EDITORIAL: Where are the Fantasy Players?
So after doing this whole wargaming news beat thing for a few years, a big question keeps coming back up: Where the heck are the Warhammer Fantasy Players?
Now lets take a few steps back in the mists of time to say 5 years ago. Back then, there were just the handful of forums out there, and a bunch of yahoo groups (seriously, yahoo groups)… I know… shocking.
Then the blogosphere began to rise , and slowly but steadily gamers began to open up their own one-man shops on the internet and share their hobby and enthusiasm with the world. Some faded away quietly, some grew, but overall, the blogging community thrived and flourished, except for one little thing… it was almost ALL on the Warhammer 40k side of things.
Warmachine and Flames of War were still small and growing at that time, but Warhammer Fantasy was even older than 40k, yet even today represents no more than 10% of the blogs out there. You will often bump into longtime Fantasy players at events who are still using small pockets of Yahoo groups with small groups of their friends, often 10+ years old. Often these Yahoo groups exist in total isolation, rarely even checking into the forums, or White Dwarf, much less the blogosphere. Some of these folks only get their information from physically walking into their FLGS.
My question is why? The blogging community is out there, having a great time, making new friends and growing by the day. There is a small core of Warhammer Fantasy bloggers that have cropped up over the last 12 months, and I’m happy to see them. So to all you readers out there, grab a Fantasy player and pull them into the wider community via blogger, wordpress, tumblr, or anything else they like. If you have a passion for Fantasy, start up a blog yourself, and show off your stuff. With the arrival of 8th Edition there has never been a better time. We will all be a stronger, healthier wargaming community with the Fantasy players at our side.
~Friends don’t let friends Yahoo group…
