I wouldn't say that "the hobby" takes up the vast majority of my free time, but I'd also be lying if I said it didn't. I mean, if you follow absolutely any of my social media, you'll know that I'm constantly posting about this game or that, BattleTech or Fallout, whatever we're playing/putting stuff together for. On top of that, one of my favorite things to do whilst the wife or child aren't home is to stream gaming related podcasts or Twitch, honestly some of the best sources of inspiration out there. Because I'm a fan, I follow a lot of these folks on Instagram or Facebook, interact, get to know them in the virtual sense, etc. And the other day, I saw one of them put out a call for diversity, and post a picture of basically some (forgive me if this is an assumption) "cishet white dudes" as the reason they were looking.
Now, I keep this blog mostly focused on BattleTech, so most people that read it probably don't know me in real life, but those that do, know I'm fairly hard on millennials (despite being close to the age frame) or entitled people or victim complexes, and Gods know I will hammer some SJWs so I want to assure you, that's not where I'm going with this.
Because I legit nodded when I saw the post.
Those that have been playing BattleTech for more than two decades know that early BTech fell hardcore into the "Yellow Menace" trap. The Capellan Confederation and Draconis Combine, the two heavily Asian-themed factions, alternated between being super hardcore repressive regimes that wanted nothing more than to "kill all round eyes" and totally inept groups that existed for no other reason than to make "the white hat" in British-inspired House Davion look that much better. It wasn't until... Shit... Uh... 3060ish in the game's timeline (late 90s) that this started to swing and be more... I don't want to use the word "realistic" when it comes to any portion of BattleTech, but if the shoe fits...
I'm not saying this was done with an overt racist intent. Michael Stackpole was a big driver of the fiction back in the day and whilst his writing isn't always great (or even good, sorry, Mike - the over-reliance on exposition, "Mary Sue" characters, and implausible ex machina devices sometimes get a little much) & I would never insinuate the guy is a racist. Nor is every major BattleTech character an aforementioned "cishet white dude," because some of the best characters (Ariana Winston, Karianna Schmitt, Tyra Miraborg) have been women, and a handful have been of color beyond the standard Asian characters of Drac or CapCon origin.
But, early FASA and, to a lesser extent, FanPro & Catalyst, played to a target audience that was predominately male, predominately white, and predominately middle aged or living in their mother's basement. I'M KIDDING ON THAT LAST PART. I actually have no idea on the age frame, except that BattleTech came out in the early 80s and anime fans (because of the now-Unseen) were the bread and butter to start. And titling the big dust off from the Word of Blake "the Jihad" was fucking terrible. Stupidly so.
And that's a weird thing for me. See, I titled this in the form of a question, and that's misleading, because of course we fucking need diversity, dumbasses. What was odd for me with the post, and the reason for this, is that I guess my experiences with this hobby are not at all indicative of the norm? I've gamed with a lot of ladies in my life (BattleTech or otherwise), and have thrown dice with some POCs (including a former roommate that I bonded with, originally, in part because of BattleTech) and honestly - I will game with fucking anyone, regardless of shit like gender identity, ethnic background, sexual orientation, or any other way humans chose to classify themselves. As long as you aren't a fucking asshole, hell yes, saddle up and let's do this.
The cons I go to are half a step shy of tasting the rainbow when it comes to the panoply of the human condition, but something Randall Bills shared a while ago stuck with me - just because you don't see harassment or discrimination in your community, doesn't mean it isn't there. And that's not speaking with any "white guilt" or the like. It's a valid observation. Because we have to police ourselves and police each other to do better. No where should be more of a safe space than gaming. We're geeks playing make believe in one sense or another and we have to be inclusive. I'm not saying that I think every gaming group needs to run out like some affirmative action program and round up all the "minorities" they can find to join up, but I am saying, if someone that isn't a "cishet white dude" shows any interest in the games you're rolling with, get to the know them. Get some of their perspective on your game. And if they game with you, don't be insensitive about who they are.
I point that out because of the controversy with a UK convention and a veteran game runner pulling a really uncomfortable and inappropriate scene into a public game. Obviously I wasn't there, I don't have any comment otherwise (you can look for it) but it serves as a big reminder to the rest of us- get to know your players, get to know what they find acceptable and unacceptable in games you're playing as a group. That goes across the board, whether we're talking diversity or not, but if you're a white dude like me, be cognizant about how you portray slavery in your Exalted game when one of your players is African-American, maybe omit the whole gang rape story thread in Vampire when it's (rightfully) probably going to make the young lady in your game no longer enjoy playing, skip the whole "Yellow menace" portion of talking about Liao and Kurita to anyone at all interested in BattleTech (please, not even for diversity, but because it's fucking cringe worthy).
Our games can only survive with continuous new blood and as demographics switch, less and less of that new blood is going to be the "traditional" middle aged white guy with a bit of a gut and bad personal hygiene (mostly kidding, again). Even if that were 99% of the target audience of these games (it's not), the 1% still deserve to be respected and included in this hobby that we all love.
Shoutout to companies like New Agenda Publishing and Onyx Path Publishing for trying to be ahead of the curve on this. (And yes, I know OPP has run into issues in other arenas as well...)
ALSO, I did this on my phone, right now, after working all day and eating salmon & couscous, so if it's disjointed or I failed to make a coherent point, at the end of the day, diversity is what makes us stronger, not weaker.
