Mack is a likeable 16-year-old who hangs around the Game Loft almost every day. School is "not his thing." He doesn't pay attention much and when it comes to writing for history class he refuses to write 501 words for a 500-word essay. His report cards are mediocre at best and the comments always say he's "an underachiever." Sometimes he mouths off in class, sometimes he's a class clown, but mostly he just stares out the window wishing he were somewhere, anywhere else. His mother knows he is very bright but his teachers aren't so sure. You might have known a kid like Mack, you might have been one. The question that schools, families, and communities have is how to reach a kid like Mack and to make him interested in academics and lifelong learning. At the Game Loft in Belfast, Maine, we have found a way to motivate underachievers and to teach them lessons in history while they are having fun.
The Game Loft is Belfast, Maine's downtown youth and community center. Begun by longtime gamer, Ray Estabrook and his wife Patricia, the Game Loft is a place for kids to meet, play non-electronic games, and to learn about themselves and the world. The Game Loft is housed on the second and third floors of an old brick building on Main Street in. Kids and adults from the ages of 12 to 65 play miniatures and board games, read, or talk with their friends in the various second floor rooms. On the third floor one large room is filled with tables pushed together to accommodate large-scale games. Skylights illuminate the tables where young gamers learn new skills from seasoned wargame veterans. Medievals, American Civil War, and The Zulu wars are the current favorites among the new recruits.
Most of the members are boys between the ages of 12 and 17. They pay a $50.00 a year fee to become members – the fee is subsidized for kids who are unable to pay. There is no paid staff all tasks being done by volunteers, most often the members themselves. Before the Game Loft opened in Febuary, 1998 more than thirty adults and kids volunteered their time to paint, renovate, scrounge furniture, and fund raise. Since then the number of volunteer hours range in the hundreds per month. No electronic games, music, televisions, or radios are allowed. The focus is strictly on socialization and game play.
Twice a year, during school vacations, The Game Loft hosts a special week devoted to a theme and brings in guest experts to run games. During the 1998 April vacation Mack and his friends came to the Loft to study war in the 20th century. Although a lackluster student in school, Mack is a brilliant general. When the Loft announced that Sword and the Flame was on the schedule Mack had never heard of the Zulu War.
To get the students acquainted with the period the Loft rented the movie Zulu Dawn and showed it to an enthralled audience. The next day Mack bought miniatures for colonials and Zulu's and an Osprey book to learn how best to paint his new armies. The Game Loft has a miniatures modeling and painting area where new armies take form. Mack is a novice painter but he took hints from Larry Tripp, the Loft's resident painting guru. The results were quite satisfactory for a new painter and made Mack ready for more. For several days Mack and his friends worked on a battlefield scene of low brown hills and a squat compound.
On Saturday morning Mack as the British general shared his battle plan with his men. The first battle was a rout for the colonial powers and the victory cries of "Zulu!, Zulu!" rang through the Loft. But Mack was not deterred. He made notes about what had happened in the first battle and where he had made mistakes. Then he called in Jim Dean, an experienced wargamer in his forties to critique what had happened. Jim explained the differences in combat styles between the Zulus and the British and how the colonials maximized their firepower in response to the overwhelming numbers of native warriors. Jim said, "Have greater discipline. Keep your troops organized so you can pick off the Zulu attackers piecemeal."
Mack won the second battle and gained so much more than just a victory. The first benefit was his independent learning about a period in history that he knew nothing about. Mack's comment about what he learned about the Zulu War was, "I sure wish they taught things like this in school." Six months later one of Mack's teachers, Jim Violette, came in to investigate the Game Loft.
Mack explained his experiences with The Sword and The Flame and how he had "led a regiment" against the Zulus. He then showed his teacher the armies he had painted and explained the battle of Roarke's Drift. Mack was animated and articulate about the subject and showed how much he had learned through independent research. To say that Jim was astounded is the understatement of the year. Jim Violette has quite a history himself as a teacher at Belfast Area High School. He said, "This is the kind of history teaching that I have always wanted to do. When I retire I am coming here to work with kids to really help them understand what history is about." These comments are not unusual when teachers can see how formerly unmotivated students become electrified by wargame recreations.
At the Game Loft we find that kids and adults learn best together. They share their strengths and interests based on the model of master and apprentice. Kids find out about miniatures gaming in the "shallow waters" of fantasy gaming and with patience and training some move on to historical miniatures. Almost every kid we deal with has done some amount of painting. A few, with the proper training and guidance will end up painting 15mm Napoleonics. "We are aware that miniature wargaming is not for everyone, but we do try to broaden the horizons of some kids who have the interest and patience for historical miniatures," said Ray Estabrook, the Executive Director of the Game Loft.
Having experts in the field come in for demonstrations spikes curiosity and interest. Chris Parker has brought in his Day of Battle game to demonstrate medievals. Asher, usually a hyperactive 13-year-old, sat through the complex directions with rapt attention. He then went out into the Loft to recruit more members of his own age group. Soon the table was filled with middle school kids and Chris was getting a little nervous, but the kids paid attention and battled their way through not one but two demonstration games. Patricia Estabrook, who runs All About Games, downstairs from the Loft, reported that Day of Battle rules sales surged after Chris's demonstration.
Another pair of "celebrity moderators" at least from the perspective of Belfast, Maine, are Elery and Ben Keene, a father and son duo who have run several American Civil War scenarios. Elery is a 65-year-old regional planner with a love of history and an interest in all kinds of games. Years of experience working with his own two sons and their friends have given him a "trial by fire" when working with kids. Elery is patient, kind and firm, the ideal teacher to neophyte wargamers.
In my first historical miniatures game he watched with some amusement as I marched my division to a bridge and then created a bottleneck. My forces vainly attempted to cross the bridge while under fire from a well entrenched enemy. Needless to say, we never did get across that bridge. After my complete debacle, Elery gently showed me the error of my ways and patiently described what I should have done. Of course I added to the Union's defeat, but under Elery's kind tutelage I was able to assess my errors and look forward to my next battle. It is this kind of wise guidance that can turn fantasy role players into wargamers. For most kids the only time they experience wargaming is at large conventions where the concentration is intense and errors are not easily tolerated. A 13-year-old who screws up in a game probably will never try again.
Imagine an operating room where a first-year intern is called in to plan and execute complex brain surgery without assistance or training. Then, if he makes the inevitable mistakes, there will be experienced doctors to belittle him and criticize him for lack of experience. That is the kind of experience that many new wargamers face in convention settings. Contrast this to the Game Loft where kids experiment with strategy and tactics and find mentors who coach them on the historical realities and the ways in which reality might have been improved upon. That kind of training will lead to more kids becoming involved with the hobby.
Mack's take on what he learned in the Zulu game was, "I guess I was pretty dumb in the game. I mean, I didn't know the difference between the British and the Zulus. I didn't know about the Zulu war formations. When I sit in class all of that stuff is pretty boring. I mean, I don't really pay attention too much. But when I could see Roarke's Drift and I knew what the whole thing was about, then I started getting kind of excited and worried. I mean, I knew we were outnumbered by the Zulus and I wanted to win. The whole thing kind of came alive to me. It wasn't history anymore, it was real. Now I like to play in everything at the Loft. I'm here pretty much every day after school and on weekends."
Life might have been different for Mack if he had not become a member of the Game Loft. He was raised in a housing project by a harried mother and a disinterested step-father. There are four younger kids, all of whom are in one kind of trouble or another. One younger brother is now in foster care because of his uncontrollable behavior. When Mack first came to the Game Loft his only friends were the tough kids in school. He learned that having "an attitude" protected him from getting picked on and that reading was for sissies.
Mack has never met his real father and the life around him gives him role models who think heavy drinking and fast cars are the best kinds of entertainment. Now he has other kinds of adults to model himself on. "I guess I'm different from the other kids in my family," he says. "If I go to college I will be the first person in my family to do anything beyond high school. Heck, most of my family won't even graduate from high school. Right now my mom is real proud of what I'm doing. She says she always knew I was smart. My brothers still think I'm a nerd, but I don't care. I hang around with Game Loft kids at school and that makes it easier to stay away from the bad stuff."
Even though Belfast is a small town (about 6,000 population) some of the "bad stuff" as Mack calls it still finds its way into this sleepy community. Drugs, alcohol, teen pregnancy, school failure, and petty crime are common. Most of the kids who attend the Game Loft say that there isn't much for them to do here. "Before the Game Loft," says Ralph, a rangy 6-foot-tall sophomore, "I just hung around with my friends and did whatever they did. Mostly it was nothing. I watched TV a lot and played video games. Since the Game Loft came into town I have new friends and I don't watch TV at all now. Pretty soon I'll get to be like the Estabrooks who don't even own a TV!"
Mary is a petite and pretty 17-year-old who has been coming to the Loft since it first opened. Although she has observed several wargames in progress she is still shy about her participation. "There are quite a lot of girls who come to the Game Loft," she says, "but none of them play in historical miniatures games. I'm still not sure of when I will start. I'm really into the Celts and if anyone played a game sort of like Braveheart I guess I would have to learn how to play."
Mary will be pleased to study wargaming under Andy Alley, an accomplished female wargamer and professional miniatures painter with the company, Change of Command. Next spring Andy will be leading a group of novice wargamers in an ancients game at the Game Loft. Who knows what will come next, maybe a band00 of Amazons making their mark in the male-dominated wargame hobby.
What does this mean for the historical miniatures hobby? Our experience tells us that there is a greater vision that transcends actual gaming. Youth today are desperately in need of appropriate mentors who are willing to spend quantities of time with them. The hobby provides a vehicle for that time spent on activities of mutual interest. The hobby creates, what we call, a community of interest, that embraces people of different ages and backgrounds. The physical setting of The Loft provides a safe, structured space, open and available seven days a week, for the building of these critically important relationships through a mutual interest in games. The volunteer efforts of adult gamers can truly make a difference in the lives of today's youth.
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