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,
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.
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.
ReplyDeleteYou shall soon have your work cut out :-)
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.
DeleteThanks for taking the time to complete the survey.
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).
DeleteMy 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 :-).
Rant away, my friend!
DeleteCan 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…
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.
DeleteIt 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.
If true then the hobby does not need that bigotry. I enjoy all facets of Wargaming whether in figure or counter.
DeleteGood 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.
DeleteAs 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.
What if the survey became The Great Miniatures Wargaming Survey? Would that ease the angst?
DeleteThere 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"
DeleteVery true about having many types of Wargames. Some of the questions are about what Jon wants to know too…
DeleteI filled out the survey, and added my normal comment about other types of games.
DeleteThanks, 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!
ReplyDeleteStayed tuned for results to begin trickling-in in September.
DeleteI'll have to get this done at the weekend
ReplyDeleteExcellent. Really, it only takes a few minutes.
DeleteThanks for the reminder, haven't heard anything by email, public service blogging at it's best!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Well, if my battle reports are skipped by many, at least I can offer a public service announcement.
DeleteI filled it out, but only because I like reading your analysis later and seeing where I fit in.
ReplyDeleteI 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. 😁
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.
DeleteDid 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... 😬
ReplyDeleteThis is the first year for asking about number of unpainted figures.
DeleteAnd your answer was?
Oh, definitely more than 1,000!
DeleteMore than a 1,000 is definitely a safe bet for me too!
DeleteDone! The work question was easy for me, Retired! But it didn't really answer the question "What do I do with my time?"
ReplyDeleteThat was an easy one for me too. As for “what do I do with my time”, Nancy asks that question too!
DeleteHas 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.
ReplyDeleteIt has! There are a few, new questions to consider.
DeleteThere will soon be some more data for you to analyse and wade through.
ReplyDeleteGood!
DeleteI hadn't had notification either don't recall anything on the last newsletter though I may have missed it👴🏻 All done now.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It only went live this morning. Perhaps I am an Early Warning System?
DeleteSubmitted my info for the first time. Never got around to it before for some reason.
ReplyDeleteExcellent!
DeleteGod - 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!
ReplyDeleteExcellent, Keith!
DeleteIt 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:).
ReplyDeleteIt does come around quickly, doesn't it? Hopefully, others find some of the new questions interesting as well. Thanks for completing the survey!
DeleteDone 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.
ReplyDeleteAlways an interesting exercise, as a sort of ‘self assessment of one’s current status within the hobby’ device.
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!
DeleteFollowing 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.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Anthony! The survey and questions continue to evolve and hopefully in a positive direction.
DeleteI do love this survey, very interesting. I'm back! House move complete, WIFI now on, the just renovations to start!
ReplyDeleteCheers
Meic
Congratulations on completing the move and welcome back!
DeleteAll done, plus I thought of Norm and put a finishing remark about a question next time along the lines Norm suggested.
ReplyDeleteThanks for both, Richard!
DeleteDone! I admit the question 'how do you pass your days?' made me pause for reflection...existential stuff (!)
ReplyDeleteGreat! I was looking for "wargaming"...
DeleteThat time of year again already. This year is really flying by.
ReplyDeleteSurvey done and I look forward to your analysis of the answers given.
Thanks, Dai!
DeleteDone & dusted!
ReplyDeletePerfect!
DeleteThat time already. All done, a few details differ from prior years.
ReplyDeleteGreat! Does that mean your answers are changing?
DeleteGot the mail and, voilà!! Done!
ReplyDeleteExcellent!
DeleteI missed it last year so will make a bigger effort this year 👍
ReplyDeleteGood!
DeleteFinally done my entry. And as always I look forward to seeing the result and your analysis in due course.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lee!
Delete