Least-Liked Hobby Aspects: Are Collectors Different?

Do wargamers who are primarily collectors exhibit a different least-liked profile than the general population of Great Wargaming Survey respondents?  This question arose from the previous analysis on what wargamers liked least about the hobby (see The Things We Love to Hate About Wargaming).  Methods and approach can be found in the previous analysis in the link above.  First posed on the Society of Ancients forum by Gavin and then again on Facebook, the question asked, "what do those whose primary interest is collecting find are their barriers to wargaming?"

To identify the population of collectors, I choose only those survey respondents who picked "Collecting the miniatures" as their top choice in the question on what is the best part of the hobby.  Out of the more than 4,000 entries, 512 respondents fell into this sample.  A large enough sample to work with, no doubt.

All Respondents 

As a reminder, the whole survey population showed their least-liked aspects of the hobby fell into four groupings (clusters) as shown in the Figure 1 Principal Component Analysis (PCA).

Figure 1 Clusters

Collectors Only

Looking at the subset of respondents who chose "Collecting the miniatures" as their favorite part of the hobby, the 512 responses produce the following PCA as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Clusters

In both analyses, the same key word tokens rise to the top and four clusters emerge.  The difference is that the four clusters see some group shuffling from the clusters seen in the whole population analysis.  The four clusters and their typologies in the Collectors Only analysis are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 Cluster Typology

Access and Time (Find, Time)

In the upper right quadrant, this keyword cluster gathers those respondents not liking the challenges of finding miniatures, opponents, or useful information along with feeling weighed down by the labor and material demands needed to produce armies for gaming.  Perhaps gaming, itself, provides challenges?  Respondents in this group tend to struggle finding hobby things which time pressures compound.  Preparation and painting backlogs can be frustrating.  Notice that "time" migrated from painting/miniatures burden cluster in the overall analysis into the "find" cluster for Collectors Only. 

Social and Culture (People, Competition, Rules_lawyers, Gaming)

In the upper left quadrant, competition and people are closely aligned.  Rules-lawyers, while part of this cluster, produces shows less correlation (shorter vector) that remains closer to the origin.  Respondents in this group seem more dissatisfied by interpersonal friction, overly competitive play, and argumentative rules culture.  Notice that while gaming is included in this cluster, gaming is distinct and somewhat distant from competition and people.  The close proximity to the Dim1 axis suggests that gaming is a common pain point to both Social/Culture and Access/Time clusters.

Burden (Miniatures, Painting)

In the lower right quadrant, the close alignment of miniatures and painting in this cluster highlights the positive association between this pair of keywords.  This distinct material/preparation cluster suggests that respondents in this cluster see assembly and painting, figure quality, and even a massive backlog of unpainted figures as the main source of pain.  It is interesting to note in Figure 2 that there is a direct opposition along Dim1 between Social/Culture dissatisfaction on the left and the Burden dissatisfaction on the right.  In this collector-first group, wargamers who mainly object to competition and gaming culture appear statistically distinct from those mainly troubled by any painting and miniature accumulation burden.

Cost (Cost)

Again, cost arises as an independent factor.  Cost does not align clearly with any one cluster suggesting that financial aspects are common and secondary to all of the groups' least-liked aspects of the hobby.

Summary

Examining this subset of responses suggests that collectors’ least-liked aspects of wargaming fall out into three broad concerns.  The first, sees a difficulty accessing and finding time to pursue the hobby.  The second, sees the burden of painting and owning miniatures.  The third, focuses on dissatisfaction with competitive or socially challenging gaming culture.  Cost is recognized as a complaint but appears less decisive than the other three components. 

The clusters in Figure 3 generally mirror the clusters in the original PCA which examined the whole population.  Having similarity between clusters lends weight to stability of these data.  Seeing migration of some keywords among clusters is especially interesting.  For the collectors' subset, gaming becomes less of a driving issue in any one cluster.  That inference makes sense if your focus is on collecting rather than on gaming.  In Collectors Only analysis, gaming appears a common thread to both Access/Time and Social/Culture clusters.  Rather than finding "people" in the Access/Time cluster as in the broad population study, "people" migrates to the Social/Culture cluster.  Seems people are no longer sought out but to be avoided!  The strongest contrast is between respondents bothered by the hobby’s social/competitive environment and those bothered by its material, preparatory, and practical demands.  How does the hobby lessen these two extreme pain points?

While the Collectors Only group has much in common with the broader hobby results which attempt to qualify the least-liked aspects of wargaming, there are a few subtle but important differences.  If you consider yourself primarily a collector, does your experience align with others who put collecting miniatures first?