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All in Good Taste - Daffrid | |
| The topic I'm going to dive into today is one
that polarises opinion across the board and one that can put gamers and
games producers in a bad light, its one of those issues where everyone has
an opinion and the burning issue is the 'historical context of miniatures /
paint schemes' or to put it in the common vernacular (and not civil service
speak) 'painting your figures to look like Nazi's'. Firstly a little history; in the universes of Warhammer and Warhammer 40K there is a rich and colourful background with protagonists and antagonists from Sigmar and Archeon to Eldrad and Ghazghskull, these characters sit within the timelines that GW has created and for most players give the game a more little flavour, now for many people this isn't enough and we like to invent are own background to go with our models and make up our own colour schemes which GW positively encourage and kudos to them for that. Now whilst creating our own ideas we naturally look to the world around us for inspiration (as did GW when they created the whole shebang) this can lead to some interesting consequences, for example; we get Tau based on Japanese manga cartoons or Bretonnian knights based on medieval crusaders, but some conversions/paint schemes can lead to offence. The common example of the unacceptable is the 'Imperial guard as Nazi's' idea which occasionally crops up or Redemptionists painted up as the KKK or being KKK inspired, i've even heard of ethnically painted troopers being being consistently referred to as meatsheilds, now I doubt any one would tell me painting up GW figs as Nazi's is acceptable and I'm informed that GW is very strict about this kind of thing (I believe you are somewhat impolitely escorted of the premises with the encouragement not to return) which quite frankly they should be. That said I did write to the ever popular legal team at GW and they very graciously choose not to respond. As with every good argument there is no black and white merely shades of grey (hmm evidently clichés exist for a reason ) example of this include painting Catachans as Vietnam US marines, not offensive you may think, stand in a north Vietnam village and see the reaction you get, or paint up Praetorian guard as British colonial redcoats and play in Africa, a good example is painting up Valhallan Imperial guard as WW2 Russians (for which the models are obviously inspired) and sticking big red stars and red flags all over the place, not offensive in Britain (it's in the 2nd ed codex), but probably might be taken the wrong way in eastern Europe (the Soviet advance into occupied Europe was somewhat bloody, as was the occupation [and yes that is English understatement]). So the question is, what is acceptable? Some people have said before that if even a single person will find something offensive then it should not be shown or used, quite honestly I think that argument is bobbins (translation ~ rubbish) as given the whole world is so wonderfully diverse anyone can get offended at anything, and they often do. The opposite argument is that anything goes, do what you like it's your figure, whilst 'acceptable' within the confines of your home or private group. A simple answer is that you play to whatever your gaming club, store or competition allows, this is the obvious benchmark for most things as 95% of people involved in the hobby have an IQ above that of a jam sandwich (the other five percent got a paintbrush stuck up their nose with dire consequences), this does of course lead to regional trends, but that is mostly excusable. In my opinion the issue is one of 'historical context' (GSCE English ~ always start your conclusion by rehashing your introduction) the universe's in which these games exist are diverse ones, but it is also fictional ones, we read of genocide and death every month in GW, but it is not real and gives a modicum of reason to the hobby of pushing toy soldiers around a table. My argument would be with such a rich environment you do not need to import less desirable ideas from our own universe, we do not need Nazi's in 40K since we already have the fascist Imperium (which as far as I'm aware has never harmed a living soul). On the other hand our own history is so rich that it is hard not to take inspiration from it, a WW1 style German inspired guard has always appealed to me and if you look at the historical context the German's of the time we no more offensive than any other country in Europe at the period (and yes Britain is in Europe, before you flame me to death). Finally as a small appeal to anyone from Games Workshop who might be reading this I would suggest than in future models such Redemptionists do not bear such a close resemblance to historical figures that represent hate or oppression, the game does not need it and whilst I believe in freedom of expression something that so easily could cause offence does not belong in a shop selling goods to minors or even adults. | |
Want to discuss this? Or anything else? | |
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