You can’t get much nerdier than Warhammer. Forget video games or sci-fi TV shows: a pastime that involves collecting and painting small plastic models, moving them around pretending they are trying to kill each other, and then rolling dice to find out how well they’ve killed each other, is about as nerdy as it gets. Take it from someone who spends a fair share of their weekends doing just that.
Warhammer in some variety has been around for just over 40 years, but has grown increasingly popular throughout my lifetime. The Nottingham-based company that makes it – Games Workshop – is worth more than £3bn and hailed as one of the UK’s biggest business success stories, exporting its figurines and boards round the world. It has spawned dozens of spinoff video games, and Superman star Henry Cavill – an avowed fan – has even signed up to produce and star in a Warhammer TV show on Amazon Prime.
But in recent weeks the sprawling Warhammer fandom has been enveloped in a dramatic controversy – or at least you would think so, from some news headlines.
“It’s Wokehammer! Games Workshop engulfed in gender row with fans after it said Warhammer squadron that was previously thought of as men-only has ‘always had females’,” screamed one MailOnline headline. What had prompted these claims of outrage was Games Workshop introducing a new female character into one of its science fantasy games, Warhammer 40,000. The character in question was part of a group of genetically engineered warriors called Custodes, which had, so far, not had any women models in it – but, according to Games Workshop, had always been included in the weighty narrative “lore” of the game.
The Mail had seen a number of tweets complaining about it, such as one from a games designer saying that Games Workshop was “‘gender flipping’ characters for ‘woke points’”. This was portrayed as a widespread backlash from fans. But, as a fan who frequently browses message boards for tips on playing and painting, or to look at interesting bits of background dug up by people who have bothered to read the many books published about the various Warhammer universes, my experience has been quite different.
If you actually look at the online spaces where fans of the games discuss the hobby they love, most don’t seem very bothered. On the large Reddit forums dedicated to Warhammer games, most of the posts concerning female Custodes seem to consist of fan art, complaints about those complaining or pleas to stop moaning about the insertion of female characters and start moaning about the unfair new rules, which they believe make it harder to win games (something pretty much all players complain about after the regular rules updates). Nerdy gamers are far less reactionary than some in the media would like to depict us.
To some extent, progressive changes in the gaming world are inevitable. Games Workshop has been introducing more female roles for years, as well as toning down some of the more over-sexualised characters. At the same time, the wider gaming industry is also becoming less male-dominated. These days, close to half the world’s video game players are women, and the gaming companies are increasingly aware that female characters are both accepted by male players and a potential draw for female ones. Grand Theft Auto 6, the forthcoming sequel in what is probably the biggest video game series, will feature a woman protagonist for the first time for years.
This isn’t to say that the Warhammer changes haven’t upset some fans. There are players who tend to get annoyed at any change to established fictional worlds they care about, even if these are ludicrous imaginary universes where orcs and elves do battle. And of course there are those who have taken offence to perceived “wokification”. Their argument seems to be that by making a change presumably aimed at making more women interested in the hobby, the makers of the game are bowing to a “woke agenda” and spoiling all the fun for men.
But where once those getting angry about changes bringing greater inclusivity might have been the overwhelming majority, this time they seem at best a vocal minority. That this is the mood on Reddit is even more surprising, given that the social network was once one of the primary breeding grounds for Gamergate, the toxic online movement of 2014-15 that spewed hate towards women with the temerity to create, play, enjoy and critique video games.
In the decade since Gamergate, Reddit has been blamed for the rise of Donald Trump and the “alt-right”, which is perhaps a little overblown but also not entirely without merit. The tactics and talking points employed by both the online right and many politicians have grown out from the bedrooms of those angry that women are spoiling the spaces they thought were theirs alone. The same childish hatred of “wokification” can still be seen in every other post from X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk.
But it looks like even those online spaces once dominated by people who hated change, and who wanted the culture they consumed to reflect less-progressive times, no longer have the loudest voices.
It’s a lesson that politicians might want to pay attention to. The culture wars were pioneered in online spaces filled with nerds. But the nerds seem to be moving on. Even in the world of Warhammer, one of the geekiest and most traditionally male corners of gaming, those getting angry about greater inclusivity are losing.
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