Reply To: Please Change my Mind and Point of View

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Fair question, @bubbles15 .  Before I reply, let me roll out my disclaimers.  😀  Nothing here is a critique on the OTT team in any way.  In fact, when it comes to “what’s missing,” the team has often earnestly (and admirably) tried to “broaden the church” – but the community usually hasn’t followed along.

In summary, aspects of wargaming that don’t often get a lot of traction in the community include pretty much the whole “consim” wing of the hobby.  Dozens of titles are published every year by manufacturers like GMT, Matrix, Decision Games, Multiman Publishing, GDW, Compass, Hexasim, etc. … and designers like Ty Bomba, Joseph Miranda, Brian Train, Michael Benninghoff, Frank Chadwick, and Jim Dunnigan (off the top of my head).  That last man basically invented modern-market tactical wargaming, he didn’t win “Game Designer of the Millennium” for nothing.  In fact he now has his own award named after him, I suppose this is what happens when they run out of awards they can give you.  Yet I would wager that in this community, one person in a thousand has heard of him.  Yet we all know Rick Priestly.  (??)

The Strategy & Tactics publications (S&T, World at War, and Modern War) each publishes six issues a year each, and every issue highlights a new game.  That’s eighteen titles a year, or 126 in all in the seven years since I joined this community.  Not one has been mentioned, and that’s from one of dozens of publishing houses (although admittedly S&T is probably the biggest one).

Now, certain titles in this “wing of the hobby” in fact HAVE been highlighted by the OTT Team.  Examples include GMT’s Twilight Struggle, which I know is a favorite of Warren’s.  Warren also had me write an article series on the Heroes of Limanowa Kickstarter, and the team was fantastically supportive when I published World War 2.5, and even awarded me a Golden Button when I published Darkstar.

So the team has certainly tried.  😀  But broader-base community response on these examples (with the possible exception of Darkstar) was negligible at best, outright zero at worst.  This is why I am distinguishing between the “team” and the “community” vis-à-vis this topic.  The team has tried.  The community by and large does not.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, this perfectly fine.  I would never presume to instruct the community where they should focus their interest.  You won’t see Stargrave or Billion Suns on Consimworld or Sitrep Podcast, either.

I brought up this angle earlier in the thread to contest what was being said about how we “shouldn’t exclude people” … when myself and others who appreciate these deeper “consim” mediums of wargaming are in fact the ones often being “excluded”  (or at the very least marginalized) by the community, even when the team has earnestly tried to “broaden the church.”

Thanks for the great question.