Grumpy Old Fart or Venerated Elder Sage? What legacy are we leaving for wargaming?: An Onside Report

Our pre-meeting gathering on 4 June 2022 included an organ recital: problems with double vision and teeth extractions (and that was just the presenters), and the drama of turning 60 and having your students realise you are old enough to be their grandad (not applicable to either of the presenters who are now well pass 60).

This provided an appropriate segue into our session Grumpy Old Fart or Venerated Elder Sage? What legacy are we leaving for wargaming?

My own experience turning 66 last year – accompanied by needing to wear glasses all the time just to see where I was going, tearing my hamstring muscle while walking (apparently a common occurrence for older women), and a recent tooth extraction where the dentist began talking about dentures with me – had brought home the fact I was getting older.

My reading, reflection, and participation in workshops about ageing raised questions for me of what legacy I would be leaving.

And the game in the following session focused on the Akiyoshi clan seeking to protect the honour of the Lord’s Grandmother by recovering her stolen diaries from the Minatora Clan before their ‘sensitive’ contents were leaked to the world.

What better time to discuss aspects of ageing and eldership and sageing?

My intention for the day was to lead the group in thinking about, given the amount of wargaming experience in the room, how we want to make the best use of this in the time we have left both as individuals and as a group.

To start the seven of us each shared the years of wargaming experience we brought to the session. This ranged from my own 3 years to 55 years and totalled 285 years of wargaming experience.

We reflected on and discussed some definitions and influences:

What is a Sage?

A philosopher is a wise man distinguished for wisdom and sound judgement while a sage is a wise man distinguished for wisdom and from experience. (T. J. Pattberg[1])

What is a legacy?

Usually thought of as material gifts, but in this context

• our gifts of spirit and self
• Sharing our values, memories, philosophy of life
  • What gives our life meaning?
  • What wisdom have we learned along the way?
• sharing through service

What were the influences on the shaping of CLWG?

Initial influences were a desire to move away from building better war figures and moving soldiers to thinking about the development and improvement of wargames, and to move members from being consumers of games to developing their own games.

Wargame Developments and Megagames had helped define what members had wanted CLWG to be, with some overlap and other distinctive aspects.

I’ve attempted to capture this diagrammatically:

What emerged as we shared was our perspective of the culture of CLWG.

What is our experience of CLWG?

Attitudes

We discussed the influence of wargaming on our thinking. I was intrigued by a comment by Andrew Hadley a few months ago about his own changing attitudes to war because of wargaming. We agreed about the role of critical gameplay as we both created and played games developed by others. One common perception was the multiple perspectives that arose from the group’s approach, and the increased capacity to consider different perspectives.

Criticism as in critiques / feedback

Further questions led to the articulation of the CLWG providing a safe and supportive environment; a safe-to-fail environment. Dave Boundy observed people felt they could ‘take a game to Chestnut because they will play anything.’

Terry observed that this was different to the business world. CLWG had no hierarchy, whereas creativity in business is judged by your employer, client and peers, and people can feel their job is on the line.

Learning

CLWG provides a hothouse for idea generation and games development. Gameplaying provided a wide breadth of experiences and exposure to different locations around the world. We gained greater insight into politics and its role in war, and to other drivers which also impact.

So what now?

The question of ‘So what now?’ was raised at different times through the session.

The aspect of mentoring was raised and the need for a two-way commitment by the mentee as well as the mentor in imparting our knowledge. Terry observed that perhaps being a sage means knowing if imparting is what is needed.

We discussed the role of an environment we can create that encourages play, and critical thinking whether at CLWG or in our homes with family and friends. The role of getting on the floor was raised and while this was in reference to literally getting on the floor to play with young children, I wonder if it provides a good metaphor for ‘getting on the floor’ (or getting down to their level) with new game designers and even more experienced game designers who might be challenging themselves and bringing ‘crazy or unworkable game ideas’ to CLWG. Is any idea, no matter how ‘crazy or unworkable’, irredeemable? Or is it us older wargamers who need to broaden our ability to see another perspective that just might make it work?

Does the wisdom of a sage come from their experience alone, or from their ability to see where the person is coming from, and to ask good questions that help lead the person to a more helpful conclusion?

For me there was no intention to leave the meeting with a strategic plan for the next five years, or even the next few months. What was important for me was that we become more aware about what is important, what we value, about our wargaming and CLWG experience so we can be a little more intentional about our interactions with others through wargaming, games and play in a way that reflects our values, so we pass on what is important to us. In this case, the commitment to a safe-to-fail environment, helpful and supportive criticism and looking at multiple perspectives and thinking critically.

Some links you may find helpful

Sage-ing International Home – Sage-ing International

Fran Peavey’s Strategic Questioning Manual Strategic-Questioning-Manual-11b4d4l.pdf (transformerleadership.com)

Its time to rethink our wargames: Selling better stories could help stop future crises in their tracks https://inkstickmedia.com/its-time-to-rethink-our-wargames/

[1] Big Think https://bigthink.com/articles/what-is-the-difference-between-a-philosopher-and-a-sage/#:~:text=A%20philosopher%20is%20a%20wise,for%20wisdom%20and%20from%20experience.