Some weeks ago I posted this oldie in an AD&D community on Facebook (call it a love letter to my favorite era of our beloved hobby); and while I got lots of interesting and thoughtful commentary, especially from those who disagreed on some point, I got two responses from the polar opposites of our fractious scene that highlight its basic divisions:
On the left (I'm convinced), there was the person who thought I shouldn't have made any distinction between disparate backgrounds at all, as doing so forms ruinous hierarchies and sets the needs of some above others. In short, analysis is oppression. All approaches are worthwhile, and we should ignore any differences. I agree about acceptance; but the answer isn't pretending there aren't clear distinctions worthy of debate...
We simply must be able to talk about the history of our hobby; and we can't do that by constructing an imagined steady state. D&D could only grow beyond a quaint local wargame by reaching past its base, a matter of marketing to bona fide others. Their heart was in the right place, never rising above motherly scolding; but the internet's full of misguided utopians who think we'll only be free when we're all the same, which is, uh...problematic.
Non-wargamer doesn't mean no fighting; and we might have had that conversation if he hadn't called me a douchebag and personally blamed me for ruining our hobby with activities I don't even engage in. No 5th edition, no friendly orcs. But even if I did, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be any of his business. Let people be themselves. The internet's full of self-styled libertarians turned thought police when faced with some hated thing or another.
This isn't left vs. right. I've made many conservative friends who avoid wargames and enthusiastically embrace the roleplaying elements present in D&D from the start, just as I know liberals aplenty who demand nuance. Left, right, and center, these rational actors peacefully inhabit gaming's ranks. The ugly extremes demand outsize attention; and they want the same thing: control through a caricature of their preferred ideology...
It's possible to go so far left that you become right and vice versa; so maybe the best way to keep our identities intact is a solid center with robust right and left leanings willing to act responsibly and practical enough to realize they need to. I'm happy to report that the majority of our scene, doing great things despite the outrage, upholds this balance. The trolls are wandering monsters rolled on a 00 and easily overcome when we don't feed them.