The Ugly history of Games-Workshop
This article started out as an Introduction to my previous entry on copyright. And will conclude the tale of the “The Good” “The Bad” and “The Ugly”
So…
Games-Workshop the ever-present elephant in the room. Why am I ‘obsessed’ with them? Well, if you're into miniature wargaming you have to be. Not by choice. Because if you have any interest in creating anything you must, why?
Lawfare
It is a term used the weaponisation of law, where people use the legal system against another person or entity.
That is the in short definition the longer less clinical definition its when a person, cooperation or country uses legal means often beyond the capability or in a way that is unsustainable against another person, company or country to gain what they desire.
And as someone who has worked in Family Law and has family in family law, trust me people do it all the time and it is the ugliest thing you have ever seen. As ugly as war and just as soul tearing, if I told you the stories.
And this, is Games-Workshop’s weapon of choice.
Now as you will hear me mention later on. Chapter House deserved to be sued due to their actions, but, there are a lot of people who felt the weight of this, who haven’t. Ask any older gamers and they will tell you a horror story.
The other reason is that ‘Warhammer’ is the default introduction into Wargaming which would be fine… if the company was.
So as you can see if your reaching the ‘end’ of your gaming career wanting to create something or at the beginning of it. That is why Games-Workshop is the elephant in the room.
History
I talked about “The Darkside of Miniatures” which was in actuality about “Chinacast, 3D printing and Copyright'“. As I said turnabout is fair play and I want to talk about the good that copyright has done which actually leads to Games-Workshop once again the elephant in the room and…
Chapter house
A bit of background before we begin otherwise we are jumping in the deep end and I don’t know if you can swim.
History lesson
Games Workshop began in 1975, In 1977 Gary Gygax sold them exclusive distribution rights to Dungeons & Dragons for all of Europe. However, this was just three dudes, Gary here thought he had sold it to ‘the London elite’ so to speak. Except this isn’t the craziest part of English history when it comes to people pretending to be big than they were. It’s the story of a rifle manufacturer and the army, and it’s crazy… l96a1 sniper rifle.
Video is only a minute 20, give it a watch.
Well anyway the rest is history with Games-Workshop, three men in a trench coat got the biggest contract for the biggest RPG in history and turned it into the massive empire it is today…
(it does not bode well when your company is created by a lie profiting off the work of others and then…)
Chapter house
Now you have to understand during this time of the early internet and Games-Workshop used to being the big boy and playing fast and loose, they used to bring out rules for models they hadn’t made and it was cool… Because you could kit bash a swarm lord. Mine was made from a Carnifex and stood upright with an alien designed head… you know what I am going to bust her out and take a photo.
Just like my like my camera at the moment. Its a little busted up.
So everything was good in the world, people were making conversions, there was really interesting stuff running around… then…
Chapter House
Among other “bitz sellers” Chapter House sold (past tense), products by what GW IP they correlated with, selling custom armour pads and heads explicitly detailing which Space Marine Chapters. So none of this “Crimson Raider Lord”, “Captain General Kitten” or “Gloomy Angles”, no. Chapter House, just called them Raven Guard shoulder pads, Night Lord Helms, and Tyranid Mycetic Spore. This is what we call in the legal world a big no no oopsy pants.
So, now this may shock you, but Games-Workshop sued them.
Honestly, at this point, if you're at all honest, they kind of deserved it. However, the thing is that, Games-Workshop hadn’t ever had anyone straight up challenge them, and there were many times they should have been challenged. For example, the 8-pointed star of Chaos, is not precisely a Games-Workshop original. Micheal Moorcock and his book “The Eternal Champion”. Though Chapter House totally deserved this lawsuit, their claims had a lot of pull. The Eternal champion isn’t the only case where they ‘appropriated’ designs from elsewhere, Cadians and their redesign looked a lot like “Starship Troopers the Movie” troops, Sly Marbo has a more than passing resemblance to Rambo, and if the Tyranids and aliens aren’t related their designs sure are. So, it is surprising that Chapter House took a different approach.
When they claimed that Games-Workshop designed this or that, they said no actually, it was this member of the design staff and unless you have proof that they gave you their work or that the designers were under some contract, well… Your claims have no power here.
Chapter House to Games-Workshop on IP claims
Games-Workshop hurriedly revised their story and suddenly, no longer were their the Space Marines, the Imperial Guard or Sisters of Battle they were now…
Adeptus Astartes,
Astra Militarium,
and Adeptus Sororitas
Might and strong in their copyrightable status.
As well as a massive fan backlash
If your net worth dropped by 33.58 in a single day… well things would be looking tough ahead. But it’s a company so no such luck on their part.
Games-Workshop began a bit of a dark descent after this and has turned into a different company since. Many decisions can be traced back to this. For example how they no longer credit creators, artists and writers in any of their books, from White Dwarf to the official releases.
And there is only one word for this, Scummy.
Here is a former lawyer’s opinion turned YouTuber. Terrible decision but if you have spent time in the legal system you know why they chose this over that.
Imagine working as an artist and finally getting picked up by one of the biggest game companies in the world and know you know your art will be seen by people all over the world. Just… You will never be recognized for it, because they don’t want you to be…
The Dark Spiral
Games-Workshop decided to rework things, Warhammer Fantasy Battles… it doesn’t matter that Warhammer, is what started it all. It isn’t copyrightable so it has to go, time for a massive FOMO (Fear of missing out) event to milk the last money you can out of these customers, the ‘End Times’.
Time to restructure the business we can’t have people costing us this much money we can’t have our high street stores costing this much, if people are just going to ‘abandon’ us, so now we will have one-man stores. And no I am not using sexist language, I mean what I said.
Cost cutting, copyright focus shifting and stronger tighter legalise.
This isn’t helpful its a threat
No longer would they produce the how to make a deodorant land speeder, and no longer would they show how to make terrain. There is only one way forward and that way is with copyrighted, Games-Workshop owned products.
You think I am kidding but try and find a how to build terrain or how to do anything in a do-it-yourself sense in any Games-Workshop related material since 2014, almost ten years ago…
You can’t, I challenge you to do it.
In their eyes, there were only two ways.
Games-Workshop’s way
and the wrong way.
Long story short.
Warhammer community did a lot reform Games-Workshops image amongst, the community. Twitter interactions and a number of other things really helped.
However, there was a dark secret. It was all really just Games-Workshop advertising, just one-way communication once more.
But people didn’t realise that for some time, they saw a new Games-Workshop rising from the ashes of the old, one that cared about its customers. Then…
Enter YouTube
From humble beginnings on the 31st of January 2015, if the Emperor had a text-to-speech device became a massive hit. However, it wasn’t until an absolute megastar did thing change.
Astartes
Astartes, was a game changer, it showed what a true Warhammer 40,000 story could look like. However, it did something a lot of people didn’t realise. It embarrassed Games-Workshop. One man in his basement.
Kind of reminds of another small group, that got a big break in 1977 by using someone else’s IP…
However regardless of morality, just like in Chapter House suit, what Syama Pedersen (creator of Astartes) did was wrong… Not at first but when he started getting money to do fan projects, well that’s where he entered threatening legal territory.
Now one thing that people may have been screaming this whole time is this.
You must protect your Intellectual Property or you will lose it.
This why you have cases where companies sue “nobodies” and everyone seems to not want to have to do anything or send legal notices and everyone is just like I wish this would go away. Because if you don’t defend your intellectual property and someone uses it, they can use that as an example of you not defending it and therefor, you may use it for profit.
Technically
If Syama wanted to, they could quite easily claim that they are being paid to do work on “Fan Projects” and it wouldn’t matter what they are working on people would still pay them… this would mean that it would be a costly legal battle. But Games-Workshop did the right thing, they hire Syama Pedersen!
But
Here is the thing, factor one you already know about, how do we know what Syama is actually working on? Because Games-Workshop no longer credits artists and two…
They gave a threat, work for us or legal proceedings begin
How do we know this?
We have receipts, some are in Japanese but they are still there…
This along with perhaps one of Games-Workshop’s riskiest decisions.
Warhammer +
Now, the idea of having your own streaming platform for Warhammer-related stuff, I think that totally fine. The problem is the content. When it first came out…
Their hobby tutorial was how to spray with Chaos Black Primer.
To put that into perspective of how bad that is? Imagine you paid for a driving lesson, they came to your house, went into the car with you and they said okay, now move the seat so you’re in place and check the review mirror. Except saying to check the mirror is more than they were offering and that was the whole lesson.
Okay, it’s a first video everyone has to start somewhere even a massive mega-corporation.
Except for the Extortion
Now, remember that other person I brought up…
If the Emperor had a text-to-speech device
They fall under a special legal exception. Parody, now every single legal system is different, but all western common law (the law which adjudicates civil suits, meaning the law which decides how people sue one another) has an exception for parody. Parody is defined by Cambridge as
writing, music, art, speech, etc. that intentionally copies the style of someone famous or copies a particular situation, making the features or qualities of the original more noticeable in a way that is humorous
There is no way, that Bruva Alfabusa the creator of if the Emperor had a text-to-speech device didn’t fall under that. The problem for them? Well, they had made a team, they weren’t just themselves anymore they were a team of people, who made their living off this.
if the Emperor had a text-to-speech device is shortened to TTS
This leads us back to the very start of the blog…
Lawfare
It is a term used the weaponisation of law, where people use the legal system against another person or entity.
That is the in short definition the longer less clinical definition its when a person, corporation or country uses legal means often beyond the capability or in a way that is unsustainable against another person, company or country to gain what they desire.
It doesn’t matter if Games-Workshop is in the right.
There are only two ways of doing things.
Games-Workshop’s way
and the wrong way.
It didn’t matter that these people were fans and probably would have listened and responded kindly. It doesn’t matter that they are in the wrong. It doesn’t matter that this does massive damage to the brand that ended in a boycott.
They just need everyone to remember what lawfare is and how they use it and of course there is.
Games-Workshop’s way
and the wrong way.
However, here is the real truth.
Three men in a trench coat pretend to be the biggest disruptor of RPGs in all of Europe, and they made an empire off that. One man, with vision, made a video series so good, that people without coercion freely gave him money so much so, that it is almost as much and more than some CEO get.
If you really want to achieve your dreams I am certain you can do it. The only problem…
The hard work nobody brags about in the in-between.
If someone asks you why you dislike Games-Workshop and you’re just too tired to explain, link them here. But you should never be too tired to…
Keep those brushes wet
Til next time friends