What do real, rather than proper, wargamers look like?

In yesterday´s post I´ve shown that all of the 18 wargames bloggers scored between 13 and 18 points on the 20 questions posed by Phil Broeders, with an average score of 15.

But that is all based on the ideal of scoring 20 points, while it is much more interesting to look at the score of each question. This way we can learn about real wargamers, rather than the ideal that Phil holds up (even though with a wink).

The scores for each question, based on 18 respondents

What unites us is that we all spend a generous amount of money on our hobby. 500 pounds is not a hard threshold to attain given the fact that many of these bloggers are veteran gamers. Although most respondents indicate they don't spend 500 pounds each year, I've also seen comments that people have flunked on this question on purpose so as not to arouse suspicion with the wife.

Much of this spending is aspirational. Every wargamer has tons of unpainted lead on the shelf, and more dice than he has use for. This probably also has to do with the fact that we are all very broadminded in our taste of periods and rulesets. Everybody dabbles in more than one period and almost all of us have tried at least 10 rulesets. And if not, that's something we expect to happen in due time. I've written a bit on this aspirational buying and the concept of the anti-library elsewhere on this blog.

Wargaming is not a solo activity. Almost everyone has been to a wargames show at least once, although for many it doesn't seem to a regular event. I am happy to see the high rate of club membership. Playing in a group of potential opponents seems to be the dominant form to enjoy the hobby. I think it's a good thing that we're a social bunch.

These bloggers all seem to have seen both sides of wargaming as all of us have suffered embarrassing defeats, and almost all have inflicted whopping defeats. And although many have experienced a game so tight it went to the last die roll, this isn't a universal experience.

Luckily, less common are the experiences with the occupational hazards of wargaming, such as injuries caused by pointy objects and dropped boxes of miniatures, but they have still happened to the vast majority of us.

Although not for everyone, there's still over half of us who've gone through the pain of rebasing an army for a different ruleset. Given that this is one of the most highly detested chores in miniature modelling, I personally would hold this up as a defining question to establish whether someone is really hard core.

Me taking an apprehensive stance as the umpire calls the situation. 
Will I explode into rage and embarrass the Liphook Historical Wargamers?

The questions with the lowest scores are obviously not particular to wargaming but more indicative of the individual character and digital behaviour. Although about half have used eBay (or digital equivalents) to buy miniatures, fewer still have used it to dispose of them. Some people just don't like eBay and paying online. Bring & Buys are mentioned as alternatives. And in most cases it was as units or individual miniatures, rather than armies.

Although over half of the wargame bloggers admits to having had a proper, standup argument, this was followed by so many qualifications it was stretching the argument very thinly. Throwing dice apparently is also more a matter of poor hand-eye coordination than frustration. And finally, only very few of us have made enemies as a result of wargaming. That would indicate that we are a reasonably well behaved lot, but then again this describes a group of mostly middle aged men drawn to reflection, rather than hardcore competition gamers.

I think this overall image won't be too shocking for most of us. Tomorrow I will post my answers to Phil's original questions, Lee's expansion and even on Trebian's alternative list and you can judge for yourself whether I am a proper wargamer.

Any questions?