MUSING & MACHINATING
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SPALDING WARGAMING CLUB
Once upon a time we were all noobs. Some of us lucky enough to have a mentor where others made do with the fumblings of youth, but the fact remains that all of us were hapless noobs. There is a certain cliché that newcomers to any hobby are to be viewed at distance and with disdain, especially within wargaming. I know this for a fact, because I was a vile elitist. All these bright eyed kids who got their first box of miniatures and couldn't grasp they needed more than 10 scrubs to wage war upon the glorious field of battle? I had no time for their breed. I was 18 and had a pretty toxic attitude. I hadn't been part of any gaming groups and pretty much just played minor fixtures and between people I knew. So noobs weren't part of my world, until I met George. I moved to a new town and got involved with the local Games Workshop. I spent way more time than I should have done in there, for I was avoiding my girlfriend at the time and the store proved to be an exceptional repellent! I played games, got involved in store events, did the painting competitions, debated tactics and army lists. Now and again there would be a noob, with their dull grey plastic army, who had graduated from boot camp and was looking for a game. A veteran would be roused from their torpid painting session and eradicate them: this was colloquially known as ‘destroying hobbies’. To us it was a rite of passage, a gauntlet to be endured until they got better or quit. Eventually, one day, I was playing Warhammer Fantasy miniatures and a rather serious looking young lad came in with his parents and started browsing. One thing led to another and he ended up watching me play the game, as I was retooling a list for an Invasion tournament. He watched the whole thing, beginning to end, and left with a Fantasy starter set under his arm. Fast forward a few weeks and he'd graduated ‘Scrub Sunday' and ended up on a painting spot next to me one Friday evening. The store manager got him cracking with the a handy step-by-step process. I paid him no mind until I saw he hadn't brought the brush to a point and was having difficulty daubing on the paint. The manager was busy so I stopped him and, in a surly fashion, told him that he should clean the brush properly, use less paint and point the brush. He asked me to show him, so I did and got him to repeat after me. He thanked me and diligently went about painting, stopping now and again to ask how it looked. A few weeks later and I saw him playing a game, with all his models painted up. I was actually impressed that somebody took my advice and applied it ... It actually felt good. I took a shine to the serious, quiet boy. I watched a few of his games, asking how he thought it went afterwards, giving him tips and advice on building his army up. Eventually we started to play, with me stopping at every phase and telling him what I was doing and why I was doing it. He learned the intricacies of the game and got into the other systems and started new armies and we built up a good relationship. I actively helped him with his hobby, and I enjoyed it. I still struggled with a lot of new players, not because they were new, but because excited 11 year-olds tend to screech ... A lot. I had been an extreme (although not uncommon) example of the toxicity that exists within gaming circles. It is an unnecessary attitude to adopt and does little else but hurt the community at large. We all need to be generous with our patience, support and encouragement to those who are newcomers to our collective. The reason that I’ve been considering this is that Spalding Wargames Club (SWC) is currently merging with Spalding Youth Games Club. This has come about as the indefatigable Tom Hopkins will be venturing on distant shores soon and will be leaving a vast gap in his wake. He’s been a core member of SWC from the beginning and half of the duo that has kept Spalding's youth group going for many years. His energy, passion and enthusiasm are hard for any individual to match, which is why many members of SWC will be mucking in to fill the void left behind. In summation, noobs are just that; new. The need care and attention so they become good functional hobbyists. If you ever get the opportunity, I heavily recommend taking a protégé under your wing. There's not a lot more gratifying in the hobby than helping shape somebody into a player that you love to play against and will give you a thorough stomping.
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After reflecting upon the piece I wrote for the Fen Orc blog about the origin of my hobby, it caused me to think more deeply about why I still am engaged with it. We all know many people who dabbled with tabletop games in their teens. These people had fun but in time abandoned it. I myself have had serious troughs in my activities, but why is this? I have come to the conclusion that it is about one thing, and that is structure. Structure is invaluable to maintaining engagement within the hobby: you need easily achievable short term goals in order to remain motivated. For example, you could say that this week I'll glue and undercoat a unit of miniatures. Next week, I'm going to basecoat them. The following week, I’m going to base and shade the same unit. The week after, I will highlight and add detail. In a month, you will have completed an entire unit from beginning to end. Wouldn’t it be great to finish a unit per month rather than start 4 and never finish them because it just seems too daunting? That's 12 units a year! It's very achievable to have this kind of progression, if you strictly discipline yourself to 15 minutes a day of quality time, actually sitting and getting on with it. I'm certain everybody can find 15 minutes, somewhere, every day, to set aside for this. Realistically, once you sit down for those 15 minutes, you'll run over without even meaning to, and, by doing this, you'll be spending almost 2 hours of quality time per week on your project. The added benefit is that it is vastly easier to concentrate for 15 minutes than a block of 2 hours, especially if you have dependents or other duties to attend to. Even by organising your time, there is always the question of ‘why?’ that creeps into your mind. Why am I doing this every week? For a few, there is just the personal pleasure of a job well done: this is very common in scale modellers, because once the piece is finished, there is nothing left but to display it. However, we are table top enthusiasts and the pieces we paint are exactly that; pieces for a game. Although it is true that is it not required that they be, there can’t be much debate about the superiority of playing with painted miniatures. It adds so much character, theme and spectacle to a game. The grey tide is a fact of life; at times it feels like holding the ocean back with a broom. We always promise to ourselves that we will make a dent next week, or next month, or next year. So here's an idea; why not make a promise to others? This sounds like a radical concept, but, if you're a DM/GM, then you're totally cognisant of this phenomena. Before your next session, you've drawn up the maps, written the story, made your contingencies and probably painted up the gribblies you need before the next session. You entered into a verbal contract with your players that you are going to be organised for the next session and this motivates you to get it done, because you don't want to let anybody down, as the game relies mainly on you and your input. To take the wider concept and expand on it, examples of this can be found all over the internet in blogs and message boards. Like this one here: The authors of these posts make (sometimes unspoken) agreements to make regular updates on progress with their projects. In addition, they often apologise for periods of inactivity, even though they made no formal commitment to keep their audience in the loop. However, let’s not pretend this is a one way street, because it isn't. A lot of people offer encouragement, praise, suggestions or ideas to help the content creator. This support is invaluable to both consumers and producers, because, without this external validation afforded to them, the creator is like to lose impetus and ends up believing they are howling into the void. The main cause of the death of threads and blogs is either that the project reached its end or there was a lack of community engagement or support. By providence Spalding Wargames Club is lucky enough to have these resources at hand. We have a section called ‘This Month’ in which members can submit what they've been working on (or may be planning to). We have the indispensable Mr Jonathan Rowe who is more than happy to accept rough WIPs to spin golden threads. In turn, our community can vouch support and, if we’re blessed enough, a wider audience may take interest in our little backwater. Going back to my initial ponderings; why am I still engaged with the hobby? I think it is down to what I mentioned on the Fen Orc Blog. I had a publication which, from my early years of wargaming, gave me focus and built a community for me. It gave me a regimen. Every 2 weeks I’d get a new issue, so I’d have a deadline of 2 weeks to complete my pack (miniatures, scenery and scenarios) before the next one came out. When I examine my periods of low engagement, it is primarily down to a lack of community. I had no reason to keep up with my hobby because there was no end goal. There are a lot of games I don't play (despite having an interest) because nobody plays them. Doubling your efforts to get 2 armies done and having to run a lot of intro games for a couple of people to consider getting involved is an inordinate amount of effort. However, a summer project I have in the works is invigorating me in a corner of my hobby that has gathered dust of late, and the shadow of Mordor has grown long indeed. In summation, structure is key to making meaningful progress. A chisel to chip away at the great obelisk before us. To have discipline within ourselves, in setting and completing objectives, and, above all, to hope that others encourage us to strive for better and motivate us when our drive is lacking.
The prejudices people feel about each other disappear when they get to know each other. Media play a big role in our understanding of all things. They shape our preconceptions, our stereotypes, our expectations, our opinions and sometimes our wants and needs. So how do media reflect our strata of subcultures? As a foreword I’ll be conflating geeks and nerds under a single banner of ‘gerds’. This is for brevity alone: several people have strong views on what separates them (if anything at all) and that will be a topic for a future article. The Good Let us look at a few examples of positive representation. Top of the list has got to be Ben Wyatt from Parks & Recreation. There's no doubt he is a gerd; he writes Star Trek fan fiction, makes stop-motion films, plays boardgames and buys a full bat-suit. However, the important thing about his character is that none of these is his defining trait; Wyatt shows he can be assertive, articulate, passionate and well-groomed. He is a normal guy with interests that don't align with the mainstream. Next up are Dustin, Mike, Will and Lucas from Stranger Things. There's no doubt the boys are gerds: their opening scene is them at the end of a 10 hour D&D session and not long after they're shown as active members of an audio/visual club. They are all different and well fleshed-out characters showing great ranges of emotion and behaviour. This is the sticking point that we keep coming back to: their defining features aren't that they are gerds. It’s that Dustin is loyal, Mike is thoughtful, Lucas is headstrong and Will is robust. The BAD Although The IT Crowd is an entertaining programme, it does represent gerds in a terrible light. It’s important to note that this is a comedy piece and salt is required, as it represents the most extreme depictions of all characters. This includes Goths and business people. However, the focus is on the 3 main characters. Moss and Roy are both poorly adjusted, condescending, odd and socially inept. They appear to have a much lower level of social status and are confined to a basement to mitigate their impact on the workforce. Then we move on to Jen. Jen is brought in to manage Moss and Roy; she is there in order to mediate with ‘normal’ people as they’re both shown to barely capable of interacting in any social context. I have to reiterate that this is a comedy piece, it is designed to be entertaining and exaggerate flaws. What I take umbrage with is that it is blunt in its implementation. It reinforces damaging stereotypes that were out of touch at the time and more in keeping with American portrayals which leads me neatly onto the worst offender ... Arguably the most popular depiction of gerds is The Big Bang Theory. It is so very disappointing that this show has gained such traction and found an audience, because its central pillar is to point and laugh at the freaks. The obnoxious laughter track kicks in constantly to reinforce how funny these odd little creatures behaviours are. Every single stereotype is held up and ridicule encouraged, with the ‘straight man’ (Penny, herself a drawn out cliche) to highlight how strange their rituals are. Even now Chuck Lorre's portrayal is looking dated given that gerd culture is becoming more mainstream. That sounded a little reactionary didn't it? It may well be, but it doesn't make it false. As above, this is a comedy piece, but it’s what exactly is being used for comedic effect: it's them. The central characters ARE the joke. That Penny is used as a focusing lens for these individuals to highlight how outside the norm they are, she is supposed to be the relatable character who is portrayed to be hilariously out of her depth. Try watching an episode without the laughter track, I guarantee you'll see this show in a different light. Now for something I have tentatively avoided and with good reason: the representation of women. This is a powder keg, but what must be said is that the portrayal of female gerds is less offensive and a step in the right direction. Mayim Bialik plays Amy Fowler, who is again flaunting the full spectrum of expected behaviours as well as a sexually frustrated love interest for Sheldon Cooper. Now while I don't think this is a good reflection on female gerds, the actress herself does have a PhD in neuroscience. So for the industry I’ll take that as not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Finally Chuck Lorre. There's little that can be summed up from him other than he doesn't understand his source material beyond cliche and stereotype. It’s a total misnomer. Compare what he churns out to Dan Harmon's Community or the work of Kevin Smith. All that remains to be said is that this show in particular is the absolute bottom of the barrel in regard to its representation of characters, story, theme, humour and subject matter. It is lowest common denominator with its sights fixed squarely on a subculture it only understands through regurgitation of limited and dated understanding. The Ugly Fashion flirts with many ideas and concepts from militaria to chintz, but aspects of geek-chic refuse to die regardless of the season. Thick framed spectacles, plaid, (pussy) bow ties, argyll, ‘GEEK' printed shirts: aspects of this trend make what were once unfashionable ensembles into desirable ones. While it is great that clothing once deemed ‘nerdy’ or ‘geeky’ became vogue it’s worth noting that it is a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It's fashion, and only that. Branding it geek-chic is a little outdated and disingenuous, in that gerds (by and large) don't conform to the stereotypical clothing associated with them. However this IS what fashion does. Fashion has co-opted what it sees as the subculture’s attire, It’s more evident at the high of the movement in 2012 when EVERY celebrity donned a pair of thick frames whether prescription or not. Having said this you can't blame the industry because it reacted to another phenomenon, that of fetishisation. Let's be honest in that there is a monstrous elephant in the room that slid out of the shadows of the gerd sphere... Cosplay. You can stop right there if you’re going to make the ‘not all’ argument because you're deceiving yourself. No, not all cosplayers are conventionally attractive and there is no barrier for entry by the community, but stop yourself and look at the prominent figures of both genders who are more well known. Cosplay is unquestionably an element of the subculture where sex sells. The industry does borrow from Cosplay and vice versa because sex sells. Even more classic depiction is the gerdy girl who loses the specs, puts on the frock and combs her hair: she is transformed. The kitty in your living room was a tiger all along. The music industry has done this arguably more successfully than any other. Artists like Taylor Swift that put on the costume when it suits; that lends it yet more sex appeal. Let's not forget ourselves though. It is a costume and not a reflection of being part of a group, merely a disguise. Most of the icons wearing this kind of thing probably weren't ostracized for loving classic literature or knowing all the droid model numbers in Star Wars. Make Love Not Warcraft is a brilliant episode of South Park. So why has it fallen into the ugly category? This is down to the fact that it is funny if you're in the loop for different reasons than for those of a casual observer. Matt Stone and Trey Parker are gerds; the host panels at Comic Con and are pretty deeply embedded in gerd-dom including in the World of Warcraft (WoW) scene. There’s a lot of humour in the episode that the community directly relate to and as such has become a meme. However, in the time this episode came out there was a lot of negative press about the game, in regard to the addictive nature and poor health it fostered in its dedicated fan base. From an internal perspective, we know that these are outliers but, from the outside, these look like the norm. The episode makes the addiction to this game look like par for the course, that playing it turns normal children into gelatinous monsters in their mothers' basements. This, naturally, IS the joke. However I think it misses the mark for the uninitiated. An Ode to Balance So is media misrepresenting gerds? Yes and no. The classic stereotypes are still alive and well of the basement dwelling virgin, unkempt, unwashed, childish, condescending and socially inept. Easy and lazy iterations to be trotted out that are easily recognisable. They can be seen in The Simpsons, The Fresh Prince, Napoleon Dynamite, Grease and the Inbetweeners, etc. Although it’s not all bad. We still get Paul, Mallrats, Spaced, Community and Scooby Doo. Yet what we've been seeing is a shift in what is and is not considered in the gerd domain. Video games were once purely for gerds, comic books are now transformed into summer blockbusters, computers are part of everyday life, the internet is easily accessed and used by millions. The truth is that with every passing year more people readily encounter those with less common pastimes, they become known quantities as they become more readily available and exposed. Gerds will lose the stigma of outsider culture and be folded into the grey, but accepting, mainstream.
As our lives become more technologically infused with every passing day, it is no surprise that table top gaming is moving in the same direction. However, a rift is forming between those who find it an antithesis of gaming's original form and those who fully embrace the shift from analogue to digital. So let’s look at a few perspectives. The Purist This is a position which is firmly entrenched in the fundamentals of tabletop gaming: it is social experience. Tabletop games bring people around a table to play a physical game whether it is naughts and crosses jotted in an exercise book margin, the annual family game of Monopoly, a bunch of friends for Dungeons and Dragons or a vicious grapple with an opponent in Warhammer 40,000. Every player has a need to fulfill; be it a drive for competition, to socialise, to escape the rigours of day to day life, to bond etc. It is the social thread that pulls those with disparate ends together, and if you're open minded you'll forge new friendships that would otherwise be unlikely. That alone is magic, to bridge gaps (in age, class, gender etc) that otherwise may not have been. It certainly is a compelling argument to be a luddite in this corner of your life. The Technophile There is no way you could assert that technology hasn't had an impact on table top gaming, but many have gone full bore and play games, that were originally physical, digitally. Games like: Ticket to Ride, Carcasonne, Mysterium, Star Realms and Forbidden Island have traditionally been played with other people in a shared material space but now these (and many more) can be purchased digitally and played that way too. There are a huge amount of positives to playing digitally, so I’ll look at a few of them. Firstly, convenience. It is undeniably easier and quicker to whip out your phone to play a game; you don’t need a table or even have friends! Play with randoms or alone with the A.I. at any time of the day or night. Insanity. Secondly it’s vastly cheaper. Ticket to Ride is £3.69 on the Google Play compared to the £25+ cost of the board game (excluding postage). It is a 5-player game, but even if you personally bought 5 copies then it’s still £18.45. If you already own a few games, you'll have encountered the problem of storage: not a problem digitally, as It’s stored on your Google Play library or phone/tablet. If reading rules is too much effort (i.e. Jeremy Vine) then applications are right up your alley: it's all adjudicated for you without any hesitation or misinterpretation. Let's face it, apps really do have the edge on paper. it’s Ronseal, although it feels a little soulless. The Hybrid What about the best of both worlds, to get the best of each approach with the tactile, very human quality of the Purist with the streamlined convenience of the Technophile? It's entirely possible and very common in the form of companion apps, scoring apps and PDF editions of rulebooks. Companion apps are exactly that: applications that work in synchronisation with table top games, and there are quite a few that once you start using them you won't look back. The gleaming example is One Night Werewolf. This is a game of deception, the townsfolk vs. the werewolves, in which individual unique identities are dealt out and which are kept concealed There are secret shenanigans, there is a 3 minute discussion and finally a vote on who to hang for being a werewolf. If a villager is hanged then the werewolves win and vice versa. However the secret shenanigans are done with players' eyes closed, with each character ‘waking up’ and using their specific character ability. Which means one person has to wake up, read out the character who is acting next, explain what they do and go back to having their eyes closed. This takes a very long time if you have more than 4 players (10 is much more fun), with going through each character (in the correct order), reading the ability and waiting a generous amount of time to let them complete their action. Let me remind you, there is only 3 minutes before you start this process all over again. Tedious. Yet there IS an app that fills this role; it is spectacular and a must-have. You plonk in the characters, and it does all the steps for you with a very clear, velvet smooth voiceover. Absolute magic. Scoring apps for some games are unnecessary because if you can do basic arithmetic then you'll have no trouble, but there are some like 7 Wonders that are indispensable. The reason is there is one scoring mechanic that is so complicated that you need a PhD to work it out: science. My goodness, the strife from science-scoring is unmatched. There are 3 symbols for science cards and in various combinations they give different outcomes; some can score you a lot more points than others in specific sets. Here is a very basic explanation: if you have 8 science cards (not uncommon) then you have to go through all the possible combinations and compare the score of each combination to find out which is the most advantageous. For 7 players, it takes a long time, not to mention it is arduous given that it is just 1/12 of the scoring conditions. The app is great: slam in what cards you have and the app calculates the best score instantly, no sacrifice of a virgin required. PDF rules can be hit and miss, mainly because of the load time on less powerful machines. On a phone, the PDF rulebook (pamphlet) for Keyforge is painfully slow, a drawback for such a quick game that can be a little rules-dense at first so loading it feels like a chore rather than a boon. On the other hand it is free... This is where you come to the premium PDF rulebooks seen in wargaming and role-playing games. Holy crap will that rock your world but at a cost. They are excellent for blitzkrieg pedantry alone. You’ve got a search function to quickly find the exact topic you need conformation from; there are links in there where other rules are referenced to jump to them; you can enlarge text to better thrust it into your opponent's/player's/GM's face; you haven’t got to carry around a great tome (3 A4 hardbacks for D&D 6E at 988 pages total): it is the way to go undoubtedly. There is a catch. PDFs, despite having no physical component, aren't much cheaper at all and you won't get a free one if you buy a physical book; plus they cannot be resold or traded unlike actual books. I am an advocate of physical media though, because if I’m going to spend £60 on books, then I want to feel like I’ve spent £60 on books, not £50 on PDFs then my tablet runs out of battery halfway through a session. What do I think? I’m in love with games; truly, madly and deeply. To see the physical and social aspect stripped away completely makes me a little uncomfortable, I would (rather tentatively) suggest it makes the hobby more toxic as it creeps into the mainstream. The same thing happened to video games. They were niche geeky pastimes that have become widely accepted. Yet as they became less intimate experiences, with online multiplayer rather than LAN, there was an erosion of sportsmanship, an increase in vitriolic attitudes and intolerance. Now you'll struggle to find many video games that you can even play on the same machine, where previously they were a dime a dozen. That is not to say I am slave to a completely analogue experience Apps are so bloody useful and, without them, some fabulous games would gather dust because their concept isn't as easily implemented without a third party, as is the case of One Night Werewolf. Maybe it’s an elegant but complicated scoring mechanic, like 7 Wonders. Perhaps it is simply just having Google on hand to check an FAQ, errata or clarify a particular card because you lost the piddly pamphlet that came with the expansion (I’m looking at you, 7 Wonders expansions). If you’ve read this far then my position is pretty apparent, I’m a gaming cyborg. Moreover, I think you should be too.
This first post is on something that is essential to a healthy hobby: sportsmanship. I'm going to explore what I believe are the generally accepted conventions of sportsmanship, how these relate to tabletop gaming and moreover why they are integral to our avocation. Respect This is the foundation of sportsmanship, to bear in mind and action the feelings, wants and needs of others. In gaming terms this equates to how you conduct yourself in regard to yourself, your opponent (by extension their possessions) venue and authority. It is a vast topic to cover every eventuality, but consider are you treating your opponent(s), how you would like to be treated? Are you bending their cards? Are you fully prepared? Are you on time? Are you paying attention? Are you taking too long for your turn? Compassion We've all experienced handing out (and receiving) crushing and total defeats. Now picture yourself, how did you react? Did you whoop and cheers at the destruction, or gloat excessively about what a masterful stratagem you employed? We’re all guilty at one stage or another, and frankly it doesn't become a problem until it entrenches itself as habit. Compassion is taking a considerate approach, to temper your reaction and put yourself in their position. When dealing with new players compassion is incredibly important, if you have more experience then why not share a little? In a few games time you might be the one in need of a bit of compassion. Equity This is the most basic. Games come with rules, play by them. Indiscriminate and just application of rules is what makes a game possible, it creates the balance for competition to be possible. It is the framework of a ‘game' because without rules or restrictions there is no game, just a collection of armaments and art. Just because a ruling isn't in your favour at the time does not mean you should neglect it, otherwise go and play snap on your own. Honesty Going hand in hand with compassion is honesty. All players of most games have an unspoken agreement to be honest with not only each other but themselves. Honesty is also a tricky topic in a traditional sense, what I should say is honesty about the rules and outcome, because there are games about deception or that directly encourage deceitful play. Basically all players should be as honest as the spirit of the game intends at the point at which it is expected. Persistence Persistence at its core is about attitude. You are expected to doggedly pursue your goals to the best of your ability regardless of opposition or difficulty. Rolling over and accepting defeat or the odious “rage quit” are again examples of poor sportsmanship and teeter on the edge of not respecting your opponent(s). You entered into an agreement to attempt to achieve an objective willingly opposed, if you don't fulfil this then you’re not living up to expectation you personally promised. Now at the beginning of this piece I said that sportsmanship is integral to our avocation, but more importantly I said essential to a healthy hobby, and I mean it. A healthy table top hobby is something you relish spending your time and money doing with other people, the vast majority of gaming is a social activity. Social activity means dealing with other people, and if you fail to interact respectfully with other people then you will soon find your hobby grinding to a halt, because nobody wants to willingly spend time and money interacting with people who are rude, indifferent, unfair, dishonest or craven.
TL;DR - Don't be a dick |
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