Wargaming for everyone, or; Stating the bleeding obvious.

When I joined this wonderful hobby 37 years ago, it was through a book, well, more a pamphlet, and some dice, quickly followed by some friends who were a little older than me and knew what they were doing in terms of playing the game.

We spent hours and hours, exploring worlds, defeating enemies and hoarding treasure together. Then we discovered that not only was this a game out of a book, but there were also versions that you could play using miniatures to act out battles.

That changed everything.

We got together, started a school club and welcomed anyone and everyone to come play. One of the lads there, who is still to this day my best friend, let me use his armies as I couldn't really afford enough to play myself as my family was a one parent household with little money for luxuries, but, with ingenuity (using cut out 'figures' from White Dwarf photos), sharing and imagination, we fought such battles as to be the things memories are made of!

That hobby grew into a passion, which has never left me.

I'm lucky enough to live near Nottingham, the home of Games Workshop, and, in my time I had the honour of chairing a club that would meet in Warhammer World once a week. The only stipulation we had was that you needed to sign in so we were covered by the insurance on the hall.

On a quiet night we had 50 players, on the business, 150+ playing all manner of different GW games - if it was GW it got played.

Not once did I look at any attendee and think 'you don't belong' - not once did we make anyone feel unwelcome.

Until one guy...

He had attended for a while, keeping his head down, playing his games, just like everyone else. He was a nice chap, his ability to paint was outstanding, even if he did lose more games than he won.
Then one week, he didn't turn up - nothing odd there, it was very much a casual thing to come and go.

A month passed and we hadn't seen him, which after 3 years of attendance was a little worrying - he'd become a friend as such, so I called him to see if he was ok.

He told me that he wouldn't be down the club again, but thanked me for checking in on him, and that he'd keep in contact.

I asked if he'd lost interest in the hobby, or was it that he was just busy?  What he told me poleaxed me.

'I'd been playing one of the guys' he told me 'and for once I was winning! I'd had some really lucky dice rolls, and my opponent forgot some of his special rules'. He said that as the game went on, his opponent got more and more agitated, whilst he tried to point out his rules to help him.

Then the guy snapped. 'you're a cheating N****R, all you've done is cheat! Why dont you fuck off back to selling dope you fucking C**N?'

I was speechless when he told me this. His opponent had been a member a few months less than he, but had a habit of being a hothead, shouting his mouth off but nothing like this.  Apparently the abuse carried on until our Guy packed his stuff up and left.

I couldn't speak. I didn't know what to say.  I'm a white guy, I dont encounter that type of abuse - EVER. I asked him what I could do to make this right?  All our Guy wanted was an apology, and for the chap to stay out of his way in future.  I promised to talk to him and get the apology. I apologised on behalf of the club and hung up.

I spoke to the chap in question at the next night he was there. He didn't deny it. All he said was 'well, it's true, he is a cheating N****R. Why should I apologise for the truth?'.  It turned out this chap was a regular not only at our club, but also at the local BNP meetings.

I spoke to the other club committee members and we banned him on the spot. He threatened to go to GW, to have us shut down, that he'd be down with his mates for us etc... but nothing ever happened - I never heard from GW about it (and we didn't bring it to their attention either - we were fiercely independent) and we were never approached by anyone.

I let our Guy know - but the damage was done. I dont know if he found another club or gave up entirely. We lost a friend and a great hobbyist to mindless racism.

So when in this last few weeks, GW came out in support of everyone being welcome to play the game regardless of colour, religion, class, sexual identity or gender, my spirits raised. This is a company I have given huge sums of money to over the years in return for entertainment, that has been the conduit to so many friendships, strong friendships that would never have been but for meeting these people at gaming events, that has provided me with worlds to explore and a route to keep sane when the darkness fell on me, to see that they WANT a diverse community filled my heart with hope.

There are those however that see this as some sort of attack - that to welcome others not like them, for what ever reason, is somehow a betrayal of their loyalty. I really struggle with this point of view - how can welcoming others be a bad thing?

They point to 'changing the lore' - as if the background stories were immutable things, cut in stone, never to be touched or amended, when in fact, as a few of the writers have pointed out, the background stories are essentially 'witness accounts', with all the flaws in perception, subjectivtiy and prejudice that brings.  So if the writers then decide to change it slightly, to remove areas that they're not comfortable with, to make it so that a widening audience can find links to their own thoughts, beliefs, natures - this isn't a bad thing in my opinion - it grows the background, giving it even more depth and colour, removing it from a 2 dimensional setting to hook games onto, making it a fully rounded universe, full of differences and all that brings with it.

The only ones who dont see this as a good thing are those who can't cope with change - those who believe it when they say 'they're invested' rather than the fact they're consumers, that decide they are the arbiters of who can and who can't play the games, who can and who can't be represented?

BUT! They cry, you're being intolerant of our views! Of our culture! You want to see it destroyed and replaced!  No, I'm not, and no, I don't. The difference is, I can see that a culture that doesn't welcome others, that isn't prepared to change, to evolve and bring into it others different to themselves is one that is a closed loop - one that slowly constricts until it chokes.  For communities to survive, to prosper and grow, they need to be open to those who normally wouldn't consider looking at them, as well as the natural inhabitants.  By being that, by showing others that this can be a nice, welcoming place to be, we all benefit.

I also think that this frame of mind ignores a pretty major point - that those who they cry about wanting to change things - generally referred to as 'SJWs' somehow 'invading' their space, have been here since the beginning - certainly within 40k, the punk, anti- right wing ethos has been there since the days of Rogue Trader, the entire background is run through with dark satire of the very things the right hold to be true and dear to them. This mis-reading, miscomprehension of the setting is a great problem when discussing the setting - there are those of us who see the satire, see the warnings against culture it displays, and those who would prefer to see it as a society to be held in high esteem.

Are we there? I dont think we are, but we're well on the way. Will there be bumps along the road? most definitely, but by learning from them, by growing and understanding why we hit the bump, we can avoid it in the future.

Warhammer is for all - and if you don't like the sound of that? If you feel that excludes you? Then you won't be missed.