Precinct Omega Weekly Miniatures News #13 - 26th July 2020 - Problematic Products
Added 2020-07-26 14:26:09 +0000 UTCCONTENT WARNING - SEXUAL THEMES
In this week's news I look at new releases from:
What these three have in common are problematic content and themes involved in their new releases. How should consumers identify, deal with and respond to problematic themes in their hobby? And how should manufacturers deal with the issue of what is, ultimately, a leisure game about warfare?
Comments
(Patreon has added this as a new comment and not a reply...I've no idea why!) I think you are right about it being personal, and because of that we have to be careful on how we judge others.
Jonathan Lupton
2020-07-29 15:58:00 +0000 UTCIf I were talking in general terms about problematically sexualized minis, I would have mentioned Kingdom Death, Mierce Miniatures and, yes, Corvus Belli's notorious "combat heels" and "battlefield pin-up" default (which has got a lot better, lately!). But I do try to stick to the miniatures that are actually in the news (that's why it's call the Weekly Miniatures News Podcast, after all!). Fact is, though, that the SS wouldn't be problematic if they were a fictional army in a fictional universe. 40k contains many organizations *far* more brutal and cruel than the Waffen SS were.
Precinct Omega
2020-07-29 13:23:31 +0000 UTCSome of the older Infinity miniatures are borderline in my view. But I'm happy to say they have moved in the right direction. My fusiliers are the older ones with combat high-heels, but the latest Kaldstrom ones have more practical boots that match those of the male fusiliers. I also would never chose to buy and build a Waffen SS army in FoW or Bolt Action. I think the history of the SS is only part of it, painting camo has never been my strong point either and there are plenty of other armies I would prefer to collect and paint than the SS. What I do find interesting is that playing/collecting the Waffen SS makes people uncomfortable, but when we look at Sci-fi and Fantasy games we don't object to people choosing to play Chaos or Dark Elves/Eldar or any other evil race/army. It seems that we can justify having collecting a fictitious army that has a truly evil background and mythology, but we shy away from historical armies with the same traits. I'd would also point out there are multiple approaches to wargaming and our reservations about the SS are probably more to do with the typical fantasy/sci-fi approach bleeding over into historical wargaming. As usual we can probably blame GW for this. What I mean by this is that when we chose to play a GW style game we first pick the game, then select and build an army, then go looking for opponents to play. If there is a narrative element to the battles it normally comes after, eg. my elves are fighting your dwarves let's write a narrative about why they are fighting. FoW and Bolt Action have adopted this approach, but it's not the only way to play historical games. Some people prefer to reenact historical battles and will look to construct armies that reflect the actual ones that fought the battles. With this approach the battle is selected first, then players will consider things such as models, who players which side etc. In this case a player could end up playing the SS because of the battle they chose and not because they like the SS and what they represent. While you could avoid battles involving the SS they were involved in several major, iconic battles that wargamers like to play out. Carentan, Arnhem and the Battle of the Bulge would all have to be avoided if you don't want the SS involved. Or you would have to re-write history and replace the SS with other forces, but I think that is a path best avoided. Ulitmately these wargamers aren't playing the SS because they like the background, they are playing them because they were present at the battle they are looking to recreate. If we are going to question Battlefront and the release of Waffen SS shouldn't we also be looking at GW with their Slaanesh and Dark Elf/Eldar product lines?
Jonathan Lupton
2020-07-29 11:21:42 +0000 UTC
