Surreality Is Not What It Used To Be...

 I've been reading the excellent 'Talking Miniatures' set of books, and the common threads which run through the stories of those interviewed also seem to be shared by myself and those of my acquaintance; a collective experience which I don't think is as common in the modern hobby.

The first explorations with traditional plastic (and in some cases metal) toy soldiers, Airfix and Matchbox kits and exposure to a series of groundbreaking TV shows which at the time were fairly new and sparking imaginations.

The future with it's grubby, dark and let's be honest depressingly pessimistic settings was stil a couple of decades away. Brightly clad knights, gleaming white starships and clean, aesthetically pure settings were where it was at, and we locked right into it.

Our future was bright, and all that...

I really find the modern trend towards negative-feeling settings for fictional games to be depressing. True, we live in tryingly depressing times, but wasn't that the point? We lived in a time when as far as we knew, we could be obliterated in a puff of steam and ashes at 5 minutes notice, so we sought a form of escapism which allowed us to indulge ourselves in bright fantasy.

These days, the indiustry seems to be trying to help us by pushing us even further into a dark hole of depression. Even painting styles are dirty and inprecise. This will not do.

We now have to think about political correctness in our games, be everything to everybody, and I think that we are losing sight of what it was which drew us in and engaged us. We were not bothered by any of that, it was about leaving the real world behind and not carrying it with us like a ball and chain.

I had gaming buddies, who - if I could be bothered to look at them clinically - were black, gay, emotionally troubled. The fact was - and I can hear the knives being sharpened - nobody actually gave a toss. It was that simple... They were just mates, fellow travellers on the gaming road of life. Their lives outside of gaming were their business. They - and we - did not have to be constantly reminded that we were all different, a mongrel nation of misfits and dreamers. 

We had more in common than not, but it seems this days that we have to focus on what makes us different as opposed to what makes us the same.

I beg you, don't lose sight of what this hobby is about, sometimes a rainbow is just a rainbow. I have actually stopped using rainbow flags in my fantasy armies these days - something I have featured in many a unit - because people automatically think I'm making some kind of ststement. Well I guess I am - I FUCKING LOVE RAINBOWS!

Growing up in the grim 70s, a rainbow in a grey and brooding sky, was a beautiful thing, and it was a certainty that a dreamer llike me with a love of colour would latch onto the motif. 

Yes, it's an aside, but I do think it illustrates how something so innocent can be steam rollered because of the latest political flag waving.

I am a wargamer. I don't care how you express your sexuality, I dont care about the colour of your skin, which man-made control system you pray to, or how you vote. I do care however about playing games, and having fun. I do care passionately about the idea of escapism and making that a maxim in my own journey through this gaming life. If you - as someone did - approach me at a show, spouting bollocks about something you believe in which has nothing to do with gaming, I'll tell you to fuck off, or, if you are lucky I'll just walk away. And if you are a trader, you won't get a penny, because I come to you to buy dreams, not be reminded of the nightmare we all live in, in the 'real' world.

 

TTFN