Tuesday, August 1, 2023

The Great Wargaming Survey 2023

If it is August, it must be time for the next edition of Wargames, Soldiers, and Strategy Magazine's The Great Wargaming Survey.

Link to the 2023 survey is, 

The Great Wargaming Survey

A handful of new questions in this year's survey, a few tweaks, an easy user interface, and lots of interesting prizes in the raffle.  Completing the survey only takes a few minutes. 

If interested, I encourage readers to take a few minutes out of their day to complete the survey and enter into the raffle.  You will be required to enter an email address to win.  Email will be purged afterwards.  If my post-survey analyses are of interest, jot down your responses for later reference when I present these summaries and inferences.  All responses are anonymized and reported as summaries only.

Let your preferences and thoughts on the hobby be counted!  Did you vote?

Survey runs through 31 August.

Thank you.

59 comments:

  1. Done and I feel a better range of questions this year. I was pleased to see table size added. Disappointing that ‘the great wargaming survey’ continues to ignore board wargaming as a wargame activity.

    You shall soon have your work cut out :-)

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    1. Questions are adapted/refined with each passing year. Besides, I always think of a new question or two to which I would enjoy seeing responses. Some of these refinements come directly from feedback to my analyses here. I hope that AGE responses increase with a change to AGE GROUP. So many are not comfortable providing AGE. As for boardgaming exclusion, WSS is a miniatures wargaming publication. Making a note on working in boardgaming into 2024 survey.

      Thanks for taking the time to complete the survey.

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    2. Hi Jonathan, I was thinking of simply one question …. ‘Do you play both figure and boardgames’ the three responses could be board more than figure, figure more than board or figures only (impartiality might have a 4th response of board only).

      My Uppity moment is that WSS by the title of the survey and then the questions appear to assume that wargaming is just about figures - something I personally find annoying, because of the way that this can resonate within the community.

      If the response was high enough, it might even benefit / encourage WSS to drop one of their columns and have a boardgame review or feature instead from time to time, I say this only because the columns can sometimes feel like a bit of filler!

      Oh gosh, now I sound like a ranting idiot :-).

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    3. Rant away, my friend!

      Can you expound on what you mean by,

      “something I personally find annoying, because of the way that this can resonate within the community.”

      In what way does this resonate within the community and who is this “community”?

      No comment on WSS content…

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    4. There can be disparaging comment on some blogs and forums (wargame community) from time to time that gives a whiff that figure gaming IS wargaming (i.e. proper wargaming) and that boardgames are well …. Just Boardgames. This sort of thing can also play out in comments like ‘smaller scales are pointless, they may as well be counters’ etc.

      It is of course all wargaming and the Vae Victis magazine is a shining example of embracing both Genres in one place with equal placement and respect to both. I suspect if they did such a survey, they would take a different (inclusive) approach.

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    5. If true then the hobby does not need that bigotry. I enjoy all facets of Wargaming whether in figure or counter.

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    6. Good points there Norm. So Command & Colours, when played with blocks, is it a boardgame? Maybe. If you then replace the blocks with figures: what then? Or as I've seen at shows, C&C played on a gridded mat with figures? The same with say 'To the Strongest' if I replaced the figures with counters on a simple board. To me they are all wargames it's just the visuals that are different.

      As for the magazine title, only a 1/3 of it is related to figures in the broadest sense, so what about the 'Wargames' and 'Strategy' parts? I would feel that I'm playing a wargame whether it be on a classic board game such as 'Squad Leader', with C&C with figures rather than blocks or a, dare I say it, wargames mat with figures.

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    7. What if the survey became The Great Miniatures Wargaming Survey? Would that ease the angst?

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    8. There are other types of wargame than figure and board games too. It's a miniatures survey. Or, perhaps more cynically, "The what our advertisers ned to know survey"

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    9. Very true about having many types of Wargames. Some of the questions are about what Jon wants to know too…

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    10. I filled out the survey, and added my normal comment about other types of games.

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  2. Thanks, Jon. I had not had an email about it this year although I have done the Survey a few times now. All filled in. Look forward to seeing the results. :-) Your analysis is always interesting!

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    1. Stayed tuned for results to begin trickling-in in September.

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  3. I'll have to get this done at the weekend

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  4. Thanks for the reminder, haven't heard anything by email, public service blogging at it's best!
    Best Iain

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    1. Well, if my battle reports are skipped by many, at least I can offer a public service announcement.

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  5. I filled it out, but only because I like reading your analysis later and seeing where I fit in.

    I thought it a little weird that it asked about work. And even more weird that my career of a male underwear model and internet influencer wasn't an option. 😁

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    1. Thanks, Stew. The career question was a surprise to me too. Noting that “underwear model and influencer” needs to be added to next year’s survey.

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  6. Did previously versions have the question about # of unpainted figures? My first reaction was "Surely I don't have more than 1,000!", then I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations... 😬

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    1. This is the first year for asking about number of unpainted figures.

      And your answer was?

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    2. Oh, definitely more than 1,000!

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    3. More than a 1,000 is definitely a safe bet for me too!

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  7. Done! The work question was easy for me, Retired! But it didn't really answer the question "What do I do with my time?"

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    1. That was an easy one for me too. As for “what do I do with my time”, Nancy asks that question too!

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  8. Has another year gone by already? I'll fill mine out a bit later this morning, but I do not expect all that much to have changed from last year.

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    1. It has! There are a few, new questions to consider.

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  9. There will soon be some more data for you to analyse and wade through.

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  10. I hadn't had notification either don't recall anything on the last newsletter though I may have missed it👴🏻 All done now.

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    1. Thank you! It only went live this morning. Perhaps I am an Early Warning System?

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  11. Submitted my info for the first time. Never got around to it before for some reason.

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  12. God - is it a year already?? It will be Christmas soon! I better get off and do it, we need to give you something to analyze for the next nine months, don't we Jon?........brief pause.......all done!

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  13. It comes round so quickly and it only seems like last month I was completing it! Some interesting new questions, with the table size being a useful addition, which I'm really looking forward to seeing the data on. A complete guess on how many painted figures I have but quite easy to say more than 1K on the unpainted front! Shame I couldn't tick solo and 1-4 on how many people you game with. As always looking forward to your deep dive into the data Jon! Nice prizes too:).

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    1. It does come around quickly, doesn't it? Hopefully, others find some of the new questions interesting as well. Thanks for completing the survey!

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  14. Done mine, Jonathan (prompted by your post on the Society of Ancients forum). A well worded survey, yet again…only question which stumped me was the ‘where do you never buy from…’. There wasn’t a box for ‘I buy from all of them, but some more than others’ which would be an accurate answer.
    Always an interesting exercise, as a sort of ‘self assessment of one’s current status within the hobby’ device.

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    1. Thanks, Martin! I am making a note about your choice on this one. We will see if it makes it into next year's survey. It has become a bit of a self-assessment for me too. Appreciate the feedback!

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  15. Following in up on your post to Society of Ancients forum, have done the survey for the first time in a few years. Seems more streamlined than before, so well done.

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    1. Thank you, Anthony! The survey and questions continue to evolve and hopefully in a positive direction.

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  16. I do love this survey, very interesting. I'm back! House move complete, WIFI now on, the just renovations to start!

    Cheers
    Meic

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    1. Congratulations on completing the move and welcome back!

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  17. All done, plus I thought of Norm and put a finishing remark about a question next time along the lines Norm suggested.

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  18. Done! I admit the question 'how do you pass your days?' made me pause for reflection...existential stuff (!)

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  19. That time of year again already. This year is really flying by.

    Survey done and I look forward to your analysis of the answers given.

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  20. That time already. All done, a few details differ from prior years.

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  21. Got the mail and, voilà!! Done!

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  22. I missed it last year so will make a bigger effort this year 👍

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  23. Finally done my entry. And as always I look forward to seeing the result and your analysis in due course.

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