Monday 11 November 2019

Crisis 2019: Impressions

For pictures, see here
For my loot, see here

Another Crisis went by, and as usual, it provides an opportunity to write down a few observations on the hobby and my own opinion about the state of affairs. These are of course entirely subjective. It's also interesting to reread my impressions from last year, most of them which still hold ;-)
  • As has been the case for many years, the show is very well organized. An event of this size takes a good team and Tin Soldiers Antwerp again have done an excellent job.
  • It seemed there were fewer visitors compared to last year. I have no idea what the actual numbers say, but there simply seemed less of a crowd. Other visitors I talked to had the same impression as well. But perhaps this is due to the fact that visitors tend to spend less time at the con, and hence, everyone is more spread out over the entire day.
  • There is a definite "Crisis reek": the catering-service provides a fatty-hamburger-smell in Hall 1, while in Hall 2 the smell is dominated by MDF buildings. It was the first year I felt the MDF smell was very pronounced.
  • As I observed last year, it becomes more and more difficult to engage visitors at the gaming tables. Many visitors simply want to take pictures and move on, and most quickly pass by. The trend of CRISIS becoming a shopping mall is reinforced, but again this is a subjective impression.
  • As for the games themselves, there is a certain "sameness" setting in. All games look very similar, and none of the games struck me with a big "WOW" experience. Perhaps we are getting spoiled, but I think it might have to do with the continuing evolution of wargaming becoming more a consumer rather than a DIY-hobby. With DIY-games, there's always a level of being unique, but with more and more games being in scripted formats, it's harder to see the wargamer who presents his own never-before-seen-game and his own unique take on the hobby. We did a WW2 game this year, and one conversation I had illustrates this trend: one visitor was surprised we mixed and matched figures, vehicles and buildings from all sorts of different manufacturers, and that we sort of winged it when it came down to rules. That was not really a proper wargame, in his opinion. He felt we should strictly adhere to a given ruleset, and only use figures designed for that ruleset. Remember we are talking about a generic period such as WW2!
  • Perhaps it's just me getting old, but there are more and more "systems" and "settings" I am totally unfamiliar with. I am subscribed to Miniature Wargames and Wargames Soldiers & Strategy, but even then, there are games being sold (and being played) that I had never seen before. Now, you might say this is a good thing, but these games are set in settings and worlds that don't appeal to me at all. Weird fantasy settings, strange scifi universes, ... invented only to serve as a gaming universe. I do like fantasy and scifi wargaming, but I always felt the settings should be grounded in literature, movies, or common fandom. Now the games are becoming more and more self-referential.
  • Strolling through the 2nd hand market, but also browsing some of the trade stalls, also made me a little sad seeing all those miniatures from yesteryear piled up, without anyone still showing an interest. Sometimes these are even the "shiny and new ranges" from only 5 or 10 years ago. Many in worn blisters, bearing the title of a range or game no one still remembers. I even saw a trader with big container boxes full of plastic sprues, all thrown together in a big pile of plastic. That is a big contrast to the "oohs" and "aahs" heard around the trade stalls looking at the new figures just released this year. 5 years from now, they all will end up in big piles in the 2nd hand market, many of them bought but never used or played with.
  • One last thing: wargaming seems to become more and more expensive every year. I was really astonished by some of the prices that were charged for rulebooks (old or new), or figures (old or new). I do have a comfortable budget hobby-wise, but I simply will not pay 12 euro for a single 28mm figure, or 40 euro for 50 page soft-cover rulebook, no matter how hip and trendy the rules are.
But anyway, did I have a good time? Of course I did! Having a chat with many wargamer friends is still the best part of any convention. So I'm definitely looking forward towards CRISIS 2020! We already agreed we will run a game using my 42mm imagination figures!

9 comments:

  1. Chatting with trader friends about the UK wargames shows, they agree that the shows are now largely a shopping trip, with demo/participation games as a sideline as it were. I too feel that there is a sameness to many of the games on show, often seeing the same ones crop up again or a very similar 'new' game each year. I think a greater variety of scales would help (most games are 28mm or 15mm) as well as periods, table sizes etc. After a while they all tend to blur IMHO.

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    1. The 'uniformisation' of the hobby is unavoidable I think. But all it takes is some clever new game or format no-one has ever tried before :-)

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  2. I agree with most of what you said Phil. There were a few empty spaces from traders not appearing, maybe that's one reason that it looked like there were less people attending? More free space? Anyway, I think I will take a better look at the B&B next year. I really don't care for the "new and shiny" anymore. I also was a little shocked by the crazy prices asked for figures these days.
    And looking forward to your game next year! I will have more time then, as other club members will put up a game at Crisis 2020.

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    1. Maybe you should help us out running our game next year!

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  3. Visitor engagement

    To the problem that it is difficult to engage people at the gaming tables. As someone who has been on both sides of the counter, I can tell you that is is not that easy for the visitors. Club members and shop owners have it more comfortable. They sit a lot.

    The visitor walks and stands most of the time and some of them had hours to drive. They had to fight with the silly ticket machine on the parking lot (that did't work), had to stand in line out in the cold and after that they had to look at all the stuff, search for what they needed and had to keep an eye on their budget. And some rude guy is always pushing them from behind. After a few hours they are tired.

    And time is a problem. Nearly no visitor has the time to sit down and play or even watch a game for a while. The time is too limited. You have to keep in mind how extremly long a move in a wargame can be. Nobody will wait or watch that long. If you come to the tables there is not very much going. Most games I saw were a kind of a froozen picture because the club members were also gone shopping. I checked my photos. Pictures of tables with one guy as a guard and nothing happens. And if a game is going on you don't know the ruleset and you often can't hear what they are saying because it is to loud. So you can't follow.

    For our group the time was enough to see everything, take some photos and to use up our budgets. We were exhausted and some of us 'bankrupt' around 15.30 hours and left.

    Another 'problem': I wanted to know more about 54mm-Wargamimg. There is a club who showed games with big Toy Soldiers several times. So I decided that this time I would show more attention to their table and would ask some questions. Two weeks before the show I ran into their blog. Now I know it all: the group, the place, the rules, the minis, the projects. So what should I ask, what should I talk about? Why they think they should play a game that uses special dice? But they did't had a table on the show this time. Maybe next year.

    Let's get real. Wargaming shows (or 'conventions' if you like that term) have always been there for shopping. They would not happen without the traders and the buyers. The clubs and their tables/projects are very important. We all love to look at them. Maybe short stopping, quick photo taking and walking by may look rude or desinterestet but it isn't.

    I am happy to hear that you will show your 42mm imaginations-table next year because I like the special gaming tables. And I am a 'toy soldier man'.

    rw

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    1. You make some good points. But then again, one often hear complaints that games at shows often are not 'engaging' enough.
      But I concur with your point that people have limited time. The days that a visitor would sit down and play a game for 2 hours are gone. That's also why we try to run games based on micro-participation, e.g. our Red vs Blue game (see links above or to the right). http://snv-ttm.blogspot.com/p/red-vs-blue-crisis-2013.html
      Another example of such a gae, playable in 20 minutes, was Marche ou Creve: http://snv-ttm.blogspot.com/p/marche-ou-creve-crisis-2015.html

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  4. Prices and Plastics

    Are funny to the best. One of my fellows said to me that the 'Gods of Nottingham' are charging now more than 30 Euros for a single character miniature. (Papa needs a new BMW I think) And their fanbase pays. I would take 2 Kilos of Metal and cast a little army for that. And that plastic Minis? Its sad. They were such a big trend in the last years. I was looking for some roman cavalry only to find that I don't want to pay 30 (that number again) Euros für a group of too-action-posed plastic minis with weapons so thin that they break the very first moment I use them. But I am no fan of plastics anyway. I was still searching and found bags of metal minis that may have been the right ones but these bags were so 'blind' that I could not really see what was inside. And at that traders stand half of the labels on the bags where also not readable anymore. Could not buy anything. Finally one of the biggest sellers even didn't bother to put price tags or codes on all their stuff but their minis where to small anyway. I bought sculpting stuff.

    rw

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    1. I am also a big fan of metal miniatures. A toy soldier is not the same as a model kit. I would never buy boxes full of plastics sprues where you have to assemble your soldiers, seperate arms and all that. Horrible!

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  5. Systems

    As a former (brick and mortar) shop owner - closed more than twelve years ago - I can tell you that the younger fellows have this 'system' approach nowadays. Miniatures, Rules and everything else from one manufacturer. Only that fits together. Its silly, but there are reasons for that. They are confronted with an abundance of products these days. A system gives them orientation and more and more people need that. They handle wargaming like a collection. When you are in a group that uses only products from one 'system' and you bring in something from the outside world the other players may feel like beeing betrayed. Not by the company that produces the system, by you. When you bring in something that is cheaper or better looking you are confonting them with their incapability of making own decisions.

    rw

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