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Now, lets talk about something difficult. Race and games. I know my experience is not everyones, so I might be wrong, hell I bet I am. I was sitting around a pathfinder society table and was looking around. all white. I looked at the other tables.....White and Pacific Islanders. In my 40k ventures I see and even distribution of Caucasian, Hispanic and a few pacific Islanders.
Im wondering, what are other peoples experiance?

Meh i have found gaming to be a varied broad spectrum i have gamed with every hair color eye color size class race my Battletech group for example melting pot . First Up My best buddies Esto ( Hispanic and African American) , Geo ( White and African American) , Adam ( Polish 200% off the boat) , Myself ( White American Scotch Irsh Welsh English) , Justin ( American White German and Native American) When we walk into a Diner after a game it looks like a United Nation Meeting

Strange when i look around the tables where i play wargames, most of the people are Oriental, i wonder why!

I'm of Middle Eastern/Mexican descent and I play against two Mexicans, three Asians and about 4 white people. So it's stilted towards whites but there is some variety in my meta.

 Field Marshal Wiley wrote:
Meh i have found gaming to be a varied broad spectrum i have gamed with every hair color eye color size class race my Battletech group for example melting pot . First Up My best buddies Esto ( Hispanic and African American) , Geo ( White and African American) , Adam ( Polish 200% off the boat) , Myself ( White American Scottish Irsh Welsh English) , Justin ( American White German and Native American) When we walk into a Diner after a game it looks like a United Nation Meeting

Fixed it for you.

 Field Marshal Wiley wrote:
Meh i have found gaming to be a varied broad spectrum i have gamed with every hair color eye color size class race my Battletech group for example melting pot . First Up My best buddies Esto ( Hispanic and African American) , Geo ( White and African American) , Adam ( Polish 200% off the boat) , Myself ( White American Scotch Irsh Welsh English) , Justin ( American White German and Native American) When we walk into a Diner after a game it looks like a United Nation Meeting

Irsh?

All Pākehā (the term for white people in NZ.)

Why does it matter?

Is there some sort of obsession with race in America?

Seems that way sometimes.

Meh, its jsut an observation. And yes, wargaming is an affluent mans game, and a decent example of white privilege in America/UK.

Hey don't lump us brits in with you yanks May be an example of white privilege over your end, but I got a Jamaican and a few indian buddies over here that'd like to argue against that point.

I can't wait to read all the unfounded conclusions that people are going to jump to in this thread.

 Strombones wrote:
I can't wait to read all the unfounded conclusions that people are going to jump to in this thread.

By unfounded conclusions, do you mean 2 to 6 page arguments over something having to do with race?

SkavenLord wrote:

 Strombones wrote:
I can't wait to read all the unfounded conclusions that people are going to jump to in this thread.

By unfounded conclusions, do you mean 2 to 6 page arguments over something having to do with race?

Haha yes! And now that you put it that way I'm going to step out of this one

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Now, lets talk about something difficult. Race and games. I know my experience is not everyones, so I might be wrong, hell I bet I am. I was sitting around a pathfinder society table and was looking around. all white. I looked at the other tables.....White and Pacific Islanders. In my 40k ventures I see and even distribution of Caucasian, Hispanic and a few pacific Islanders.
Im wondering, what are other peoples experiance?

At my FLGS, North of Chicago, board game night is every Thursday night.

From attending ~6 or 7 game nights, the breakdown of regulars is:

3 chicks
12 dudes
8 White dudes
3 White chicks
2 Asian dudes (not related)
1 Black dude
1 Hispanic dude

As this area is mostly white, I'm not surprised.

 Strombones wrote:
I can't wait to read all the unfounded conclusions that people are going to jump to in this thread.

You mean like how I was thinking something like wargaming rally ala chess boxing?

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
Strange when i look around the tables where i play wargames, most of the people are Oriental, i wonder why!

Boom. Most important factor for group make-up cited. Location, location, location.

Except, I think you call people Asian and things Oriental and places either.

There are a smattering of minorities at the various wargaming venues I attend, but it's nearly always 90% or more Caucasian males. Once in a while sometimes the Asian segment will exceed 10%. This seems to be true whether I'm in a suburban gaming store or a store located right in the city in a neighborhood with a diverse population and has even carried over to wargaming venues I've visited in other states.

The exception is historical wargaming conventions where it appears to be 97% white males.

Location will affect the balance, and I am sure there are some areas with a more diverse gaming population, but in my experience, overall, wargaming simply isn't a diverse hobby.

As a clarification:
I'm a wargamer, but when my gaming time intersects with RPG days and Boardgaming days, sometimes the white male majority will shrink to as low as 60% and you'll see more females and minorities.

The regulars in the local warhammer crowd where I'm at consists of about a score of various American Caucasian mongrels (including myself), one African-American (who is rapidly becoming the leader of our little gaming community just by being better organized and more proactive than the rest of us), a second-generation Indian immigrant, a first-generation Bosnian immigrant, and a displaced Swede with his youngest daughter (14 years old, and a wicked wood elf general in her own right - underestimate her at your own risk!).

Among the irregulars are another Indian (third generation, possibly of mixed ancestry but Indian dominates; unrelated to the regular), a couple more African-Americans, and a bunch more Caucasian mongrels.

All guys except the 14-year old. She's also the youngest in the group; the guys range from late teens to early sixties.

We also cross the entire political spectrum - but when politics comes up, we debate it politely if vigorously, and we're all smart enough to know when the other side has a valid point - and have enough integrity to admit it. Of course, that may just mean we're a bunch of moderates without any real extremists among us...

The local RPG groups are slightly more diverse. About 1/4 are girls, and another 1/4 are minority guys. Minority girls don't seem to like the hobby much around here.

Not many Asians... at all, much less in the hobby.

So minorities are under-represented... but not by our choice. We'll welcome anyone who want to give it a shot and isn't a total jerk.

pacific Islanders

I never understood what that meant, Hawaiians and Japanese come from Islands in the Pacific but I wouldn't put them into the same category.

Editing my whole post. Misunderstood the OP

At the "grown-ups" game store there are mostly Swedish white people, and a decent chunk of Asians. There are both blacks and South Americans there as well but again, there's a clear majority of white Swedes and to a lesser extent Asians.

At GW store (where there are mostly children) I think the ethnicities might be a bit more evenly distributed. But that's just an observation. I'm rarely there.

 Elemental wrote:
A better question might be: does the ethnic makeup of your local games club differ significantly from the ethnic makeup of the area it draws members from?

That is a pretty good question. The grown-ups store is in an area with a relatively high immigrant population (mostly people from the Middle East), so yes, I'd say it differs rather significantly, because I see far more Asians at the store than I see people from the middle east. And there aren't many Asians living in the area.

Is this one of those threads where everyone reports the state of their local games club, and assumes that the same is the case across the entire hobby?

A better question might be: does the ethnic makeup of your local games club differ significantly from the ethnic makeup of the area it draws members from?

 Elemental wrote:


A better question might be: does the ethnic makeup of your local games club differ significantly from the ethnic makeup of the area it draws members from?

Definitely. The Chicago FLGS, that seems to have a mostly chicago draw almost reflects the surrounding blocks, but is much whiter than the surrounding neighborhoods or the north side of the city as a whole.

The Suburban FLGS more accurately represents the town it is located in, but if the wider area is considered (since it draws from a very wide area) there also you find minorities very under-represented.

It'd be good to see more minorities involved, but it's just not the case. Not surprising really since the roots of wargaming are rather euro-centric, and you don't find many wargaming clubs and shops in minority areas. Minorities wishing to wargame usually have to travel to areas that are predominantly white.

Ironclad Warlord wrote:

pacific Islanders

I never understood what that meant, Hawaiians and Japanese come from Islands in the Pacific but I wouldn't put them into the same category.

When someone says Pacific Islander I picture a huge Samoan.

When someone says Pacific Islander I picture a huge Samoan.
That would be like saying Atlantic Islanders and putting a island off the coast of Africa and the English in the same racial category, also isn't Australia an Island in the Pacific, I always thought it was dumb to say pacific islander, why not just let people write whatever nationality they are in the OTHER box.

My gaming group is all white...

 fishy bob wrote:

Ironclad Warlord wrote:

pacific Islanders

I never understood what that meant, Hawaiians and Japanese come from Islands in the Pacific but I wouldn't put them into the same category.

When someone says Pacific Islander I picture a huge Samoan.

I always picture Dwayne Johnson.

My gaming group is entirely white.

 fishy bob wrote:

Ironclad Warlord wrote:

pacific Islanders

I never understood what that meant, Hawaiians and Japanese come from Islands in the Pacific but I wouldn't put them into the same category.

When someone says Pacific Islander I picture a huge Samoan.

I always picture someone who is a great guy... until you piss them off. Now that's a stereotype.

Interestingly Taiwanese natives build very similar houses to Maoris , so I'd consider pacific islander to be quite a wide social grouping. Honestly ,looking at some Maori women I don't see a huge difference between them and some Hawaiian women. I'd consider the pacific islanders and Hawaiians to be quite closely related (obviously there are 2 separate groups in pacific islander - just ask em ).

I don't live too far outside of NYC (about 45 minutes). Mixing pot of America, really. In the game store I go to, there is one middle eastern dude, two black dudes and everyone else is white (2-3 occasional girls, not often though). Oh, and two Asian dudes as well. We also have a Koala bear in the group, but we usually try to ignore him. It's better that way.