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The Guardian reports on 40 years of Games Workshop, which has grown to a billion pound company.

It's an interesting short read.

And correctly nails the "fascist human Imperium".

Yeah one of my least favourite things about 40K fandom is when people think the Imperium is the "good guys".

They are the 'good guys' in that they are fighting for survival of the human race. Not in the they are 'nice people' sense.

Then every species is the good guy because they are all fighting for their survival. You cease being the good guy if you are a fascist, xenophobic and intolerant dystopia with no regard for individual life.

There are no "good guys" in the 40K universe because it is a very dark satire.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
And correctly nails the "fascist human Imperium".

I liked that, yes. One of my favorite parts of the lore, but so commonly misrepresented.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
And correctly nails the "fascist human Imperium".

... but then shortly afterwards fouls up by adding two feet to the official height of Space Marines.

 MarcoSkoll wrote:

 Excommunicatus wrote:
And correctly nails the "fascist human Imperium".

... but then shortly afterwards fouls up by adding two feet to the official height of Space Marines.

How tall are Primaris?

 Nostromodamus wrote:

 MarcoSkoll wrote:

 Excommunicatus wrote:
And correctly nails the "fascist human Imperium".

... but then shortly afterwards fouls up by adding two feet to the official height of Space Marines.

How tall are Primaris?

Still nowhere near 9 feet.

Human about 6 feet. Space marine head taller than that=7 feet. Primaris to space marine what marine is to human=8 feet.

So only feet off.

Biggerer in their armour as well.

Interesting tidbit in the article is the comment from Wayland's Forge, that GW's growth in their store is at the expense of Malifaux and Warmahordes. Claims it's not just their experience, but who knows. Hearsay is not fact, and the plural of anecdote is not data!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Biggerer in their armour as well.

Interesting tidbit in the article is the comment from Wayland's Forge, that GW's growth in their store is at the expense of Malifaux and Warmahordes. Claims it's not just their experience, but who knows. Hearsay is not fact, and the plural of anecdote is not data!

Well it definitely is where I play. When 8th dropped and the disaster that was WMH 3E dropped shortly after, the entire WMH community pretty much evaporated and the store stock of GW doubled.

tneva82 wrote:
Primaris to space marine what marine is to human

I don't think that is true. In the art the Primaris are only a tiny bit larger than old marines, and when you compare the models to the newer non-primaris marine models such as Death Guard or BSF Black Legion, they're only slightly taller. Compared to GWs normal humans, Primaris models are about seven and half feet tall, eight at most.

WMH seem to have shot themselves in the balls with their recent edition.

Will there be a GW 40th Anniversary Primaris Lieutenant?

 Excommunicatus wrote:
And correctly nails the "fascist human Imperium".

Thanks for that random bit of politics.

Casualty wrote:
I liked that, yes. One of my favorite parts of the lore, but so commonly misrepresented.

Calling the Imperium fascist is like saying every soldier in the Imperium is a Space Marine. It's insufficient as a descriptor.

I'm not sure calling the Imperium of Man fascist is entirely accurate.

I'm pretty sure fascism is against decentralization, where the constituent parts (planets) are allowed to do what they want as long as they follow the Imperial Creed, pay tithes and don't try to leave the Imperium.

To me it looks more like a sort of feudal federation rather than a fascist state, really.

It's kind of weird that the article ignores the new ceo, the community site, the community interaction, the refocusing on competitive events, warhammer TV etc. Whether it is actually meaningful in the long term it has caused a big shift in customer perception of GW.

From the article

This magazine is also the only way the company communicates with the outside world; it is notoriously press-shy, and would not be interviewed for this article.

Huh?
Facebook, Community site, WarhammerTV streams, GW open days, Stores, stands/reveals at Adepticon etc, White Dwarf.....

While the article was an interesting read, as with all journalistic pieces, you notice all the errors and omissions if you're really involved with subject matter, as everyone on Dakka is. Try reading any journalistic piece on the industry/field of research you actually work in, for example - they always miss some seemingly crucial things that make the journalistic piece seem lacking to a reader 'in the know'. That said, you could of course wonder whether that information is all that relevant to the point the article tries to make to the uninformed reader. I guess some pieces are more on the mark than others but they generally all miss something, both because the journalist isn't as knowledgeable about the subject as a true fan/someone who actually works with the subject matter, and especially because too much nuance isn't actually interesting for a journalistic piece. I'm sure certain things are omitted just to make the general point of the article more clear, as seems to have been done here with the complete lack of mentioning GW's recent social media initiatives.

This is the first news article about GW I've seen with decent looking miniatures.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
I'm not sure calling the Imperium of Man fascist is entirely accurate.

I'm pretty sure fascism is against decentralization, where the constituent parts (planets) are allowed to do what they want as long as they follow the Imperial Creed, pay tithes and don't try to leave the Imperium.

To me it looks more like a sort of feudal federation rather than a fascist state, really.

That's a matter of practicality really though, in a massive crumbling spaceborne empire. How hard or softly the rules or sanctioned ideals of the Imperium are enforced is a matter of whim or happenstance or convenience, and the tithes include people, often unwilling. This has been true of every state we'd recognise as fascism without question, now.

You can't map the Imperium directly onto any real fascist regime we've known yet, of course, but as a one word descriptor it's more accurate than not.

 Ratius wrote:
From the article

This magazine is also the only way the company communicates with the outside world; it is notoriously press-shy, and would not be interviewed for this article.

Huh?
Facebook, Community site, WarhammerTV streams, GW open days, Stores, stands/reveals at Adepticon etc, White Dwarf.....

Yes, all communication that is very one sided and on their own terms. These aren't dialogues, but basically monologues (in various degrees of shouting) at the world.

Not saying that's a bad thing, it is nice to see GW being more active in communicating to the outside world, but it is always in one direction. Exception of course being the (sometimes sociopathic) fanboys demanding to know when that plastic Thunderhawk will be released or the Squats being revived.

That's effectively how every business in the westernized world operates also.

Seems churlish to hold GW solely to account for it.

Yeah, kind of a dumb article. The magazine is obviously not the only way the company communicates with its customers, not even close.

And yeah, fascism in many respects was particular to the situation in the early 20th century. That isn't quite what the Imperium of Man is.

 Albino Squirrel wrote:
Yeah, kind of a dumb article. The magazine is obviously not the only way the company communicates with its customers, not even close.

And yeah, fascism in many respects was particular to the situation in the early 20th century. That isn't quite what the Imperium of Man is.

Yep, fascism is a pretty specific political system that is only really applicable to nations, and as a term it loses its descriptive power when applied to something on the scale of the Imperium. What the Imperium of Man is, is in the name - it's an empire. It's not necessarily devoted to a single culture or identity aside from that of being human and worshipping the Emperor, and even that is applied pretty loosely when it benefits the Imperium. Each different world has its own culture and government but they serve as vassal states to the Imperium, which kind of makes the Imperium more similar to the Holy Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire, or similar imperialistic theocracy, rather than a fascist state.

tneva82 wrote:
Human about 6 feet. Space marine head taller than that=7 feet. Primaris to space marine what marine is to human=8 feet.

So only feet off.

Plastic Catachan is about 6'6". Primaris including helmet is 9' tall.

Math checks out.

Admittedly plenty of worlds within the Imperium are facist dictatorships in basically every sense but they are not ‘the Imperium’ - that’d be like saying earth today is democratic.
As a whole, the Imperium itself is pretty much pure feudalism; there’s a king, a court, a state religion, most jobs are inherited and those that aren’t are selected by apprenticeship rather than general schooling.

The real problem is that the Imperium is so ridiculous in scale that we kind of need new terminology; Necromunda, for instance, is run more like the American mob scene of the 1920’s and 30’s with Helmawr as the Godfather except, in this case, not only is it gangs all the way down, some of them are populous enough to be nation-states in their own right.

I like how Spikeybits fell ver their indignation so fast they managed to miss the humour and context in the article.

How can anyone continue to insist Warmachine isn't dying because no one has stats ? PP themselves has dumped stock on customers via mystery boxes twice in 6 months at massive discount m numerous online retailers have had massive discounts and clearance etc

I'd say the Imperium falls outside any current political/social description because there are simply so many elements and no central power structure , and a multitude of threats. Post Heresy it was purposely rearranged to ensure no one element could easily seize power whilst simultaneously putting in place organisations which those in power would have little control over - the Grey Knights and the Inquisition. The threats also defy comparison to any current or historical enemy .

It's an achievement for GW to even make mainstream press.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
That's effectively how every business in the westernized world operates also.

Seems churlish to hold GW solely to account for it.

Like I said, it's not a bad thing per se. I'm not holding GW solely to account for that. However, I don't agree that this is how every business in the Western(ized) world operates though. We often see CEO's and other high ranking figures of companies being interviewed to tell their (company's) story. Of course these things tend to be very much controlled, but there is still some 'illusion' of dialogue. Again, I'm not saying GW should do that or holding them to any kind of account.

I do love all the angry comments about people getting upset the Imperium is being called fascistic.

 Malika2 wrote:


I do love all the angry comments about people getting upset the Imperium is being called fascistic.

Interesting that you ascribe an emotional motivation here, because I would not read any of the posts as "angry" at all. Rather, they are correcting the description in a technical sense. However, I can see how one who views things in a much more emotionally laden manner may not be as concerned with being technically correct as they are with being "emotionally correct", and may project that motivation onto others.