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You may have noticed we’ve changed the name of the site. And some of the logos. And the YouTube channel. And a few other things. That’s because we changed all those things while you were sleeping. We’re proud to announce that these are all part of a new name and new look to the site formerly known as Goonhammer.
When we started this big, dumb website back in 2018, Goonhammer was a fine, tongue-in-cheek name that honored the history of where we’d come from - namely, shitposting on the Something Awful forums about Warhammer. But nearly a decade later, we’re the largest worker-owned media collective in the tabletop and wargaming space, running the top apps for running campaigns (Administratum) and tracking games (The Tabletop Battles App), and we’ve decided it was time that our name matched our present rather than our past.
We were also pretty sick of people bringing up that our name had become a reference to perverts.
If you’ve been supporting us all these years, first off - Thanks! We wouldn’t be here without you, and we’re grateful for your support. We’re going to keep creating the same great content and apps you love. And if you’re new here, welcome! We’re a worker-owned collective who are passionate about tabletop games. We build apps, run events, and write about the games we love. You should consider supporting us on Patreon - doing so gets you ad-free access to the site, plus access to exclusive content and a ton of extra apps and features.
So kick back and check out the new site. Not a lot has changed, but we have been working on some improvements to make it faster and more responsive. Hopefully you won’t even notice.
- Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones
While I can see why, the new name is pretty generic and bland if you ask me.
The burning pits of Hades, also known as Sweden in summer
As a longstanding GH patron, that was pretty much my reaction.
The old name was unprofessional, and got less funny when I was told it was a Something Awful reference rather than meaning "Thughammer".
The new name however is beyond generic. The old one was at least unmistakable. The new name feels like what you would get if you asked a LLM for a site name (though they have been sitting on the name for a while, I am told).
I've got to agree Goonhammer was a fairly childish name and "goon" is a term that has steadily become less and less appropriate even in mockery,
However yeah they've chosen a super bland title to replace it. It's safe for sure and a good name to expand with without ruffling feathers and being very clear on what it does; its just also not a "personality" of a brand name nor all that unique sounding.
The slightly subversive name was the only interesting thing about the site, especially it's after it ran that article insulting players of Kill Team 1.0.
Personally, I think Goonhammer was fine as a name- it was memorable and I found it funny- I don't know what they mean when they say it was a reference to perverts- the word "Goon" never had that connotation for me.
I've already forgotten the new name. It's so bland I'll never hold it in memory. It feels like naming a baseball team "Baseball Players" - like, when you do a search, is the actual website going to come up, or just... A bunch of tabletop battles?
Whatever though... Not my company. If I had to take a whiz, I'd look for a toilet rather than doing it on my brand recognition, but to each their own I guess?
PenitentJake wrote: Personally, I think Goonhammer was fine as a name- it was memorable and I found it funny- I don't know what they mean when they say it was a reference to perverts- the word "Goon" never had that connotation for me.
I've already forgotten the new name. It's so bland I'll never hold it in memory. It feels like naming a baseball team "Baseball Players" - like, when you do a search, is the actual website going to come up, or just... A bunch of tabletop battles?
Whatever though... Not my company. If I had to take a whiz, I'd look for a toilet rather than doing it on my brand recognition, but to each their own I guess?
The word has become far more in use to represent sexual acts or specific group of people that I can imagine doesn’t look great for a company. Especially now with some of its use online.
I actually wonder if the name was starting to get mixed up in the algorithm so they decided that it wasn’t worth keeping at this point before it got weirder.
Im not a native english speaker so Goonhammer name doesnt hit as something criminal. Just as i dont imagine a medieval weapon when i hear the name Warhammer.
I dont know the specifics about the site but if they reached some kind of fame and now they bowed to the critics? It might be a slide down for them.
Might even be the worst marketing mistake ever made by them.
They do have an app of the same name - it kind of makes sense to name after the app and combine the marketing of both together; however its still a bland name choice
Last time I went on their site, I thought I'd gone to the wrong place.
'Goonhammer' was fine. There's nothing offensive about the word 'goon'; it's obviously being used in the same sense as the Goon Show (a reference that dates me, I know) - silly and eccentric. The new name is beyond generic.
"You know that saying 'Caesar's wife is above suspicion'? Well, I put an end to all that rubbish!" - Major Denis Bloodnok, late of the 3rd Disgusting Fusiliers
The general use of the term goon has changed enough since they selected it in the ye olde days that reevaluating is the prudent thing to do. The modern, current "masturbation reference hammer" I'm sure is amusing to some but it seems they want to grow and be thought of as a place with actual articles and information so it is best to move on from it.
Amidst the mists and coldest frosts he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
Yeah, the new name is dull - and I wonder how it will do for SEO - but their app with the same name is reasonably popular evidently. I get dropping goonhammer though - depending on the age or other demographic of the person I'm talking to I have to explain that it's not about the current slang term, nor about the goonies, nor about goons as in villains' hired help, etc.
Tabletop Battles is super dull, and it does remind me of Beasts of War becoming On Tabletop and the latter is also hard to talk about because it's boring. But not a huge a deal.
I think dakka is the only place I have hear the word used other than its modern usage in a decade. And I think it was dakka I read it back then.
But I see it used constantly and wish I didn’t very often in its new sense. All over gaming and discussion, so now that more gamers getting into the Warhammer hobby it maybe inevitable.
Also of an older generation where the word goon is for me still more connected to the Goon Show and hehe, the nickname for forum users of the Something Awful forums. Though with the latter, it has carried a stigmata of its own in certain online communities.
Also, the rename reminds me of an ancient Something Awful running joke; the new name is very "City Name Sports Team" in its descriptive blandness.
And news to me that Beasts of War have also gone for such a bland, boring new name, has a reason been given for this? Or is this just another step towards usage of safer words? Like how people rather annoyingly keep replacing the word "killed" with "slimed" because of search history reasons or somesuch.
Saw the news yesterday and already forgot the new name, which ongoing exposure will likely not improve. I struggle to come up with a new name that would be more bland and unrecognizable than this. I may slightly lament Games Workshop rebranding everything as "Warhammer", but at least that's a simple yet uncommon name. This is indistinguishable from what I assume are many dozens of subreddits, YouTube channels, Facebook groups, Discord communities and other websites with similar descriptive names. Quite a baffling choice, regardless of the fact that they "happened to have the domain name already". After all, I'd imagine domains of more original names would have been available too, by their very nature...
Can understand them renaming if there were connotations with goon (I hadn't known this), but that new name is going to get lost in a dozen other almost identical names.
A shame as before you could scroll through a search and find one of their articles, which I like to read as they are generally well researched and informed, and now that is going to be lost.
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The connotation is relatively new, spreading like another social media mind tumour. Sensitivities to Rude Words aside? Swear and other content filters may have become a problem, limiting site traffic, so fair enough.
Name is a bit bland. But it does what it says on the tin.
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It feels a lot more like a company moving into wanting to make a lot more money/be their own brand and wanting to take away 'hammer' from their name to avoid being stepped on by the usual sort of attention companies get from GW when doing so, and hiding behind the sillier part of their name to make it less noticeable.
Honestly, this is the most I've ever heard of this particular site. There are so many of these sort of sites and they all sort of blend into one to me. I've never paid them any sort of attention. I find they are all sort of riding the coattails of GW anyway, most of them just republish articles from warhammer community 15 minutes after they go up, add a line saying 'what do you think of the new release/changes/possible rumours' and call it an article. If this one stood out for having a fun name and posting 'proper' articles and having apps, then its going to get lost along side all the other facebook link spammers with its new generic logo. Good luck to them.
Mallo wrote: It feels a lot more like a company moving into wanting to make a lot more money/be their own brand and wanting to take away 'hammer' from their name to avoid being stepped on by the usual sort of attention companies get from GW when doing so, and hiding behind the sillier part of their name to make it less noticeable.
I can't say I agree at all, GW is still 90% of their articles and probably even more of their traffic, having an association in their name would only draw in more people. Whereas "goon" has become a very real and common term amongst younger generations that makes up a lot of their traffic. It's a very obvious association to want to avoid. I'm young enough to be very aware of the new "goon" meaning and if I saw the name appear in a google search I'd probably raise an eyebrow and scroll by, assuming it were some kind of lowbrow meme/Rule34 site.
The new name feels horribly generic to the point of meaninglessness. But I'm sure they wanted to ride the popularity of their app, and they're not the first ones to rebrand from a recognisable name to such a bland one. I wonder if that's part of the point? They want to capture those googling generic things about their new hobby. Whereas the only people who would google anything close to "goonhammer" would be those already familiar with them or terminally online degenerates.
The name even feels almost misleading - they don't really do battle reports. "Tabletop battles" sounds like the batrep channel of two boomers playing random historical games in their living room lol
I like a lot of their articles though. Their "intros to <game>" or "guide to <faction>" type articles are usually pretty good. Every so often they come out with a wild take though lol, but that's very much the minority.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2026/04/22 10:33:02
kirotheavenger wrote: I like a lot of their articles though. Their "intros to <game>" or "guide to <faction>" type articles are usually pretty good. Every so often they come out with a wild take though lol, but that's very much the minority.
Cynically I feel the number of "wild takes" has gone down and this isn't a good thing.
I mean yeah its fun to mock the times they said X would be brokenly good or just rubbish - and then it wasn't.
But arguably... that was the content. It generated conversation.
These days a lot of the articles have an almost AI quality to them. Which is probably extremely unkind to say about any journalist - but to me the articles read as: "Here's the rules. Is it good? Idk, I only had a few hours to get this out, make your own mind up - we think whatever you think "
And to be fair, they produce so much these days I think that's kind of inevitable.
I don't know if trading out "tongue-in-cheek" "gak posting" for being "the largest worker-owned media collective" is a good thing. Its a bit... serious and safe for talking about toy soldiers.
They want to institutionalise themselves in the hobby (hence the emphasis on the apps) - but equally people aren't in it for corporate beige.
I realise the hobby has long since shaken off its slightly edgelord inclinations. But idk, people getting concerned about the word "goon" feels a bit... well, pearl clutching. You are on the internet - its a bit late to get precious.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2026/04/22 13:15:28
Mallo wrote: It feels a lot more like a company moving into wanting to make a lot more money/be their own brand and wanting to take away 'hammer' from their name to avoid being stepped on by the usual sort of attention companies get from GW when doing so, and hiding behind the sillier part of their name to make it less noticeable.
Honestly, this is the most I've ever heard of this particular site. There are so many of these sort of sites and they all sort of blend into one to me. I've never paid them any sort of attention. I find they are all sort of riding the coattails of GW anyway, most of them just republish articles from warhammer community 15 minutes after they go up, add a line saying 'what do you think of the new release/changes/possible rumours' and call it an article. If this one stood out for having a fun name and posting 'proper' articles and having apps, then its going to get lost along side all the other facebook link spammers with its new generic logo. Good luck to them.
I read a lot of their content, and they definitely do not fit the description you have given, they are far more serious and creative than other "coat-tails" sites we can all think of.
Like many sites, they get early access stuff (and acknowledge GW for it), but they are happy to say if they think the rules or new models in question are good or poor, and why. The rules commentary tends to be from a competitive standpoint; they have running features of latest tournaments all over the world, what did well and why. They cover a lot of other non-GW and historical games, but clearly GW content will be the main money earner for them and most prolific producer of new things to talk about.
In terms of the name, I get "goon" from the Goon Show*, Arsenal supporters, or a general term for "fool" in the UK. Never heard of any other context until I saw this thread. The new name is very bland, but ties in with their actual product so I guess they already had the domain name. Not very inventive or distinctive, so I suspect that isn't going to help new people find them. The old link still works at least.
The only downside to them are the banner ads when reading their stuff on a tablet. Can't complain too much given it's free.
*Definitely showing my age, although nowhere near old enough to have heard them originally!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2026/04/22 11:25:18
Astmeister wrote: Was this not a reference to being a nerd/geek in a certain topic until recently?
No. As noted in the announcement, the Goon in the name was referring to what members of the Something Awful forums called themselves and the way members of said forum posted having no relation to any movie or show.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2026/04/22 12:49:22
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I agree that "Tabletop Battles" is very bland, but they already had an app called that and the domain for it so it makes sense that this is what they switched to. It's not easy coming up with a good, punchy name that relates to tabletop games and has an available domain.
Their Battletech, various historicals and oddball games coverage will be keeping on like usual so I'll keep reading them.
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The Phazer wrote: The slightly subversive name was the only interesting thing about the site, especially it's after it ran that article insulting players of Kill Team 1.0.
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