The Battlegames Blog Is Back

I’m shocked and somewhat ashamed to see that it was nearly a year ago that I last posted on this site, other than to do some minor updates to the Battlechat podcast listing page or some behind-the-scenes tweaking.

The fact is that, like for many of us, it was the apparent attraction of social media and the ‘micro-blogging’ that enabled which tempted me away from maintaining this site as I should have. Besides, traffic to this site had waned, partly because I have been devoting a great deal more effort to my Patreon, of course, but also because – doh! – why would people come here when I haven’t updated anything for ages?

Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube… I tried them all, though I never stepped into the deep pond that is TikTok, an ocean where I never learned to swim.

But recent events (and I’m not going to dwell on them here) have had a huge and negative effect on my mental health. For that reason, I made the decision to quit Twitter/X, leaving behind around 4,500 followers, a move that provoked 72 hours of ugly comments and hate via the Battlegames Facebook page and email. Despite the many kind people who also expressed their support, this was such a deeply unpleasant experience that it sent me into a bit of a tailspin, to be honest, and made me realise that, at the very least, I needed a great deal more control over my online experience.

And then, last week, this site suddenly went down and my Internet Service Provider proved themselves to be not as reliable as they had promised to be following the collapse of my previous ISP last year. “Oh God, not again!” was probably the most polite thing I have exclaimed on multiple occasions in the course of trying to get help in recent days. I still haven’t had a proper explanation, and I can only guess that an automated update of some of their server software or WordPress itself had a bug and caused the chaos.

 

Back to Basics

But these events all made me realise that I need to go back to basics or, at the very least, think about precisely what I want to be doing online, simplify my workload and massively reduce distractions.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how easy it is to disappear down the time-suck rabbit hole nowadays, as we carry in our pockets devices that are deliberately designed to make us pay attention to every beep, buzz, banner and button. Even turning off notifications was only partially successful for me, because the power of FOMO kicks in and you end up going to check the apps just in case you might have missed something!

And let’s not get started on the news…

Minutes, hours, days of our lives can disappear in this way, in my case leaving me angry and frustrated that I haven’t made progress on the projects I really want to get done, which in turn leads to depression and the recriminations of self-loathing.

Moreover, we end up getting worked up about things we can do absolutely nothing about, confronting people with closed minds or severe cognitive dissonance and often with opinions that are unpleasant at best and utterly vile at worst. I’m all for calm and rational debate, but there’s sage advice about not arguing with an idiot… As an historian*, current events send a chill down my spine as I recall the old saying that those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it.

But all this is a slippery slope I’ve been on before and I have no intention of sliding any further. I know all too well where it can end.

 

It’s All In the Mind

Thank goodness I have learned so much psychology since my last brush with a breakdown in early 2021. I can now recognise both the external and internal stresses warning me that the temperature in the boiler is approaching the red line and I need to turn down the dial.

And of course, the question is, how the hell did I get here? I don’t recall ever choosing such a stressful path!

You need to be aware that I was one of the ‘early adopters’ of the World Wide Web back in 1995/6. I was working as a graphic designer at the time and read an article in MacUser about this amazing thing that someone called Tim Berners-Lee had invented. The article explained that you could send things called “emails” and build “web pages” using a special code called “HTML”, and make use of something else called “JavaScript”.

I was intrigued, and despite my business partner at the time saying “Nah! It’ll never catch on!” I taught myself how to build a site for our local SCA re-enactment group – and by doing so unwittingly became one of the first Web designers in the south of England!

Ah, those were the days. Some of you will get misty eyed at the memory of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer version 1, building web pages using tables and using JavaScript ‘rollovers’ to make things change as the user moved their cursor. All images were GIFs or JPEGs that had been squeezed to minimum size so that they loaded quickly over those squealing modems connected to the phone lines.

The first version of this website was launched on Waterloo Day, June 18th 1998. Yes, that’s 27 years ago. Twenty seven! Suddenly, it became possible to share thoughts about our hobby worldwide – instantly! I can remember the rush of excitement as, sometimes within mere minutes of uploading a fresh page of HTML to the server, the comments would start to arrive.

 

The Online World Got Lazier

But of course, whilst that form of digital publishing was exciting and innovative at the time, it was also a lot of work. The arrival of Google Blogger and WordPress later made the process much easier, meaning that anyone, including those with little or no technical knowledge, could join the online community and make their voices heard.

At the same time, of course, other venues for online chat emerged, such as the Yahoo! groups and software enabling the creation of online forums, which flourished in themed communities like ours. Some, such as The Miniatures Page, are still going, but many others have faded and died since the advent of social media.

Ah, ‘social’ media. I recall with fondness that time, back in the early to mid-2010s, when I wrote a series of articles in Miniature Wargames with Battlegames explaining how to open an account with Facebook or Twitter, how to post a tweet, how to build your own Facebook page, how to upload images, what likes and retweets were for…

And, for quite a long time, these places seemed to be a real Nirvana for wargamers, the easy and ideal setting to create an online community that was friendly, even cosy, and enabled instantaneous conversations worldwide. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has made hundreds, even thousands of online friends that way, many of whom have become friends In Real Life, although that was already true because of some of the forums such as the Old School Wargamers Yahoo! group and WD3, which led to the establishment of the Ayton game weekends.

But nothing lasts forever, and I’m sure I don’t have to describe how, especially since it changed hands and then changed its name, Twitter/X has become more… challenging, shall we say, as an environment, even if you just take into account the arrival and eventual overwhelm of advertising and various malignant bots. More recently, the algorithms on Facebook too have churned up feeds to the point where it’s become extremely difficult to simply keep tabs on the very people I joined to remain friends with. How ironic is that?

 

When the Going Gets Tough

And so, here we are, at the point where I have come to find a great deal of ‘social’ media not at all sociable and at times, downright unpleasant. It’s an addiction I’ve decided to kick to reclaim my time and my life and, most importantly, my sanity.

Have I figured it all out? Have I mapped out a clear route out of this situation leading to the sunlit hills of enlightenment?

No, of course not. But I’ve made a start.

It’s become extremely tough to run an online business, especially as a creative, and reaching the right people has become increasingly challenging when one relies on the mercies of algorithms designed to push people in a particular direction to make even more money for the billionaires running the show.

It feels like starting again.

So be it.

I still have this site, and of course I have my Patreon, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported me in that venture, whether they’ve stayed for the long haul or have only been able to chip in for a short period. Trust me, in my current circumstances, every penny counts.

This is because it’s not only my wargaming activities that are facing challenges in an increasingly competitive marketplace – my graphic design business, which for a long time centred around book design, has taken a massive hit thanks to the advent of AI and online software options that have really pulled the rug from underneath the professionals in my field. There’s not much one can say when a client points out that they can create something for themselves for next to nothing compared to what I or my industry colleagues would need to charge. The fact that I can bring 30+ years of expertise to the project counts for very little, particularly in the world of self-publishing which had become my bread and butter.

Therefore, my own self-publishing activities have become much more important to me. They can’t just be ad hoc little ‘side hustles’; they’ve got to be my bread and butter.

 

Light in the Darkness

It’s not all gloom, and I want to pick out one company in particular that has been an absolute lifeline over the last couple of years: Wargames Atlantic, for whom I have designed most of their packaging and ads for their ranges of plastic 28mm and now also 10mm figures. Their head honcho, Hudson Adams, is one of the most decent people I’ve ever had the pleasure of doing business with and has behaved both professionally and honourably ever since he first made contact back in early 2019. Small wonder that his business is booming, both in terms of rapid expansion of product lines (and let’s not forget all those digital files too), but also in terms of now taking on employees to help expand the company. It’s really fantastic to see someone in the hobby doing so well.

In addition, I’m fortunate to still be in remission from the cancer that nearly brought everything to a full stop during the pandemic. It was certainly a close call, but I shall be forever grateful to the NHS staff who saved my life and gave me another chance.

And I don’t intend to fritter that chance away.

So, instead of being consumed by the all-pervading doom and gloom, I’m going back to my roots and putting my effort into the things I enjoy most, in the hope that you will enjoy them too. Blogging, podcasting, videos and dreaming up daft campaigns for imaginary countries.

Rather than frittering away my time on social media and duplicating effort, I’m going to be doing these things right here on my original site, and on the Patreon site,

 

Planning Ahead

Obviously, I need to work out precisely what is appropriate to publish where, as I’m committed to providing my paying patrons with their money’s-worth of exclusive content, as well as exclusive access to a lot of stuff that goes public after a suitable interval, usually a couple of weeks. Once that has gone public, I shall be making the effort either to provide links here (as I do for the Battlechat podcasts), or copying stuff across.

But I also know that quite a few people have become ‘free’ Patreon members simply as a way of keeping tabs on me because I haven’t been doing regular updates here.

Culpa mea. I’m going to fix that for you.

For the time being, I think this manifesto has rambled on for long enough, but I hope it’s given you a clearer picture of how I got into this mess, and how I intend to get out of it. So literally, watch this space.

The only other online venues I’ll be using are Bluesky (still finding my feet there) and, in a completely different vein (nothing to do with wargaming) Substack**. I also have a steadily growing number of videos on YouTube, including some very silly stop-frame animations that I’ve been playing with lately.

I may also be reviving a good old-fashioned email newsletter, primarily focused on my publishing activities (not least for the creation of a Second Edition of The Wargaming Compendium), and as a replacement for the Shot, Steel & Stone private Facebook group, I might create a space on a platform such as Groups.io to enable discussion about various ideas for future iterations of those rules, playtesting and so on. If you’re interested, let me know.

Thanks so much for reading this and for your support,

Henry

 

*Yes, really – I have a B.A. (Hons) in European History and my specialism was Germany between the World Wars. Hence the chills.

**I’m reviving my Inside Your Head mental health and psychology project, including podcasts – for my own sanity, let alone anyone else who may benefit from it!