It is no accident that a substantial part of the interest I see on solo board or war games on the Internet comes from older “gamers” who have got a bit tired of computer screens. The social aspect is kind of hard in a digital environment… I remember playing online Command Ops with Skype open on the side… which was kind of rough since broadband wasn’t all that great 7 years ago. Supposedly now, with platforms like Discord gaming can get more social… I find ironic to find myself relying on a fancy IRC server to make for the social interaction.
That’s a very insightful observation @TheWombat. Recently I had a very fun discussion at work around CMANO, where one guy said “but it doesn’t look like a game… it looks like something you WORK with rather than something you PLAY with” while shaking his head. I think he totally nailed this diversity in expectations.
When “profitable” means generating a huge short term windfall to fund the next game I totally agree with you.
I don’t think of people that complain of the latter as “grogs” to be honest. They’re chrome addicts.