40% of Warhammer's US players are in the military

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 1:36 am

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/gami ... ines_.html

Neat article.
This also explains why space marines are by far the most popular and best supported.

Dukeroyal · Post by **Dukeroyal** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 1:54 am

Very interesting article. I wonder what percentage of other games players are in the military.

phlapjackage · Post by **phlapjackage** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 7:51 pm

This fits with my personal, anectodal experience.

"Back in the day" of gaming in the 80's and 90's, most of the adults in my gaming circle were either military, ex-military, or quasi-military (police, etc).

Although the more serious military-history buffs eschewed "fantasy" for more realistic tabletop wargaming (Ancients was big)...I don't think these guys were military though.

infected slut princess · Sat Sep 15, 2012 9:41 pm

Not enough to kill families in Afghanistan, they have to pretend to kill aliens in a fuckin terrible tabletop strategy game. Taxpayer money is allocated to losers in the military who waste their cash on overpriced GW crap, therefore helping GW prop up its prices. Also, like most people in the military, they are clearly idiots because they obviously fail to recognize that WH40K is in fact a stupid game that is designed like shit and a waste of money.

Korwin · Post by **Korwin** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 9:19 am

A more interesting number would be, how many in the military play W40K.

I.S.P, you hate the US Military or W40K players? Not shure from your rant.
And dont do the US Military do what their civilian superiours tell them to do?

icyshadowlord · Post by **icyshadowlord** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 9:48 am

I'm more on the lines of "why should I give a fuck" than anything else. Okay, people in the army seem to like W40K, A FUCKING WAR GAME. That's like saying people who work at a chocolate factory most likely FUCKING LOVE CHOCOLATE. And unlike here in Finland where you have no choice but to serve in the military (we don't have the choice of volunteering), all the people in the US who join the army probably do so for a reason.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:00 am

phlapjackage wrote:This fits with my personal, anectodal experience.

"Back in the day" of gaming in the 80's and 90's, most of the adults in my gaming circle were either military, ex-military, or quasi-military (police, etc).

Although the more serious military-history buffs eschewed "fantasy" for more realistic tabletop wargaming (Ancients was big)...I don't think these guys were military though.

every retired marine with an imperial guard army wore really really short shorts. Uncomfortably short.

In other news, about 20% of 40k players in China are girls.
Warhammer appeals to the late 20's/30's folks who have their own apartment and job with income to spare. The 40k aesthetic has strong appeal and many of China's top concept artists are fans.

The general image is if you can afford to play warhammer, you are a fairly affluent Chinese, compared to the masses who huddle in smokey internet cafes like opium addicts at least.

Space marines are the most popular army, unsurprisingly.

Desdan_Mervolam · Post by **Desdan_Mervolam** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:17 am

Really? I thought the whole point of the Tau was to pander-IMEAN! appeal to the Asian market?

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:04 am

That was the idea, but it failed. People who like the kind of things Tau were going for will instead play Eldar (so they can field slender, athletic men with long hair with ninja skills who can pilot sleek, crazy-fast hovercraft) or... actually if you want mecha you kind of do have to go Tau. Although the bit where you still need to take a bunch of dudes who aren't in mecha spoils it and so hardcore mecha fans play a different game instead.

You may be saying "I said Asia, not 'anime fans'", but understand that GW doesn't know there's actually a difference between the two here.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:36 am

Desdan_Mervolam wrote:Really? I thought the whole point of the Tau was to pander-IMEAN! appeal to the Asian market?

The Tau were to cash in on the interest in mecha anime among westerners, and to add another style of army to 40k 3e (by splitting the eldar portfolio grr...)

From the people I've talked to about 40k in Japan, the reception to the Tau were "these battlesuits are pretty goofy looking" and then they buy some space marines. Because if you really are a mecha fanatic, you assemble a 1/100 gundam or you go play Front Mission and collect VOTOMS gashapon.

The most popular are space marines because that really is what GW does best. Space marines are like man sized Mazingers with backpacks and shoulder pads.

I have also found a really sweet Squats army on a Japanese 40k blog. Generally Asians like the western things that are very distinctly western (hamburgers, nazis, pizza, renaissance clothing and armor, etc.)
http://blog.zaq.ne.jp/noharaya/category/14/

I also think the aesthetics of say the Eldar are done better by Bio Booster Guyver (and I am quite sure they were an influence). The style of the High Elves is also not as well fleshed out than say Romance of the Three Kingdoms armor.

Chainsaw Space Knights though is just something Asians are genuinely intrigued by. Warhammer Fantasy has also been deeeeeply influential on fantasy across the world.
Look at 8bit/16bit/arcade fantasy games from Japan, look at warhammer miniatures from the 80's, you can see the clear influence for pauldrons, horns, muscles and huge weapons.

And Orks. Love them orks. I think there is great potential for orks in China, as life for the Chinese resembles a parody of greenskin civilization.

I also see a lot of model plane/tank shops in Beijing and other cities. Interest in childhood becomes a business in adulthood.

codeGlaze · Post by **codeGlaze** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:45 am

Man, for a second I thought Squats were being written back in.
Turns out there's unofficial third-party support, but GW continues to ignore it. =/ I happened to like the Squat's background fluff.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:53 am

I'm pretty sure they're never coming back. They're just dwarfs... IN SPACE! They're not actually interesting, and their fanbase consists of five dudes on the Internet who claim to remember how great it used to be.

Desdan_Mervolam · Post by **Desdan_Mervolam** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:33 am

So? The Eldar are Elves IN SPACE!. Hell, Orks didn't even get a name change when they got put IN SPACE!. There's nothing more inherently uninteresting about spacefaring dwarves than elves or orcs.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:04 am

Are you aware of my opinion of Orks... IN SPACE!? Hell, Elfs... IN SPACE! only get a pass due to A) being pretty and B) having sleek hovercraft, I'd tell them to fuck off as well, if they were sticking to space forests.

I'm reserving judgement on Humans... IN SPACE! for the meantime, and Undead... IN SPACE! get a pass because this time they're robots.

DSMatticus · Post by **DSMatticus** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:18 am

You're running out of things to put IN SPACE! Nothing but undead robots? ... Honestly, that's probably pretty realistic. It's a lot easier to fire metal and circuitry into space than fleshy pink lumps.

Desdan wrote:There's nothing more inherently uninteresting about spacefaring dwarves than elves or orcs.

People already like dwarves less than elves or orcs. In popular fantasy, dwarves are the second sidekick after elves. They're even less than Robin is to Batman. Orcs are the main villain.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:33 am

DSMatticus wrote:Orcs are the main villain.

They're the main minion. They're generic enemies that die in mobs, for when you don't want the audience to give a shit about Darkskull Swordgrave and just want to show that the heroes are pretty awesome.

Yeah, in HKAT they'd be the black-clad ninjas.

Also, "everyone is robots" would actually be pretty cool. If I were to do a futuristic wargame* I probably would do that. Otherwise you have to decide between Star Trek alien races ("they're human but ___") or completely fucking bizarre in a way that exists primarily to annoy hard science fiction fans (like elephant-sized spiders). Although annoying them could be seen as perfectly valid.

*I'm not.

phlapjackage · Post by **phlapjackage** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 6:20 am

OgreBattle wrote:every retired marine with an imperial guard army wore really really short shorts. Uncomfortably short.

In other news, about 20% of 40k players in China are girls.
Warhammer appeals to the late 20's/30's folks who have their own apartment and job with income to spare. The 40k aesthetic has strong appeal and many of China's top concept artists are fans.

The general image is if you can afford to play warhammer, you are a fairly affluent Chinese, compared to the masses who huddle in smokey internet cafes like opium addicts at least.

Space marines are the most popular army, unsurprisingly.

Yeah, I remember the days of the short shorts. I had a soccer coach who was a marine...<shudder>

Interesting, I guess I'm not in touch with this type of crowd in China. I had no idea 40k was even on anybody's radar here. Most affluent (middle-class) 20/30 something's I know are computer gamers along the lines of Counterstrike or some Chinese game. The major social table game is 三国杀.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:49 pm

Desdan_Mervolam wrote:So? The Eldar are Elves IN SPACE!. Hell, Orks didn't even get a name change when they got put IN SPACE!. There's nothing more inherently uninteresting about spacefaring dwarves than elves or orcs.

The problem is SPACE MARINES

Dwarves are tough. Space marines are TOUGHER
Dwarves are stubborn. Space marines KNOW NO FEAR
Dwarves are armored. Space marines have TERMINATOR ARMOR
Dwarves have hammers. Space marines have THUNDERHAMMERS
Dwarves have beards. SPACE WOLVES HAVE BEARDS BIGGER THAN A DWARF IS TALL
Dwarves like boxy stuff. SPACE MARINE METAL BOXES
Dwarven Slayers. SPACE MARINE BERSERKER SLAYERS WHO ANGER TO DEATH
Dwarven Vikings. SPACE MARINE SPACE VIKING SPACE WOLVES
Dwarven forges. SPACEMARINE FORGEFATHER VULCAN

The only thing dwarfy left for dwarves is being short and fat.

That's your problem, the dwarves in 40k are 7ft tall and bald.

Wrathzog · Post by **Wrathzog** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:29 pm

This makes sense to me. Military (without Dependents) are basically made up of disposable income and free time. They're one of the few demographics that can afford to play games like this.

ISP wrote:Not enough to kill families in Afghanistan, they have to pretend to kill aliens in a fuckin terrible tabletop strategy game. Taxpayer money is allocated to losers in the military who waste their cash on overpriced GW crap, therefore helping GW prop up its prices. Also, like most people in the military, they are clearly idiots because they obviously fail to recognize that WH40K is in fact a stupid game that is designed like shit and a waste of money.

I can't properly express in words how I feel about this or about you right now.
But I'll give it a try.
Have my retarded babies.

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:57 pm

infected slut princess wrote:Not enough to kill families in Afghanistan, they have to pretend to kill aliens in a fuckin terrible tabletop strategy game. Taxpayer money is allocated to losers in the military who waste their cash on overpriced GW crap, therefore helping GW prop up its prices. Also, like most people in the military, they are clearly idiots because they obviously fail to recognize that WH40K is in fact a stupid game that is designed like shit and a waste of money.

Unsuccessful troll is unsuccessful.

EDIT: I got trolled successfully when searching for an image for this post. I was looking at troll image macros, and one of the images was goatse with the phrase "Stop fucking hotlinking". Although there wasn't a way for that to happen on purpose, I had to nod my head at that...