Re: What's wrong with SF?
From: "John C" <john1x@h...>
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 18:15:55 +0000
Subject: Re: What's wrong with SF?
>People talk about historical players being elitist. I will calmly point
out
>that most of the people I know will play both historicals and sci-fi. I
>_have_
>come across a lot of rabid fanboy types who will _only_ play sci-fi,
and
>who
>most often will _only_ play the single game they have learned. The
elitist
>"historical player" is often just a backlash to the sci-fi player who
won't
>look at anything beyond "The Games Workshop Hobby (TM)". Kids don't
learn a
>lot of history in school, or at least not in such a manner as to make
it
>interesting. They often see history, and historical games, as "boring".
>They
>don't bother even _trying_ a historical game. This has led to a
backlash
>(though there were some people who didn't like sci-fi games in the
first
>place
>because of a feeling that they were "made up").
>
HMGS -- the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society -- *used* to be really
bad
with this kind of attitude. SF were really looked down upon, and if you
ran
one? Snide comments would abound.
(We ran a modern skirmish game one year, got lots of great comments, and
then used the same board for a 15mm SF game. Pictures appeared in the
next
newletter, complete with really condescending comments.)
That said, lots of the dealers did -- and do -- bring SF and fantasy
minis
to sell. And they sell LOTS of 'em, too. And when SF games are being
run?
No problem getting players...even though the games were only allowed to
be
run on Sundays.
Most of the bad attitudes were coming from above, and had little or
nothing
to do with the opinions of the general membership. And things have
cnaged a
great deal; I understand that the showcase game at Historicon this year
is
going to be a series of battles from Tolkien's War of the Ring.
John Crimmins
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