Tournament Games Over Represented Online

[Praefectusclassis]

Guess we'll have to go and figure out where they hang out!

[Dolnikan]

It makes sense that tournament games aren't as big as other kinds of games despite being talked about far more. There simply is much more to say about a tournament game and the endless varieties of what list to take and how good or bad certain units are. For more casual games, those things don't really matter and most discussions won't be able to go much further than: "Yeah, that sounds pretty cool".

It can also be seen in tournament attendance. Even the very largest ones have a few hundred participants at most. I'm willing to bet that even for GW games, there are far far more players who never, or barely ever, visit a tournament and instead just play at home with their friends. I know that for Magic that for instance is the case, based on statistics by Wizards of the Coast. And yet, almost all online discussion is about playing in stores and at events.

[Patrice]

As others have said... I see lots of people talking about army lists and effectiveness of points costs in some FB groups, they get many answers because other players using the same rules like to share the results of their own choices; but apparently that's for their own games at home or at their gaming club, not for tournaments.

Whereas there's not much need to talk online about RPG-minded wargames (which I do). You post some AARs when you take the time to write them, and get a few comments, you read other people's AARs, and there are discussions about precise points between a few people who are working on the ruleset or improving it, and occasional questions from other people who want to try and run a game; the vast majority of other gamers do not notice it. And I certainly post more about other matters (terrain, miniatures, etc.) than about the game itself.

[bc99]

I play a lot of Warhammer 40K. The majority of players I game with are only really interested in 40K, as the Madden football statement above referenced. I just don’t think those players have been highly represented in the Survey.

[Andreas Johansson]

I suspect the difference 'tween what people would prefer to play and actually do play is significant here. I mostly play pick-up games, with tournament games as the runner up, but I believe I voted for scenario games as my "top choice" - it's what I most would like to play, but the higher required effort to get it to the table tends to get in the way.

From what I hear off- and online, this seems to be a common situation.

[Praefectusclassis]

This year's the first time we asked about the favourite setting/era and how much it's played. Maybe that's another candidate for a two-fold question?

[pixelgeek]

This year's the first time we asked about the favourite setting/era and how much it's played. Maybe that's another candidate for a two-fold question?

What sort of information are you trying to gain? I think that sometimes it is better to ask several related questions and then look for meaningful data in them. There is probably an entire set of 'do you actually play the way you want to' questions that you could ask in a section of the survey and then look at the resulting data for insights.

[Dolnikan]

I suspect the difference 'tween what people would prefer to play and actually do play is significant here. I mostly play pick-up games, with tournament games as the runner up, but I believe I voted for scenario games as my "top choice" - it's what I most would like to play, but the higher required effort to get it to the table tends to get in the way.

From what I hear off- and online, this seems to be a common situation.

That always is a very important difference. The one between what we can actually play and what we want to play. Some games, settings, and modes of play are just so much easier to find than something more niche.

[syrinx0]

At our club, when it was going strong,  we played many a 40K, WFG, Xwing & occasionally Bolt action game in tournament style but we were more likely to do so within a campaign setting which ran for a weeks. We frequently ran WWII Tractics campaigns as well. As a painter & RPG player the continuity and ongoing nature of a campaign is what drew me in to playing these games. 

I helped another member run some tournaments at two Adepticons but only played as an emergency fill in and had a blast. So nothing against tournaments other than it wasn't my first choice.