Porky Poster Ponders! (A Guest Editorial)
14 Minute Read
Nov 27 2010
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Boys and girls, Unicorns and children of all ages, my name is Brent… (this is where you say, “Hi, Brent!”)… and I may well be an evil genius. This is my confession, and I’ll let you judge it on its merit, because I’ve brought Porky Poster out to play!
Yes, the very foundation this great site is built upon may tremble and shake, for one of the great dissenting voices of Bell of Lost Souls mighty comment’s section agreed to my request for a guest spot. After my short opening you’ll read the result, unfiltered and unedited. In fact, I decided not to comment at all.
You see, I’m one of the lucky few privileged with the ability to reach wargamers across the world through my access as a writer here. It is an honor I take seriously unseriously! Yes, I joke around, but my goal has always been to build a sense of community in our hobby; all of my work here – and elsewhere, in fact – is done with that in mind.
So you see, hosting Porky Poster, a major voice of the glorious opposition, is my way of giving the finger to the idea of Us Vs. Them. There is no Them. There is just Us.
Also, it’ll annoy my man Darkwynn some… and that’s all to the good! Anyway, the article is long (guaranteed to put Real Genius to sleep!) but well worth a read: so read on!
Porky Poster Ponders
This is going to be great.
So what am I doing here?
A good question, with many answers. Let’s work backwards. Last and most simply, Brent invited me. Fourth, I put an unusual view in the recent discussion on comp. Third, there’s plenty that needs saying, and not otherwise being said. Second, I visit BoLS most days and enjoy being part of the community. First, I’m addicted to the 40K universe.
One by one then.
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| For pics I bring you… Cat Needs Treadmill: A Series. |
Last, Brent’s a great guy, we know that. He wrote this: “I can work with someone I have honest disagreements with”. A child of Voltaire. What’s not to like?
Fourth, the unusual view I put at the comp article. For those who don’t know, comp is ‘composition’, a subjective or semi-subjective judgement on the composition of a tournament army. I’m no fan of it, which will be news to some. (Second big shock of the day.) I do see the benefits though. I’ve written elsewhere that comp is one of many possible corrective systems. In the same vein, others have written that such systems are needed – along with painting and sportsmanship scores – if a tournament is to reflect not only battlefield prowess but more of the hobby as a whole. It was a surprise – even for me – when Goatboy criticised comp more recently and there some dissent. To use an economics metaphor, corrective systems of this kind aim to bring the tournament back from an extreme and closer to the equilibrium of the hobby. Not everyone wants such a tournament of course, not always at least.
Let’s make the first of many digressions. Economics is the study of scarcity, ecology of abundance. If 40K were described by economics, it would be ‘the win’ which was scarce, in the sense of being desirable and not available to both players in a single game. The hobby would then be the means by which the win is obtained. If we were talking laissez-faire economics, too much intervention would a bad thing. To avoid inefficiencies and unexpected outcomes, the core rules would be clear and simple and new codices would add little or nothing. In this view, comp would be another kind of complexity, a distortion of the 40K ‘marketplace’. The ideal would be a clean, well-oiled system. I would agree with this view. (Echoes of the second shock.)
If 40K were described by ecology, ideas would be abundant. Think of the 23 years back to 1987 and Rogue Trader, of all that has been since then: the armies, the systems, the names and places, the models, conversions and colour schemes. A rich ecosystem of interlinked ideas. Looked at like this, 40K is not achieving the outcome on the tabletop, but is everything which led to the tabletop and all that happens there. In this view, comp aims at continuity between ideas and events. It aims to plug the holes in the ruleset, to greenstuff over the cracks. And I would agree with this view too.
Am I contradicting myself? Not if we accept that 40K is more than the individual view, more than GW even – it’s a community. A big one. A very big one.
Where am I going with this?
Digression within digression: Spacecurves is one creative guy – that I won’t deny (the best and worst of times) – and I’m going to stand on his shoulders by setting some homework tasks. Here’s the first:
1. How big is the 40K community? I don’t mean current players only, but past players who drop by and might return, painters of the miniatures, readers and writers of the fiction and players of the computer games, in whatever language. Everyone with a stake basically.
Third in the list I set out at the top was “there’s plenty that needs saying, and not all of it would otherwise be said”.
Porky Poster is a troublemaker. Don’t you know it. In this respect he really is me. Whatever the established or majority position is, he goes and stands somewhere else. And like a greased pig, just when you think you’ve pinned him down, he’s off again. What’s up with that? More contradictions? Let me explain.
That established or majority position is created by the comments we make here. They are our views and we hold them dear, and happily most of us find plenty of agreement in the ranks. That said, we as a group are at best only a representative sample of the wider fan base, with all of the inaccuracy that comes from extrapolating from a sample. In fact, I’d guess the degree of error is enormous, that we are no more than a very narrow representation of the broader 40K world. How so? First, because many of us apparently hail from specific geographical areas, and probably anyway agree on much simply by dint of being friends and acquaintances. Second, it’s because we are players who have an internet connection, can read and write in English and regularly visit our one particular corner of the online hobby, not to mention the entire online world.
What, then, of all of the other 40K fans?
2a. Who are these people? Do you know anyone who doesn’t visit BoLS? Why aren’t they here?
It’s probably becoming clear, if you hadn’t already worked it out, that Porky Poster is playing devil’s advocate. Or rather he’s an advocate taking on a pre-emptive class action. The more that a certain view is supported, the more he feels that one or other of the many alternatives needs to be put. What we regulars at BoLS write goes out live to the world; it sets the tone and lays the foundations for further thought in communities around the world. It’s a big responsibility. Sloppy in the execution I may be, but I post as Porky with the intent to represent, or rather to stand up to the majority, to squeeze open a chink for those unable for whatever reason to have their say. After all, 40K does belong to them too.
2b. What is the ‘BoLS consensus’? That is to say, what views do we as a group all largely share?
What am I getting at?
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| And We’re Walking. Any Day Now… |
In a nutshell, there may be differences between us here at BoLS, and these may reflect the differences that exist out there in the real world, but they fail to fully encompass them. We are not a fractal representation, but the figurative tip of the iceberg. We suggest the total form, but cannot convey the true contours.
We all know people who play the same game, but don’t think and feel like us. The differences may be subtle or they may be glaring, but they are precious. We all love a fresh look, a new colour scheme or painting technique, a spectacular conversion or great army concept. These things come also – and perhaps even more so – from the byways and backwaters of the hobby, far from the madding crowd, well apart from the 24-hour rumours and the release schedule, where gaming life is slower and minds take in other sights and sounds.
Out there they’re fighting to preserve their approach to the hobby against the net lists and the knowing lingo of ‘alpha strike’ and alphabetisations and the latest big thing. It’s an uphill struggle, but corrective measures like comp can help them. How?
Because we all play 40K. And we’re connected, like points in the webway. We’re tied together by GW itself, by White Dwarf, by hobby stores of all kinds, by gaming clubs, by cons and tournaments, by BoLS of course and by the wider 40K blogosphere. These spheres overlap and we participate variously in all of them. If something like comp then comes into being or is changed, the ripples move out and eventually lap at everyone’s shore. All of those people who’ve never taken part in a tournament and may never want to have to live with the repercussions.
2c. What views might not be represented here, and could they be or should they be?
We here at BoLS are at least a ragbag and motley crew, yours truly most certainly included.
The second in the list then, “I visit BoLS most days and enjoy being part of the community”.
Here we are. Together again. At monitors and mobiles, at home, at work and in internet cafes all over. Artists, teachers, designers and engineers, soldiers, sailors and aircrew, men, women and children, young and old, from almost every continent of this vast planet, from Rogue Trader, second edition, third, fourth and fifth, via ancients, comics, novels and computer games, and even music, and for the background, modelling, painting and playing, for the talking. Lovers, haters and the lukewarm. All in the mix and all mixed up again tomorrow.
Porky the intransigent we know all too well. But there’s Snord the imperturbable, the incisive Vossl and the insightful LEGION3000, the tireless Tynskel, resourceful MarshalWilhelm, live wire scadugenga and the dry-and-cool-as-dry-ice eeore, as well as clued-up BlackSly and COMBATIVE James, witty Buffo – who plays Dark Eldar – and lesser-spotted LordSandwich and Bill Deal, sandwyrm, with whom the truce is strong, and the generous neverXmoor watching our backs, and, yes, even Chumbalaya. It’s not just you, Just_Me. It’s all of us. Scores and scores or hundreds of others whose names I have too little patience to spell, but who we brush up against and nod in agreement with day after day.
Great names they are all, and known the world over. For we are the vanguard. We are gone ahead in the van. When we tap out a comment at BoLS, we have the power to inspire or hurt. Our idea enters the mind of the reader, is processed and interacts with others, and emerges in a changed form at some later point. Perhaps it leads to frustration and an unfortunate dog is kicked, or perhaps a certain kind of player is done badly by with a vengeful pleasure, but it could be that realisation dawns, honest praise is given and friendship blossoms. And the number of readers is immense. Go do the math. What a world we could make! What a world we make… We do set that tone and lay those foundations for further thought in communities all around the world.
3. Which ring are we then? Take your pick: Narya, Nenya or Vilya? Surely not any of the nine, but perhaps one of the seven. Perhaps the One itself?
As even the wise falter, so the little people make mistakes. We have a duty to learn from them. We are all Eldar here and must tease out and weave the skeins of fate to ensure our survival. We win or lose together, as a community.
I consider myself to have been wrong on some things. Big things. Like spam. A few weeks ago Fritz put together an article on themed armies, and discussed building an army based on swooping hawks. I love swooping hawks. (Of course I do: no shock there. My view is here.) Anyway, the article produced plenty of good debate. Take a look. The epiphany came then, thanks to the good, eloquent commenters, especially OXRS.
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| To The End… Clean. |
What was that epiphany? That some armies do spam the enemy, and not for the win, but for the idea. What is the average space marine company if not spam, and what a chapter if not spam spammed? The Ork green tide is spam, especially if the power klaw is the no-brainer option. The waves of a Tyranid invasion washing across a world? Spam. Even Eldar guardian armies engaged in a last-ditch defence of the craftworld, back to back at the end of a civilisation? Well, yes, spam.
I may have turned to the dark side in the eyes of some, but the truth is that there are always more than two options: it’s never black and white. The proviso is this, that for me the intention of the player is all, whether this intention is discernible or not. We must assume good faith and discuss openly and fairly at every opportunity. My views on winning can be found here, following up a comment by to hurrimadurr, and with plenty of rebuttals from my good friends.
On the subject of knowing lingo, Dethron has a new acronym: FAAC. Good for a snigger, but it misses the point: the hobby doesn’t fit a bipolar scale of WAAC to FAAC. It is most definitely multipolar, with as many poles as people. That black or white approach – as I and others have learnt painfully – only serves to divide us.
4. Have you changed your views on anything since first visiting BoLS? Let’s look beyond the hobby even – the changes may reach well outside of 40K.
Disclaimer: those views on winning are in large part intact, although toned down a little.
Which brings us at last to the first in the list: “I’m addicted to the 40K universe”.
The first White Dwarf I ever picked up had datafaxes (yeah!) for Squat bikes and trikes and the Eldar war walker, with a guide to painting the Biel-tan thorn pattern. There was a campaign for the first edition of Space Hulk with new floorplans and counters for consoles, an air generator and proximity plasma grenades; the setting was the Second War for Armageddon, and the board game itself was almost out. There were new Ork tanks for Epic like the braincrusha and gibletgrinda. The following issue had sleek new 40K close combat rules (for the compact armies of the time) and John Blanche telling us he never paints a model without first modifying it in some way; the next had the Squat land train and that year’s out-there Golden Demon pics. Man, was I in deep.
No surprise then that I started on a Squat army for 40K, Orks and Squats for Epic, that the cross-format narrative of Armageddon sucked me into storytelling, and that I too will use no model not first converted. As the months passed I collected up back issues, Rogue Trader and the Compendium and immersed myself more fully in the saga to date, learning to make rivers and program robots, navigating every kind of entry and table, wondering at D-Rok and Warhammer Records, worrying about genestealer and chaos cults, wanting the array of titan weapons and gargants with their raging fires, as well as termites, moles and hellbores, beginning to build a bitz box for bionik bitz, using Tin Bitz, and always daydreaming of the cityscapes and plains, of racing vehicles and stalking war machines, of dropship strikes and bitter combats in forests, valleys and bombed out complexes. Much of it was cold and ugly. Boy, is the 41st millennium ugly. But I didn’t know that yet.
Porky was just a piglet, but the shape of the full-grown boar (read ‘bore’) could be seen. I’m willing to bet a lot of our differences today stem from those first formative days, or even minutes. We each saw a different system first, or a different model, or in a different light, with different people, or in a different colour scheme, with or without squad markings; the army won, the army lost, the army was just there, on great terrain, with a good staff member guiding or a rousing cheer for a bold move.
Is this the difference between a Porky_Poster and a Porty1119, between a Hungry Ghosts and a Messanger of Death, a Darkwing and a Darkwynn, between a Big J, a Q_Paul and a Z, not to mention an mnkyft? Could well be. If so, it’s not much. It’s still 40K we all love. We just go doe-eyed over different bits.
But there’s more. In the meantime a question, a biggie.
5. How did your first encounter with the hobby colour what came later?
Later for me came with second edition and the first ever codices, then third edition, a whole new world. Necromunda burned bright, with the scrapes in the domes and tunnels a life in themselves. Epic saw mega-gargants and the Imperator and brought us the new Tyranids, before growing in stature and shrinking in scope. The Squats were cut off, but the Orks had never looked better. Necrons appeared on Gorkamorka, and the Tau burst in from a new place. Retcons and Forge World. Departures and arrivals. The years have brought for me both charms of kindling and a few chill curses, the sweet and bitter alike.
A good gaming group can make the best of everything, and help prize the gleaming new gems, but only acceptance can stop the hurt of loss. When I first started posting at BoLS, I didn’t accept. I don’t accept fully even now. But I feel better. I’ve heard other viewpoints. I’ve listened, even if it doesn’t seem so at times. I may not share all of your views or even share any of them fully, but I don’t doubt I’ve moved a little more in your direction. Perhaps you’ve moved a little in mine?
Where am I coming from then? With the intricate ecosystem of ideas I’ve come to value most of all imagination. I’ve decided that for me personally the reconciliation can only come with model and greenstuff in hand, making the individual dream real, but within a caring, sharing community. The imagination to bring thought into being, but also to understand the thoughts and feelings of others. Though it seems trivial to point it out now, this is why a corrective system like comp is there. Succeeding or failing, it’s trying to take onboard the views of all.
Whatever happens, it is still 40K. It’s still people. It’s us and it’s why we’re here.
6. Where are you at right now? How have the years in the hobby shaped you?
Well, that’s it. And it’s plenty. It was a pleasure to write, if not necessarily to read.
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| The End is Near. |
If you’ve been nodding off, let an old hand put you back on track. Here’s how it’s done: first of all ‘first’, ‘first to fail’ and ‘spelling, grammar and punctuation’, but today especially ‘wall of text’ and ‘lost me after x’, as well as ‘selling out’, ‘I call BS’ and ‘is this the same Porky that said y’. Spice it up with ‘I can’t believe I read it’, ‘can anyone write an article’ and ‘next they’ll be writing about z’. Oh, and don’t forget ‘bring back TheGirl’.
Perhaps it’s all deserved, and you might deserve it too when you’re up here. Nice customs they’re not. But we are making progress. We may bicker, but we mostly put it behind us. Because we care. We’re here because we value the hobby and each other, whoever we are, and however and wherever in the world we play. We have to work at it, of course. It’s not easy, but who would want anything less than a challenge?
Thanks, guys and girls.
And so, for the firsters, the whole of the article in condensed form:
I love you, man – I really love you! Everyone else too!
Not quite to the extent of gropings maybe. But hugs? Why not? After all, we’re all in this together. Look at me, here, at the top of the page today. I’m no less surprised than you. Thanks, Brent.
Proof.
As if it were needed.
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So that’s it then, Porky’s well-researched Wall of Text has come to a close. Thoughts? Comments? Hugs and gropings?
Author: Brent
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