Description
Book SynopsisThe story of white masculinity in geek culture through a history of hobby gaming
Geek culture has never been more mainstream than it is now, with the ever-increasing popularity of events like Comic Con, transmedia franchising of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, market dominance of video and computer games, and the resurgence of board games such as Settlers of Catan and role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Yet even while the comic book and hobby shops where the above are consumed today are seeing an influx of BIPOC gamers, they remain overwhelmingly white, male, and heterosexual.
The Privilege of Play contends that in order to understand geek identity's exclusionary tendencies, we need to know the history of the overwhelmingly white communities of tabletop gaming hobbyists that preceded it. It begins by looking at how the privileged networks of model railroad hobbyists in the early twentieth century laid a cultural foundation for the scenes that wo
Trade Review
"In this timely and important book, Aaron Trammell explores not just today's growing board game community, but its longer, more complex, and problematic genealogies and historiographies. The hobbyists from which the modern board game community developed—the train enthusiasts, the sci-fi authors, the war gamers, the role players—have strong ties through to today. And while the communities have offered safe spaces for some marginalized groups, they also participated in racist and class-based segregation. With his practiced analytical skills and detailed eye for nuance, Trammell never lets one narrative dominate, telling a refined, three- dimensional story about the development of hobby board games. Play is serious business, but Trammell's engaging tone makes it fun again too. Highly recommended." * Paul Booth, author of Board Games as Media *
"I have been waiting for years for a book like The Privilege of Play. Using contemporary and historical examples, Aaron Trammell weaves together insightful theoretical analysis, archival deep dives, and sharp, poignant anecdotes to construct a compelling picture of game culture hobbyists, and the history out of which they emerged." * Shira Chess, author of Play Like a Feminist *
"I read The Privilege of Play straight through. It hit pretty close to home, reading a bit like my own travelogue through the hobby, beginning with the model train sets I had as a kid, my obsession with war games as a teenager, and taking us right through my RPG days and current career in games. The Privilege of Play is a must read for anyone seriously committed to a socially just and open hobby industry. Trammel argues, and I would agree, that any hobby gaming professional looking to break down the patterns of exclusion that pervade our industry would do well to study how we arrived here." -- Christopher O’Neal, CEO of Brotherwise Games and President of Game Pathways
"For nearly a decade, Aaron Trammell has been a leading voice calling for the field of game studies to attend to analog games’ (board games, card games, and tabletop roleplaying games) deep history and thriving present... Overall, The Privilege of Play expands a nascent but growing movement to study race within game cultures and provides a powerful demonstration of what archival work about play communities can reveal." -- Peter McDonald * Critical Inquiry *
