NagoyaHammer - A discussion (or not...)
Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 12:50 pm
Today I went to Tsu for the Mie Plamo Summit and a great day it was. During the day I spent a lot of time talking to Kondo san from the Nagoya based group, one of the members of the Mie Warmachine group and M_i_J who some of you may know from local painting contests.
There were a few points we talked about that I'd like to share with people here and to get your input on.
First off, there isn't an awful lot of discussion going on here on NagoyaHammer, or indeed anywhere that I can find. M_i_J confirmed that the local Facebook page isn't very active and tends to be the same people posting on both Facebook and NagoyaHammer. A while ago I was talking to a couple of our group and I mentioned something that I had posted here, both people said that they had seen it, but nobody had bothered commenting on it. I get that people are pretty busy, but the purpose of this site is to enable us to connect with each other and share our thoughts, ideas and whatnot. It can be pretty disheartening to post something up and then get no acknowledgement of any kind. Many folks are at an age where they have young kids and can't get out to game much. This site is intended to be your connection to the hobby and your friends. Your kids will grow up and need less attention eventually and I'd like NagoyaHammer to still be around when that happens.
That's mainly all me at this stage, but participation online outside of the Joshin/Not-Joshin threads is something I am concerned about.
The next point that came up that I would like to chat about is the group in Mie playing Warmachine. There are a few fairly active players from the sound of things and it appears like they are keen to expand in Mie and to travel to Nagoya if they think they can get some games in. Now Warmahordes is not my thing for a couple of reasons, but if you are a fan, I'd suggest getting in touch with Dungeon Lord or letting me know and I can pass on a message for you.
The final two points are connected so I will try and introduce both together. I had a bit of time to talk to Kondo-san without being distracted by a game or having to rush off and do something else, which allowed for a bit more than the usual greeting and お元気ですか?
I also got some time in with M_i_J to talk about the future of our hobby and our little community. How do these two conversations intertwine I hear you ask? Well, Kondo-san was, I wouldn't say complaining, but certainly was raising the point that it is getting more and more difficult to play games. Yes, we all play games every month at Joshin, but there is no consistency. The games we play this month have no bearing on what we will play next month. We all have our favourites, be it a classic game from the 80s, a revision of something we have been playing for years or just the latest release from an obscure publisher. The point was made that it is tough to get in a game with minis you have already heavily invested in and it is highly unlikely that investing in something new would actually be any different because by the time the minis are ready everyone has already moved on to a new system (or two). Campaigns are almost impossible and everyone spends half their time looking up rules because they never really have a chance to familiarize themselves with them. I am fully aware that I am one of the worst people for this behaviour. I recently saw a discussion elsewhere describing how what used to be hobby-butterfly syndrome of flitting from one project to the next has now become hobby-pinball syndrome.
The discussion with M_i_J covered a lot of stuff, but primarily what we want from this hobby and what we want it to be down the line. Currently it is pretty self-serving. Everyone plays the games they want, when they want, with no real consistency (see Kondo-san's point above). This makes it pretty tough to introduce new players and to encourage people to invest their time, money and effort into anything. Aside from more ex-pats moving to the area we don't see much growth as a whole. Our hobby is fairly niche anyway, but we should do more to encourage outsiders to at least take a look. During my time at todays Plastic Model Summit, there were easily two dozen people who stopped to see what we were up to or to admire the big 40K display set up by Satoru-san and Kondo-san. Looking at the turnout for the Summit, if we could get 1% to convert to gaming we would greatly increase our own opportunities and possibilities.
So to sum things up, as a group things have fragmented a lot from the days when you could buy a 40K army and guarantee getting a game in at any event. As a group we seem to be stagnating and making the hobby more difficult to get into for anyone with a passing interest. I feel at this stage that I should make it clear that I have had several beers and am in a fairly melancholy/introspective mood, but if we hope to see any positive changes in what we do as a community and to have a future as a niche hobby in this country, it is up to us to ensure that it happens.
... So, if you have read this far, please leave a comment. What do you think, is there a solution? Am I overreacting? Where do you see this hobby in 10 years?
There were a few points we talked about that I'd like to share with people here and to get your input on.
First off, there isn't an awful lot of discussion going on here on NagoyaHammer, or indeed anywhere that I can find. M_i_J confirmed that the local Facebook page isn't very active and tends to be the same people posting on both Facebook and NagoyaHammer. A while ago I was talking to a couple of our group and I mentioned something that I had posted here, both people said that they had seen it, but nobody had bothered commenting on it. I get that people are pretty busy, but the purpose of this site is to enable us to connect with each other and share our thoughts, ideas and whatnot. It can be pretty disheartening to post something up and then get no acknowledgement of any kind. Many folks are at an age where they have young kids and can't get out to game much. This site is intended to be your connection to the hobby and your friends. Your kids will grow up and need less attention eventually and I'd like NagoyaHammer to still be around when that happens.
That's mainly all me at this stage, but participation online outside of the Joshin/Not-Joshin threads is something I am concerned about.
The next point that came up that I would like to chat about is the group in Mie playing Warmachine. There are a few fairly active players from the sound of things and it appears like they are keen to expand in Mie and to travel to Nagoya if they think they can get some games in. Now Warmahordes is not my thing for a couple of reasons, but if you are a fan, I'd suggest getting in touch with Dungeon Lord or letting me know and I can pass on a message for you.
The final two points are connected so I will try and introduce both together. I had a bit of time to talk to Kondo-san without being distracted by a game or having to rush off and do something else, which allowed for a bit more than the usual greeting and お元気ですか?
I also got some time in with M_i_J to talk about the future of our hobby and our little community. How do these two conversations intertwine I hear you ask? Well, Kondo-san was, I wouldn't say complaining, but certainly was raising the point that it is getting more and more difficult to play games. Yes, we all play games every month at Joshin, but there is no consistency. The games we play this month have no bearing on what we will play next month. We all have our favourites, be it a classic game from the 80s, a revision of something we have been playing for years or just the latest release from an obscure publisher. The point was made that it is tough to get in a game with minis you have already heavily invested in and it is highly unlikely that investing in something new would actually be any different because by the time the minis are ready everyone has already moved on to a new system (or two). Campaigns are almost impossible and everyone spends half their time looking up rules because they never really have a chance to familiarize themselves with them. I am fully aware that I am one of the worst people for this behaviour. I recently saw a discussion elsewhere describing how what used to be hobby-butterfly syndrome of flitting from one project to the next has now become hobby-pinball syndrome.
The discussion with M_i_J covered a lot of stuff, but primarily what we want from this hobby and what we want it to be down the line. Currently it is pretty self-serving. Everyone plays the games they want, when they want, with no real consistency (see Kondo-san's point above). This makes it pretty tough to introduce new players and to encourage people to invest their time, money and effort into anything. Aside from more ex-pats moving to the area we don't see much growth as a whole. Our hobby is fairly niche anyway, but we should do more to encourage outsiders to at least take a look. During my time at todays Plastic Model Summit, there were easily two dozen people who stopped to see what we were up to or to admire the big 40K display set up by Satoru-san and Kondo-san. Looking at the turnout for the Summit, if we could get 1% to convert to gaming we would greatly increase our own opportunities and possibilities.
So to sum things up, as a group things have fragmented a lot from the days when you could buy a 40K army and guarantee getting a game in at any event. As a group we seem to be stagnating and making the hobby more difficult to get into for anyone with a passing interest. I feel at this stage that I should make it clear that I have had several beers and am in a fairly melancholy/introspective mood, but if we hope to see any positive changes in what we do as a community and to have a future as a niche hobby in this country, it is up to us to ensure that it happens.
... So, if you have read this far, please leave a comment. What do you think, is there a solution? Am I overreacting? Where do you see this hobby in 10 years?