A little piece of advice new user. Don't post something right on the main page of a website as busy as BGG and than tell users they can't reply to it if they don't agree with you.

Among other things it's kind of rude.

A little piece of advice new user. Don't post something right on the main page of a website as busy as BGG and than tell users they can't reply to it if they don't agree with you.

Among other things it's kind of rude. Not very inclusive of you is it? (oh the irony)

In my personal experience, it has seemed to me that many gaming communities are less diverse than the area as a whole. This may not be true everywhere and I do understand that the gaming community is not one monolithic thing.

Don't take this the wrong way, but what makes you think the gaming community isn't diverse? I play games with people of all ethnicities, gender, and sexual orientation every single month. I'm sure that I'm not an exception.

BGG is what makes people think that, and only because there is a vocal minority of insensitive people here. That's disheartening. Luckily, it doesn't reflect much of real board game culture. My experience in the real world is that board gamers are some of the most accepting, nicest, easygoing people I've ever met.

The biggest "cultural" division in gaming is economic class. Gaming is an expensive hobby, and income gaps (at least in my country) are widening while wages fall across the board (for all those but the tip top, who are surely not interested in board games). When you start sieving by income, you're going to lose diversity.

Class inequality is the most worthy aspect of "social justice". I'm not sure what boardgaming, a prohibitively expensive hobby, can do for this particularly (other than having the very respectable virtue of being easily played with friends of any income level).

Boardgaming has an important application in education, as an avenue for children to learn about socialization, math, etc. I'm speaking about the games we play, not games for children specifically. In this way I think it is great for us to play complex and interesting games as groups: we desperately need to strengthen bonds with one another in a society that pushes us to isolate, and boardgames are a great way to do this.

I think the best games aren't games that explicitly deal with race, gender, class, etc, but that give us the tools to interact with people different. Hanabi is my favorite game for this reason. In it, you are forced to rely on those you are playing with, moreso than in any other cooperative game because you are helpless without them. It is that kind of altered perception that I think demonstrates the power of games, rather than a game that just remembers to include diverse characters in its art.

boardgaming, a prohibitively expensive hobby

I disagree. In fact, I think of affordability as a strength of boardgaming. Sure, games are not cheap and a lot of us do spend heaps of money. But assuming you live in a not-too-remote area that has a decent gaming scene, then if you can spare some leisure time and afford some transportation, that's all you really need.

But it's still a hobby primarily targeted at people with wads of disposable income (which results in a loss of diversity based on class inequality).

I disagree. In fact, I think of affordability as a strength of boardgaming. Sure, games are not cheap and a lot of us do spend heaps of money. But assuming you live in a not-too-remote area that has a decent gaming scene, then if you can spare some leisure time and afford some transportation, that's all you really need.

You don't have to go to cons; many gamers (the majority, I would think?) never do.

You don't have to have the kind of house where you can host gaming; there will be gaming at game stores, other people's houses, and all sorts of other community venues.

And you don't actually have to own games. Many of the people you meet gaming will have extensive collections.

It might be prohibitively expensive to go to Essen, join the Cult of the New, and have an enormous game collection. But it's much less expensive to have a very small collection of favorite games which you can get many hours and years of play out of. And it's even less expensive to go to local game events/groups and play other people's games. I realize this isn't an option everywhere, but in my area and many others, it would be easy to get in all the gaming you wanted without having to spend anything beyond, as I said, transportation.

Of course there are some people who cannot afford even this, but for any hobby there's a level of poverty at which you can't do it.

Very few people in the west are that poor. Yes, if you look at packaged games. But if you look at abstract strategy games - many of these have rules that are published for free and the components are an old draughts-board and some draughts and coloured stones (or other markers). Of course these are even less visible to the non-enlightened, and it is also harder to find real-life opponents.

a hobby primarily targeted at people with wads of disposable income

What games do you think do a good job with regards to issues of gender, race, orientation, socioeconomic class, etc?

What do you think we as gamers can do to be open and inviting to all peoples?

But that consumer relationship is only one perspective, and doesn't have to be the totality of what the activity means to the diverse people engaged in it.

What games do you think do a good job with regards to issues of gender, race, orientation, socioeconomic class, etc?