Fantasy miniature wargames and their players. A study of Finnish wargamers in Tampere

Prussian general von Reiswitz created Kriegsspiel in 1812 for his officers. It was a training tool which helped them hone their strategy and tactics skills. Nowadays wargames are widely used in education and in professional trainings. However, contemporary wargames are not limited to games used only for utilitarian purposes there is a plethora of wargames played for hedonic reasons such as Warhammer Fantasy Battle or Warmachine. We know little about wargaming communities. The aim of this thesis is to describe Tampere fantasy miniature wargaming community in terms of style of playing and general image of the community as a whole. I prepared a systematic and detailed literature review which revealed significant gaps in the research on wargaming as it mostly focuses on the design and educational aspects of wargames neglecting their cultural role and players. For the purpose of this thesis I conducted observations of Tampere wargaming scene in different spaces and contexts in order to collect diverse data. I followed guidelines from ethnographic field of research while conducting observations and creating field notes. I analysed it with the use of Grounded Theory and Goffmanian frame analysis. The conclusions of this work point out the necessity of conducting additional research in fields of ethnography and social sciences. The research revealed that wargamers follow unspoken rules of playing created by the community, but they do not have any individual style of playing. Furthermore, the community is homogenous as it consists of middle-aged males who are devoted to their games. They show that through possession of expensive wargaming accessories which also indicate their level of experience