Dear history fan!,
The sixth edition of the Great Wargaming Survey is here again, running till the end of August.
As always, we're asking you to take just five minutes of your time to let us know what YOU think about wargaming. We'll be using the results to try and track trends and changes in the hobby, with the results published online in text, in videos and via podcasts.
Besides our undying gratitude for completing the survey, everyone who completes the survey gets a €6.50 gift certificate for our webshop which can be used to buy a small range of unique models made available by Rubicon Models, Wargames Atlantic and Sarissa Precision, or almost anything else from the Karwansaray Publishers webshop. Moreover, you've also got the chance to win a number of interesting prizes, including boxed sets, books from various publishers and of course subscriptions to Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy or our other magazines. So why not take a few minutes now to help us out- it's fast, fun and might net you some free goodies!
Kind regards
Guy Bowers
Editor, Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy
(news taken from newsletter)
5 thoughts on “Great Wargaming Survey”
06/08/2019 at 13:19
Done. I’ve also done this survey on several previous years. I hope it’s caught on in the hobby scene generally. However, I found many of the multiple-choice answers to be a rather awkward fit for me. They seem like they’re structured and categorised after someone else’s specific, particular view of the hobby that doesn’t align with mine.
12/08/2019 at 10:51
Hi Rhoderic
While I fully recognise that all wargamers are very different, we try very hard to make the questions/responses fit as many wargamers as possible. That’s, for instance, why no games or manufacturers are mentioned with the exception of 40K and Age of Sigmar as those properties just are the 800lbs gorillas. Do you have any examples of questions/responses where the structure made you feel like your round preference peg was being smashed into a square hole…?
12/08/2019 at 12:46
This is mostly stuff I felt I needed to clarify in the “other, please specify” fields when I did the actual survey, so it’s just repetition now, but here goes:
In question 8, a few of the options seem weirdly narrow and specific. What’s a “monster or survival game”? Meanwhile, there’s no option for big battle games that DON’T use large numbers of miniatures, i.e. games (which I suppose would typically, but not necessarily, be played on hexes, possibly even 2D ones, but would be tabletop miniatures wargames all the same) where small numbers of miniatures represent large forces, such as having each stand of 3-5 infantry be dozens, hundreds or even thousands of infantry.
Question 12 conflates the periods/settings/genres dimension with the land-aerial-naval dimension in a way that seems awkward to me. I’m asked (among other things) whether I play settings as specific as Old West and Pirates, but when I’m asked (still in the same question) whether I play naval and aerial warfare, there’s no interest on the part of the survey to find out whether that’s stuff like Jutland and Trafalgar, or stuff like Aeronefs and elves-vs-dwarfs-at-sea. Also, you include naval and aerial but not space warfare? Space “naval” warfare and space dogfighting seem to just be lumped into sci-fi, a category it has to share with far-removed styles of gaming like Infinity and Dreadball. Furthermore, why specifically Old West and Pirates but not (for instance) Samurai and Gladiators? It feels to me like an inconsistent level of granularity.
Question 15 seems a bit confusing with the different, weirdly specific styles of painting. Does the survey assume that if I paint highlights, I also use inks, washes and dips? I don’t. There was no option that corresponded to my specific but simple method of painting (basecoat, one highlight, no inks/washes/dips).
I feel like question 17 omitted some significant types of media as inspiration. I get much of my inspiration from video games. There’s also comics / graphic novels and artwork, generally. Meanwhile some of the other options feel overly granular, like putting podcasts and YouTube videos separately (and incidentally, some people might get inspiration from Twitch videos/streams, so YouTube isn’t the only game in town). Also, does the “article, blog or social media post” option include forums? If not, then forum posts are missing as an option. When I hear “social media” I tend to think more of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Finally, there’s not really an option for news items on hobby news sites.
12/08/2019 at 15:11
I thought that about 15 too.
12/08/2019 at 15:53
Thanks very much – I know there’s a lot in the ‘Other’ responses, but with the total approaching 9K, that’s becoming a lot to read for improvements for next year. Noted, however, thank you again!