Salute 2017 More Fantasy/Sci-fi than Historical?!

[Elk101]

No, we don't...

  it's always a pleasure to play on a Bibbly Board tm

[levied troop]

Just to come back to the original question,  I did a quick count through the Salute catalogue and there were 26 games described as fantasy or sci-if and 37 described as historical.  The numbers might have evened up a little as Spartan Games were listed under one entry but had several tables, but I don't quite see the end of historical gaming yet. 

There's also quite a split in style of company, (wild generalisation looming, engage lower gear) where sci-if and fantasy companies tend to do rules and figures and their games are commercial sales pitches.  Most historical companies tend to do figures only and individuals do rules so historical games aren't often selling a specific product but a club or group pushing the concept of gaming or a particular period.  That may make the sci-fi/fantasy element a bit more professional and the historical chaps more 'relaxed'?  That's no excuse for ignoring the public but might explain why fantasy/sci-fi appears to dominate?

Can't really comment on overall quality of games, our table was sufficiently busy that I doubt I saw 20% of the show.  But I enjoyed what I saw and some of it was quite inspiring.

[Andym]

So....does it matter? Surely we want more people gaming! The more we have people gaming the more eye candy we get to see! Historical, fantasy or sci fi, I like all of it! Anything that provides me with inspiration, I appreciate!

So how do we make everyone happy? How do we inspire people to take up wargaming? Does not having a miniature world for our figures to fight in, not help bring more of them into computer gaming, help?

[nic-e]

I'd like to add that prior to salute my interest in historical gaming was "very cool but not for me". I then saw some very nice Macedonian war elephants on someones table and I've just bought a box of greek mercenaries and ordered some elephants from warlord.

Everything is in flux, even gaming!

[mcfonz]

I think that may have been the ancient society's table. It was very impressive, and war elephants always stand out amongst the massed ranks of pikes!!!

[vodkafan]

I'd like to add that prior to salute my interest in historical gaming was "very cool but not for me". I then saw some very nice Macedonian war elephants on someones table and I've just bought a box of greek mercenaries and ordered some elephants from warlord.

Everything is in flux, even gaming!

Good for you nic-e!  Good luck with your effalumps!

[mcfonz]

Also, a quick count up of historical Vs sci/fi and fantasy tables has historicals clearly in the lead numbers wise. So that's that debunked.

Although somewhat impossible without help from the Warlords, I also wouldn't mind betting that in terms of table surface I bet the historicals vastly outnumber the others in terms of square footage as well. Our two games would have fit into Jim's about 3-4times when put together I reckon.

[Von Trinkenessen]

I agree with you McFonz size matters for hysterical gamers

[levied troop]

So how do we make everyone happy? How do we inspire people to take up wargaming?

Free beer?

I'm sure it's not possible to make everyone happy, but to make the maximum number of people happy is a worthwhile goal.  I suspect it's by offering as wide a variety of well-presented gaming experience as possible in the hope/expectation that this will capture somebody's imagination.

By well-presented I mean having handouts & publicity material, people capable of talking to total strangers, neat tables without piles of coffee mugs/shopping/etc. Some kind of link to help people take their interest further is useful - I always include a contact for LAF for example in the handout material so that people who might not be aware of it can see an even wider gaming experience and ask questions that occur post-show.

By gaming experience I mean all periods of sci-fi/fantasy/historical/what-ifs/board gaming/card gaming  covered by a range of standards from  museum quality terrain boards and figures to the average club/home game. Personally I'd always like to see more of the first, but some people can be intimidated and put off by 'perfect' games and having the more regular type of game represented will also help to draw people in.

It might be worth noting that while the general public might not wander into Salute, the typical customer does include those people who's experience of wargaming is either just starting or restarting or may be quite limited as well as the well-worn grognard.  I was intrigued by some of the questions posed around our table on the day; for example a lot of people were new to the teddy-bear fur approach to gaming cloth whereas I thought it was a fairly well-worn path.

Just my 5 new pence worth 

[nic-e]

I think that may have been the ancient society's table. It was very impressive, and war elephants always stand out amongst the massed ranks of pikes!!!

I think it was. Me and some of the other guys went round during the set up day and saw it all laid out waiting to go and it was an astounding sight.



On the subject of how to get people interested in your game, I really think free rules are the way to go. I know this is gonna be a massive hit for some smaller ventures. (open combat is ONLY rules, so giving them away free would be madness.) But something like the infinity quick start rules or an A4 print out of the basic game phases. There are dozens of games I have looked at but never got into because I couldn't find anything about the rules and I didn't want to drop money on a system which might give me an absolute headache. (I'm looking at you rogue stars.)

If not free actual rules, then making it clearer that demos are being run, Having your demo tables have more of a drop in capacity than a "queue and play" sort of system. Part of what made people want to play at the x-wing table was that we had it open at all times for people to dip in and out of.