Musings With A Tin Of Emulsion

Well, I spent most of the weekend, decorating the living room or getting over decorating the living room, so I got very little game related things done. I did however, spen a lot of time in my own thoughts, fuelled by matt white emulsion fumes (and the odd mouthful of that most alluring of paints).

I was thinking on whether I would become a gamer if I encountered it afresh in 2023, and rapidly came to the conclusion - and quite a firm one - that I would not.

The main draw for me was the mystery of this hobby when I came across it for the first time, almost 43 years ago, and that appealed to me as a kid who did not fit in at school with the Standard Pattern Template. I was (and still am) a dreamer and this whole new way of viewing the world was liberating and carried the sense of something occult.

This is not hyperbole, and I know that others have made similar statements. It really was a sense of crossing a barrier into a mirror world of sorts. You saw that the 'mundane' world was still there, but there was a new world too, one where if you were lucky a couple of similar-minded school friends explored with you, but one where you had to learn the rules and even a new language of sorts, and that was before you even pulled down that White Dwarf magazine from the top shelf at the back of the new store which seemed to have literally popped into existence overnight. 

Your visits to any shop which seemed to offer a sliver of knowledge of this new world of wargames and role playing games - both unknown terms for sub-worlds with totally different codes of conduct, despite the links the both shared - gradually gave you a sense of comfort of sorts and you began to look at the other people in the places you visited. Eventually, you might strike up an awkward conversation with others, and you not only opened more imaginary doors, but also found that there were kids like you, who lived in parts of the city that - were you still part of the SPT - would have originally seen you as the enemy and them as enemies to you, as the politics of tribe and territory came to the fore.

As an aside, but illustrating this point, Sheffield Museums & Galleries experimented with opening late in the week, and being of that sort of mind which finds things like that interesting, I'd gone into town to get me some arts and culture. However, I'd never realised that kids actually lived in the city centre - these were different times, when that was not the 'norm' - and I was therefore in enemy territory. Therefore I was set upon and literally had a gash in my mouth as a result, which did not go all the way through, but you could see my teeth through the skin. To this day I can still feel the scar tissue with my tongue.

Mentions of gaming in the media were rare, and quite often back then, as negative as they were positive, thanks to the overspill of the 'Satanic Panic' in the U.S or the belief of groups like CND at the local level that we were glorifying war and speeding up the apocalypse.

The Sheffield Triples suffered repeated demostrations by a local women's peace group until they were 'infiltrated' in the mid-80s (you can read about this in my book) and the protests petered out. The selfles sacrifice of those carnal commandos will never be forgotten in the dark tap room meeting places of traditional wargames clubs.

An A-Bomb did go off over Sheffield on the Sunday morning of Triples, one year, but that was down to the BBC and not Sheffield Wargames Society. I refer you again to 'Real Life's A Bugger - A Tale Of Sex, Dragons & Rock 'n' Roll'. It's a funny story, which illustrates the sort of low level paranoia of the times. We all survived, it goes without saying.

 Ah yes, shows were something new to be discovered and the rules of those events learned. The numbered tickets used to allocate an identity to items being sold on bring and buys caused confusion when you asked how to enter the raffle, amazed at the thousands of prizes on offer. Thankfully that mystery was easily cleared up. 

The number of manufacturers (not big box resellers back then) was astounding and made a show an amazing thing to be a part of. 

And of course, as you found your way into the labyrinthine depths of the hobby, you found that there were shops in other towns and cities, and if you were lucky and dedicated enough, you got to visit them.

The 'stars' of the hobby back then were the founders of the hobby, people who had literally created the products and hobby itself. They were sage-like individuals who knew their subject, and not just dreadlocked, pierced, 'influencers' with a You Tube channel, who seem to bring very little to the hobby other than body odour and ironic commentary, whose knowledge is limited to whatever 'big book' supplement is being currently whored to the masses.

To spend even 15 minutes speaking to the likes of Terry Wise, could leave you with more understanding of a subject than any of the modern 'stars' could impart in a 3 hour video. (Look him up, if you are wondering 'who's Terry Wise?')

Gaming was also apolitical. It was a hobby and not a platform for debate of social issues, which it is increasingly becoming, and that was one of the things which kept it such a special place, free from the concerns of the mundane world. You could discuss politics in the bar, but at the end of the day, you went to the club to meet fellow gamers, not party members.

The use of the hobby for furthering politico-social agendas is going to lead to problems in the future, I am sure. I hope that one day, it will become about playing with toy soldiers and rolling funny-shaped dice again, and that the Rainbow Banner Of Slaanesh will just be a cool thing to have in your army, rather than a political statement.

The rise of women and kids in wargaming was a natural evolution and is a fantastic, but it's a natural evolution, if you actually know the history of the hobby, not something which came about from some epic struggle. 

I was amongst the first generation of kids after the Founding Fathers, but oddly we didn't see ourselves as kids. We did however notice the wives and girlfriends of those older gamers, coming to shows, and if nature took it's course, there were offspring who, 'came up' behind our generation. 

As we ourselves, matured and 'did what people do', we too brought our wives and children, and  now grandchildren into the hobby. My own wife knew nothing about the hobby, but 35 years later is a well respected 'face' in the hobby, and one who has held her own against some of the less-enlightened souls in the hobby over the years. 

Interestingly, the offspring of older gamers do have a different outlook and 'vibe' to those who 'came up' without a guiding hand. They can be engaged without fear for your sanity or wellbeing :)

That is right, that is proper and without it, the hobby dies, but there does seem to be a generation who have no interest in growing up, and who are possibly dumbing down the hobby by embracing style over content, ignoring the history of the hobby, but shouting loudly about things being 'Old School' without any real knowledge or desire to acquire knowledge of the foundation of the hobby.

I feel sorry for them, because they are not getting all they could from the hobby. There are undoubtedly a lot of good things that come from change, but not at the expense of erasing or forgetting the founding years of the hobby.

And that, is why I don't think I could get into the hobby today, because it lacks the contextual texture and depth of the early days. Too much is available 'off the shelf' and the fact that you had to put in some time and effort was what made it something special.