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Thursday, July 14, 2022

What Do We Like?

Wargaming offers up a multitude of activities from which participants can derive both purpose and pleasure.

In the 2021 Great Wargaming Survey, survey respondents were asked which wargaming activities represented the best part of the hobby.  Respondents could pick up to three choices.  The counts of all responses are summarized and ranked in Table 1.  Among the list of choices, the Top 3 responses were:

  1. Playing the game
  2. Painting the miniatures
  3. Hanging out with friends
The Top 3 aggregated responses accounted for almost 60% of all responses.       

Table 1
Any surprises in the rank ordering of survey responses?  Not to me.  The survey's Top 3 were likely my top 3 choices as well in 2021, too, although “research” fights for a Top 3 spot.

What if survey responses are stratified by some of the key variables that have been examined in past analyses?  Do any patterns or tendencies emerge?

Age Group
What tendencies are seen when examining the top responses by Age Group?  Well, the importance of building optimal army lists and collecting miniatures tends to decrease with age.  The tendency that stands out to my aging eyes is that the 61+ Age Group seems more introspective than the younger age cohorts.  Collecting miniatures and hanging out with friends tend to be relatively less important than doing background research and preparing scenarios.   
 


Primary Interest
When bifurcated by primary interest, big differences emerge between Historical and Fantasy/Sci-Fi wargamers.  Fantasy/Sci-fi wargamers are more interested in building optimal army lists, collecting miniatures, and hanging out with friends than their historical counterparts.  Historical wargamers, conversely, are much more likely to do background research or prepare scenarios than the Fantasy/Sci-fi group.

Spending
Unlike Age Group and Primary Interest, there is less distinction between the aggregated best parts of the hobby and spending.   Of note, though, is that spending tends to hold a direct relationship with collecting miniatures and an indirect relationship to playing the game.   I suppose this tendency makes sense in that the more miniatures one buys and paints, the less time for gaming. Perhaps these big spenders are more collectors than wargamers? 


That wraps up this brief look at how survey respondents see the best part of the wargaming hobby.

What are your Top 3 activities?  Do your choices mirror your age cohort, primary interest, and spending level?

44 comments:

  1. In an ideal wargaming world my preference would be the top 3 of Playing the Game, Painting the miniatures and Hanging out with friends. The reality is Painting miniatures, collecting miniatures, and research (all media and books) occupy the vast majority of my time.

    Christopher

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    1. Thanks, Christopher. There certainly may be a difference between reality and aspirations in the survey question. If what you like best are aspirational in nature then go with your aspirations.

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  2. To my great dismay, I seem to fit my 61+ group rather well!

    Interesting that the youngest and oldest age groups are the 2 with the most interest in scenarios.

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    1. Ross, you are not alone. I fit into that cohort pattern too.

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  3. The over 60 age group preferences must be at least partly due to the number of retirees with potentially more time on their hands? I know I am hoping to engage in far more background reading by working my way through the stack of unread books when I have more time.

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    1. Could be, Lawrence. As for unread books in my library, I have still only made small inroads in retirement. Of course, It does not help when I buy books at a quicker pace than I read them.

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  4. The hobby analysis and views you provide are interesting as always.

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    1. Thanks, Peter. Happy to see you continue finding these analyses interesting. The 2022 survey dropping in August. Please fill it out! There will be a couple of new questions.

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  5. My top three match the results of the survey. One day, if I make it to retirement (!), I hope to have more time for playing games and reading. But then again, there's never enough time, no matter how much you have.

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    1. Lee, you will make it to retirement! After I retired two years ago, I often wonder how I managed to find time to work! You are right. There never seems to be enough time.

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  6. Interesting, my top 2 match the results. I find the background research creeps into my top 3

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    1. Thanks, Neil. Research probably creeps into my Top 3 too. Before remote gaming, research was definitely in the top 3.

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  7. Well, I don’t have any friends and often find games disappointing, so only one out of the three for me. What is interesting though, is how close the results are for age groups and genre. Apart from research - which for scifanters is just reading The Hobbit and watching Star Trek - it’s more or less the same graph.

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    1. No friends and few games? Are you a wargamer? What contributes to your disappointment in games?

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    2. Well, as the list includes collecting, painting, research, terrain & scenarios which I enjoy I count myself as a wargamer! All of that activity has gaming as an objective, but the actual physical motion of playing (last game Feb 2019) never lives up to what is in my imagination, so I stop at that point which gives me all the entertainment I need. As to friends, I’m socially inept so it’s easier to abstain.

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    3. I agree. You are a wargamer! Socially inept? I bet you are much too hard on yourself.

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  8. An interesting part of the survey. I would note two things in particular.

    In terms of a 'top three' of a typical gamer, those that score high for painting and gaming may not necessarily be the same people, as I often see internet comment that gamers are primarily only one of those two things rather than being both.

    Secondly, I suspect the age divide on background research / preparing scenarios, may fall along the lines that the older generation HAD to do that as part of their hobby immersion / culture, whilst these days much of this is already done for us by so much published support material being available, whether on paper or the screen.

    My top 3 would be gaming, preparing scenarios and background research. All the other aspects listed just seem to fall out of these three essentials (to me).

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    1. Thanks for weighing in, Norm!

      On point 1, I fall into the gaming AND painting categories. I am curious on your sources to attest to this observation. Many of your fellow comrades here enjoy both painting and gaming.

      On point 2, I agree that the older cohorts were forced into doing their own research. I think it breaks down along the Historical v Fantasy/Sci-Fi fault line too.

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  9. Mr average here, 1, 2 and 3 for me, although research would give 3 a run for its money.

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  10. Always interesting to see the results of the survey. I find that painting gets harder, partly from higher standards and partly from failing eyesight. Scenario building equates to more enjoyable gaming, our group is happiest with a 'close run thing' or a twist of some sort. List min maxing is not even on the radar as fun. Being with friends, best part of any endeavor.

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    1. Glad you enjoy these brief peeks behind the hobby, Joe. I plan to keep them coming especially with the new survey being dropped in a few weeks.

      Painting may get more difficult with age but I keep plugging away as I find that facet of the hobby very relaxing.

      I appreciate your feedback and insight!

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  11. Certainly no surprises to me in the top four, although my order would be a little different and one more factor would be in play and my breakdown would be:

    Painting and collecting (one in the same for me) 45%
    Getting together with friends 30%
    Planning the game (the intellectual stimulant) 20%
    The game 5% (without the others the game is nothing)

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    1. Thanks, Mark! It seems commenters here all have much in common in what we find enjoyable in the wargaming hobby.

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  12. Agree with most others Jon, nothing odd about the results in my mind, as I am sure that's how I would have listed my preferences too! Research is probably a bit lower grading on my list (shock, horror!) I am happy to start an entire collection with little to no knowledge...recent examples are Great Northern War....even though I now have a perfectly respectably sized Swedish army, I only have a very vague idea about the war, it's causes, its main battles and its outcome....I know the Swedes lost! Or the Spanish Civil War... I know a bit more because I studied it at high school for a year I think but I don't know a great deal about the details of the fighting...I could not even name a couple of the larger battles .....again, I DO know Franco won! 😄 Although it may shock many readers to the core, thus lack of in depth knowledge does not concern me too much, as the main attraction to me is building up the collections and the aesthetics of their appearance on the table top battlefields....

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    1. Hi Keith! Yes, you have been known to dive into the deep end on a project (or projects) sometimes before learning how to navigate the periods. That is what makes the hobby fun and stimulating.

      Thanks for your feedback. Oh, and Franco is still dead.

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    2. LOL - you can find anything on the Net - I add this for any others who did not quite get that pop culture reference Jon...."Francisco Franco is still dead"" is a catch phrase that originated in 1975 during the first season of "Saturday Night Live". It became one of the first catch phrases from "SNL" to enter the general lexicon.

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  13. Although I fill in the survey I rarely look at the results.

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  14. Playing games would certainly be my number 1. Then hanging out with friends and research being the next two, but I don't know in which order!
    I find that age makes me less inclined to paint and more inclined to play. Though playing opportunities are too few and I guess that as the years pass I want to see the efforts of my labours on the table.

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    1. Thanks, Richard! Your rationale for the way you do what you do certainly rings true for me. I still enjoy painting though as I find it most relaxing.

      On games, perhaps we can try another remote game in the fall?

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    2. That is a must Jonathan. I will certainly be in touch.

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  15. I honestly don’t know where I fall post-covid. Before the pandemic I would definitely have fitted with the rest of the older generation roughly along the lines mentioned by Norm. These last two years, however, have seen my interests morph. With the breaking up of the usual gaming group I have tended to concentrate more on detailed figure painting, especially medievals, for my personal satisfaction and have shifted into scale modelling. There seems to be no specific destination in my take of the hobby (or should I say hobbies?). Indeed, should there be one?

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    1. COVID changed a lot of routines, for sure. I actually can classify myself as war “gamer” since my gaming frequency exploded with lockdowns and remote gaming.

      As for fine scale modeling, your brushwork especially Medieval heraldry is superb. If I had your talent, I would gravitate toward single figure painting myself.

      This is a hobby, after all, any path taken is good.

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  16. Thanks Jon for a stimulating post. Not much of a surprise to me in the results. There are several aspects of the hobby, painting, playing, research, collecting which all need a balance for me take any of them away and it falls down for me.

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    1. You’re welcome! Good to see some positive reinforcement that these analyses are useful. I agree, all facets tie together for a rewarding, total experience. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts..

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  17. I tend to equate being older as having more time in the hobby and I think with experience one gets better at making an army / genre more of what you want it to be rather than younger folks just buying whatever the big box game company is selling you. Therefore get more satisfaction and enjoyment out of collecting. 😀
    And I never meet anyone who would choose a night of painting over playing an actual game. Lol.

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    1. Wise words, Stew, from the Wargaming Sage of Sacramento.

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  18. I don't recall my exact answers, but I', pretty sure that they were the same three, - playing, painting, and friends. Really, I like them ALL, except the army list optimization, which is what makes it such a compelling hobby for me! Obviously, anyone with large collections, like ourselves, has a strong collector streak as well!

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  19. Seems like my set of 3 answers , with painting at the top for me and I realise research is more of a thing, as I look at my phone I have the Austrian oob for Wagram dowloaded, quite apart from all the pintrest stuff, research or obsession? I enjoy doing the survey, it does make me think about the hobby, of course if I could remember what I wrote down it would be even better!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks, Iain. Next time, jot down your responses so you can compare with survey results when the survey results become available.

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    2. Yes I should, although I'll probably lose them, I'm already going to have to change from being a historical gamer(1/2) and be at least a 3 as I've signed up to a fantasy campaign at the club! Who'd have thought it!
      Best Iain

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    3. What? A '3'? I would have never guessed. There is a new question on the survey that asks if your preferences have shifted and in which direction. I wonder how many we will see shifting from historicals to fantasy?

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