"The Closed Shop Mindset" Topic

One of our readers once wrote:

I have tried in the past to join groups, but they have the closed shop mindset.

Have you experienced this yourself?

The group I mostly play with has been going for over 30 years and most of the members have been there since the start. I'm a newbie, I've only been playing with them for about 15 years.

I'm not really sure what a 'closed shop' mindset is but I'd guess that we could be pretty intimidating (inadvertently) to a visitor. We know each other so well that arguments that seem to be near coming to blows always fizzle out in seconds.

I've been to very few other groups but never found a lack of welcome – to varying degrees of enthusiasm, but still someone always chatted or offered to play or asked me to join their game.

Nope, never experienced it. And for our group (started
in the mid-1960's) we've had members (and still do) join
from all over the world, all over the US and with all
sorts of gaming interests.

How in the heck could any group, given the nature of our
hobby, be close-minded to anyone wishing to join ?

I know that our local historical group would love to have people join. I think that "intimidation" is something long gone now.

My group has a closed shop mindset by default, but there are reasons for it. While having new blood is good from time to time and the benefits of adding more rules, figs, terrain, etc., are great, we've had some disasters along the way. Some people don't mesh well for various reasons, so that's why we invite prospective members for a game or two before a decision has been reached. We've had some people with anger issues, those who try to convert us to their favorite rules on a first visit and criticize our choices, blatant cheating, and a host of other reasons. Life is too short to spend your free time policing the bad behavior of others.

Oh yea, quite a bit. I'm pretty sure its some sort of pheromone issue.

Myself and a couple of other wargamers went looking for new clubs recently. About half required members to sign agreements, saying that they would obey the club committee. Apparently this was to ensure club discipline. We declined to join any of them.

Hell, in Central Florida people are so closed rank that they don't even bother to respond to your phone calls or even to PMs on TMP. That includes the so-called friendly guys over on the Space Coast. Learning to solo game, thanks to THW!

There are a lot of gaming groups in Las Vegas that have 3 or 4 guys and that's how they like it, no one else need apply because they won't invite you. The 40k crowd is way more inviting than the historical crowd here, but I HATE 40k. Sigh. I really don't get the clique thing, but that's the way it is here.

If you invite a person to join your club or group and they don't work out, then don't invite them back. There is a club near me that requires the members to vote new folks in. That's fair, but just odd to me. I don't think I would be interested in being part of the club.

Speaking for our group, ODMS, here in Southeast VA, the door is always open, and the Welcome Mat is out! These Closed Door Societies and Groups give the Hobby a Bad name to be honest!!

An old established group without much turnover can be a tough not to crack without trying to be. Everyone (else) knows each other and their tactical quirks, everyone (else) knows the rules, the wargames referred to took place in the last century, and the jokes are old enough to vote. You wouldn't have to be unwelcome to have a hard time fitting in.

I'm not sure how much turnover it takes to avoid this, but obviously more than some groups have.

Wear your cut from a affiliated chapter – should get you in.
Not sure that a group of people gaming necessarily becomes a 'club' unless they impose formal rules and structure and membership requirements – then I guess they can be picky by default.

We haze prospective members……we also have a reserve of crappy dice that have a proven history of bad rolls. We make them use them for a few games to see how they react..,…just kidding….

We have a long standing historical "garage gamer group" here in Indy that has about 6-8 members and they've been playing together for almost 20 years, and their mentality is "We don't invite new people because we don't WANT new people".
They also don't go to cons, or run games at shows or anything. They just do their Saturday afternoon/evening gaming thing and scream for the kids to get off of their lawn….

And they are quite happy that way.

No, never.

My biggest problem where I live is that I find people, get them into the group and then they move, if I could get the guys who moved back in Vegas I would have 30+ people who would happily game with me. There are just way too many folks with the mindset that Murphy talked about here. I run into them at game stores and game shows but they never want anyone new. I like variety in my gaming group, more is just better as a rule but I insist on adult behavior, no 3 year old pout fests or temper tantrums and most of all DO NOT cheat. I guess interacting with other people is turning into a lost skill set.

The groups that I've been to that play in public places have always been very welcoming. The ones that meet in private homes are a bit more exclusive and I understand this. I can see that there could be limit on how many a house could hold or even how big a game the players collection can handle.

No, never.

The groups that don't want new members and never advertise their existence won't get any.

Only one group hostile to new members but I would describe the dynamic…

#1 The group claimed to be open to all and actively advertised for new members but tended to be rude to newcomers. They really didn't want to get to know me or talk to me when I directly engaged them in conversation. In some case they would roll their eyes and let out exaggerated sighs whenever I started to speak even about the most benign subjects.

#2 The guy that put on most of the games blatantly favored established members when making game rulings. (i.e. When an established member unwisely packed an entire squad into one room so I flung a grenade in the room. The referee allowed an out of turn sequence that wasn't in the rules to allow the entire squad to move out of the blast area… He also changed the size of the template, made it smaller than the one listed in the rules…)

#3 They would bark and snap at me when it was my turn to do anything.

#4 They would grab things out of my hands instead of asking politely for them (i.e. rule book, rulers, charts) The final straw one of the members gave me a rather nasty paper cut underneath one of my finger nails. When I called him out on it front of the rest of the group he sneered at me, chuckled and proceeded to ignore me. The rest of the group was indifferent to his behavior.

The next day I called up the leader of the group and said I will never game with that individual ever again. I asked if there was any possibility of getting together for games he would not attend? I was told the guy that gave me the paper cut was an "established member" and there to stay, but I could leave…

I think there is a difference between a club that meets somewhere public and a group of friends who meet in one of their houses. At least in he U.K., as we don't really have concept of gaming at the FLGS every week.

I've been a member of the Guildford Wargames club for over 15 years, and club has been meeting since 1978. We have no committee and no club rules – occasionally new people come along. Sometimes they stay, sometimes they don't – it tends to be base n whether their interests are shared by other people at the club or not….

Mike

We are very open and will accept most anyone.

My old group form the late 90s, had to kick out a guy for throwing dice among other things. Then my new group had someone who was actually unhinged and had anger issues. We just quit inventing him. Then he helped us out by moving out of state. But it is a rare thing to have happen.