23/07/2024
I would love to put out a response video to this, but with the studio being under renovation for nearly a year now, this post will have to suffice (sorry).
There seems to be a term floating around â Hobby Tourist â and a (mis)perception about that term that has been causing a bit of a divide (to put it mildly) amongst wargamers, content creators, and hobbyists in this space.
If youâre not familiar with the term, it basically has its roots going back to actual tourists that visit your beach, park, community, etc. who completely disrespect it with their actions (destroying property, leaving trash, etc) and once they had their fun, they bounce leaving the community with a mess. It gets applied to wargamers in our space to the folks that like to come into the hobby and instead of enjoying it for what it is, they feel compelled to force their desire for change on to the community. In short, instead of these folks making their own thing and building their own community, they (apparently) take great pleasure in subverting an established community â destroying it â and then walk away.
That said, itâs not entirely that black and white, but it can definitely have shades of grey. Some folks that are Hobby Tourists can have just discovered the hobby, or they could have been active in the hobby for decades â either as gamers and/or actual game designers. The old-timer Hobby Tourists arguably are not even aware that they may actually be one as they conflate how much time they have been in the hobby or how much money they have spent as their justification for not being considered a Hobby Tourist.
For example, in Warhammer 40K, a Genestealer Cult member could have been doing their day-to-day job for years thinking they were a good little member of the Imperium of Man, not even realizing they were under the influence of the cult and blindly following the more active (activist) member of the cult and contributing to that magical point in time where they find themselves performing actions they donât understand (comparable to a number of YouTube content creators) posting comments or videos that are actually highly charged with rhetoric that reinforces political narratives from the actual Hobby Tourists they claim donât exist. Ironically, these YouTube content creators end up destroying years of integrity and their reputation in the space, while genuinely believing they are informing normies of a danger they should be aware of (or simply posturing themselves as the âauthorityâ on this issue, yes, I get the irony of me writing this TLDR: post), completely unaware that they are the actual Hobby Tourist and/or have become that danger to the community.
Many old-timers (but not restricted to them) perceive being a hobby tourist as someone who treats wargaming like a buffet and sampling different foods (games) often, but not really dedicated to one meal (system) â they just keep trying different things. I understand that concept of a tourist just being someone that likes to take a trip here and there and try different things, but thatâs not the actual definition or association to the real term of being a Hobby Tourist. Admittedly, the fact that you can pitch that definition of being a tourist and it âfeelsâ like a valid definition does help their argument and ability to subvert the real definition and convince many (unaware or uninformed) normies over to their side â and therefor contributes to dividing the community, which, again, ironically is performing the actual definition of a real Hobby Tourist.
In fact, that definition can be used as form of passive (or active) aggression to slander those who understand the real term â as those people arenât real, theyâre weird, theyâre the minority, theyâre problematic, or worse⊠those folks that use the real Hobby Tourist definition are a âconspiracy theorist.â A term used heavily in politics and specifically on one side of the political spectrum as (at best) an insult to the other side of the political spectrum or (at worst) a call to action to identify someone that should be removed altogether or âcancelledâ from the hobby space. Remember that really fun statement from Games Workshop â our games are for everyone, unless you disagree with us, then (itâs not for you) and you will not be missed.
Honestly, if these YouTube content creators, specifically, wanted to stay out of politics and keep politics out of wargames, then (if they are not being disingenuous) should practice what they preach and avoid content and terminology that is heavily used in political speech. Unfortunately, some of the most outspoken YouTube content creators as of late have been weighing in on this subject and itâs been getting weird â for multiple reasons.
Arguably, the old-timer Hobby Tourists are the biggest offenders or champions of spreading this misinformation. As stated previously, many have had their channels for several years now, they have been in the hobby space a long time, and some have even designed/co-designed their own games. To be fair, I respect these folks for their grind, consistency, and dedication â all the more reason itâs a total bummer when I see them get caught up in this âI donât want politics in my hobby, while literally parroting all the main political talking points (typically in unison and from the same one side). And if they are not spouting the same talking points specifically, itâs either a massive virtue signaling pander-fest, or simply just gaslighting their audience (for reasons â pa'chow).
Itâs super cringe to watch, but I understand how and why it happens. As I mentioned, to be clear, I can respect these folks for their experiences, expertise in the hobby, and their content grind. I too am an old-timer and I am empathetic to the desire to keep politics out of the hobby. I worked in a comic book/game store in the â90s, Iâm an art and gamer nerd, Iâve worked in a liberal art college, and have designed and co-designed tabletop and software games. My point is, I am old, I understand where these folks are coming from, but itâs not the late â80s, â90s, or even early 2Ks anymore.
One side of the political spectrum has been hyper aggressive for over a decade now championing for and under the banner of inclusivity and diversity, which I also support, but not to the degree where the message somehow subverts the thing (community) that you love, your friends love, and the majority of other fans love (that built these communities) and have them get systematically destroyed. This is the reality of things in the wargaming hobby space. To say (whether itâs knowingly or unknowingly) that it isnât happening and to get offended when youâre identified as being a real Hobby Tourist and to push out disingenuous content is rough to watch, listen to, and ultimately support your work.
It's even more cringe when these same Hobby Tourist (YouTube content creators) claim that itâs weird how other IPs like Marvel or Star Wars struggle to gain momentum, market share, and actual audience in the wargame space because they are huge entertainment properties â it doesnât make sense to them. Completely failing to realize most of these larger IPs have become completely indoctrinated in an ideology that has caused their franchises to financially implode and driving the core audience and, by association, the cash away. I have to assume most, as I mentioned previously, arenât even aware of it, how much of a Hobby Tourist they have become or to a lesser extent a voice for and donât realize their belief system (ideology or lack thereof) is what contributed to these other IPs destruction. Itâs the main reason why Warhammer fans have become more and more vocal with their concern. Admittedly, it may be too late for Warhammer as well. Regardless, itâs this lack of self-awareness of these creators that continues to perpetuate this myth that Hobby Tourists donât exist or the definition they use is completely inaccurate and that both claims cause serious division and destruction in the community they claim to support, enjoy, love, etc.
Because one side has been so active politically and created such a massive echo chamber until more recently, itâs hard to know for sure if the wargaming community can come together and heal. Terms like gatekeeping donât help with that process as itâs just another term (historically speaking) used by one side as an insult to the other side, yet once there is a perception of a power or influence shift has occurred in the community, then they have no problems pushing hard at gatekeeping the community once they have perceived themselves as taking it over. Again, that statement from Games Workshop â our games are for everyone, unless you disagree with us, then (itâs not for you) and you will not be missed â really has empowered a certain group of people as an excuse to justify some really ugly behavior, the same behavior they claim to hate and are against, but here we are.
Another fallacy used by Hobby Tourists is that companies, like Games Workshop, are motivated by money because they are (evil) capitalists. They would never make decisions that would cause negative consumer reactions because it would jeopardize their cash flow. I get it, itâs a great argumentâŠfrom â80s, â90s, or early 2Ks. Hobby Tourists, especially the old-timers, are really great at being resistant to new ideas that matter or being open to building on their existing knowledge â change can be painful and most donât like it. They âfeelâ they are right and therefore, they are. They may ask for your opinion, but as soon as you offer a counter argument (like I am trying to present in this post), you will likely get told to fâ off or youâre a this or a that.
Itâs unfortunate, because they have put in the work and they are seen as the authority in this space. It makes sense to assume they know what they are talking about. Unfortunately, when you do a little independent research and peel back the layers of how corporations can make money (maybe even more money or at least quicker money) in the last 10 years or so by making decisions that would destroy their audience, but makes their companies eligible for various quick cash grant and/or investor money (with no or very little interests rates), it totally makes sense to make those decisions â especially if you got greedy stock holders. I know you may want to complain about this being a problem with capitalism, and thatâs fair, but itâs not 100% accurate. Itâs not entirely capitalismâs fault, itâs just simple corruption.
Not only does the argument about a company influenced by people with bad ideas ânot realâ in regards to these companies; the very content creators that use this worn out argument are themselves controlled by similar bad ideas and punish their audience with the most ridiculous of actions. For example, a well-known content creator, affectionately known as âman who reads booksâ didnât want politics in his channel (thatâs fair) and clearly assumes the âproblematic peopleâ is the other side he doesnât want to be associated with (again, thatâs fair), but his response is (and I donât want to sound completely disrespectful as I usually appreciate his content and have shared it with others on multiple occasions) was frankly ludicrous. Itâs the worse bad dad take someone could have.
Instead of just accepting his content was shared on the internet in a way he didnât agree with, he decided to go on a âfâ this, fâ that, and fâ you rantâ and the action he took was to change the way he presented that specific content so it could no longer be screenshot and shared online. It would have been fine to change the format, but it came across as a super cringy (political) posturing move and punished a significant section of his audience for something they didnât do, but âthatâs the price everyone pays for the actions of a few people.â For fâ sake man, I really admire your work, but instead of wanting to stay out of politics like you claimed, you took a classic (left-wing) political move that hurt your audience and yourself (in a way, you cancelled yourself). If your kidâs friend stole his crayon and wrote something you didnât like on your homeâs wall, would you punish your kid and not let him play with crayons again because they got used in a way you didnât like? It wouldnât be his fault, just like it wasnât the fault of your audience that supported and appreciated your content and then turn around and punish them for something a couple of bad actors did.
I only mention the above example, as this is the head space some of these big content creators are in and they get stuck in this late â80s, â90s, and early 2K mind set in regard to the wargame hobby space; and either through ignorance or in bad faith make claims and/or take actions that hurt themselves, their channel, or the community in general.
At the end of the day, this kind of rhetoric of claiming they arenât Hobby Tourists or that they donât exist, is just not true. Itâs also not helping the community to push a definition thatâs also not true. Where does the community go from here, Iâm not entirely sure. I do know that it sucks that politics have now been pushed into every form of entertainment, games, hobbies, etc that I am familiar with and love. It also seems to be dangerous to the health of any hobby to pretend one side of the political spectrum hasnât been hard at work trying to subvert it under the guise of being for everyone, while desperately trying to slander one side out of existence. Itâs had a massive negative impact on Marvel and Star Wars and most other entertainment IPs from the â80s and â90s and it would be cool to have it not continue to cause division in the wargame community and especially Warhammer.
