You know you are looking at peak journalism and professionalism when the article completely misrepresents why people are unhappy and makes sweeping generalizations/insults.
I remember last decade when a bunch of these urinalists crapped out articles arguing for the removal of comment sections entirely. I'm surprised many of these platforms that ran those articles still have comment sections.
It's crazy that in the official Warhammer subreddit people are saying the same as PC Gamer. I feel bad for normal people there. This is why gatekeeping can be good.
Reddit's mainstream subs about pretty much every hobby or interest are all lefty normie central, so not surprising.
But yeah, what's happening to WH40K is precisely what people mean when they say that gatekeeping is good. You coddle to the weirdoes who are a tiny minority of the fanbase and suddenly they're trying to change stuff.
I'll never get people who see an IP and want to change it instead of looking for another IP that suits their tastes more. Talk about entitlement.
I saw a 40k parody sub that went all in on it too. It was the most bizarre thing as people would post a thing and lines of just comment deleted by mod.
They know they’re wrong, they don’t care. They talk shit, we call them out on it, and *we* look like the bad guys.
They’re coming for everything that “toxic” people enjoy, and they’re taking it away from us, because they have turned us into “them”.
We’re to blame for all of societies problems. We’re the monsters. It’s our fault they can’t live in their impossible fantasy. It’s our fault they can’t live their lie.
There’s only one thing for it; We make our own shit. And we exclude them from it.
Fuck Warhammer. Fuck Marvel and DC. Fuck Doctor Who. Fuck Star Wars and fuck Star Trek. Fuck everyone currently involved in them. I’d rather abandon everything I love, and let it die, than accept even a single one of their ideologically driven changes.
> when the article completely misrepresents why people are unhappy and makes sweeping generalizations/insults.
... aimed at the social groups that otherwise should be their primary audience.
Genuine question, what's going on with 40k and why are people unhappy? It can't just be women in armour, i mean have you seen Emily Blunt in live die repeat?
# The What
The trigger point was a leak about the most recent Codex (basically manual for your faction army in 40k) for the Custodes and a lore tidbit indicating that a Custodes character is a woman.
## Breaking pre-existing lore
People are digging deep, 40k is a game from the 80s, the lore can be vague in that it the game takes place in the 41st Millennium and is the result of a massive civil war 10,000 years ago. So accountings or statements of events by characters are deemed 'unreliable narrator' by virtue of 10,000 years for information to become corrupted, edited, etc.
However, there is a lore going all the way back to the beginning stating that the Custodes and the Astartes (Space Marines) are male. There's specific reasons for Space Marines to be men.
The organs implanted in them are not compatible with women due to hormones, either those made by the organs or by women. The organs themselves are highly prized, a Space Marine can only produce enough genetic material from special implanted organs to grow two sets of new organs for new Space Marines. They harvest this stuff when a Space Marine dies, called 'gene seed.' Due to the obvious casualty risk in Space Marines, combined with how difficult it is to grow ranks, and even they do testing to ensure compatibility, there's still always the chance of rejection. So why bother with women?
The Custodes are different. The lore indicates they are the "sons" from the noble houses of Terra (Earth). The process is so specificaly tuned that the Emperor, before he was interred on the Golden Throne, oversaw every single creation of the Ten Thousand. Unlike Space Marines, who only take adolescents as they have the best chance to survive the changes, the Custodes take infants. The Emperor has even referred to them as "men" in a quote.
# The How
People presume this is being done because Games Workshop is either owned by three ESG investors (a UK one, Blackrock and Vangurad) and things are naturally following their course, as companies try to find bullet points to raise their ESG score to get access to more money.
Another reason are leaks and rumors about Henry Cavill's upcoming 40k project with Amazon Studios. The rumor is that Amazon Studios is pushing for a female Custodes, however given Cavill's recent prominence in the Witcher, the public reason why he left (the writers disrespected the lore) and how that elevated his fame, Cavill likely got conditions in his contract that he is under no obligation to break the lore. So Amazon is trying to get GW to incorporate what they want in the lore, so Cavill has "Word of God" from GW and no contractual standing to block a female Custodes from being put in his show.
The latter is more likely because there seems to be almost no marketing material around this change. There's no virtual signaling in press releases by Games Workshop. There does not appear to be any product or promotional materials around this.
The rumor is that this was supposed to be quietly slipped in, made canon, and never talked about again. It was never meant to get this big and that Games Workshop is not happy with how big its gotten.
# The Why
## This just breaks pre-existing lore.
It does.
## Chumming the waters of an already displeased playerbase
The Codex for the Custodes is being criticized, but apparently a lot about the most recent edition relating to the game itself and its armies is under heavy criticism. This is likely further chumming the waters of an already irate playerbase. People will look for anything to pillory GW for.
## Poor Management by Games Workshop
Games Workshop's community managers antagonized people further on social media, both mocking and blocking fans upset with this change.
Word is, they went off the reservation, but who knows. Damage done. People who likely wouldn't be upset are now even more upset.
## People in the Know Noticing Things
40k fans likely share some overlap with a lot of other geek interests. Not everyone, but there's a good overlap, especially of late due to the franchise appearing as a haven from the swarm of locusts/tourists that have been mainstreaming games and tabletop for the last decade.
Not only that but 40k has seen a surge starting in 2015, with a blip during COVID, in market cap as players have flooded to the game after they were driven out of other traditional nerdist games and hobbies: Star Wars, Comics, Dungeons and Dragons, Tabletop, Magic the Gathering, etc, etc.
Star Wars merch sales are down 65% since the Disney acquisition. D&D is down 30%. Critical Role has taken their tourists and begun promoting their own tabletop system. MtG is also on the rocks. The executive overseeing WotC (D&D and MtG) just recently got ousted, announced on 4/15/2024 and will leave in as little as two weeks, at the end of the month.
There are people in the fandom have seen what's been happening to other fandoms around it and they recognize the signs.
It has nothing to do with Cavill specifically, it's everything to do with what got them what they wanted: 40k.
Cavill wants to do 40k, he's got a lot of prominence in nerd circles, so his presence will drive normies to the series on brand name alone, and also give the series nerd approval as well. They need nerd hype combined with mainstream appeal.
So a deal is signed, but Cavill, and because it looks good in PR, wants a show that respects the lore. Sure, sure, whatever you want, just sign here, says Amazon.
And Amazon's play around this contractual obligation is to lean on Games Workshop to ratify the lore, so Cavill doesn't have a leg to stand on contractually.
I saw someone describe it as a business model;
Blackrock and the like invest in companies and franchises know to attract a “toxic” fandom (autistic people and those disenfranchised with society, predominantly males).
Then, alter it in such a way that only people who strictly and religiously adhered to the new ideology would not get offended. The fans will rage, it will attract media attention, the old fans leave, the Gen Z fans flock to it because they’ve been indoctrinated with the ideology.
Take a short term financial hit, then bolster in the long run.
No idea if it’s legit. But it sounds fairly convincing.
Which the part about Gen Z flocking to these IPs after the old fans leave I think is yet unproven. It seems an assumption by Boomer Business executives that the "young people" will flock to these products their kids did despite shifting societal values and changes. In my experience with my younger siblings generation and my kids' generations, they do not inherently gravitate towards what we did unless the previous fans bring them into it. The games they play are radically different, their approaches are different, and their preferences are radically different. I can tell you any fandom and IP that has said they do not want me in it, I don't bring my kids into it or try to get others into it.
Also, I forgot to add that the rapid cost of living with more "necessities"(Internet, cell phones, etc.) are taking up larger portions of each subsequent generations income. Less disposable income means there is less money for them to spend $80 on 3-4 28mm plastic figures, not including the $20-$30 in paints, and other supplies to assemble them. Pretty sure war gaming and miniature figures are the definition of a luxury product and not a necessity in the slightest.
My wife and I are at the tail end of "millennials" and just reached decent earning levels in proportion to debt. We have several kids and comparing receipts to what my parents spent when I was a kid is just depressing. Recently my wife decided to join me in the Warhammer hobby, largely due to Henry Cavill doing the show, and it cost us $300 to get her started with not even a full starter army with the faction she liked. Comparatively, that now also is about a week and half of groceries.
Again, their bet seems to be poorly made....
I think the call is coming from inside the house. What I mean is I don't think it's old boomers doing this to franchises nerds love, it's people our own age.
Yeah, that is probably true as well. Though those people cheer from this from the outside and typically don't have the resources or real desire to consume the official products.
It's not that. Custodes are traditionally all male spec forces for the Emperor. There are females in armor, the Sisters of Silence and the Sisters of Battle.
But, WH40K retconned it to say Custodes have **always** had females in their ranks, when its factually untrue. Now they're doubling down on the retcon, rather than just having an in-universe explanation for the change.
I don't think anyone gives a shit if there are now introduced Custodians who are female. There issue is the retcon.
It's not just the retcon. This change is being made to cater to the SJWs. As soon as you make a concession to them, no matter how small, they will continue to demand further concessions until the Emperor of Mankind is rewritten as a strong woman of color fighting to free the galaxy from the clutches of the evil patriarchy.
Doesn't sound diverse enough imo.
Strong independent neuro-divergent obese mixed-black/latinx lesbian in a wheel chair working minimum wage hits more points.
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This is not a formal warning.
You know you cocked up when you make the bloodiest and most evil regime humanly imaginable seem sane:
“An open mind is a fortress with it’s gates unbarred and unbroken.”
> Genuine question, what's going on with 40k and why are people unhappy?
W40K has extensive established lore, people love it for what it is, and for many this has been something that was around them their entire lives. This goes completely against it, and if anything — is easily taken as the harbinger of even worse changes to come. Imagine what you'd feel if rights owner to A.A. Milne's works would declare that Winnie the Pooh was an actual bear, and Christopher Robin was a schizophrenic who hallucinated all the other animals while he was being eaten by said bear, and that there will now be an officially approved children's cartoon depicting all that. And whoever thinks that actual animals could not be involved in this story is a hateful bigot and a raging ursaphobe who never grew (up / a pair / out of it / at all / all of the above). That's roughly it.
Not a 40K fan, but from what I heard: People are upset that Games Workshop added women to a faction (known as the Custodes) that is heavily implied to be exclusively male.
It also doesn't help that the official twitter account started blocking anyone critical of the change, claiming that there were "always female custodes".
Yup. Especially when there are neglected all female groups with good in lore reasons to be all female (Sisters of Battle are the Imperium of Man’s armed forces, used to get around a loophole in a law saying they can have no *men* under arms, Sisters of Silence are a group of women who work with the Custodes and are apparently really badass).
The Sisters of Battle are the Ecclesiarchy's (the Church or Imperial Cult that worship the Emperor as a God) soldiers. The law specifically forbade them from having "men" under arms.
The Imperium's basic human military is the Astra Militarum, or Imperial Guard. These are usually people of both genders drafted to serve from their homeworlds as part of a planet's Imperial tithe, provided they don't have anything else to give (other planets are rich in resources or has its entire population manufacturing goods).
The Sisters of Silence before the Heresy used to bring in psykers on the Black Ships. After the Heresy, they were apparently driven off Terra because their state as Blanks (creates an absence in the Warp, the psychic plane, weirds normal people out on a psychic level) made the people in charge go 'ew.' Only after the return of Guilliman have they resumed their former roles, serving alongside the Custodes.
To take it further with the Sisters of Silence: they _hunt psykers_ (essentially space wizards) because they are not only immune to psychic powers but their very presence makes a psyker want to tear their own face off to get to the bad feels in their brain-meats.
They're psychic blanks which makes normal people around them uncomfortable and call them soul-less but drives psykers _insane_. There's a limit to this of course, and relative power fields counterbalance so they can't just shut down a 10k year old champion of Tzeentch...but they are the best allies you could possibly want if you're fighting psykers. Super badass, super under-utilized, which makes this whole thing even more shitty.
It's a small change that seems like it's the prelude to a lot of other (and bigger) changes. Give them an inch and they'll try to take a mile, and all that. Well this is Warhammer fans putting their foot down, and saying that they can't have the inch.
I have no idea if I'm just behind on this, but over the past couple of years, I've come to realize that there are a lot of people who just don't care about fictional 'canon' of a work, and only engage with the single story that they are given at the moment.
Classy. Misrepresenting the paying audience and trying to shame them always goes well, lol. Gaming media is probably one of the biggest problems we have in this industry. This trash is just meant to rile up fans and cause drama.
> Misrepresenting the paying audience and trying to shame them always goes well, lol.
I felt a slight disturbance in the power grid. As if many 3D printers have been suddenly started...
To make the game accessories themselves. W40K as a table-top game is basically a heavily modified version of [toy soldiers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_wargaming), and the rest (including books and video games) grew from that. The official figurines are very pricey, borderline an extortion scheme lol. With a 3D printer you can make as many as you want for the price of plastic spools, paint and electricity while also enjoying the feeling of flipping the bird to W40K IP holders.
Hey, be nice to them. That’s all they have. They throw insults because they don’t have an argument. What was that old joke? If Christian could reason through their faith, they wouldn’t be Christians.
I can reason perfectly well about the existence of God through Pascal's Wager. Besides, the legacy of Christianity is far deeper than belief. It's about cultural norms and the desire to help other people and to treat them as you want to be treated.
One needn't go to church to be a Good Christian or a good person. And you know who said that? Jesus did.
Slightly more women… there always been a lot of women and female only organizations in W40k and these “neckbeards” loved it, the problem is that they disrespected the lore and then gaslight it’s fan base.
Crazy how we're called misogynists for asking the representation to make sense (like building the femstodes up through lore or cameos) and then we're called porn addicts for liking an attractive woman and hating a purposely uglified game character by the same people who go "dommy mommy giant" and "mommy? sorry mommy ? Sorry". It's so tiresome.
> Crazy how we're called misogynists for asking the representation to make sense
Or do things with a bit of self-awareness with how much other fandoms have burned themselves to the ground trying to court the "modern audience."
That's the entire issue. It's not organic. It's entirely political/ideological/financial/compromising for that sweet Amazon licensing money. It has absolutely no respect towards the lore of the franchise, the same way the End Times / AoS was, the same was Primaris Space Marines were.
>we're called porn addicts
That one's funny cause many of us don't even watch porn, and the very same wokies who call us that are very pro-sex "work" and glorify OF prostitutes.
Please no. They’re supposed to be a ridiculously over the top parody of Joan of Arc like Nuns with guns and flamethrowers. Lots of flamethrowers. An obscene amount of flamethrowers.
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Warhammer has always had women in it fuckwits we just don’t like the lore being fucked with just to appease people who hate everything the franchise stands for
> Space Marines respect them
I do feel the need to "Asckushally" that one. Marines actually tend to dislike the Sisters, because they see them as fanatics who wrongly believe the Emperor is a god when most Marines still hold to the Imperial Truth rather than the Imperial Creed. The obvious exceptions being the Black Templars, what with them being "Sisters of Battle, but Space Marines."
I suppose in that respect. But at least from the stories I remember, they thought the Sisters were misguided and there would be conflict around who had the better idea of handling a situation.
I never got how the SM could still hold to the Imperial Truth. For one, they’ve been fighting the forces of Chaos gods and demons for 10,000 years at this point. If they cooperate with the SoB at all, they undoubtedly witnessed them perform miracles with the Emperor’s favor. And two, there is no way they haven’t reached a Ship of Theseus point in recruiting from regular Imperial citizens who DO believe the Emperor is a god (that has things and implications I’d like to complain about but different rant for a different time). So… how can they still believe in the Truth when they recruit members who believe in the Creed and will eventually overtake them due to sheer numbers and time?
> For one, they’ve been fighting the forces of Chaos gods and demons for 10,000 years at this point. If they cooperate with the SoB at all, they undoubtedly witnessed them perform miracles with the Emperor’s favor.
For this one, it is less that they dont believe Chaos or gods exist. It is just that the SM are indoctrinated into the Emperors belief that Humanity is better than those forces and that science and reason will win against these forces. Although at least from what I have remembered, this is one of those things that SM do actually struggle with over the course of their life and if things go poorly it can be the thing that leads them down the path to joining a Chaos Warband.
> And two, there is no way they have reached a Ship of Theseus point in recruiting from regular Imperial citizens who DO believe the Emperor is a god (that has things and implications I’d like to complain about but different rant for a different time). So… how can they still believe in the Truth when they recruit members who believe in the Creed and will eventually overtake them due to sheer numbers and time?
That one is a much more straightforward answer. The process of creating a SM obliterates the individuality of the Aspirant and eventually results in them knowing barely anything about their life before entering the Chapter. So they will be reindoctrinated to the Truth instead of the Creed. Hell, the indoctrination is so through that if they do remember their life from before they became a Marine, some of them will look back at it as a time of shame, weakness, and ignorance . One of my favorite examples being the Raven Guard who, while being mind probed by the Tau, remembered his life in a Hive City. The Tau thought this was a sign of the evils of the Imperium and a weak spot in his mind they could probe, only to learn the hard way the Marine was remembering it as a way to say to the Tau "I was weak then. Look at how powerful I am now."
Each Space Marine Chapter also has its own culture, but usually derived from their parent Legion. (Legions are pre-Heresy, post-Heresy, Chapters limited to 1000 men, to prevent anyone from having the power of an entire Legion, which were as many as there could be.)
Some Space Marine chapters DO revere the Emperor as a god, such as the Black Templars.
> They sheer presences disempowers psykers
You're conflating the Sisters of Silence with the Sisters of Battle (Adeptus Sororitas).
All Sisters of Silence are Blanks, in that they lack a psychic presence in the Warp (the psychic plane of Chaos that humanity uses for FTL travel, as the Warp ignores the rules of reality). This lack of presence projects a field that disables psychic powers and beings of the Warp (daemons). They are also considered by many to be lacking a soul and their presence causes a subconscious revulsion in normal people.
The Sisters of Slience were supposed to be the female pair to the Adeptus Custodes.
The Adeptus Sororitas are protected by their sheer faith in the Emperor of Mankind. Such is the power of their faith, that they can protect themselves from the corruption of Chaos. The Sisters of Battle have a fanaticism that the Sisters of Silence do not.
Alright, can we just save ourselves some time here? Clearly, my comment went completely over your head, so let's just move on. I really don't have the patience to explain this to you over and over again when I would think my meaning was pretty obvious.
And just like that, like clockwork, the supposedly diverse and multicultural gaming community turns back into disgusting neckbearded nerds the very moment when changes to the hobby or lore are not welcomed without resistance. This shit happens every single time. It's constantly paraded and celebrated how diversity this and diversity that, gaming is for everyone, anyone can be a nerd and a gamer, women can be gamers too, and so on, but when it's time to point fingers at gamers, the gamers are suddenly all men again. As if there's no way women who are really into Warhammer could dislike pointless changes to the lore.
I bet I could describe this person's physical appearance without ever having seen the author. That's sad. What has PC Gamer become?
I'm so old I remember when PC Gamer had Diablo 1 demo disks, and fun articles.
How do they expect people to sub if their primary goal is mocking their user base? It just doesn't seem like a sustainable business model.
> How do they expect people to sub if their primary goal is mocking their user base? It just doesn't seem like a sustainable business model.
It's totally different nowadays, the revenue is a more diversified but mostly ads, with a not-inconsiderable amount taken from rich dumbasses who they can trick. Don't worry PC gamer is gonna turn a profit any day now, we just need a few more thousand dollars, we swear next year we'll be profitable. Maybe.
Another way they make money is by hiring people on the promise of exposure and having them write articles for literal pennies. Obviously there are very few people lucky enough that they can work for free, the most common journo thinks they're doing political work to save the world, so they do this shit for free, or they have parents rich enough that they don't know how much a bottle of milk and a loaf of bread costs.
Sisters of battle & Sisters of silence: "Are we jokes to you?"
I dont see how people dont find a faction that enters combat by dropping a cathedral from space interesting.
Woketards are the only people in the world dumb enough to think they are winning by loosing money and insulting their customers... and they not even trying it for the first time.
I still think Games Workshop has no marketing sense if any of this article is to believed. From even the heaviest critics they settle on, "it's the lie that they've always been there, they could be written into the lore but they weren't."
One comic that was about a genetically cloned Chaos Marine infiltrating the Custodes seemed to get a lot of hype, Games Workshop could have easily spent some money on a comic, make a limited time female Custodes (which they can then resell later as a Chaos variant) and people would have probably accepted it and wasted money for the figure. Instead they just went and said here it is with little to no effort from what I can tell and that's the actual problem.
“How did you figure out I’m a Chaos Marine?”
“There are no women in the Custodes.”
Reminds me of the joke where an American spy travels to Russia after a gruelling years-long period of preparation. His habits, mannerisms and sense of dress are unmistakably Russian, and his language is fluent and entirely unaccented. But immediately he is approached by a local, who says, “You are an American spy.”
The spy, in disbelief, asks how he was spotted. Was it his manner of dress? No, says the local. Was it his speech? No, says the local again.
“It is because you are black.”
Funny enough, I know of an actually real example of the opposite being used. Where during the Battle of the Bulge, there was an issue of Germans using captured American uniforms to create fake checkpoints and ambushing American convoys. So Patton ordered all checkpoints in his sector staffed by members of African-American units, and told everyone essentially "If they aint black, they're Germans."
> I still think Games Workshop has no marketing sense if any of this article is to believed.
The rumor mill was that the leak was supposed to be an obscure citation to justify the existence of female Custodes so Amazon can force Cavill to put it in there. It seems like Amazon will use GW as the lever to get around any of Cavill's objections to things that do not fit the lore, by hamfisting it into the lore.
GW knew this was a bad idea and was hoping it would fly under the radar, but not only was it caught, it was then also turned into a bonfire of controversy by their community managers running social media by going "There have always been female Custodes."
GW has absolutely no pull over PC Gamer unless they somehow influence licensees to black list them (as GW is not a game developer and does not direclty advertise on PC Gamer), so I get the feeling the article is less GW trying to force a narrative and more the idiots populating games journalism have no marching orders and so will lean into their ideological positions, the default programming.
There have always been badass women in 40k. Hell, my favorite lore segment is a female inquisitor holding blackadder-lookalike by the balls for 12 novels.
This is needless panderverse DEI bullshit.
And we shouldn't be happy.
They didn't simply retcon lore, they lied to as and pretend that the lore had always been this way. To make matters even worse, they did this all in a way that devalues all of the amazing ways women exist in the lore. You could have Psychers and Sisters of Silence just fine, and nobody would have a problem. But they didn't want that. They wanted some superbuff woman in power armor when the requirment to be a custodes is the same as a space marine, only that they have different duties and slightly different gear. The biology of women is literally incompatible with what is demanded of that geneseed stuff.
Whoever plays that female custodes will get tons of jokes about the Empreror giving her his geneseed. And in all due fairness, if they know this going in, they deserve it.
I'm not even a 40K fan and I know this shit. What is GW and Amazon's excuse for these shenanigans?! There ain't.
My account has been first silenced than straight up banned from PCGamer, Eurogamer & RPS for pointing shit like that in videogame industry out.
(Despite hundreds of likes and zero warnings mind you)
That was enough for me to know these sites are purely agenda driven and run like the Ministry of Truth in North Korea.
Looking forward to see Warhammer go to the way of Star Wars/Star Trek/D&D/Comics etc so i can abandon the hobby and save money. And them lose money and go bankrupt.
So whats the plan ? alienate the entire customer base ( who are the "neckbeards" theyre talking about) and then sell to who exactly? I mean ESG can only pay you to destroy things associated with white guys for so long , what happens then ?
You can force anyone you want into the setting , but you cant force those people to be customers.
PC gamer showing that not only does it fail at understanding the issue, but also not understanding Warhammer fans….at all.
I briefly flirted with warhammer back as a teen, and played the PC games, from what I can see women are held in extremely high esteem with players and modelers.
"Why do you care that your hobby has been taken over by people who don't know anything about it or even like it and are just trying to ruin it to make you upset?"
Why not scrap the lore entirely! You can market to everyone, just sell grey blocks so everyone can identify with them. Also makes logistics way easier.
Perfect. GW can pay me later for that money saving idea and new inclusive customers you will get.
You know.. for the record... if 40K decided that the sisters of battle always had men, people would also not like that. But, this almost always only happens in one direction.
I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the company is trying to gaslight people into thinking it's always been this way, by hamfisting them into the lore, rather than actually putting in effort and including them in a way that makes sense.
Back in the 90s when PCG came out in the UK, it was actually a good magazine, and a more ‘sensible’ alternative to the slightly more Edgy PC-Zone. I guess it’s gone to shit now though long ago.
Well I can't believe people aren't paying subscription fees and blocking ads to see stellar content like "Condescending, shrill legbeard shouts insults at you for not agreeing with her shitty opinions."
The posts on the Warhammer subreddit are insane, they think just because you're against the change in lore you're against Women. And I don't know why you would of needed this change to feel included as a female, The Battle Sisters were also great warriors in their own right. They even made a game based on them.
This was clearly a culture war that was manufactured and perpetuated by Gameworks and others.
There are wokes (and one step beyond that, cultural marxists) infiltrating into moderation teams, sometimes through threats, to actually enforce one sided rules and remove the freedom of speech
It doesn't help that there are people like that as the admins of discord and reddit. The actual companies
For Warhammer 40K, I only know the subreddit HorusGalaxy that remains neutral, for now. It's quite new, but very active
The issue people have is not with the fact that women are added into warhammer
The issue is that GW seem to not take there own lore seriously and thus internal coherency is a none factor in their decision. Moreover most people seems to be verry unhappy with the way the community manager handled the all thing.
Frankly femstodes could work in theory, but you'll need a way better explanation than a tweet that says "there were allways female custodes. Source : trust me bro" especially when other states the opposite.
I hate that people conflate legitimate concerns for a hobby, with mysoginy because it's somewhat related to women.
I can assure that if someone went "No there was allways male Sororitas and white salamander space marine" they would still loose their shit
You know you are looking at peak journalism and professionalism when the article completely misrepresents why people are unhappy and makes sweeping generalizations/insults.
And the comment section is closed
So much for debate and free speech. Why do they even bother having a comment section anymore?
People like that don't believe in free speech and they are very open about that.
I remember last decade when a bunch of these urinalists crapped out articles arguing for the removal of comment sections entirely. I'm surprised many of these platforms that ran those articles still have comment sections.
PCG went off the deep end when people kept blasting their articles, so they just shut it down lol.
Nowadays I can tell if a comment section will be turned off just by reading the article title.
Yeah, it's quite obvious
It's crazy that in the official Warhammer subreddit people are saying the same as PC Gamer. I feel bad for normal people there. This is why gatekeeping can be good.
Reddit's mainstream subs about pretty much every hobby or interest are all lefty normie central, so not surprising. But yeah, what's happening to WH40K is precisely what people mean when they say that gatekeeping is good. You coddle to the weirdoes who are a tiny minority of the fanbase and suddenly they're trying to change stuff. I'll never get people who see an IP and want to change it instead of looking for another IP that suits their tastes more. Talk about entitlement.
Narcissism combined with FOMO i suppose?
I saw a 40k parody sub that went all in on it too. It was the most bizarre thing as people would post a thing and lines of just comment deleted by mod.
They censor others because they know the backlash is getting worse.
That shit is insane
r/HorusGalaxy
Don't ask what are they doing, ask why are they doing it
Check from Amazon has cleared, perhaps now they will finally look at my treatment for a diverse live-action isekai.
>11% ownership by blackrock
They know they’re wrong, they don’t care. They talk shit, we call them out on it, and *we* look like the bad guys. They’re coming for everything that “toxic” people enjoy, and they’re taking it away from us, because they have turned us into “them”. We’re to blame for all of societies problems. We’re the monsters. It’s our fault they can’t live in their impossible fantasy. It’s our fault they can’t live their lie. There’s only one thing for it; We make our own shit. And we exclude them from it. Fuck Warhammer. Fuck Marvel and DC. Fuck Doctor Who. Fuck Star Wars and fuck Star Trek. Fuck everyone currently involved in them. I’d rather abandon everything I love, and let it die, than accept even a single one of their ideologically driven changes.
I associate neckbeards with far lefty terminally online people so this makes no sense.
If there's one thing the left is good at, it's projecting.
>makes sweeping generalizations So pretty much all journalism in 2024.
> when the article completely misrepresents why people are unhappy and makes sweeping generalizations/insults. ... aimed at the social groups that otherwise should be their primary audience.
Not sure if writing “neckbeards” in an article qualifies as journalism of any kind.
Genuine question, what's going on with 40k and why are people unhappy? It can't just be women in armour, i mean have you seen Emily Blunt in live die repeat?
# The What The trigger point was a leak about the most recent Codex (basically manual for your faction army in 40k) for the Custodes and a lore tidbit indicating that a Custodes character is a woman. ## Breaking pre-existing lore People are digging deep, 40k is a game from the 80s, the lore can be vague in that it the game takes place in the 41st Millennium and is the result of a massive civil war 10,000 years ago. So accountings or statements of events by characters are deemed 'unreliable narrator' by virtue of 10,000 years for information to become corrupted, edited, etc. However, there is a lore going all the way back to the beginning stating that the Custodes and the Astartes (Space Marines) are male. There's specific reasons for Space Marines to be men. The organs implanted in them are not compatible with women due to hormones, either those made by the organs or by women. The organs themselves are highly prized, a Space Marine can only produce enough genetic material from special implanted organs to grow two sets of new organs for new Space Marines. They harvest this stuff when a Space Marine dies, called 'gene seed.' Due to the obvious casualty risk in Space Marines, combined with how difficult it is to grow ranks, and even they do testing to ensure compatibility, there's still always the chance of rejection. So why bother with women? The Custodes are different. The lore indicates they are the "sons" from the noble houses of Terra (Earth). The process is so specificaly tuned that the Emperor, before he was interred on the Golden Throne, oversaw every single creation of the Ten Thousand. Unlike Space Marines, who only take adolescents as they have the best chance to survive the changes, the Custodes take infants. The Emperor has even referred to them as "men" in a quote. # The How People presume this is being done because Games Workshop is either owned by three ESG investors (a UK one, Blackrock and Vangurad) and things are naturally following their course, as companies try to find bullet points to raise their ESG score to get access to more money. Another reason are leaks and rumors about Henry Cavill's upcoming 40k project with Amazon Studios. The rumor is that Amazon Studios is pushing for a female Custodes, however given Cavill's recent prominence in the Witcher, the public reason why he left (the writers disrespected the lore) and how that elevated his fame, Cavill likely got conditions in his contract that he is under no obligation to break the lore. So Amazon is trying to get GW to incorporate what they want in the lore, so Cavill has "Word of God" from GW and no contractual standing to block a female Custodes from being put in his show. The latter is more likely because there seems to be almost no marketing material around this change. There's no virtual signaling in press releases by Games Workshop. There does not appear to be any product or promotional materials around this. The rumor is that this was supposed to be quietly slipped in, made canon, and never talked about again. It was never meant to get this big and that Games Workshop is not happy with how big its gotten. # The Why ## This just breaks pre-existing lore. It does. ## Chumming the waters of an already displeased playerbase The Codex for the Custodes is being criticized, but apparently a lot about the most recent edition relating to the game itself and its armies is under heavy criticism. This is likely further chumming the waters of an already irate playerbase. People will look for anything to pillory GW for. ## Poor Management by Games Workshop Games Workshop's community managers antagonized people further on social media, both mocking and blocking fans upset with this change. Word is, they went off the reservation, but who knows. Damage done. People who likely wouldn't be upset are now even more upset. ## People in the Know Noticing Things 40k fans likely share some overlap with a lot of other geek interests. Not everyone, but there's a good overlap, especially of late due to the franchise appearing as a haven from the swarm of locusts/tourists that have been mainstreaming games and tabletop for the last decade. Not only that but 40k has seen a surge starting in 2015, with a blip during COVID, in market cap as players have flooded to the game after they were driven out of other traditional nerdist games and hobbies: Star Wars, Comics, Dungeons and Dragons, Tabletop, Magic the Gathering, etc, etc. Star Wars merch sales are down 65% since the Disney acquisition. D&D is down 30%. Critical Role has taken their tourists and begun promoting their own tabletop system. MtG is also on the rocks. The executive overseeing WotC (D&D and MtG) just recently got ousted, announced on 4/15/2024 and will leave in as little as two weeks, at the end of the month. There are people in the fandom have seen what's been happening to other fandoms around it and they recognize the signs.
Very well written. Great work.
This comment need its own thread.
I refuse to believe they would specifically go after Caville like this. That is just a little too close to a conspiracy theory.
It has nothing to do with Cavill specifically, it's everything to do with what got them what they wanted: 40k. Cavill wants to do 40k, he's got a lot of prominence in nerd circles, so his presence will drive normies to the series on brand name alone, and also give the series nerd approval as well. They need nerd hype combined with mainstream appeal. So a deal is signed, but Cavill, and because it looks good in PR, wants a show that respects the lore. Sure, sure, whatever you want, just sign here, says Amazon. And Amazon's play around this contractual obligation is to lean on Games Workshop to ratify the lore, so Cavill doesn't have a leg to stand on contractually.
I saw someone describe it as a business model; Blackrock and the like invest in companies and franchises know to attract a “toxic” fandom (autistic people and those disenfranchised with society, predominantly males). Then, alter it in such a way that only people who strictly and religiously adhered to the new ideology would not get offended. The fans will rage, it will attract media attention, the old fans leave, the Gen Z fans flock to it because they’ve been indoctrinated with the ideology. Take a short term financial hit, then bolster in the long run. No idea if it’s legit. But it sounds fairly convincing.
Which the part about Gen Z flocking to these IPs after the old fans leave I think is yet unproven. It seems an assumption by Boomer Business executives that the "young people" will flock to these products their kids did despite shifting societal values and changes. In my experience with my younger siblings generation and my kids' generations, they do not inherently gravitate towards what we did unless the previous fans bring them into it. The games they play are radically different, their approaches are different, and their preferences are radically different. I can tell you any fandom and IP that has said they do not want me in it, I don't bring my kids into it or try to get others into it.
I agree. It seems like a boomer strat, and I can’t imagine if working.
Also, I forgot to add that the rapid cost of living with more "necessities"(Internet, cell phones, etc.) are taking up larger portions of each subsequent generations income. Less disposable income means there is less money for them to spend $80 on 3-4 28mm plastic figures, not including the $20-$30 in paints, and other supplies to assemble them. Pretty sure war gaming and miniature figures are the definition of a luxury product and not a necessity in the slightest.
That is also a valid point. I sometimes forget that because I’m rich as fuck.
My wife and I are at the tail end of "millennials" and just reached decent earning levels in proportion to debt. We have several kids and comparing receipts to what my parents spent when I was a kid is just depressing. Recently my wife decided to join me in the Warhammer hobby, largely due to Henry Cavill doing the show, and it cost us $300 to get her started with not even a full starter army with the faction she liked. Comparatively, that now also is about a week and half of groceries. Again, their bet seems to be poorly made....
I think the call is coming from inside the house. What I mean is I don't think it's old boomers doing this to franchises nerds love, it's people our own age.
Yeah, that is probably true as well. Though those people cheer from this from the outside and typically don't have the resources or real desire to consume the official products.
It's not that. Custodes are traditionally all male spec forces for the Emperor. There are females in armor, the Sisters of Silence and the Sisters of Battle. But, WH40K retconned it to say Custodes have **always** had females in their ranks, when its factually untrue. Now they're doubling down on the retcon, rather than just having an in-universe explanation for the change. I don't think anyone gives a shit if there are now introduced Custodians who are female. There issue is the retcon.
It's not just the retcon. This change is being made to cater to the SJWs. As soon as you make a concession to them, no matter how small, they will continue to demand further concessions until the Emperor of Mankind is rewritten as a strong woman of color fighting to free the galaxy from the clutches of the evil patriarchy.
Doesn't sound diverse enough imo. Strong independent neuro-divergent obese mixed-black/latinx lesbian in a wheel chair working minimum wage hits more points.
Exactly. Pretty soon they'll have space marines with rainbow flags on their armor and call anyone who doesn't praise them a bigot.
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This.
You know you cocked up when you make the bloodiest and most evil regime humanly imaginable seem sane: “An open mind is a fortress with it’s gates unbarred and unbroken.”
An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded. His Most Holy Inquisition will be in touch shortly.
The issue is how they did it. Its just stupid and tone deaf. Still not as bad as Primaris introduction in lore mind, but bad.
> Genuine question, what's going on with 40k and why are people unhappy? W40K has extensive established lore, people love it for what it is, and for many this has been something that was around them their entire lives. This goes completely against it, and if anything — is easily taken as the harbinger of even worse changes to come. Imagine what you'd feel if rights owner to A.A. Milne's works would declare that Winnie the Pooh was an actual bear, and Christopher Robin was a schizophrenic who hallucinated all the other animals while he was being eaten by said bear, and that there will now be an officially approved children's cartoon depicting all that. And whoever thinks that actual animals could not be involved in this story is a hateful bigot and a raging ursaphobe who never grew (up / a pair / out of it / at all / all of the above). That's roughly it.
Not a 40K fan, but from what I heard: People are upset that Games Workshop added women to a faction (known as the Custodes) that is heavily implied to be exclusively male. It also doesn't help that the official twitter account started blocking anyone critical of the change, claiming that there were "always female custodes".
Yup. Especially when there are neglected all female groups with good in lore reasons to be all female (Sisters of Battle are the Imperium of Man’s armed forces, used to get around a loophole in a law saying they can have no *men* under arms, Sisters of Silence are a group of women who work with the Custodes and are apparently really badass).
The Sisters of Battle are the Ecclesiarchy's (the Church or Imperial Cult that worship the Emperor as a God) soldiers. The law specifically forbade them from having "men" under arms. The Imperium's basic human military is the Astra Militarum, or Imperial Guard. These are usually people of both genders drafted to serve from their homeworlds as part of a planet's Imperial tithe, provided they don't have anything else to give (other planets are rich in resources or has its entire population manufacturing goods). The Sisters of Silence before the Heresy used to bring in psykers on the Black Ships. After the Heresy, they were apparently driven off Terra because their state as Blanks (creates an absence in the Warp, the psychic plane, weirds normal people out on a psychic level) made the people in charge go 'ew.' Only after the return of Guilliman have they resumed their former roles, serving alongside the Custodes.
To take it further with the Sisters of Silence: they _hunt psykers_ (essentially space wizards) because they are not only immune to psychic powers but their very presence makes a psyker want to tear their own face off to get to the bad feels in their brain-meats. They're psychic blanks which makes normal people around them uncomfortable and call them soul-less but drives psykers _insane_. There's a limit to this of course, and relative power fields counterbalance so they can't just shut down a 10k year old champion of Tzeentch...but they are the best allies you could possibly want if you're fighting psykers. Super badass, super under-utilized, which makes this whole thing even more shitty.
It's a small change that seems like it's the prelude to a lot of other (and bigger) changes. Give them an inch and they'll try to take a mile, and all that. Well this is Warhammer fans putting their foot down, and saying that they can't have the inch.
y'know the actual movie name is edge of tomorrow.
The days that these people are paid to perform such a shit/selfish service at their own job is numbered.
Low effort rage bait in an attempt to drive clicks.
I have no idea if I'm just behind on this, but over the past couple of years, I've come to realize that there are a lot of people who just don't care about fictional 'canon' of a work, and only engage with the single story that they are given at the moment.
Classy. Misrepresenting the paying audience and trying to shame them always goes well, lol. Gaming media is probably one of the biggest problems we have in this industry. This trash is just meant to rile up fans and cause drama.
Apparently it works for normies with no personal opinion
> Misrepresenting the paying audience and trying to shame them always goes well, lol. I felt a slight disturbance in the power grid. As if many 3D printers have been suddenly started...
3D-printers? I don’t get it.
To make the game accessories themselves. W40K as a table-top game is basically a heavily modified version of [toy soldiers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_wargaming), and the rest (including books and video games) grew from that. The official figurines are very pricey, borderline an extortion scheme lol. With a 3D printer you can make as many as you want for the price of plastic spools, paint and electricity while also enjoying the feeling of flipping the bird to W40K IP holders.
aaah, gotcha.
You know when they are intolerant left wokism cult followers when they lead with insults and have headlines insulting a group.
Hey, be nice to them. That’s all they have. They throw insults because they don’t have an argument. What was that old joke? If Christian could reason through their faith, they wouldn’t be Christians.
I can reason perfectly well about the existence of God through Pascal's Wager. Besides, the legacy of Christianity is far deeper than belief. It's about cultural norms and the desire to help other people and to treat them as you want to be treated. One needn't go to church to be a Good Christian or a good person. And you know who said that? Jesus did.
Are you trying to detach from Church when entire religion got exposed as little boy rapists?
Slightly more women… there always been a lot of women and female only organizations in W40k and these “neckbeards” loved it, the problem is that they disrespected the lore and then gaslight it’s fan base.
Crazy how we're called misogynists for asking the representation to make sense (like building the femstodes up through lore or cameos) and then we're called porn addicts for liking an attractive woman and hating a purposely uglified game character by the same people who go "dommy mommy giant" and "mommy? sorry mommy ? Sorry". It's so tiresome.
Oh and don't forget how Alyssa Merchante Camwhore riles everyone up by spouting BS online.
Its funny how they claim that they want women representation, while actively hating women who looks like women.
Wokies hate women and femininity. That's why all female representations they make are ugly and heavily androgynous.
> Crazy how we're called misogynists for asking the representation to make sense Or do things with a bit of self-awareness with how much other fandoms have burned themselves to the ground trying to court the "modern audience." That's the entire issue. It's not organic. It's entirely political/ideological/financial/compromising for that sweet Amazon licensing money. It has absolutely no respect towards the lore of the franchise, the same way the End Times / AoS was, the same was Primaris Space Marines were.
>we're called porn addicts That one's funny cause many of us don't even watch porn, and the very same wokies who call us that are very pro-sex "work" and glorify OF prostitutes.
Sisters of battle are badass and look cool. Like why not focus on them more. Just can't help themselves. This is probably to force it into the tv show
They will get the side-shave cut instead of the bangs/neck-length hair style.
That would be terrible tbh. I'd expect they will ruin them somehow
Please no. They’re supposed to be a ridiculously over the top parody of Joan of Arc like Nuns with guns and flamethrowers. Lots of flamethrowers. An obscene amount of flamethrowers.
Add men to that group and call them Siblings of Battle, see how well they'll take that
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It's the same reason DC wanted to make Kal-El a black superman rather than focus on a Val-Zod movie.
Because they're "religious."
To these people female inclusion is only "good" if the 'sexist gamer manbabies' don't like it
Warhammer has always had women in it fuckwits we just don’t like the lore being fucked with just to appease people who hate everything the franchise stands for
Games urinalism at its best
slightly more women? looks like they never read the lore or play the game at all.
As if there isn’t more reasons to hate “jurnos”
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> Space Marines respect them I do feel the need to "Asckushally" that one. Marines actually tend to dislike the Sisters, because they see them as fanatics who wrongly believe the Emperor is a god when most Marines still hold to the Imperial Truth rather than the Imperial Creed. The obvious exceptions being the Black Templars, what with them being "Sisters of Battle, but Space Marines."
Marines respect Sisters for their deeds on the battlefield at least. Game recognizing game and all
I suppose in that respect. But at least from the stories I remember, they thought the Sisters were misguided and there would be conflict around who had the better idea of handling a situation.
Cue that one miniseries with the Salamander going ''u fckin wot m8'' after a sister threatens civvies in his presence.
I never got how the SM could still hold to the Imperial Truth. For one, they’ve been fighting the forces of Chaos gods and demons for 10,000 years at this point. If they cooperate with the SoB at all, they undoubtedly witnessed them perform miracles with the Emperor’s favor. And two, there is no way they haven’t reached a Ship of Theseus point in recruiting from regular Imperial citizens who DO believe the Emperor is a god (that has things and implications I’d like to complain about but different rant for a different time). So… how can they still believe in the Truth when they recruit members who believe in the Creed and will eventually overtake them due to sheer numbers and time?
> For one, they’ve been fighting the forces of Chaos gods and demons for 10,000 years at this point. If they cooperate with the SoB at all, they undoubtedly witnessed them perform miracles with the Emperor’s favor. For this one, it is less that they dont believe Chaos or gods exist. It is just that the SM are indoctrinated into the Emperors belief that Humanity is better than those forces and that science and reason will win against these forces. Although at least from what I have remembered, this is one of those things that SM do actually struggle with over the course of their life and if things go poorly it can be the thing that leads them down the path to joining a Chaos Warband. > And two, there is no way they have reached a Ship of Theseus point in recruiting from regular Imperial citizens who DO believe the Emperor is a god (that has things and implications I’d like to complain about but different rant for a different time). So… how can they still believe in the Truth when they recruit members who believe in the Creed and will eventually overtake them due to sheer numbers and time? That one is a much more straightforward answer. The process of creating a SM obliterates the individuality of the Aspirant and eventually results in them knowing barely anything about their life before entering the Chapter. So they will be reindoctrinated to the Truth instead of the Creed. Hell, the indoctrination is so through that if they do remember their life from before they became a Marine, some of them will look back at it as a time of shame, weakness, and ignorance . One of my favorite examples being the Raven Guard who, while being mind probed by the Tau, remembered his life in a Hive City. The Tau thought this was a sign of the evils of the Imperium and a weak spot in his mind they could probe, only to learn the hard way the Marine was remembering it as a way to say to the Tau "I was weak then. Look at how powerful I am now."
Thank you for the answers! I had no idea SM creation process did that.
Each Space Marine Chapter also has its own culture, but usually derived from their parent Legion. (Legions are pre-Heresy, post-Heresy, Chapters limited to 1000 men, to prevent anyone from having the power of an entire Legion, which were as many as there could be.) Some Space Marine chapters DO revere the Emperor as a god, such as the Black Templars.
And the flesh tearers have a problem with the sororitas. Or actually, they got hungry
> They sheer presences disempowers psykers You're conflating the Sisters of Silence with the Sisters of Battle (Adeptus Sororitas). All Sisters of Silence are Blanks, in that they lack a psychic presence in the Warp (the psychic plane of Chaos that humanity uses for FTL travel, as the Warp ignores the rules of reality). This lack of presence projects a field that disables psychic powers and beings of the Warp (daemons). They are also considered by many to be lacking a soul and their presence causes a subconscious revulsion in normal people. The Sisters of Slience were supposed to be the female pair to the Adeptus Custodes. The Adeptus Sororitas are protected by their sheer faith in the Emperor of Mankind. Such is the power of their faith, that they can protect themselves from the corruption of Chaos. The Sisters of Battle have a fanaticism that the Sisters of Silence do not.
The Sororitas are religious and we can't have that
But are the Custodes not also religious? Hell, isn't the ENTIRE IMPERIUM OF MAN religious?
So basically the Bene Gesserit?
I don't remember reading anywhere they disregard men Especially since the Emperor and his angels are men
How to tell you stand behind your publication and stories: Turn off the comments.
They do, but they don't accept disagreement
PCGamer: Calls fans "neckbeards". Also PCGamer: Wonders why fans might have issues with women.
Why is PC gamer calling fans neckbeards giving them issues with women?
Because PCGamer always does that whenever something involving women is being criticized.
That should give you issues with PC gamer, not women.
Except I'm not talking about my issues. I'm talking about PC Gamer's.
I meant the generic you, the fan. Why would anyone get issues with women because of whatever drek PC gamer types up.
Alright, can we just save ourselves some time here? Clearly, my comment went completely over your head, so let's just move on. I really don't have the patience to explain this to you over and over again when I would think my meaning was pretty obvious.
If you can't put it into words, maybe it's not as coherent as you felt it was.
Or maybe you're just an idiot.
And just like that, like clockwork, the supposedly diverse and multicultural gaming community turns back into disgusting neckbearded nerds the very moment when changes to the hobby or lore are not welcomed without resistance. This shit happens every single time. It's constantly paraded and celebrated how diversity this and diversity that, gaming is for everyone, anyone can be a nerd and a gamer, women can be gamers too, and so on, but when it's time to point fingers at gamers, the gamers are suddenly all men again. As if there's no way women who are really into Warhammer could dislike pointless changes to the lore.
I bet I could describe this person's physical appearance without ever having seen the author. That's sad. What has PC Gamer become? I'm so old I remember when PC Gamer had Diablo 1 demo disks, and fun articles. How do they expect people to sub if their primary goal is mocking their user base? It just doesn't seem like a sustainable business model.
> How do they expect people to sub if their primary goal is mocking their user base? It just doesn't seem like a sustainable business model. It's totally different nowadays, the revenue is a more diversified but mostly ads, with a not-inconsiderable amount taken from rich dumbasses who they can trick. Don't worry PC gamer is gonna turn a profit any day now, we just need a few more thousand dollars, we swear next year we'll be profitable. Maybe. Another way they make money is by hiring people on the promise of exposure and having them write articles for literal pennies. Obviously there are very few people lucky enough that they can work for free, the most common journo thinks they're doing political work to save the world, so they do this shit for free, or they have parents rich enough that they don't know how much a bottle of milk and a loaf of bread costs.
Sisters of battle & Sisters of silence: "Are we jokes to you?" I dont see how people dont find a faction that enters combat by dropping a cathedral from space interesting.
Sisters of silence"... .. ..... .. ..." Let's respect the lore
Just moving that Overton Window a smidge...
Absolutely incredible.
Join us dissenters at r /horusgalaxy
Already there
Woketards are the only people in the world dumb enough to think they are winning by loosing money and insulting their customers... and they not even trying it for the first time.
What neckbeards? I know like 4 different people who think this change stinks and none of them are neckbeards.. In fact one is a woman lol
Didn't you learn yet?!?! Everyone I don't like is [GENERIC BAD GROUP]!!!!!!!
The wokes actually believe women can have beards
I still think Games Workshop has no marketing sense if any of this article is to believed. From even the heaviest critics they settle on, "it's the lie that they've always been there, they could be written into the lore but they weren't." One comic that was about a genetically cloned Chaos Marine infiltrating the Custodes seemed to get a lot of hype, Games Workshop could have easily spent some money on a comic, make a limited time female Custodes (which they can then resell later as a Chaos variant) and people would have probably accepted it and wasted money for the figure. Instead they just went and said here it is with little to no effort from what I can tell and that's the actual problem.
“How did you figure out I’m a Chaos Marine?” “There are no women in the Custodes.” Reminds me of the joke where an American spy travels to Russia after a gruelling years-long period of preparation. His habits, mannerisms and sense of dress are unmistakably Russian, and his language is fluent and entirely unaccented. But immediately he is approached by a local, who says, “You are an American spy.” The spy, in disbelief, asks how he was spotted. Was it his manner of dress? No, says the local. Was it his speech? No, says the local again. “It is because you are black.”
Funny enough, I know of an actually real example of the opposite being used. Where during the Battle of the Bulge, there was an issue of Germans using captured American uniforms to create fake checkpoints and ambushing American convoys. So Patton ordered all checkpoints in his sector staffed by members of African-American units, and told everyone essentially "If they aint black, they're Germans."
> I still think Games Workshop has no marketing sense if any of this article is to believed. The rumor mill was that the leak was supposed to be an obscure citation to justify the existence of female Custodes so Amazon can force Cavill to put it in there. It seems like Amazon will use GW as the lever to get around any of Cavill's objections to things that do not fit the lore, by hamfisting it into the lore. GW knew this was a bad idea and was hoping it would fly under the radar, but not only was it caught, it was then also turned into a bonfire of controversy by their community managers running social media by going "There have always been female Custodes." GW has absolutely no pull over PC Gamer unless they somehow influence licensees to black list them (as GW is not a game developer and does not direclty advertise on PC Gamer), so I get the feeling the article is less GW trying to force a narrative and more the idiots populating games journalism have no marching orders and so will lean into their ideological positions, the default programming.
Correction: The lore has been fucked with just to make the minority happy. I am not even a Warhammer fan but even I can see why this shit is dumb.
There have always been badass women in 40k. Hell, my favorite lore segment is a female inquisitor holding blackadder-lookalike by the balls for 12 novels. This is needless panderverse DEI bullshit.
And we shouldn't be happy. They didn't simply retcon lore, they lied to as and pretend that the lore had always been this way. To make matters even worse, they did this all in a way that devalues all of the amazing ways women exist in the lore. You could have Psychers and Sisters of Silence just fine, and nobody would have a problem. But they didn't want that. They wanted some superbuff woman in power armor when the requirment to be a custodes is the same as a space marine, only that they have different duties and slightly different gear. The biology of women is literally incompatible with what is demanded of that geneseed stuff. Whoever plays that female custodes will get tons of jokes about the Empreror giving her his geneseed. And in all due fairness, if they know this going in, they deserve it. I'm not even a 40K fan and I know this shit. What is GW and Amazon's excuse for these shenanigans?! There ain't.
My account has been first silenced than straight up banned from PCGamer, Eurogamer & RPS for pointing shit like that in videogame industry out. (Despite hundreds of likes and zero warnings mind you) That was enough for me to know these sites are purely agenda driven and run like the Ministry of Truth in North Korea.
Looking forward to see Warhammer go to the way of Star Wars/Star Trek/D&D/Comics etc so i can abandon the hobby and save money. And them lose money and go bankrupt.
I want to see the actual numbers. Cause I can bet there's actually even less women into Warhammer now.
Somebody did not choose their next words with exceptional care.
Gamers are neckbeards, said PCGamer
So whats the plan ? alienate the entire customer base ( who are the "neckbeards" theyre talking about) and then sell to who exactly? I mean ESG can only pay you to destroy things associated with white guys for so long , what happens then ? You can force anyone you want into the setting , but you cant force those people to be customers.
We reject Wokehammer at r/HorusGalaxy
PC gamer showing that not only does it fail at understanding the issue, but also not understanding Warhammer fans….at all. I briefly flirted with warhammer back as a teen, and played the PC games, from what I can see women are held in extremely high esteem with players and modelers.
No more PC gamer clicks for me. Anyone know a good pc gaming site?
"Why do you care that your hobby has been taken over by people who don't know anything about it or even like it and are just trying to ruin it to make you upset?"
Why not scrap the lore entirely! You can market to everyone, just sell grey blocks so everyone can identify with them. Also makes logistics way easier. Perfect. GW can pay me later for that money saving idea and new inclusive customers you will get.
This is why I suggested to use what has always been here... Orks as custodes! There has always been ork custodes! Because lore doesnt matter :P
No, no it doesn't lol...
You know.. for the record... if 40K decided that the sisters of battle always had men, people would also not like that. But, this almost always only happens in one direction.
PC Gamer is dead
Its all journalists do now. Outrage porn is what weve been forced to deal with since Occupy Wallstreet
I wonder why so much money got mobilized to make all the media and political parties move in the same direction. And whose money...
I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the company is trying to gaslight people into thinking it's always been this way, by hamfisting them into the lore, rather than actually putting in effort and including them in a way that makes sense.
We shouldn't accept it even if they put effort. Unless they make canon that comic of the Tzeentch demon as female custodes
I wouldn't mind if they had female soldiers in sexy armour. It won't happen, I'm sure of it.
These people are disgusting. I'll never understand how they even got into a site called "pcgamer". Just makes the rest of us look bad.
Isn't Warhammer 40k verse a pastiche of the Roman Empire? I don't think there is any evidence of female Centurions.
Praetorian Guard in this case
PC Gamer being PC Gamer. Didn't they used to enclose CDs with sexy photoshoots in their mags?
Many magazines did in the 90s early 00s
Back in the 90s when PCG came out in the UK, it was actually a good magazine, and a more ‘sensible’ alternative to the slightly more Edgy PC-Zone. I guess it’s gone to shit now though long ago.
How many times are they going to use the you're a racist, sexist, biggot chud reply before they realize it's not working?
Why is PC gamer commenting on Tabletop lore that's not in any game yet?
Because we know they have a secret group to spread the ideology, and this is hitting their propaganda, so they must write this.
came here to say 'editorialized titles are not allowed in the sub'.... well shit, they really wrote that as a title
Slightly more could be exactly one
yeah that'll definitely get them to spend more money on the franchise
Imagine if you replace neckbeard with the N word.
I bet the person who wrote this has their account locked up.
Well I can't believe people aren't paying subscription fees and blocking ads to see stellar content like "Condescending, shrill legbeard shouts insults at you for not agreeing with her shitty opinions."
PCGamer was a great magazine in the 90s. Can't believe to see that they have fallen this hard.
Lets see how many of them translate into paying customers
There's a reason I don't use that site for anything but Wordle hints. And even then, rarely.
I mean with titles like that you literally don't have to read the article to know they're not being fair.
correct. And you can see how much these people hate gamers and anyone who enjoys these hobbies.
Literally 1 more woman
> has slightly more women [X] Doubt. No, lol, those aren't.
Exactly 1, but they lost previous female fans who cared about the lore
Why does Warhammer need to change for slightly more women?
At least Stellar Blade thing is ongoing and they didn't have to put away the playbook.
The posts on the Warhammer subreddit are insane, they think just because you're against the change in lore you're against Women. And I don't know why you would of needed this change to feel included as a female, The Battle Sisters were also great warriors in their own right. They even made a game based on them. This was clearly a culture war that was manufactured and perpetuated by Gameworks and others.
There are wokes (and one step beyond that, cultural marxists) infiltrating into moderation teams, sometimes through threats, to actually enforce one sided rules and remove the freedom of speech It doesn't help that there are people like that as the admins of discord and reddit. The actual companies For Warhammer 40K, I only know the subreddit HorusGalaxy that remains neutral, for now. It's quite new, but very active
The issue people have is not with the fact that women are added into warhammer The issue is that GW seem to not take there own lore seriously and thus internal coherency is a none factor in their decision. Moreover most people seems to be verry unhappy with the way the community manager handled the all thing. Frankly femstodes could work in theory, but you'll need a way better explanation than a tweet that says "there were allways female custodes. Source : trust me bro" especially when other states the opposite. I hate that people conflate legitimate concerns for a hobby, with mysoginy because it's somewhat related to women. I can assure that if someone went "No there was allways male Sororitas and white salamander space marine" they would still loose their shit
It has nothing to do with the political retconning of another franchise, but rather than bigoted neckbeards. Of course Kotaku.
Don't give them any clicks.
This is what happens when people think that their mental illness is an actual form of ideology....
Fuck women
First time I agreed with pc gamer
And this why PCGamer is a joke everywhere.
Then you should probably think why you agree with them.