GWS 2020: Top settings, part 2
Respondents' preferred eras and settings might be ranked in different ways as well. What happens when we look at the favorite first, second, third, fourth, and fifth era?
Top Eras by Ranking
What is the consensus First Choice among all respondents? This time, counting each respondent's first choice and aggregating across era, WWII again rises to the top as the most popular era.
While WWII is the most popular First Choice among all periods and present in all of the top five choices, Sci-Fi is present in each of the top five choices too. Each of the Top 5 preferences by ranked-choice is provided in the graphics below. Notice that Pulp is the top Fifth Choice. Perhaps, by the time a respondent drills down to their fifth choice, Pulp represents somewhat of a crossover period for many different demographics? The five graphs below illustrate the top five era preferences for each of the top five rankings.
Top Eras by Primary Interest
One of the data breakouts I enjoy examining is the classification of survey respondents by primary interest. Some gamers focus on historical miniature gaming, some on fantasy and sci-fi miniature gaming, and others enjoy a mix of historical and fantasy/sci-fi wargaming. Let us take a look at each of these groups to see how wargaming preferences differ between primary interest given their top five ranked choices.
First up is the group whose primary interest is in fantasy and sci-fi gaming. The Big Three eras in this grouping are Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Warhammer 40k. Really no surprise here but notice that Pulp registers into the Top 5. 
For historical wargamers, WWII takes top honors with Napoleonics and Ancients rounding out the top three. Medieval and ACW tie for fourth place.
For those wargamers enjoying a mix of historical and fantasy/sci-fi, their Top 5 ranked choices match the overall Top 5 rankings shown earlier. As seen in the overall totals, WWII is out in front as the most chosen period. 
Finally, a number of respondents did not select a primary interest along the spectrum from Historical to Fantasy/Sci-Fi. Interesting to note that the respondents in this "Not Specified" group mirror the ranked choices of the 'Mixed" primary interest grouping. Very interesting. Does this result suggest that those not completing this survey question were unsure of their primary interest such that a place on the historical-fantasy/sci-fi continuum could not be qualified? 
In other years we noticed that older wargamers seem to prefer more historical wargaming (see for example this blog). Does that appear in this survey as well? We'll see tomorrow!
