Writing about wargames for the Shut Up Show made me think a bit about my opinions on this particular section of the hobby. Strangely, perhaps, for someone who doesn’t identify exclusively as a wargamer and indeed finds the concept of simulation in games often leads to excessive baggage, I have some pretty strong opinions on the genre. The first of these is that, unlike any other classification, I have a cast-iron definition of what makes a wargame. If it’s based in history or near-history and attempts a passable stab at realism, it’s a wargame. If it...

MoaM (Mummies on a Map) at its best.

Readers who have met me in real life know that I live for social interaction in games. It doesn’t even need to be an element of the mechanics, just present at the table in some form. If you’re the table that’s laughing and cutting up, that’s where I want to be. So I didn’t understand why so many gamers were so taken with playing games solo. On some level it defeats the entire purpose of playing games, which is to spend time with friends.

A person with an automatic weapon with a rate of fire of hundreds of rounds per minute is trying to kill you. What do you do? Why you charge towards that person doing a couple of acrobatic moves and slow motion flips and when you get close enough you chop that person in half with your samurai sword. Duh! I don't know what person in Hollywood was the first to come up with the notion that a cartwheel is such an unpredictable maneuver that it makes the acrobat an unhittable target but Sucker Punch certainly isn't the only...