Check it out! look at www.gamesquad.com for a review of Iron Stars

But, they also have an interesting article about wargaming and where it's headed. (yes, I do occasionally read). Matt Irski provides us a laundry list of reasons why wargaming sucks now more than it has ever sucked before. Interpret the following as you will, but I truly love gaming and I like meeting gamers from all over the country. And some of Irski's points almost make some sense. However, the article never quite pulls itself out of the quagmire and never truly makes a point, near as I can tell. So with that said, I rebut.

Many of the reasons he gives are old-rehashed whinges about how nobody plays to learn anymore and complaints about skater dudes picking up clickies at the local walmart and expecting to be able to play games without a lot of complicated rules and without a lot of time investment. To that I say pshaw! if he's gonna bitch about something bitch about how impossible it is for an indie company to truly support it's designers and how a billion dollar industry can be ruled by a few major companies. Gone are the mom and pop Game Designer's Workshops and rules written for the sake of the game (okay that's lame, but I needed something to balance the GDW reference.)

At any rate, one particular piece of drivel that Irski sets forth in his tirade against kids who are cool and yet who play games is this moronic quote regarding the clickies and some "new" genres. "These are niche periods at best and some, like VSF or Pirates, are little more than fads. Despite all the hype, these periods will never be as popular as WW2 or Ancients". This is in an o'zine that has a decent review of Iron Stars. I guess Irski and Voysey didn't talk before publishing their separate articles. VSF is a fad, but the Iron Stars brand is one of our best-sellers? I mean, I guess if it is a fad, I'll throw out my copy of Space: 1889, too.

If, and in this case, I'm using the vernacular "If", the most popular game genres are ancients and WW2, why can I only find one or two games of WW2 (using the same rules) at the conventions I go to? Why is the most popular set of ancients rules lambasted by it's players for being impossible to comprehend in a single read? (It's not, by the way, we "got it" first time through.) Whereas, there are hundreds of 8-14 year olds playing impromptu games of yugi-oh, and clickie-flavor-of-the-month. Try picking up an impromptu game of nappies and see how far you get before your next game starts.

Moreover, Irzi pontificates from atop his own his higher-than-thou Désirée "They then ask if there is a watered-down version of Waterloo where they can just paint a handful of figs….Guess what? Doing something right takes time. Regrettably, the current generation of gamers just cannot be bothered about painting large armies. Here's a suggestion; turn off your Playstation, quit watching the same anime episodes over and over, and sit down for an hour a night and paint some figs."

Well, guess what Matt? Some of us do; and I haven't played playstation for months. If I wasn't working 50 hours a week for the last three months trying to deliver software to 1200 people, I might have gotten more done.

Now I have to apologize, Nappies isn't my genre, so I don't know as much as some people about Waterloo, etc. so keep that in mind on this next bit.

My counter-point is this, Waterloo wasn't fought by armies of 30,000 men, it was fought by armies of 30,000 men. Why not take a walk outside the norm and play a Nappy skirmish game? I'm sure there were times during the battles where some units started running around like idiots scared out of their wits. Take a couple of squads of nappies and play "find the frenchman" with a unit of prussians in some village somewhere.

Finally, Irzi pushes my big red RANT button with "The big problem is that gamers are gaming for the sake of gaming. It's become just one more way to kill time between taking the kids to soccer games and having lunch with the wife/girlfriend. What has become of the days of hobbyists investing some time and artistic talent in the hobby? What has become of the gamer who participated in such martial fare not just for the opportunity to kill things, but to obtain a deeper insight into military history?"

Let's break that down shall we kids, it's so full of bloated goodness that it bears some deeper detailed analysis.

1) "Gamers playing for the sake of gaming". Dude, it's just a game. If I want Compte de Lobau to cast a fireball, you better roll your save. I personally thought I was PLAYING a GAME. But maybe I'm being ludicrous, thinking that. If I had to build an historical case for why Orcs had a precedent for fast advance and thus move 5 hexes per turn, and why the Grimmpule historically had a lot of magic users in battle, I'd never get to play!

I'm not gonna touch the kids/soccer/lunch thing, that's just stupid.

2) "What has become of the days of hobbyists investing some time and artistic talent in the hobby". Well, here ya go...

      http://mj12games.com/aces/
      http://mj12games.com/ares/
      http://mj12games.com/defiance (Origins nominee, btw)
      http://mj12games.com/ftm/
      http://mj12games.com/grandfleets/
      http://mj12games.com/grid/
      http://mj12games.com/ironstars/
      http://mj12games.com/powersleds/
      http://mj12games.com/sov_stars/
      http://mj12games.com/spitfire/
      http://mj12games.com/starmada/

3) And "What has become of the gamer who participated in such martial fare not just for the opportunity to kill things, but to obtain a deeper insight into military history?"

He stopped bathing in 1972.