Derby House

As a player, producer, and consumer of wargames (we can call them simulations but I prefer the older term), I am happy to endorse the Derby House Principles:

As professional gamers we are committed to the Derby House Principles:

• Promoting inclusion and diversity in professional wargaming, through the standards we set, the opportunities we offer, and access to activities we organise.
• Making clear our opposition to sexism, racism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination across the board, as well as in wargaming.
• Encouraging a greater role and higher profile for colleagues from underrepresented groups in our professional activities.
• Seeking out and listening to the concerns and suggestions of our colleagues as to how our commitment to diversity and inclusion could be enhanced.
• Demonstrating our commitment to diversity and inclusion through ongoing assessment of progress made and discussion of future steps.  

I would add that, apart from bringing the practice of wargaming in line with basic principles of justice, steps to increase diversity and inclusion tend to make wargames more realistic, informative, and effective at policy simulation. We have now had three iterations of a Wargaming and Simulation class at the Patterson School, and all have been successful. We’ve also had seventeen Spring Crisis Simulations and have participated in numerous Army War College Negotiation Exercises, so I have some familiarity with how practice has developed in an area that has certain aspects of an industry, and other aspects of a scholarly field. Indeed, writing just now I’m having thoughts about how to write some kind of wargame/simulation that LGMers could participate in…