who is really nice, by the way) has taken over as Editor and he's been joined by a new staff writer called Callum.

Your question is extremely valid, and it's the same problem we faced when we migrated Pocket Tactics and shut down Strategy Gamer. As I'm sure you all here noticed, a lot of the old content on Wargamer looked like dirt. Content from the 'pagination' era of Wargamer is missing everything after the first page, and generally speaking previous content migrations were a bit brute force.

The same thing would have happened again, and the content wouldn't have looked any better. The thought honestly made me a bit sad and you have to understand these really old articles weren't really contributing to the overall 'health' of the site anymore. The wayback machine has some stuff, I urged anyone else who was inclined to save articles and whatever else they wanted, but ultimately there is only so much you can do in this situation.

I do grieve the loss of so much content and it wasn't a decision taken lightly.

[Gusington]

What really bothers us old timers is the simple loss of what we helped build. We can't help but get emotional about that.

[SlagDog]

Crusty old man voice:

"I remember the good ol days of wargaming when I had to walk up hill both ways in the snow WITHOUT shoes to play a wargame. We didn't have no new fangled VR or mice to help me complete moves. We had to move our armies with the keyboard :o. Them were the days when wargaming put hair on my chest and men were men and women were too  "

[airboy]

I'm really interested in seeing some opinions about the new content from people who are deeply into Warhammer 40K or Magic: The Gathering or what-have-you.  Is this "starter" content really valuable content that will help get people into those games?  Comparing it to the "Best WWII/Vietnam/Korea/etc. Games" lists, which appear to be the only old content that wasn't blasted into oblivion (including stuff that was posted mere weeks ago), I'm not convinced that this is the case.  Half-way through the intro to M:TG article you get this gem of a paragraph explaining the most fundamental mechanic of the game:

However, these colour options don't merely provide an aesthetic variety – oh no. Colours are fundamental to the game's operation: you can't play a card unless you pay its cost in mana of the specified colour. Don't have enough green-mana-producing Forest cards on the board? Then that nasty-looking giant spider that's burning a hole in your hand ain't comin' out to play.

If this is any indicator of the general quality of their content, it's a fairly blatant attempt to ape the Rock Paper Shotgun model of games "journalism."  I can honestly say I wish them the best of luck, but man.... that front page is just depressing.

At some point I'm learning Gloomhaven.  I have the entire package purchased during the Icehaven (or whatever) Kickstarter.  FINALLY, our rennovations are almost all done for the year - so the wife & I can set up and play more tabletop games.

[ArizonaTank]

The community here is great. My only hope is that we can all move forward together in 2021 and try to bring the focus in the forums back to wargaming. The political stuff has its place, but it ends up dividing us and we are so much stronger when we are focused on the thing that brought us all together in the first place. The gaming!

I am glad to hear this. For me the political stuff has been hard to just ignore.

Because of the heated political discussions, I have seriously considered turning in my grog spurs several times over the last few months.

[airboy]

The community here is great. My only hope is that we can all move forward together in 2021 and try to bring the focus in the forums back to wargaming. The political stuff has its place, but it ends up dividing us and we are so much stronger when we are focused on the thing that brought us all together in the first place. The gaming!

I am glad to hear this. For me the political stuff has been hard to just ignore.

Because of the heated political discussions, I have seriously considered turning in my grog spurs several times over the last few months.

Please don't.  I'm very interested in what you are reading.  Most importantly, you helped me identify my Grandfather's WW1 unit.  I got the pdf of his Engineering Battalion history and sent it to family members.  The "p" stuff is segregated here.

[Sir Slash]

I see no problem with heated political discussion in the, "Political" thread section. At least we're able to 'discuss' and not just 'be quiet' about such things. 

[FarAway Sooner]

R&P forums are often a mixed blessing.  I'll admit to having been a frequent but very recent poster there, with some of the posts more heated and some of them less.  Most people (us included) go to an R&P forum on a website for very different reasons than they go to a wargaming forum on a website.  That doesn't mean either is wrong, but like beer and whiskey, each alone can be a lot more satisfying if you try not to mix them together when you drink!

Honestly, I seldom post on the R&P forum and the gaming forum during the same visit.  But I do hope folks don't leave the board because of content over on the R&P side.  That would be a loss for a community that is already too small and pretty fragmented.

As for wargamer.com, I wish 'em luck in their new incarnation.  It's not the incarnation that we were a part of, but like in nature, there's a life-death-rebirth cycle to all of this stuff.  Today's Fortnite is tomorrow's Tactics II!!

[bobarossa]

I think they would have been better off merging Wargamer with Strategy Gamer since there is a big overlap in viewers.  Why would anyone looking for fantasy minaitures or MTG cards go to a site called wargamer?  However, those people might go to a site named Strategy Gamer.

[Gusington]

Stop it with your logic and facts!!

[88mmkwk]

Ugh - Add me to the pile of groggies that is mourning the loss a site I've gotten great enjoyment from over the years.  I went up to the newfangled site to establish my own assessment of what was there.  I decided to read the Armoured Command 2 review.  As others have noted, the content had all the substance of whipped egg whites.  On the bottom of the page was an ad for "Wargaming Deals".  Under were listed "Pokemon Sword and Shield Decks", "Warhammer 40K Starter Sets", and "Star Wars: Legion Core Set".  All can certainly be called "games" with a "war" theme.  But it was that moment that it hit me how the term "wargamer" and "wargaming" are much more than the combination of the two words and even non-wargamers understand the niche it applies to (except for wargamer.com now apparently).  The new site showed none of the wargaming "grogginess" that had previously earned it regular visits from me over the years.

With much sadness, I closed the browser tab, went into my browser bookmarks, and deleted the wargamer.com link that had been there for YEARS.  A sad day as I will not be returning to it...  :(

[Ian C]

They very quickly deleted my forum thread over there complaining about the change. Well done, fellows, well done.

Any website that does this is always worthy of utter contempt.

You've got to wonder what the discussion was:

"We're a niche website that caters to a very specific hobby and has a loyal base of longstanding readers. How can we improve the site?"
"I have an idea. Let's abandon our namesake topic, alienate our small audience of loyal users, some of whom have been with us for decades, and fill the site with a bunch of ads and irrelevant articles about completely different hobbies. Because people who want to play fantasy MMOs will definitely come to wargamer.com!"
"Awesome idea! Let's do it!"
"Oh, and don't just archive the old content, but actively go out of your way to delete the 20-plus years of articles that built up the site and ensure no one can ever read it again. And make sure you squelch any discussion or debate on the topic!"
"Got it. That will definitely keep our loyal readers coming back!"

It must have been a discussion held in a room full of MBAs.

This says it all:

https://www.wargamer.com/about-us

[Apocalypse 31]

With much sadness, I closed the browser tab, went into my browser bookmarks, and deleted the wargamer.com link that had been there for YEARS.  A sad day as I will not be returning to it...  :(

Same here!


I have a different viewpoint-

I don't find as much enjoyment in reading about games - an article or written review will only have little effect one me.

I prefer to watch a Lets Play style video on YouTube if I'm trying to understand a game, to form my own impressions.

OR

I'd rather engage in discussions on a message board or Reddit, where the topics are created by users and not articles generated, prioritized, and promoted by editors.

[MengJiao]

They very quickly deleted my forum thread over there complaining about the change. Well done, fellows, well done.

Any website that does this is always worthy of utter contempt.

You've got to wonder what the discussion was:

"We're a niche website that caters to a very specific hobby and has a loyal base of longstanding readers. How can we improve the site?"
"I have an idea. Let's abandon our namesake topic, alienate our small audience of loyal users, some of whom have been with us for decades, and fill the site with a bunch of ads and irrelevant articles about completely different hobbies. Because people who want to play fantasy MMOs will definitely come to wargamer.com!"
"Awesome idea! Let's do it!"
"Oh, and don't just archive the old content, but actively go out of your way to delete the 20-plus years of articles that built up the site and ensure no one can ever read it again. And make sure you squelch any discussion or debate on the topic!"
"Got it. That will definitely keep our loyal readers coming back!"

It must have been a discussion held in a room full of MBAs.

This says it all:

https://www.wargamer.com/about-us

  I'm not so sure there's any way to put your finger on what exactly seems to go wrong linguistically these days.  It's like being scatter-brained isn't
just a mental problem any more -- its a life-style choice!  You too can be meticulously military tactical while planning your strategic war thing during world war II (evidently a real war of some kind -- yes they had tactics even then)!  Or just have some tactical cards and military figurines.
 
   I guess it's sort of nice that the word "tactical" seems to refer to some kind of seriousness during your moments of mental clarity.  Okay.  I'll just go with that for strategic military reasons.

[Gusington]

 ;D