MORE PROBLEMS WITH "THE EXPERTS"; WHEREIN I AM CONFRONTED BY THE UGLY FACE OF THE INDUSTRY.

I have been involved in discussions on a number of bulletin boards/forums related to wargaming again. It was something I said I wouldn't do again, something in fact I swore I wouldn't do again, after some very nasty experiences with self-proclaimed 'experts' in the field of military history.

I suppose I should have learned my lesson.

Again, I've been taking a -lot- of flack on certain boards for making certain assertions, and stating my opinions. Nothing nasty on my part. Just statements about the use of certain equipment, questions about why that equipment isn't appearing in game, etc. By flack, I am referring to constant corrections. Individuals who go out of their way to correct everything I say by making a statement of their own "facts". 

I don't mind a bit of academic debate. It's healthy. But these are message boards. Not academic forums. And granted, I don't know -much- about European History *cough*, but you can be sure that I would go out of my way to provide a source for some sort of assertion of fact if I felt that it was worth continuing the argument. More often than not, I've found myself backing off from these discussions rather than engaging these individuals. In fact that's generally my policy.

But my temper is rising, and so is my feeling of bewilderment.

Perhaps there is something that getting a shiny "administrator" sticker, or being hired by a company that runs a website, that shelters and shields an individual from any counter-criticism. This may well be the case. If it is, I certainly wasted my time on my Masters Degree - getting hired by a company would've been much easier.

On that note, in a less ironic (though highly annoyed) vein, I have had nothing but bad luck in my attempts to get "hired" in the wargaming industry. 

My biggest attempt to date, the one that involved writing a series of army lists for the Romans and their opponents in the second century using a major ancients ruleset? That was pretty much a done deal when the guy with whom I'd been corresponding for months forgot who I was and sent me a form letter responding to my -first- email. Perhaps it was because he wanted to meet me at a recent convention, and because of the illness of a family member, I was unable to attend. I shouldn't be surprised. This was the same company that refused to hire me years ago because I told them that graduating was a priority for me. "If you work for XY," said their rep, "you have to make XY your life. School just isn't as important". (My source for that? Me. I was there, actually.)

Then there was the roleplaying company that wanted someone who knew Roman religion/mythology to write a sourcebook on the Romans. Met the guy at a convention. Very enthusiastic. Wanted me to do other stuff, too (which is great, I do like writing fantasy and sci-fi whenever I get a chance).Sent me one email, gave me a bunch of free stuff, and then disappeared off the face of the earth, presumably fading into the ether.

Finally, there was the opportunity to write historical web based articles, as a starting point, for another wargaming company. Yeah. That went well. Sent in my application. Included a sample of my writing. Absolutely no response. Zip, zero, zilch, nada. Perhaps if I'd qualified my statements on Honved.com by assuring the reader that "some equipment was used only to fight partisans"... I'd be writing a whole slew of books right now.....

*smirk*

I am as always your slightly annoyed but friendly source of "unpopular" history...

-A.