I agree with so many thoughts on this issue, the creep up to 28mm seems to be an issue as the battles where historical and huge in size while small in scale.  Wow that got confusing quickly 🙂

Personally I didnt really know much about war gaming as i grew up in a small town and there weren’t any other people interested.  Board games were hard to come by but my parents being educators got hold of many things that weren’t available locally.  To this rpgs were the outlet for people even out in the hinterlands.

So while I agree with much of the thoughts on war gaming and i kinda agree with some of the thoughts on the commercialization of the industry i do see some faults in the arguments.  First and I apologize for not posting handles and quotes is that back in the good ole days it was all substance and no flash.  This argument is used to discuss the over commercialization while i would argue it is from increased capabilities.  Software on its own has changed all of this as many of the abilities are far beyond a typewriter.  The next seems that people are upset about things going out of print and only new editions are available.  Games like advanced squad leader still have a following after years of gameplay and cons can still be attended.  As for out of print, well that happens even for classics in the book world or movies etc.

So to sum up these limited and poorly put together thoughts, if this isn’t the golden age then it is the silver age.  More is available even while the classics can still be found in the wild and not just museums, the culture of games as a hobby is more socially acceptable than ever.  The video game has gone from pong to the Xbox one in 40 years, the rpg has gone from a small pamphlet to a multibook set with a whole bunch of variations and that happened at the same time.  Wargaming is now not just historical but in the last 40 years there is now Marines in Space and so much more.  Many of the old businesses are gone but others have come along over time to replace them.

I hope this isnt the Golden Age because I cant wait to see what is next.  Think about it even @warzan is playing historical games and enjoying them.  That may be a bad example as it could be a sign of the apocalypse.