The last couple of weeks have been really busy and just plain wearing me out, so I've not accomplished much progress on gaming projects, but I have been enjoying the hobby in a little bit different way than usual.
When I got into the miniatures gaming hobby in the late 1970s/early 1980s, pretty much everyone involved was a do-it-yourself (DIY) gamer to some extent. Even though the 1980s were very much a transitional period for the hobby, with many new types of products coming onto the market, it was still really quite hard to find many of the products, and a huge proportion of gamers simply filled in the blanks, making whatever was missing for their games.
At that time, I happened into a great group of like-minded gamers, so the early 1980s was a fantastic time for me in the hobby. We had several members constantly contributing ideas, as well as everything from writing rules to scratch-building terrain or buildings, to experiments in casting some of our own miniatures.
For me, the most enjoyable element in the hobby was the creative part; the opportunity to design and build drove me deeper into the hobby.
As the 1980s progressed, the range of products rapidly grew, and the marketing approach evolved from largely cottage industry to the beginnings of the corporate marketing of instantaneous gratification by Games Workshop. Though I didn't see it at the time, my DIY hobby was already fading into the background.
Recently, I came into a large number of "Miniature Warfare" magazines. I had completely missed out on them previously in my hobby journey, not seeing my first miniatures magazine until 1988, and not even really being aware of Miniature Warfare until about a year and a half ago.
My first miniature wargaming magazine
Miniature Wargames #65
(the article about the boxer Rebellion grabbed my attention).
As I've been reading through these old magazines, dating back to 1969, I've entered into a stage of miniatures gaming that I missed completely, a world where the majority of the names are familiar to me now, but unfortunately were unknown to me in my first decade of gaming, and in many cases for far longer.
Some of the recently acquired issues of Miniature Warfare
circa 1969 to 1972.
I received one of Featherstone's books in 1987, though as it was unrelated to my immediate gaming interests, I skimmed through it and didn't give it a much thought. I didn't really read any of his books until Covid was casting its shadow on us. Since them, I have become heavily interested in what many of those "forefathers" of gaming were doing back in the day, discovering that my contemporaries and I were largely reinventing what these gamers had already done years or even decades before.
A couple of my more recent Featherstone acquisitions,
I particularly enjoyed his book about Solo Wargaming.
Now, a big fan many of these "forefathers" and particularly of Lionel Tarr and Bish Iwaszco, I find myself exploring Miniature Warfare like I've found a portal to an ancient empire, totally captivated by this "early" world of DIY gamers that is so familiar and yet so distant.
History of Wargaming editions, recently made available
by John Curry include volumes addressing the efforts of
Lionel Tarr and IW Iwaszco, whose gaming style feels
both familiar and inspiring to me.
Despite predating me, it is like going home again, reminding me of both a warmth from my early days in the hobby and instilling a longing for a time that I was never a part of. I contrast the time spanning that of the magazines through my first years in the hobby with more recent experiences, such as when a young gamer at a local shop, who on finding that I scratch-built almost all of my own terrain and even cast many of my own miniatures, seemed distraught or even irritated while asking me why I"...don't just buy everything I need and game right?"
The hobby has surely changed through the years, and I guess that I should appreciate that I have opportunity to embrace the best from both worlds. The internet fills a part of the void left by this evolution, allowing me to find and share the hobby with others who still embrace the DIY, but I do miss the immediate interaction of gaming with and working on projects with such gamers.
In any event, this nostalgic adventure has been tremendously enjoyable, and maybe has made me more aware of appreciating the most favorable aspects of the present; though, despite all that is available in the today, I still question whether I've maybe lost more than I've gained. In any event, I do miss the age of the DIY gamer.
