"Games Workshop Profile Piece" Topic

Interesting piece on GW in today's Guardian from a non-gaming perspective.

link

I know GW get some push back from some sections of our hobby, but whether you play their games or not you have to respect what they've achieved commercially.

Games Workshop is the 77th biggest company in the UK by market capitalisation, and worth more than many British businesses such as Burberry, Whitbread and Barratt homes.

It also occurs to me that unlike some other big players in the industry they appear to have largely avoided getting entangled in the culture wars in recent years.

On the last point – GW have issued several statements that they encourage inclusivity within the GW Community, are against hâte speech and will ban people from their stores who insist on wearing symbols associated with hate groups.

They made a public statement that they are committed to increasing diversity within their games and quite bluntly said that anyone who had a problem with that can go away, they won't be missed.

Like you I don't see this as getting involved in culture wars it's just a statement of basic human decency.

The article missed out how GW coped during the pandemic – they very publicly repaid their COVID business grant from HM Govt (which I don't think they had to) shaming a lot of other companies in to repaying, then gave substantial bonus to their staff as a thank you.

Then of course their massive expansion of the production site and focus on bringing all manufacturing back to the UK is excellent for the local jobs market.

Love them or loathe them, as a business they are doing well.

"…are against hâte speech and will ban people from their stores who insist on wearing symbols associated with hate groups."

There was a joke in the Soviet Union. Chipmunks, rabbits and squirrels were appearing on the Soviet side of the border begging the guard to be let out. Stalin, they said, and declared that dangerous animals had to be exterminated.

The guard was unimpressed. "Stalin's talking about lions, tigers and bears" he said. "You're just harmless woodland creatures."

"WE know that" the chipmunk said. "But can we prove it?"

I need a better definition of "hate group" than "organization the people in power don't care for."

Robert +1

You clearly have not been following the "Female Custodes" (Femstodes) controversy.

It got more heat because GW released official miniatures with female heads

link

Good for GW.

And I'm sure they are hoping it will further expand sales.

Win-win. Who could be unhappy with more toys ?

One cannot deny that GW has been a great financial success, has behaved very honourably by repaying Covid support monies and has provided employment opportunities in the UK.

The things that rile me about GW are its insistence that there is a GW – or Warhammer – hobby that is a separate entity from fantasy wargaming in general, and the suggestion that it is impossible to play their games with figures by other manufacturers, and its appalling behaviour over the 'Spot the Space Marine' book. Neither are in the spirit of the wargame hobby that I grew up with – but then I can remember when a box of Airfix 20mm figures cost two shillings.

The GW own the hobby attitude is irritating – but rather ridiculous. The relentless IP protection is more annoying – but not unique: Cambridge university (for example) has trademarked the word Cambridge, which is a bit rich.

People can – and do – play GW games with proxies. Not in GW tournaments of course. Sometimes with Airfix (or more modern equivalents), I guess the hobby gives back what one's willing to put in – it's easier to buy GW stuff, but someone with a Scratchbuilding bent can still participate (but not in GW tournaments).

And, it strikes me now, that maybe we have to conceed that GW are "correct" – in the same way one might have said:

"I make plastic military models"
and be responded by – "Oh, you build Airfix kits"
To which one might say "I don't not build Airfix kits, but mostly I build kits by other manufacturers"

now one might say "I play miniature wargames"
and be responded by – "Oh, you play Warhammer"
To which one might say "I don't not play Warhammer, but mostly I play games made by other manufacturers"

I haven't played anything GW in decades, but I confess that when I did it was mostly heretical. Mind you, I started with Rogue Trader so I'm not sure the doctrine of one-true-miniatures was quite as clear back then.

I played a fair bit of WHFRP at one point, and I seem to remember that Stargrunt 40K was quite popular with 'proper' sci-fi gamers for a while. More recently I've thought it would be quite in keeping with the setting to run a Stars Without Number campaign in some backwater sector – a band of hard-scrabble ne'er do wells staying one step ahead of GWs Legal Dept/IP Inquisitors.

" – a band of hard-scrabble ne'er do wells staying one step ahead of GWs Legal Dept/IP Inquisitors. "

Reminds me of a long-ago Rogue Trader game when a lawyer miniature with a briefcase showed up on the battlefield and repossessed a Land Raider… ;-)

I like that, Zephyr1. How many victory points do you get for shooting the other side's lawyer?