Wow. Wargaming. You know what I think has done more for wargaming than anything else in the last half dozen years? The "Advance Wars" games on Gameboy Advance. Wargaming vets may laugh, but the game is unbelievably playable and fresh and may be bringing in future enthusiasts more than anything else out there.

I'll be working at Stanford Unversity with Henry Lowood on a wargaming project involving HPS Simulations soon. It's being funded by the military and involves education/simulation, but the details are still a bit hazy now.

Anyway, if people are interested, I could probably post progress reports similar to my ATITD articles. I'm not sure how popular it'd be though since war games aren't currently "hot" like MMPOGs are. I'm just getting into them myself now (current focus is "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and other culturally important historical Asian wargames).

Off topic: Why not directly link to articles? I understand giving proper news source credits (which I applaud), but you already have a Slashdot link there. Kind of strange to read an article that as a link to an article that has a link to an article. :)

On Topic: I know someone who is pretty into wargaming in general. I've never really cared for it myself, but then again I've never given it much of a chance. Maybe I will if I ever have the time (school is hell, save me!). It's nice to hear about independant success on any level, though, that's for sure.

My dad had a lifetime subscription to S&T games. No computer game has come close to the complexity and fun of pouring over weather and food production charts while trying to ensure that your Roman legions in Gaul would have enough food to survive the winter and those thrice damned barbarians. I still have an issue or two and have a pretty good collection of wargames. Whenever Dad comes to visit, I blow the dust off of Squad Leader and try and remember what the hell a morale check is.
I'm happy to see that there are still some out there who are working to put together some computer wargames. Romance of the 3 Kingdoms is great, but sometimes I just want to see a hex and check my line of sight with two pins and a string without having to spend 200 dollars and countless hours painting the scenery.

There's a thought - might there be a market someday for prepainted military miniatures and vehicles, similar to WizKids' line? The way PC games like Battlefield 1942 and Medal of Honor are performing, I think maybe so.

Pedro, you've reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend recently. This article notes that most table-top war games were played solitare. We were thinking about how some (non-video) games, including RPG's, are enjoyed by a lot of people who don't actually play them - a lot of people just like to read the rules and splat-books and other material from many RPG's, enjoying the ideas of the game as a kind of para-literature rather than actually playing them. (We would play them, too, but playing them was a distinct pleasure apart from appreciating them as a system, as a history, as a world.)

I can admit that I've played a few of my wargames solitaire and I used to own Ambush (one of the more successful Victory Games) which was designed to be played solitaire. Probably the best solitaire wargame/RPG hybrid one could ever play. I gave it to my dad when he moved out of the city so he could have something to play.

As for reading RPG book just for the pleasure of reading them...absolutely. Even years after the last time I GM'ed, I still feel the urge to grab a Stars Wars RP guide and thumb through it in the book store of the Compleat Strategist. I just like reading them. It's fun.

Misuba- Looks like we'll soon find out. http://ww2.battletags.com/

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Posted by: outsider on April 11, 2006 04:47 AM