Twilight of the White Boy Club

It seems like basic common sense that game publishers would embrace diversity in hopes of selling to a wider range of potential customers. The ones that fail to do so are either clueless or deliberately excluding people, and hopefully their sales will falter in time.

Josh Look wrote: I've seen those same people bend over backwards to fit that new Harry Potter or Sandy Peterson game into their shelves.

What's up with Sandy Petersen? I hadn't heard any news about him and a quick google search brought nothing.

This thread explains: boardgamegeek.com/thread/1843452/abject-misogyny-bgg

You have to reveal the first post to get the actual context. Sandy quit BGG after the backlash over this thread.

Jackwraith wrote: This thread explains: boardgamegeek.com/thread/1843452/abject-misogyny-bgg

You have to reveal the first post to get the actual context. Sandy quit BGG after the backlash over this thread.

Thank you, holy shit.

"Somehow I don't think that he's a "good old boy" given he grew up on D&D." LOL

Re: Ares Games. Here is a quote from my Divinity Derby review "You'll notice I said god because there are literally no goddesses included in the choice of characters, which is odd in my opinion because there has never been a shortage of goddesses in folklore"
That was from a review i wrote 2 years ago. It was noticeable then.
therewillbe.games/articles-boardgame-rev...-dive-divinity-derby

I think it could be acceptable for certain games to not have diversity. For example, a game taking place in a prison would understandably lack full gender representation, as co-ed prisons are probably rare. A game about the Russian Revolution would, by necessity, focus entirely on Russian (white) characters. But almost any game set in a fictional setting should be free to embrace diversity.

Not trying to be pedantic with you, Shellhead, but that's not necessarily true. The Russian Empire was a sprawling polyglot of peoples and cultures which incorporated many millions of people who did not have a light skin tone; not least among them the descendants of the Mongols/Tatars/Turkmen who had ruled much of what became southern European Russia for centuries. This is like when people insist that games about Rome are fine with all White characters because the inhabitants of Rome were all White. Nothing could be further from the truth, as people from the Near East and Africa were regularly present in Rome and its territories from the republic to the end of the empire. Just as an example, Numidians, a kingdom where Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya currently sit, were frequent inhabitants of Rome during the republic (see: Jugurtha) and were not White.

The argument can be made that the vast majority of the inhabitants of those places and times were, in fact, White but that's not the point. The point is that, in 21st-century gaming, no matter where or when your game is set, we want everyone to be included and feel like they're being included. That means presenting visuals that acknowledge what our society looks like today, even if many may think that it isn't what society was like back then (often erroneously, as noted.) It's telling everyone that they, too, can feel like they're a part of something when sitting down to play Republic of Rome or Twilight Imperium or anything else and not like an outsider who's imposing or only tacitly accepted.

dragonstout wrote:

Josh Look wrote: I've seen those same people bend over backwards to fit that new Harry Potter or Sandy Peterson game into their shelves.

What's up with Sandy Petersen? I hadn't heard any news about him and a quick google search brought nothing.

Years ago I and I'm sure others saw some very troubling posts being liked by the Peterson Games Facebook account. Turns out that was only the tip of the iceberg because his personal accounts on both Facebook and Twitter were not only liking but sharing some gross shit, in one case some "What about white slavery?" nonsense. This summer he allied with Everything Board Games, a KS hype machine account after they refused to make a statement about the BLM movement, lost almost their entire writing staff over it and went on to say to finally state that they would not be commenting on what was going on because they "saw no need to."

I'm sure some people will say, "We can't go excluding anyone with right leaning ideology," but I'm tired of that apologist excuse. The last 10 months has given me PLENTY of reason.

"Historical accuracy" isn't the goal of 95% of games anyway. Who cares if a hypothetical game featuring the Musketeers was all black? It doesn't make them any less Musketeer-y.

I'm tired of "but muh history" being the default excuse when most games aren't designed with anything more than window dressing

This reminds me somewhat of the current discussions around the NFL and their lack of diversity at the head coaching level and especially team upper level management ranks. The common wisdom suggests that since all 32 teams are owned by white ( and usually old white ) males that their hiring practices reflect on the ownership demographics. Until that demographic changes, diversity will be unfortunately limited. And that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon.

Turning to the gaming hobby, is this same set of factors in play to a certain degree ? Certainly wargames are about as old white dude as it gets for the most part ( although a few principals have recently come out as transgender ) but I am not as familiar with the broader hobby. How diverse are the upper management levels of the hobby ? Are there prominent minorities in positions above the designer level ? If not, is this an opportunity ?

This isn't to excuse anti inclusive practices by any means but rather to see where the roots lie .

ubarose wrote: The Three Musketeers and the Count of Monte Crisco

If this was an actual joke, it's excellent. If it was unintentional, it's still great. (When I was 4 or 5, I grabbed a big dollop of Crisco, thinking it was warm whipped cream. Early lesson.)

ubarose wrote: .
For example, Dumas was a Black man (technically biracial). Although he never directly stated it in his books, his character descriptions implied that some where not white. However, in 20th and 21st century books and movies all the characters in The Three Musketeers and the Count of Monte Crisco are depicted as white. I have no doubt that their are board gamers who would have an aneurism if Mercedes or one of the Musketeers was depicted as non-white in a game because "hIstoRical AccUracy!"

You are in luck!
(Aargh, why can i not get pics to load?) Anyway, just google the 2016ish BBC Musketeers show for a black porthos!


I'm not missing the forest for the tree, im just saying that you guys MIGHT be chopping down an oak thinking it is a cedar. Barnes went off on a tirade about this games art choices, kinda incorrectly as I've listed (if i can ever get images to load). Thus i can only assume that he actually liked the game PLAY enough that he didnt just dismiss the game out of hand but instead he ripped it without (IMHO) giving the dev a chance to explain himself.There are absolutely worse games in this context.

But definitely put up a set of standards necessary to get a TWBG stamp of approval. It would be an industry first (i think) and probably be a big help to newbie dev teams and hopefully everyone would take it to heart across the industry.

Reading through this a Star Trek scene popped into my head.