Reply To: Inaccessibility of Historical Wargaming

[osbad 4279xp 6]

I didn’t mean to pile on your mate.  I appreciate it is a third party conversation, and he’s probably a nice guy, and I can quite believe that some folks who were long-term 40k players and who recently took up BA were … not great.  Not to stereotype, but there is a mindset I have come across amongst SOME ex-/swing-/40k players and it isn’t great (although I have met, and indeed game with, many who are absolutely wonderful people)

The issue I think though is that anyone even sees the need to “convert” anyone to anything.  Playing BA is as valid as playing Chain of Command, or Squad Leader or indeed 40k.  Its validity comes from its ability to engage and entertain a large number of people over a long period of time.  There is no “superior” hobby here.  It may be that Chain of Command is a better way of simulating combat in WWII, but that does not make it a “superior” game objectively, only subjectively and only to those who really care about that kind of thing.

Now some people will develop a love for history and find they start to like more simulationist (although CoC isn’t really simulationist in a bad hyper-detailed way, it just is really well written!) approaches and researching the background, and more power to their elbow.  Others will stick with their new game for a long time and be totally satisfied with it, and there is nothing at all wrong with that.  They just don’t value the simulation angle as much as the others.  And that is not a “worse” or “immature” or “kiddy” (all epithets I have heard used in this context).

Basically in my view, any “historical” gamer (or any other gamer) has a problem and will be perceived as being a douche if they approach another gamer with the idea in their mind that the way someone else enjoys their hobby is in anyway less “mature” or “valid” in any way.

Are historical gamers more prone to it?  Possibly in that historical gaming gives an opportunity to attempt to portray reality.  However I have met some 40k gamers who totally rivet count and object to fan-made gaming ideas as being non-canon, and I have to admit that in my youth I looked down on LotR gamers who fiddled about with canon and tried to insert their own ideas into Professor Tolkien’s world (even when those fans were employed by GW to work on the game…. !)  But I have repented of that attitude, and see it for the elitist, snobby nonsense it really is.

Basically, no-one has any right to criticise, however mildly or by implication, anyone else’s hobby.  If historical gamers in any way are perceived to look down their noses at people enjoying less simulationist games than they think are “the best way of portraying history” then they are opening themselves up to being labelled as intolerant.  Because there is no absolute standard that says “If you don’t attempt to portray history correctly then you are doing it wrong”!

Imagine the boot was on the other foot.  Imagine a (say) Bolt Action player came up to your friend and said: “You are doing the hobby wrong because I just want fun, and spending a load of time researching a historical period is not a fun activity, so if your hobby involves a lot of research then it is a chore, not a hobby so you need to “convert” to a less research-intensive game so you can have more fun!”

It’s nonsense, right?  But it is no more nonsense than the idea that I have read into your friend’s supposed comments that appear that he believes that in order to “do historical gaming properly” you have to do your best to simulate reality and that it is somehow my duty to “convert” you onto the “ONE TRUE PATH” of historical gaming whereby you learn to do it “properly”.

The issue is one of tact and consideration.  Of course we all believe the way we do hobby ourselves is the best way of doing it, otherwise, we wouldn’t do it that way ourselves, right?  But who are we to imply that our knowledge and understanding gives us the right to tell someone else (even if we have been doing it for years and they have only just started) uninvited how they could “do it better”?   While we might be the loveliest person alive and really mean no harm by it, just by harbouring that attitude and expressing it implicitly by giving uncalled for advice we are in fact being a complete twat!

Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy history.  In fact, I was “into” history before I was into gaming or fantasy.  There is nothing wrong with getting into the detail of history. But there is also nothing wrong with collecting a 1000 point BA army, painting them shocking pink and blitzing your mates on a club night, if that floats your boat.  As long as we all go into our games with our opponents knowing what each other expects out of a game, then its all good, and in my view, we should stay the heck out of each other’s hobby space unless invited in.