shunwick wrote:DSWargamer,
While I understand and appreciate your position, I do not understand why it must be an either/or thing. Why must the old grogs suffer to allow tablet war gaming to flourish? I would like to see everyone provided with what they enjoy - you, me, old grogs, new grogs, and the people who like 3d shiny clicky things. Let us all have the war games we want in the format we enjoy the most.
Best wishes,
Steve
It's not actually me making it an all or prospect actually shunwick.
There's a lot of 'dying' dialogue out there and most of it by people simply uninterested in change.
Fact, my age group invented the wargaming hobby. Yes my age group is the reason it exists.
I am not responsible for the sales of real time strategy, even if it is my age group in front of the computers designing them.
My age group is not the driving force behind MMOs and Shooters either. But it is my age group that holds the reigns.
Proof, just look at the people in charge, they all look like me.
Fact, the only people really and truly interested in wargames that look like War in the East, are people in my age group.
I don't need any damned links to know that is a fact. And a few persons loudly screaming I have no numbers to back up the statement, are just a few deniers and there are always a few deniers.
Fact, I will either be continuing to age, or I will be dead.
But I don't expect any new comers to the playing field where old school wargaming is concerned.
My son, 19, is NOT interested in ANY manner of wargame. Not on PC or any other means of playing it. Unless the games adapt to look more like they did when I was a teen as well.
Fact, I became a wargamer thanks to games Like Tactics II and Squad Leader and Third Reich, all games with essentially limited complexity in components, but considerable skill level required to win. I would NEVER have wanted to play War in the East in my teens. They call Third Reich a 10 on the complexity scale. Back in the 70s War in the East would have been called something akin to a 30. And it would not be any more successful than Fire in the East was. I have known lots that praise the design, but, I have never played it. Even though my main wargaming friend owned it. Never enough time, never enough space. I have no idea how often I played Axis and Allies, and we often played it against non wargamers.
The android tablet, it's just a device. It's really just a Nintendo DS made for an adult. Bigger screen, able to web browse in a logical fashion (which a DS sure can't), able to do programs an adult would be interested in. Enough power to actually DO things.
It's not an Apple product though, and the Apple OS seems more approachable not as many versions variations.
But Small General and the Small General Easter Front design, THAT is where I want to see wargaming going.
Some call it 'dumbed down', I see it smartening up. Smart because THAT game can grab a teen's interest the way Tactics II did to me.
I don't give a damn that War in the East can't be played on a tablet. I wouldn't likely want to play it on one if it could run it.
The old complaint, needs more computer muscle, needs a larger screen aka bigger monitor. That's a WEAKNESS, not a strength.
I also wish they had just made lots and lots of counter sets for Squad Leader, and never gone past Squad Leader to be honest. Yes the game was not as hyper accurate as ASL is, but, I played Squad Leader a great deal more than I ever will ASL.
Look up the word 'sophisticated' and the original meaning, it is enlightening
Both ASL and War in the East are very 'sophisticated' games. That's not actually always a compliment as the dictionary will illustrate.
I don't really think Slitherine Group needs to make any new wargames, they really just need to take their already designed catalogue, port portions of the designs/settings into the tablet scene, attract new meat to the hobby, and leave the grogs to play the very long list of wargames that already exist out there.
I don't need a successor to War in the East and likely never will. Sure they can use the already designed engine to release new expansions, but, that's all I need from Gary.
I realize they are doing a Battle Academy 2 and likely will in time ponder an Panzer Corps 2 unless they just disguise the process with designs like Allied Corps that incorporate the evolution of the code. But the thing is, all we need is for them to reach as many new wargamers as possible.
I, me, this individual here, I don't really need 'more' wargame designs. And while that will suck for any developer lining up for a slice of the pie, the thing is, there are no more chairs, and the ones out there are already competing to see who gets to stand up for a while
I'd rather anyone wanting to get in on the developer action, join Victor and his Small General, and start making new games for new markets and stop pretending I will always be here.
That's it eh, wargaming isn't dying, wargamers, they will eventually die though. I'm 51, I might live to 80 like my father. I might not. You get no guarantees.
If the hobby loses enough of me, and produces nothing in the way of replacements, it won't 'die' per se, it will just grind to a halt out of gas.