{"id":1944,"date":"2024-04-24T11:15:50","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T10:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/?p=1944"},"modified":"2024-04-24T11:21:56","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T10:21:56","slug":"new-look-charles-s-roberts-awards-aims-to-better-reflect-broadening-definition-of-wargames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/24\/new-look-charles-s-roberts-awards-aims-to-better-reflect-broadening-definition-of-wargames\/","title":{"rendered":"New-look Charles S Roberts Awards aims to better reflect broadening definition of ‘wargames’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the longest-running awards honouring conflict-focused tabletop games has shaken up its categories again, in an ongoing attempt to leave behind a traditionally narrow definition of ‘wargame’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year’s Charles S Roberts Awards, which traces its history back to 1975, has removed mention of the word wargame from all but one of this year’s 20 categories, as well as splitting the awards into historical and design mechanic-focused segments and adding a specific award for the “best historical conflict simulation dealing primarily with a non-military conflict”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Categories removed this year include Early Modern, Early 20th Century, Sci Fi or Fantasy and Expansion, replaced by Best World War I, Best Strategic, Best Operational, Best Tactical, and Best Political Social or Economic Game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up until last year the publicly-voted for CSR Awards were heavily focused on historical wargaming, but the accolades were rebranded in 2023 to focus on the broader sweep of “conflict simulations”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photo Credit: Tory Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The changes have been partly driven by the success and popularity of recent games such as Tory Brown’s Votes for Women,<\/a> which uses wargame-style mechanics to model the political fight for women’s suffrage in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Votes for Women<\/a> was nominated for the Best Early Modern Wargame in the 2022 CSR Awards, a couple of months after being named runner up in the Wargame category of BoardGameGeek’s Golden Geek Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those accolades led to a small but vocal outpouring of ire in internet forums and on the Charles S Roberts website itself, with multiple people questioning Votes for Women’s credentials as a “proper” wargame and describing the award nominations overall as a “joke”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to one of those comments at the time, CSR Awards director Gary Mengle said, “In reviewing past awards, we saw a pretty large number of games who were either nominated or who won which were considered controversial at the time because some deemed them to be ‘not wargames’ using whatever definition suited them at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Some of these, like East Front and For the People, seem ludicrous today\u2026 but literally last week I saw someone proclaim online that block games, games without hex maps, and [card-driven games] could never possibly be wargames. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Such a narrow definition of what a wargame is seems incredibly out of touch with the vast majority of people who actually play these types of games.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mengle told BoardGameWire, “We assembled an advisory group of hobby notables in the fall of 2023 to workshop some of the challenges that the CSRs have been facing over the last several years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The new groupings of categories arose out of those conversations, and are intended mostly as an organizational aid, but this breakdown also lets us modify guidelines not just by individual category, but by group as well, as the need arises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Periods are specific topics, while Modes are the ways in which a designer might approach those topics. We did, additionally, add several categories, in particular one for Best Political, Social, or Economic Game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This addition, to reflect the realities of the changing space of conflict simulations, was frankly overdue, but we had urgent process issues that we felt needed to be addressed first. We may well tweak the category list in future years, but we feel it’s probably very close to where we want it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are very pleased with the slate of nominees this year. We do, however, see some places where our procedures can be improved, and the CSR team will be discussing those this year with an eye toward implementation next year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No process is perfect, and there are definitely solid games that unfortunately did not make it onto the slate, but we are actively trying to improve every year in a deliverable way.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to BoardGameWire, Votes for Women designer Tory Brown said, “I was honored to be nominated for a Charles S Roberts award last year, and I’m grateful to everyone who voted for Votes for Women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s clear the organizers are working hard to not just reflect the community’s priorities, but also to reflect the hobby’s evolution and the ever widening reach of wargames into diverse topics by diverse designers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We can cast off the shackles of narrow definitions and the reward will be more games we love about topics and stories we know little about. Truly a win for us all.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ballot for this year’s awards is open until midnight EST on May 13 – anyone interested in voting on their favourite games in the categories can do so through this Google Form<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year’s full slate of nominations are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Period Awards<\/strong>
Awards for the best game released in calendar year 2023 within a specific historical period. A
given game can be eligible in only one of these categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Ancients Game<\/strong>
For a game set in the ancient period, including late antiquity, in the period roughly
from deep antiquity through 800 CE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n