Journal of Other Forum Analysis (Volume II, Issue 2)

[Jansen]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/its-always-weird-to-me-seeing-warhammer-40-000-treated-as-an-adult-only-work-of-fiction-and-remembering-my-childhood.1280202/

It's something I notice from time to time, where fans online treat Warhammer 40k as this adult only VERY serious franchise along side you Predator and your Game of Thrones and it's something I can't help noticing when it comes to 40k video games, that their usually rated as adult games. This is something I've especially noticed more and more as the series got more pushed in the US and when they really started pushing the novels and games like the Horus Hearsay.



Which is really funny to me because throughout the 90s and early to mid 00s in the UK, Warhammer 40k was treated like a kids and family series. Like I don't just mean by parents, but Games Workshop itself did starting around 1990 and especially around Second Edition after they game had a massive overall due a heavy change in management (due to a management buyout). It's why First Edition lore can come across, even by today's standards as very different and more adult (see Ian Watson's Draco trilogy and how focused on sex it is compared to anything nowadays (also heavily focusing on the Star Child, part of the original 40K metaplot that was also dumped after first edition).



Like as a kid, I went to Games Workshops and so many people their world be kids (and they'd have days dedicated to getting kids into the game where they'd teach you how to paint and play the game), mostly 8-18 years olds because 40k was treated the same way Japan treats Shonen and Shōjo. Their were tons of adults as well, Games Workshop by then had been running since the 70s (and I remember how often adults would act like 40k was the "kiddie" version of Warhammer Fantasy and acted like big boys for playing only the latter... Which is just kind of sad and pathetic in hindsight). I was in a Strategy tabletop club (which was actually hell to me because of fear and anxiety) back in the early 00s and yeah it was mostly tens and some adults who'd quote Red Dwarf to death at you and love Judge Dredd, Tekken, Aliens and X-Men (seriously so many 40k fans I've met and know are also love Aliens and X-Men). Same with the big Game's Day con or trips me, my brother and my father did to Game's Workshop HQ in Nottingham, mostly family, kids and some adults all loving 40K, with kids having lots of areas for them to play and make and later the LOTR game when it got big.



And like it was pretty affordable to buy figures back then, Games Workshop stores back then used to be covered in small blister packs that contain one or two metal figures that you could buy for for £3-£5 each that were especially made so kids could buy stuff cheap and back then it was pretty affordable to make an army (helps that army sizes were a lot smaller then they are today). I have so many fond memories of playing with my 3rd Edition Necron army against my brothers Dark Angels and my dad's Orks (my army today is the Sisters of Battle). I remember the time my brother and Dad played Nercomunda and my brother was petty for hours because he through a grenade that bounced off a door frame and landed in the middle of his Goliath gang and blew them all up; or playing the Battle of Helm's Deep with Game's Workshop's HQ big ass Helm's Deep model etc etc.


Probably one of the biggest adult/kid divides I remember seeing back in the day was the reactions to when GW's introduced the Tau to the game (made to capitalize on the massive anime and manga boom the UK was in during the early 00s when so many kids were getting anime). Kids and teens my age love them but adult would act the same way adult Star Wars fans did to Jar Jar and Ahsoka or Adult Smash Bros act when you suggest adding a character to the game that is popular with the kids and not their nostalgia (or a Fire Emblem character). Like I remember seeing grown ass men and women having tantrums about the Tau in stores.



I remember watching over and over again the Game's Day special short movie the made called The Inquisitor, which so cheap and cheesy today but it's still campy dark fun:

[url unfurl=true media=youtube:mFecoSoHvFg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFecoSoHvFg&ab_channel=LerroyVermillion[/url]



However their feels like their was a massive shift, kids slowly got more and more priced out of the hobby and the game more and more got pushed more at adults at the expense of kids. I remember their was a dramatic shift in the fanbase when so many fans and the series itself went through it's "dark phase" that so many works do (see 90s Superhero comics) where they got embarrassed by 40K's sillier and campier elements and demanded the series by more serious and dark, often completely missing the satire of the franchise to feel more mature. To me though, I love 40k the same reason I love Tekken because it was this perfect balance or dark and serious and over the top camp and silly, like it's a franchise where the Orcs are Mad Max looking Football Hooligans and half the characters have pun or reference names, it's inherently over the top and goofy in a dark sort of way and I'm glad the series got out of that phase.


It really sucks 40k is no longer considered a family work nowadays and given how Tabletop Strategy games are really suffering right now because of the US's Trade War (while Warhammer is doing better then others, so many smaller games are dying and REALLY struggling right now) I don't see the hoppy being affordable again. Also I miss If The Emperor Got A Text-To-Speech-Device, that YouTube series was what got me back into 40k.



Yeah I have no really conclusion to this ramble so here is a picture of a cute Pangolin:

wlw?