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Tuesday 7 July 2015

Was the "Golden Age" really that golden.

"When you were young and your heart was an open book"

 (and you may have worn a Mullett  or Flares- or .....(Quelle Horreur!!) BOTH at the same time )

Of late I've seen a few blog posts about how nice the past was- both in terms of our hobby and in other ways too. I've checked out those of the "Wargaming Classics" that I own -3 or 4 Featherstones and a couple of Grants- plus a few others. I've never held copy a of  Wargamers Newsletter in my hand  but I do have a couple of Issues of Table Top Talk and the 3 issues of the hardly noticed Miniature Figurines magazine somewhere and frankly they are all pretty poor- but then if that was all there was ... So how come to some this was some kind of "Golden Age" of Wargaming. I really don't get it. Figures were fewer and FAR FAR FAR   more expensive than  they are now- at leas in proportion to the amount of money that all but a few could spend on them. Most of us made do with Airfix- or perhaps a few Marx. "Proper" figures- i.e. those in metal were rare.. Spencer -Smith plastics were awfully crude and hard to get. I was terribly disappointed when first I held one in my hand - I much preferred Airfix. Yet you still get the nostalgia junkies telling you how much better is was back then - Cobblers !  But even nostalgia moves on - depending upon how old you are and of course how well heeled.  So when was the Golden Age? How long did it last and are we still in it?
Now I'm not without guilt here- much of the stuff that was beyond my reach in my younger days - Tradition Magazine, Stadden ,Suren and Higgins 30mm figures , a decent library of proper  military history books, can now be purchased- with care - for not unreasonable prices- though some items have become rare and command silly money- I can't afford to collect- for instance Indian Army regimental histories any longer  and even some British Army ones are getting a tad on the dear side- even the reprints are not exactly cheap. Yet having said that I'd much rather drop a pony, nifty or a ton on stuff like that than on  rich- boys showing off books. The former will increase my knowledge the latter only their ego.
 Perhaps part of this is because my own sources of inspiration are vey rarely other Wargamers or wargames -they may have helped in days of Yore- but not now or for some  decades. Lets face it the photos in many of the "Classics" are pretty poor given the 1960s technology but equally so were some of the models themselves. Those of larger models by such makers as Courtenay or Desfontaines or Stadden  or Dilley or Longhurst were significantly better and indeed more inspirational in my early days. I suppose I got into the actual gaming part because I wanted to do something with the models I made. To, if perhaps it was possible, make them act in some fashion - even if only a little-  like their historical prototypes. This idea is now well out of fashion - assuming it was ever IN fashion games geeks being no new thing -  but is still one of my prime movers.
Perhaps more so now than then - since I can command more intellectual resouces now than I did when I was 12 or 13 (True despite the rumours!!!)and at least a little more cash than 5 bob a week pocket money- if I was lucky  . Now of course, it is  fashionable to denigrate anything  making even a minor attempt at any kind of realism with the whine that "It's only a Game" but if its "only a game" what is the difference between it (of many different its) and say risk or Diplomacy or chess or draughts or tiddly -winks. the end result of the game is the same somebody wins somebody loses of itself pretty futile- and if  your main concern is results rather than methods then why pick wargaming as against chess or scrabble?
 Riddle me that one Dudes!  
 It may be that just a tiny reactionagainst the "its only a game" whiners  is in progress to judge by Richard Clarkes excellent piece in the latest  WSS, Its nice to hear one of the  current "glitterati" agreeing with stuff you said publicly in the 1990s- in an interview for Military Illustrated as it happens- doesn't occur that often .
 So  the "Golden Age" may be now or perhaps the 1990s before we were all but drowned in low brained overpriced (because over produced eye candy heavy) gamsey crap with the average intellectual content of a  backward kindergarten class and all in the name of "FUN"- without actually having any idea of what "fun" actually means. But at least now you have the choice. Back then the product range was very small indeed- mostly you made your own- you had control over your own idea of "Fun"instead of  having it handed to you on an overpriced plastic plate. But contrairywise the hobby was smaller there were far fewr products of any type- I recall using Airfix farmhouses  with 25mm figures because that was all we had  and  Faller houses with Hincliffe  french Grenadiers firing over the roof- both needless to say in entirely the wrong scale and offensive to the eye- well MY eye-and mostly nobody cared- many still wouldn't.
 Yes I'm rambling a bit - mainly to show that the Golden Age changes with the person you ask. How old they are and how long they have been in the Hobby and indeed what they DO within the hobby. For games Dudes the Golden Age must be now after all there are more daft games about than ever requiring more dice rolling and assorted mumbling round a table full of introverts,  with no modeling, or any other work - either of the brain or of the hands required.
 Of course the idea that the actually is  something as singular as "The Hobby" is very much open to question- much more so now than back then - so there another riddle to sort out.
 Nevertheless  admit it or not for many the "Golden Age"  is now  all those retired Civil servants and apparatchiks of the Government- they might have the age but they also have the gold to indulge their whims- publish a showing off book- lap up the grovelling of "lesser mortals"  or not as the case may be- whatever blows your skirt up ! 

 One good thing about the past though- nobody had decided  public Dwarf Fiddling was legal and normal !(at least not until the mid-70s )

16 comments:

  1. You're quite right that any Golden Age resides in the eye of the beholder. It has more to do with a ponging to one's own inocent youth, in which every new thing you encountered was a real discovery, rather than with any absolute time frame.

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  2. There was a definite thrill of discovery that is absent now, lost forever. I can recall finding out there was a couple of fascinating centuries between Bosworth and Napoleon, that the ancient world consisted of more than the pyramids, the Romans, and Jason and the Argonauts. It was still possible to create new rules and mechanisms that had not been tried before. Not all worked! Don Featherstone's shadow boxes were a complete waste time. But we experimented, and shared knowledge. It was an even more obscure hobby than now and each 'advance' was notable. We had to convert, and scratchbuild and treasured the results much more than buying figures off the shelf, often ready painted these days via e bay. Putting some converted Churchill 'funnies' on a table would draw admiring comments and questions for weeks.

    It was not always easy and was valued all the more because of that. I was in the Middle East in the early 80's when fresh milk was intermittent and a cauiflower was such a rarity I took a photo of it. Now the Emirates is wall to wall skyscapers and the market place for the world's finest products. I would not swap my time and memories there for anything. And wargaming is similar for me. Golden Age? Well it was for me.

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  3. Chaps I see your points and yes there was more of a frisson of anticipation and wonder then than there is now- but most of that is simply because WE are older. I wonder if todays newcomers have that- when all they need is money... I know at least one Workshop Junkie who gets exited when new bits of plastic weirdness appear ......
    I still get chaps raxxing me impatiently for news of new stuff- currently its the new Blue Moon Napoleonic releases- due here on Thursday - so UPS tell me.
    For myself I can still get the thrill of discovery when researching - "so that rule is cobblers because ...." or Ah - Ha the 69th foot and mouth wore THAT THEN not THAT ....
    There is still plenty of interest but yes perhaps the actual dice rolling has palled a bit ...

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  4. Flares: yes.

    Mullet: never!

    Golden Age: began when I discovered that solo gaming wasn't for losers. No more enforced suffering of smartarses and complete tossers at clubs and a the freedom that comes from binning WRG, FOW, FOG etc. in favour of home brew again. Guest players by appointment only! Playing with oneself isn't limited to onanism.

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    1. Gary- Take your point about tossers at clubs- its one of the reasons the TWATS are "organised" the way they aren't if you take my meaning. You become a TWAT by invitation only .......

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    2. You make a good point Gary, when I were a lad I gamed by meself because my mates weren't into it, eventually I found others that enjoyed wargaming and that was great for some years, a decade or more. Now I have rediscovered having a quiet set up game with me, myself and I is pretty relaxing and definitely not for L's..

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  5. Andy,
    You always seem to find a scab to pick.
    We've had a brief discussion before about nostalgia, and the brief phenomena that was Old School Wargaming. I think, and this is a personal view, that I feel more involved in wargaming now, than in the 1970's, but do miss the intense excitement that I felt when I played a wargame then, and when I was able to afford attending either Northern Militaire or Sheffield Triples. This is probably natural when one is in the first flush of love [ or some bollocks like that]
    The beauty is that now one has ready access to research, dialogue with other wargamers and the ability to probably obtain any figure you would ever want, witness your very extensive stock lists.So in some ways we are in a bit of a Golden Age, depending on if you are a half full or a half empty glass type of person. As regards the Richard Clarke article, I will post something about this.
    By the way I had a very nice mullet in the 1970's and fancied myself as a bit of a Rod Stewart lookalike, well apart from the big nose of course.

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    1. More Freddie Mercury surely?

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    2. Nostalgia as we both know ain't what it used to be ..... the best example is really figure cost- look how "cheap" figures were in the 1970s - BUT you had less money and PROPORTIONATELY they were far more expensive than they are now- Dropping a tenner on Hichcliffe was a major event back then - now you can drop a ton or two and hardly bat an eye.

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  6. Well speaking as a retired (apart from the rubber stamp) Civil Servant or apparatchik (whatever that is - a parrots girlfriend?) I agree in the idea of Golden Age of my youth its where I got the bug for wargaming- I lived and breathed it. Like you said, I didn't have the money but had the time. As I got older I had the money and less time (work, family and stuff). Now I am in my own personal Golden Age as I have both the time and the money (some) to enjoy this fabulous hobby to the full, or at least the fullest I can manage. I have no problem with the emergence of self-published (or other) war-games coffee table books. Two at least I have seen are IMHO crap but if somebody wants to go to the trouble and someone else wants to buy it good luck to them. I own one (the best - AMG) and its often commented upon by non wargaming visitors who can see the beauty in the skills etc involved in our hobby.

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    1. oh and I had a silly 'tache, and kipper ties!

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  7. Still got a couple of kipper ties somewhere ..... Never did the Mullet- did do the Hippy thing for a while though - sort of John Lennon reject ..... before that I had flares AND kipper ties ... there are no photographs of that period which is fortunate ....

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  8. To paraphrase myself in my 5 things I love and hate, "the good old days, when were they?" I think the golden age is a myth. The years of discovery are the golden years and dependent on when you enter the hobby not a given time and date, when your hobby is shiny bright and new, your learning how to paint, discovering historical pointers about your favourite period and meeting people that love gaming just as much as you do... Bowie wrote a song about it I believe. So the "golden age" is a very personal and slightly abstract thing in my opinion.

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  9. Great article in a great Blog, thank you. I share many of your sentiments and memories. I grew up in South London in the 50's and 60's, commenced my gaming also at about aged 12 or so. I've lived in the US for almost 40 years but still continue to collect, paint and game, the more so now as I'm retired. Do you or your readers know anything about London gaming circa 1967-9? I'm trying to connect with any survivors of a group that used to meet at the "Wellington" pub near Waterloo Bridge station. That for me was the Golden era.

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    1. Reggie- a little bit before my time and of course in a different part of the country. I started my wargsaming in Manchester and always count it from 1970 . when I was 12 .
      Suggest you try the Vintage Wargaming blog - on my blog list further up the page.

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