Free Wargames Rules – The Future

[Pete Jones]

When I started this site back in 1997 there were very few wargames sites, Google did not exists and there were no blogs where people could share whatever they wanted instantly. BAck in ’97 I made it my mission to catalogue and collate all the available free wargames rules on the Internet.

Back in those days as there was so little new content being added it didn’t take much time to add content. In 1997 only 1.7% (70,000,000) of the Worlds population had internet access fast forward to 2014 and it is now 40.7% (2,937,000,000 users).

After 17 years of trying to keep up and having recently retired from a 30 year Government job I have lost the enthusiasm to continue as I have. I have gone from daily updates to weekly updates then to monthly updates and I am struggling to catch up.

Many people have offered to kindly take this site on, but without knowing them or their commitment longterm I cannot guarantee that in another 5, 10 or 20 years all the hard work is lost for ever.

I am aware what a valuable resource it is and am unwilling for it to die a slow and painful death.

I have seen the power of social media and collective collaboration, therefore, I have a radical proposal to ensure the continuation of resource:

I propose that we have a “wikipedia style” resource of Free Wargames Rules where the whole community maintains it, adds new content, amends incorrect data and removes obsolete information. I will continue as overall Administrator.

This way everyone can contribute and the resource survives. This is a mammoth task to convert this data to a wiki and it will need a great deal of work. I do not want to start this if there is support across the community so please comment below on my blog or contact me via the website at: http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk

freewargamesrules http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk

[Barks]

Pete, your site is a superb resource. I hope you can get the support you need to maintain the rulesets.

My blog: Wargaming with Barks

[Pete Jones]

The new wiki is up and running. Please come along and contribute.

http://freewargamesrules.wikia.com/

freewargamesrules http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk

[Piyan Glupak]

Thanks for that.  I am looking at cobbling together a set of fantasy/Early Medieval army level rules, but it might be a little while (a long while more likely) before I have anything to show.

[Northern Monkey]

Just want to thank Pete for all his efforts they are greatly appreciated and I have found many hidden gems on his site in the past, looking forward to seeing the wiki being filled out, I’d help but have no idea whatsoever how to edit/contribute etc to Wiki’s

My attempt at a Blog: http://ablogofwar.blogspot.co.uk/

[Henry Hyde]

Pete, sorry to hear that it’s become such a struggle for you. You’ve made a remarkable and unique contribution to the hobby. I’ll mention your call for help in the next issue of MWBG.

Editor, Battlegames
http://battlegames.co.uk
Battlegames on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/battlegames
Author, The Wargaming Compendium
http://amzn.to/leWoNO

[Mike]

Northern Monkey wrote:

Just want to thank Pete for all his efforts they are greatly appreciated and I have found many hidden gems on his site in the past, looking forward to seeing the wiki being filled out, I’d help but have no idea whatsoever how to edit/contribute etc to Wiki’s

This.
Please feel free to post an article here about what we can do to help and how we do it!

[William Minsinger]

Pete, your site has been very useful to me over the years, so cheers to the wiki and thanks for everything.

 

-Will

[Tony]

I’ve been going to your site for 10 years and have appreciated its simple layout and large amount of links to rule sets. I’m not a big fan of Wiki’s but I understand why it is best to go this route and am glad you took this approach rather than abandoning the site all together.
Thanks for all your hard work!

[Mick A]

I’ll also add my thanks Pete 🙂 I first found your site while I was a mature student at uni, it kept me sane…

[Author]

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