My main motivation for compiling this index is for my own use. The wargaming literature has published so many scenarios, rules, campaigns ... over the years, I refer to them regularly for setting up my own wargames. Having a good index certainly helps in locating a specific article.
But I also think keeping an extensive library of wargaming magazines is worthwhile in itself. The history of our hobby needs to be documented, and this little project is a small contribution to that goal. Perhaps this view is coloured by my occupation as a research professor, but I honestly do think that building up a literature collection is an integral part of understanding where a specific field (in this case, wargaming) originated from and how it developed.
Granted, many wargaming magazines cannot be compared to academic publications, but even so, they deserve to be archived, if not for the future gaming historian who wants to know where the dreaded "saving roll" came from, or when the first scenario on the battle of such-and-so was first published. Magazines are not the only source for this type of information (there are plenty of books and other types of publications as well), but they might help to establish timelines and give contextual information.
But anyway, back to the index. In case you are wondering what sort of information one can look up, you should go to the link above and experiment for yourself. But just to give a few examples ...
Here's a list of articles I wrote myself (filtering on the name of an author) ...
... and here are the articles that deal with the Waterloo campaign and have a scenario (filtering on both period and scenario) ...
... or the articles dealing with Frostgrave ...
... and here are the articles that have the random word "Faltenian" in the title (filtering on the occurance of a specific word in the title) ...
... and here are the 10 most popular periods (take with a grain of salt, since there are many subclassifications ...) ...
A searchable index is, indeed, important. What would be even more helpful would be have each article's content retrievable. Of course, copyright laws make that impossible. You provide a useful resource that I ought explore.
ReplyDeleteJonathan,
DeleteVery true, but it’s something I won’t delve into, especially for magazines still in print and back issues being available. Moreover, I would think that if the author is still wargaming-active (or simply alive), it would be bad manners to start making articles publicly available.
Thats quite a project you have set yourself Phil, clearly you are adept with a computer.I still use a pen and ink and even then its not as well set out as your efforts,well done.
ReplyDeleteThanks! And to prove how useful such an index is, I have located 5 articles with you as an author :-)
DeleteRefighting the Battle of Austerlitz Robbie Rodiss MiniatureWargames 141
The Battle of Crecy - 26 August 1346 Robbie Rodiss MiniatureWargames 153
Wargaming with Wesencraft Paul Stevenson, Robbie Rodiss MiniatureWargames w Battlegames 370
Refighting the Battle of Quatre Bras - 6mm style Robbie Rodiss WargamesIllustrated 93
Gettysburg - A refight Robbie Rodiss WargamesIllustrated 144