In the past few years terms like nerd, geek and other quickdraw ‘insults’ have fallen out of use in most places as people have become more and more open-minded. At least, that’s what we’d like to think, the truth is that it’s only happened because nerd culture is suddenly popular. Yes, I’m talking to the Game of Thrones fans who made fun of the quiet kid with a fantasy novel in high school. While it’s problematic that the thing that’s currently “on trend” is the same thing that a lot of people were bullied for when they were younger, at least they’re no longer ostracised for having those interests.
Unsurprisingly, Stellenbosch is once-again behind the trend. Unless you’re a member of the Stellenbosch tabletop gaming society, The Guild, it’s still not something that people engage with in this small, backwards town, full of people that learnt how to interact with each other by watching and imitating cartoons about American high schools.
This became evident to me when I attended Stelcon over the weekend of 8 and 9 September. Stelcon is the yearly two-day event organised by The Guild. It hosts a number of tabletop gaming and accessory businesses as well as individual enterprises from sketch and comic book artists to independent jewellery and apparel creators. Stelcon was set up in the Stellenbosch Town Hall this year, a location commonly used for parties and other events. It was disappointing to say the least then, that there were never more than a hundred people in the hall at a time.
2018 Stelcon being hosted in the Stellenbosch Town Hall PHOTO: Michael Davidson
Beyond that, the people that were there were reluctant to speak to me. Maybe they were worried that I was going to be less than kind about the convention, or maybe they didn’t want to speak to an outsider. Alice White* an Audiology student said that she “loves Stelcon, you get to see everybody’s creative side. People get to really be who they are here.” And yet, despite “getting to be who she really is,” she still requested to remain anonymous.
Its disappointing that the convention is seen as “too nerdy” by many people, because there are a lot of small, local businesses which would benefit from the exposure. Granted, the products are quite niche, but for a generation which has such an “obsession” with Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, you’d think there would be a greater turnout.
Stelcon has the potential to be something really great, but at the moment it’s little more than an empty hall full of unopened board games. To be entirely fair though, The Guild doesn’t do itself any favours in promoting inclusivity either. It’s a cliquey, insular society that only accepts a certain kind of person. I was a member over the course of my second year at Stellenbosch but stopped going after five sessions.
After five sessions of introducing myself at tables and watching the table’s energy change to one that made it clear I wasn’t wanted, it was difficult to get excited about the meetings. I was an outsider and they knew it.
Painted miniatures ready for the miniature wargaming competition PHOTO: Michael Davidson
“I was invited by a friend of mine to go to Guild, and I was really keen to go. I’ve always been really interested in that type of stuff but haven’t had a chance to explore it. I thought it would be cool to make friends who were interested in doing something other than getting blackout drunk. It was a surprise for me that people who can feel quite ostracised by society were so exclusionary, because they know how it feels to be excluded. Obviously there was a lot of shyness from their side, but there was also a lot of pretentious eye-rolling when I didn’t understand something first time. There was no effort to make a new person feel included, it was just an effort that they had to explain the rules again,” said Nicole Reid, third year Entrepreneurship student.
After many years of being ostracised, laughed at and bullied for having these interests, it’s unsurprising that many fans of nerd culture become insular and protective over the hobbies that provided them an escape. It’s easy to see how the popularisation of nerd culture by the same people that mocked them could be met with outrage and even be seen as insulting by those who see themselves as “true fans”. So it’s exclusion by both parties.
The convention itself, despite the lack of attendees was a fun space to be a part of. There were a number of tables set up with board games for anybody to play, card tournaments for Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic: the Gathering, a cosplay pageant, a miniature painting competition and a miniature wargaming table. “I love the strategy of the game itself, and there’s so much design and artistry that goes in to the miniatures. It’s just good fun,” said Shayne Vanas, Restaurant Manager.
At the end of each day there was a Dungeons and Dragons DM (Dungeon Master) Workshop. The walls were lined with stalls, selling anything from Harry Potter prop wands and Dungeons and Dragons sets to bespoke jewellery and cake pops.
A young boy examines the bespoke wands at the Waxley’s Wands stall PHOTO: Michael Davidson
(A breakdown for anybody who finds those terms unfamiliar: Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic: The Gathering are strategic card games in which opponents play against each other with decks of cards they have curated. Cosplay is the practice of dressing up as a character from a film, book, or video game. Miniature wargames are a type of competitive strategy game, in which a battlefield and units are simulated on a large, open surface using painted miniature models. Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop role-playing game in which a number of players take part in a story orchestrated by a game manager, also known as a Dungeon Master. The workshop was there to teach people who enjoy being Dungeon Masters how to improve their skills.)
As I said, Stelcon has the potential to be something really great. To put it into perspective, ComicCon Africa is only being launched this year. Stelcon has been around for many years prior. For all those years it had the support and interest of many tabletop gaming businesses like the Warren and Battle Bunker. If both sides of this issue had changed their mindset towards the matter, Stellenbosch could be playing host to an original South African tabletop convention that could be rivaling ComicCon by now.
A cosplay pageant contestant cosplaying as Finn the Human from Adventure Time PHOTO: Michael Davidson
*Alice White is a pseudonym