Actually, in my experience (based on the collapse of four wargaming clubs I've been associated with, as opposed to the single example you are familiar with), you usually end up with a wargamer who thinks he is Machievelli's favourite son, who manages to end up alienating everybody (except his own pet cadre).
At which point the reliable core you depend upon decide it's actually less hassle to game at home, and newcomers interested in seeing what is on offer are put off by rude privileged members, notices that they are organising a trip to a strip club, and unemptied garbage bins. Which means a drastic loss of revenue, and given the rents and utilities, the financial collapse of the club (even not counting bad management practices).
The best model for such a club is the same used by actual social clubs, and that is you hire a business manager to manage the club, rather than relying on a committee to do so. But that's an added expense.
Besides, the halcyon days of wargaming (the 70's) and role-playing (the 80's) are long gone. Most of the members of both groups now have other commitments (families et al), which mean that they are satisfied when a shop opens it's basement to allow gaming. The current trend is Eurogames, which don't have as a great an infrastructure requirement and can get away with renting the various community spaces that can be found around the place.
And I was thinking of using a dedicated client, complete with tactical map and movable pieces, rather than just having a text-based IRC/MUD/MUSH game. Probably a commercial client as they tend to be much more developed. [Then again, we once all bought NWN in an idea that we would recreate our old dungeons in it. Unfortunately the amount of scripting required is beyond what we were ever willing to put into it, and ComputerRPG, especially at that time, were rather boring anyway.]
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branchandroot
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Date: 2011-07-08 02:09 pm (UTC)Actually, in my experience (based on the collapse of four wargaming clubs I've been associated with, as opposed to the single example you are familiar with), you usually end up with a wargamer who thinks he is Machievelli's favourite son, who manages to end up alienating everybody (except his own pet cadre).
At which point the reliable core you depend upon decide it's actually less hassle to game at home, and newcomers interested in seeing what is on offer are put off by rude privileged members, notices that they are organising a trip to a strip club, and unemptied garbage bins. Which means a drastic loss of revenue, and given the rents and utilities, the financial collapse of the club (even not counting bad management practices).
The best model for such a club is the same used by actual social clubs, and that is you hire a business manager to manage the club, rather than relying on a committee to do so. But that's an added expense.
Besides, the halcyon days of wargaming (the 70's) and role-playing (the 80's) are long gone. Most of the members of both groups now have other commitments (families et al), which mean that they are satisfied when a shop opens it's basement to allow gaming. The current trend is Eurogames, which don't have as a great an infrastructure requirement and can get away with renting the various community spaces that can be found around the place.
And I was thinking of using a dedicated client, complete with tactical map and movable pieces, rather than just having a text-based IRC/MUD/MUSH game. Probably a commercial client as they tend to be much more developed. [Then again, we once all bought NWN in an idea that we would recreate our old dungeons in it. Unfortunately the amount of scripting required is beyond what we were ever willing to put into it, and ComputerRPG, especially at that time, were rather boring anyway.]