Am I wrong to mourn the passing of Wargames Journal? I know it's not truly dead; it will continue as a free online magazine. I know this medium possesses many advantages, but I can’t help but think that something important has been lost.
Perhaps it has to do with why I love miniatures games. If all I wanted was a war game, there are plenty of very good computer games and board games available. But I need something solid, something tactile, something that I can pick up and move across the terrain. In the same way, I need a magazine that I can physically hold and flip the pages. I want to hear the clatter and thump as it comes through my letterbox. I want to align the issues on my shelf in sequential order, just below the shelves where hundreds of miniature soldiers stand guard.
I know there are plenty of people that will be happy that Wargames Journal has gone digital (and certainly happy that it is now free), but for me the best miniatures magazine on the market has become a ghost of its former self, and the whole hobby is a little less fun because of it. Maybe it is time to subscribe to Battlegames.