It seems impossible for any journalist to start a report involving role playing or video games without referencing darkened bedrooms, maladjusted teenagers or geeks in general.
A hobby such as Warhammer never gets a mention on TV or radio but that doesn’t stop it being massively popular. It’s definitely for nerds, or at least in its original form as a tabletop war game, where controlling the actions of elves and aliens via complex rule-sets and dice can hardly be described as rock’n’roll.
The principles have existed since Warhammer’s inception in 1983 – painting little lead figures allowing teenage boys to indulge their artistic tendencies within the comfort zone of fantasy and sci-fi.
Even if you’re not sure what goes on inside, you’ve probably passed one of the 130 Games Workshop stores across Europe, filled with people purchasing figures or playing games on giant dioramas. Part social club, part specialist retailer, the only thing like it is an Apple Store – except nobody is drawn to a Games Workshop to appear fashionable.
‘Everyone speaks the same language when you’re doing this and there’s a good atmosphere,’ says Sven, a 25-year-old student from Sweden and regular visitor to one north London store.
‘It can seem a little strange to people who don’t play but it’s just the same as people meeting up to play soccer and talking about it afterwards. There are different teams and a lot of tactics.’
There are two universes: the original Warhammer is heavily influenced by the figurine game of The Lord Of The Rings (which creator Games Workshop also now licenses). Since 1987, a spin-off sci-fi version of the concept has existed in Warhammer 40,000, where elves become eldars and orcs become, well, orcs.
Its success is not due to clever marketing or expensive advertising. In fact, Games Workshop has refused to be involved with this – a representative turning away the offer of free publicity in this article saying the company doesn’t do interviews.
It might seem a peculiar position to take, but the company has hardly been backwards in embracing other media or the internet. It has a publishing arm called the Black Library and from the earliest days has allowed its products to be adapted as video games. It recently released a straight-to-DVD movie called Ultramarines.
The 40K universe (as fans call it) has become a favourite of video game publisher THQ via its well-received Dawn Of War real-time strategy series. It shows none of Games Workshop’s reticence, and is preparing a marketing push for new action game Space Marine.
‘The way we look at it is the universe is really rich,’ says James McDermott of Canadian developer Relic Entertainment. ‘There are things in there that have influenced a lot of games and movies, so we try to focus on that.’
Space Marine abandons any pretence of simulating the gameplay of the tabletop originals, but remains devoted to the minutiae of the game’s fictional universe. It’s voiced almost solely by British actors, with Mark Strong capturing the right air of authority as the lead space marine. ‘It’s staying honest to the property,’ says McDermott. ‘According to the Warhammer 40,000 world, everyone in the future speaks with a British accent.’
That’s not a vision shared by other games - but Warhammer owes almost all its success to ignoring accepted wisdom and now, with THQ gently pushing things into the mainstream, that attitude remains.

Its success is not due to clever marketing or expensive advertising. In fact, Games Workshop has refused to be involved with this – a representative turning away the offer of free publicity in this article saying the company doesn’t do interviews.

except nobody is drawn to a Games Workshop to appear fashionable.

Part social club, part specialist retailer, the only thing like it is an Apple Store – except nobody is drawn to a Games Workshop to appear fashionable.

I do take your point overall, if someone wants to get into the hobby they can and will very easily but GW seem to block off certain avenues of advertising and Im not sure why.

BrookM wrote:Thing is, even if GW shoved someone forward to represent the company, who would it be? Uncle Jervis maybe?

Part social club, part specialist retailer, the only thing like it is an Apple Store – except nobody is drawn to a Games Workshop to appear fashionable.

Eilif wrote:As to granting interviews:

Why would GW want to do an interview with a writer who already believes that wargaming is only for nerds, unfasionable and not cool ("rock n roll"). I don't for a moment believe that granting an interview would have changed the authors slant.

"It seems impossible for any journalist to start a report involving role playing or video games without referencing darkened bedrooms, maladjusted teenagers or geeks in general. "

No actually, it would be easy, just don't pander to stereotypes by putting "darkened bedrooms, maladjusted teenagers or geeks " in the first sentence of your article.

All that asside, the real issue is simply that it's a poorly written article. The author (purposefully not using the term journalist here) hasn't done enough research to really discuss the public conception view of GW, GW in video games, The history of GW, or it's business practices -any of which could have filled an article as short as this one- so he just mashed what little he had together into this content-farm-quality tribute to mediocrity.