"What the Hobby Is" Topic

I was chatting with Editor Gwen, and she shared with me an email she recently received. It was the familiar complaint of someone who feels he knows what the wargaming hobby is, and that TMP has crossed the line somewhere.

I don't know why some people feel they have the right to tell other gamers what the hobby includes or doesn't include.

Some people hate fantasy gaming. Some people hate modern wargaming. Some people hate gaming in the 'wrong' scales. Some people hate others for mixing too much history with their wargaming. Some people hate gamers who try to simulate history. Others hate beer-and-pretzel games. Some people hate skirmish gaming. Some people hate 'bathtub' style games that fit an entire campaign on a tabletop. Some people love tournaments and some hate them. Some gamers love to play convention games, and some gamers don't see the attraction of attending gaming shows.

I get it that we all have preferences. But just because other gamers don't agree with your preferences is no reason to obsess and get angry.

The bottom line is that "the hobby" is defined by the hobbyists. Yes, we are the hobby. All of us together.

I blame a lack of emotional intelligence for some people.

I'll get the popcorn.

Duty Calls – On xkcd.com

And just to be sure to take all the fun out of wargaming:
Wargaming Handbook Ministry of Defence, UK – PDF link

How to master Wargaming – PDF link

Wargaming in Professional Military Education – PDF link

Or is it politics?
Well, Clausewitz thesis, that War is simply the continuation of political intercourse with the addition of other means is widely agreed upon.

Just keep it civil, not civil war.

@Arjuna
They are wargames for the instruction of the military. Fun is not one of their priorities 😉

I don't know why some people feel they have the right to tell other gamers what the hobby includes or doesn't include

Because they are the hobby!
And their opinion is valid to them and those who agree with them but it is not a truth it is an opinion.

I get it that we all have preferences. But just because other gamers don't agree with your preferences is no reason to obsess and get angry.

Because it is not just a hobby it's an obsession!

Why do we spend hundreds of hours painting tiny toy soldiers sounds a bit observe to me.

We are the center's of our reality, we experience the world through our senses and our sentience if our personal reality is shaken in some way is it not natural to become angry?
It may not be right but it is natural.

No different then the couple of people through the years who have written OG to announce they do not like our miniatures. OK??

The other guy who hand wrote a 4 page letter describing all that was being done wrong with OGs business model. OK???
Then throw in the guy who was upset because our miniature depicting prince Rupert did not look like him and we had made the wrong kind of dog. OK ???
We have had several of these concerning various " "personality" figures. OK???

The king of all -- and it is a much longer story then this -- who, years ago kept sending letters in the mail upset that our 15mm Sherman tank turrent was incorrect demanding we fix it -- culminating in him sending an actual period blue print of a Sherman Tank from a factory in Michigan that he had obtained somewhere -- also claiming we had all forms of financial and legal obligations to see to it's safe return. OK????

My response.
OK ?????

Russ Dunaway

Did he at least include return postage…? ;-)

"Some people hate (insert blahblahblah here) gaming."

I bet they will also eventually hate solo gaming (but it will never occur to them why nobody else will play with them anymore…)

What a silly discussion to have. The way I do it is right and anyone who doesn't game like I do is wrong.

Sigh…it's soooooooooo obvious.

I enjoy playing with toy soldiers.

Me too

QUATERMASS is on target! My wife constantly bemoans my choice to ignore reality in favor of my "world." She is right.

Did you put the blueprint on ebay?

As they say, if you don't like __________ gaming, don't play in __________ games. That's the American way.

Then throw in the guy who was upset because our miniature depicting prince Rupert did not look like him and we had made the wrong kind of dog.

You asked for photographic evidence, I take it? :-)

I bought one of the 1st copies of D&D available in DFW & was one of the 1st DMs in the area. Some of my gaming circle playing mainly WRG historical games resented the "distraction" of D&D which diverted players, gaming time & money from "Real Wargaming". However, my wife, my 2 kids & their friends would play D&D but not big battle table games. Then there was the absurd accusation from some ministers that D&D drew kids into Satan worship & black magic. Wargaming is based on history, literature & Imagination, & in my case a love of toy soldiers. You pays your money & you takes your choice.

If you believe I have hate for the way you wargame, you have obviously grossly overestimated how interested in you I am … :)

But, seriously, who has time to worry about what someone else does where you don't participate?

absurd accusation from some ministers

This is what I mark as the Beginning of the End for Rational Discussion (BotEfRD) (TM). "Some" is correct. It was a very small movement that is one of the first examples of people leveraging modern (in this case, late 70's/early 80's) media to manipulate content and create a disproportionate effect relative to their number.

Surely, these are time honored techniques, but for me, the late 70's marks the democratization of these types of influence techniques. Any nutjob can do this now.

Similar to my (somewhat humorous, I hope) apathy in the opening statements of this post, most people don't – and don't have the time, effort, endurance – to passionately care about a lot of things. So with controlled media, a small number of people can focus national level effort on a local venue and bully them.

So you get bookstores removing D&D books from their inventory and record stores bowing to the PMRC (another story that had a wonderful outcome …)

Remember Ambrose Bierce's definition of an egotist from his Devil's Dictionary:

Someone more interested in himself than in me.

I have my own preferences in wargames; I accept other people have their own. So long as they don't interfere with me enjoying myself my way, or claim that I'm doing it all wrong, they can do what they like.

I thought GW claimed the term "The Hobby" to include only their authorized rules and figures. And paint. And brushes. And dice….

I've always marvelled at how wargaming survives. It's a very small hobby where everyone seems to do different things. Different scales, different rules, different grasps on realism. Add into that the fact that a lot of wargamers are of the post world war 2 Airfix generation and the increase in electronic stimulation rather than physical hobbies, it may only be a matter of time before it shrinks even further.

I think that maybe the way that wargamers are parts of small local groups and therefeore 'do their own thing' is maybe why they end up thinking their way is the right way.
Maybe it is but that's no excuse to try an tell others how to game.

In my head the way we game in our group is as good as it gets, but it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea.

We will never unite and do the same thing, so celebrate the differences and be pleased that people are gaming :)

I'll still roll my eyes internally when people are discussing the 'right colour' for goblins, but I can still smile and say it looks great.

Anyone who argues about the color of goblins has never seen a goblin. That's not a color you forget.

Once again, I agree with oberlindes. And it's beginning to frighten me