A Blogger's Challenge

Jonathan Freitag runs a long standing blog, the Palouse Wargaming Journal, which has just celebrated its 13th anniversary¹. In his latest post² he mused on the effect blogging has on battle reports building on a post from 2019³ which looked at how visitors read battle reports.

I know Jonathan as we are both active on the Society of Ancients forum and from Jonathan's statistical work on the Great Wargaming Survey.

After I'd commented on his anniversary post⁴, Jonathan replied that he would enjoy seeing my views on the topic of battle reports. A challenge I couldn't resist; even if it does lead to a blogger writing about blogging!

After I'd read the articles (please note), I used the Perplexity AI to summarise both articles and the associated, and numerous, comments for use in this article⁵ .

Blogging and battle reports: evolution & value

Jonathan's posts raised the following:

• The author, a long-time wargaming blogger, observes a shift in the blogging landscape, noting fewer active blogs but a continued strong sense of community and personal motivation among those who remain.
• Blogging is seen as both a method to share hobby progress and as a personal record, with battle reports acting as a narrative archive of games played.
• Writing battle reports often takes more time than the games themselves, leading to questions about their purpose - whether for personal satisfaction, audience engagement, or both.
• Styles of battle reports vary: some are brief and rely heavily on photos, others offer detailed, story-driven narratives or embrace unique templates.
• Many bloggers and readers value battle reports for their mix of storytelling, photos, and the ability to reminisce about games, even if their broader public appeal can be limited compared to the effort involved.

In essence I agree with all these points even though my approach to battle reports is markedly different from Jonathan's: brief vs. long form respectively.

As to motivation, I too begin from a place of personal reflection but always write with the reader in mind. Likewise I've never played games to produce content. I write what I play not the other way round.

A typical three game competiton involves six or seven hours of game play and an average report takes four or five hours to write. This is despite aiming to make my reports as brief as possible.

My template driven approach means I write event reports in sections in the week after an event; a "little bits and often" approach. However, I do have to take notes before and after each game; an added administrative burden in an already busy day (or two).

As I only report on competitions, which involve three (and sometimes five) games, I don't think my readers would "stay the course" of longer reports. I also doubt my ability to write longer reports.

How readers engage

In the 2019 article Jonathan asked his readers how they read his battle reports:

• Reader feedback reveals diverse consumption habits: some read every word, others mainly look at the photos, and many skim for highlights and conclusions.
• Interest in the gaming period, familiarity with rules, and available time all significantly affect engagement levels.
• Both articles show consensus that comments and the resulting conversations are a major part of the hobby blog’s community value - sometimes more so than the battle reports themselves.
• Battle reports serve not just current readers but also as personal archives and touchstones for game participants wanting to remember past experiences.

This rings true to me.

As I have posted only ADLG battle reports for ages now, I can't really comment on the second point, but it seems eminently sensible.

I would agree that comments are vital, although I don't get a tremendous number; certainly nowhere near the number Jonathon gets.

As already noted the personal archival value is high for me. I suspect it has to be for all authors to keep writing reports.

The effect of social media & changing attention spans

This didn't really feature in the first AI summary and it had to be prompted. It's a machine after all:

• Both articles highlight the impact of social media in drawing attention away from traditional blogs and fostering faster, more superficial content consumption.
• They note that changing attention spans have led to more skimming and a preference for visual elements over extended text, influencing both the format and perceived value of wargaming battle reports.

I think this is a trend that has peaked. I frequently read battle reports that are quite lengthy, but have been "advertised" on social media and forums. A symbiosis if you would.

An abundance of choice means text articles must have impact and always have the reader in mind; even if written for purely personal reasons.

The Internet has effectively made everyone a journalist, but many don't have the patience to write well. Some don't have the skills to write in a clear engaging manner. Many don't use white space, structure and punctuation to help the reader: the dreaded "stream of consciousness" approach.

There's also been a big shift in what people are prepared to put up with. I think readers have less patience and if a writer's style is turgid they quickly move on. I am always prepared to read long reports, but only if they are well written and engaging. Quality matters.

The impact of YouTube?

One thing missing from the articles, and AI summaries, is the impact of video blogging.

The combination of video, or a slideshow, and a voice over must be attractive to many would be bloggers judging by the number of channels currently available on YouTube.

Many text bloggers have now switched to video. Of course, if the videos are unscripted there's no need for an ability to write clear, grammatically correct English. Perhaps, writing long form battle reports is too much like school work? Who knows?

However, I understand that editing videos is quite time consuming and the YouTube algorithm demands regular new content which makes it much more of a job than text blogging. I think the time commitment is similar but with different skills.

From a user's perspective I wonder if videos are more popular because they require less effort than a piece of text? Just look at the pictures and let the voice over burble along in the background until it gets interesting: just like regular TV really.

Closing remarks

I don't think I can draw any general conclusions, but it was interesting to address some of the points raised by Jonathan. I hope you found this interesting?

If you did there's a post from 2023 in which I discussed some of the same issues, but in a more general context not just about battle reports.

As always, let me know what you think in the comments.

Footnotes

1. Jonathan is a prolific blogger (1,809 posts as of Thu 18 September, 2025) with many followers (355), leading to thousands of blog comments (56,964). In contrast I've written 585 posts and there are 999 comments (many are mine). ↩

2. The Blogging Effect on Battle Reports ↩

3. How Are Battle Reports Read? ↩

4. Battle report comment ↩

5. Full Perplexity summaries ↩