I was going to write a post about the upcoming 9th edition. I still plan to, actually. However, the events around the country over the last few days have really affected me, and oddly enough, my view on the wargaming hobby. So strap yourselves in, because this one gets a little serious.
All the violence that's been going on here on our own soil over the last few days has really gotten me thinking. It's made me question a lot of aspects of the gaming hobby as a whole, where so very frequently, conflict resolution is performed through violence. In wargaming, it's the entire point of the game. Normally, that's fine with me. It's a safe outlet, a way to explore these themes without anyone actually getting hurt. But I'm finding it harder and harder to play a game where no matter what, I'm playing the bad guys in some way. Whether it's a game with subtle shades of grey like Infinity, or outright different flavors of evil like Warhammer 40k, any given wargame generally assumes that there are no good guys. Which is fine; war is nasty, and as a general rule, there are very few "good guys" in war in reality. But is that why they do it? Or is it a marketing decision, to make sure no one faction sells more than the others because they're perceived as the heroes?
Warhammer 40k is probably the worst game out there for this sort of cognitive dissonance, having spawned it's own name for the genre - "grimdark." But when does it become too grimdark? 40k, started out, back when it was known as Rogue Trader, as more of a satire, an almost comedic lampooning of the setting. Look at how ridiculous these people are, it said. But over the years, Games Workshop and the fan base have been taking it increasingly seriously. And now, it's a full on nightmare realm, one that we gleefully immerse ourselves in every time we play the game.
It's perfectly fine to enjoy things that are problematic. It's totally possible to enjoy the setting, or to simply play the game and divorce it from the cruel nastiness of the world it's part of. For me, though, it's very hard; the game, rules, and lore are inextricably woven together, because I'm a sucker for a good story. The world outside, though, is rapidly turning into a dystopian nightmare of its own. I find myself questioning if I really want to spend my leisure time immersed in something like that. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the hell out of 40k, but it's starting to hit a little close to home.
So what's a politically conscious, socially aware gamer to do? How do I maintain my enjoyment of the hobby, something that has brought me immense happiness and made me dozens of friends over the years, in the face of this cognitive dissonance? I could simply chuck it all, sell my models, and take up a peaceful, non-violent hobby, but is that the answer? Do I want to give up weekly game night with my friends, drinking beer, talking trash, and rolling dice? I really don't. I still enjoy wargames, and I don't want to give up the hobby just because I'm feeling a little uncomfortable about the settings of the games I play. I could just try to tune out the lore and back story, but it's so inextricably tied, in most cases, to the game itself, including the rules, that it's nearly impossible to do so. I could try a new army, see if that would help, but really, they're all bad guys in some degree, as we've established. Or... I could simply change the game. The concept of Your Dudes applies; these are my models, my army, my toys. I can play with them however I want.
I have yet to address my feelings on other games; I'm still working through 40k, because it's the biggest hurdle. Currently, in 40k, I play Space Marines - specifically, Crimson Fists. Now, the Crimson Fists are less nasty than most Marine chapters, most of whom view regular humans as weak and beneath them. Which is, I always thought, a strange viewpoint; who are these genetically altered ubermensch protecting, if not the humans that make up the populace of the Imperium of Man? What are they guarding against the vicious enemies that assail humanity from all sides? The Crimson Fists, at least in more recent history, have taken a much more caring, shepherding viewpoint of regular humans. However, even with that in mind, they're still the fanatical zealot super soldiers in service to the God Emperor. They're still the jackbooted fascist warriors, crushing dissent and annihilating anyone deemed to be The Enemy. The Imperium is a backwards, technophobic, fascist theocracy, and life within it is, as Thomas Hobbes would describe, nasty, brutish and short. As I think about it more and more, I find myself wanting to play as those guys less and less. So, since they're My Dudes, I'm changing the rules.
I'm not going to play the Crimson Fists anymore. Instead, I'm going to play Space Marines who are in open rebellion against the tyranny and oppression of the Imperium. And no, that doesn't mean they're Chaos aligned. The binary nature of that relationship has always bothered me to no end. No, these are simply Space Marines who have seen enough, they're done with the viciousness, they're done with the exterminatus orders, they're done executing people simply for not believing in the right flavor of the Imperial Cult. Again, they're My Dudes - my head canon trumps all. In fact, Games Workshop has even left the door open for things like this recently, with the release of an admittedly controversial short story about the Brazen Drakes, a chapter declared excommunicatus while a fresh batch of Primaris recruits were being delivered - recruits who, upon finding out they were condemned to die for no other reason than being related to the others, for not doing anything wrong, rebelled and fought for their lives. Those recruits weren't tainted by Chaos, they weren't heretics. They simply didn't want to be murdered for no reason.
By releasing that story, GW made it much more plausible to have storylines like mine be closer to fitting into canon. A Space Marine chapter that was already exhausted, already at the brink, hearing about what the Imperium did to the Brazen Drakes could easily be pushed over the edge into rebellion. Even a brainwashed zealot has his limits.
We all deal with the horrors of real life in our own way, and equally so, the horrors of the games we play. Some people brush it off, some people walk away. My life is so deeply entwined with wargaming that I can't just wash my hands of the hobby. So I have to find ways to make the games more amenable to my outlook. If that means breaking some fragile rules about "official" stories, then so be it. If I want to play a chapter of Marines who go about the galaxy fighting to free people from the tyranny and oppression of Xenos and Imperium alike, like a bunch of power-armored superheroes, who's to stop me? Nobody is allowed to tell anyone to enjoy their hobbies. That kind of gatekeeping bullshit does nobody any good. If someone has a problem with it, if they want to lecture me and judge me for changing the game so that I feel better about playing it? They can fuck right off. I don't need to play with them. Nobody gets to dictate how someone else has fun.
So there you have it. I think, at this point, that that's what I have to do to continue to enjoy this hobby. Our real world is getting really ugly, and while it may get better, it's going to get worse before it does. Why should I drown myself in this vile, nasty place with no hope for anyone, with my army - the guys that represent me on the tabletop - being representative of the very thing I despise in real life? So I'll be experimenting with new color schemes, new designs, and new stories. Hell, it's not like I have anything else to do; between the quarantine from the pandemic and the curfews from the riots, I've got plenty of time on my hands, and it's going to be quite some time before these toy soldiers see the tabletop again.
"The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts." -Marcus Aurelius, 'Meditations' Book V
ReplyDeleteWarhammer 40,000 is not a violent hobby, as you imply when you contrast it against the possibility of taking up a non-violent hobby. There's no violence involved in a game of toy soldiers at all. Unless, maybe, you spill a pot of Nuln Oil on your spouse's favorite throw pillow. It's a game of drinking beer, talking trash, and rolling dice.
There is violence in the setting and the backstory, but it's pretend violence. There is horrific oppression and terrible tyranny in the setting and the backstory, but its pretend. It ain't real. Rick Priestly himself could write that 24,601 planets inhabited by all-loving pacifist teddy bears were eaten by evil space insects in the next codex they release... and no pacifist teddy bears would actually be eaten. Not a one.
The difference between a wargame with a setting and backgroun, like WH40k or Bolt Action, and a purely abstract wargame, like Chess or Shogi, is that in addition to the competitive aspect there's also a narrative one. The White Player isn't just looking to win over the Black Player, instead Easy Company of the 101st Airborne is seeking to secure that light-house (which looks suspiciously like a Pringles can) from the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division so that the Royal Air Force can land glider troops the next morning to liberate Holland... Or maybe Captain America and Spider-Man have teamed up to stop Doctor Octopus and M.O.D.O.K. from robbing the First National Bank... Or maybe the Tyranids and the Necrons are fighting to see who gets to destroy the pacifist teddy bear planet.
Just because one player plays the "evil" army, doesn't mean that the player condones the fictional acts that they do. Most stories need to have a villain, after all. No one thinks that Ralph Fiennes really agrees with the actions of Lord Voldemort or Amon Göth, right? They were parts he played in order to tell a story.
(Nor is a violent hobby inherently an negative one. Boxing, karate, fencing, archery, and so on and so forth are all definitively violent. But that gets into the distinction between violence and aggression, pacifism and non-aggression, which is probably a bit much for a comment on a blog post.)