- The BBC would like to apologize for the inclusion of heretic Necrons in their show…
I am sure you already stumbled on that via Beasts of War or Faeit 212 or a dozen other sites… still, let’s talk a bit about the new Video + Article that Samira Ahmed of the BBC posted today. The theme? 25 Years of Warhammer 40.000 – and why people are still playing….
It would actually be wrong to say that this is the first time Games Workshop has been featured on the BBC-Website. The Old Lady regularly writes a bit on the company when they publish their annual reports or issue some news on their winnings or losses (like this one from January 2011 – scroll down to find GW). Still it’s the first time I have been aware of the BBC – or any other major broadcaster – doing a whole piece and a 3’20” video on a GW tabletop game.
Now featuring an interesting video with badly painted scenery...
For sure we are 30 years past the days of Mazes and Monsters… Thus, the piece by Samira Ahmed – who by the way isn’t just an acclaimed journalist, but also of indian heritage, above 40 years AND female, making her anything but the target audience of Games Workshop products – is actually well-researched and well-presented, doing a fine job of explaining Tabletop, Games Workshop and Warhammer 40K to people who have never heard about any of those before. The video itself has two guys playing a game of Space Marines vs. Necrons and talking about the fact that nowadays it’s ok being a Nerd. Of course the game itself is staged, still it’s a nice small video. Enjoyed that.
I won’t go into details here, as you can easily read and see them by yourself – and don’t forget that Ms. Ahmed is a freelancer, so an extra visitor can never hurt… still note that Ms. Ahmed even takes care to adress things like female gamers and some of the problems and worries fans have with Games Workshop – that is the high prices. She even managed to get a statement by elusive CEO Mark Wells:
Games Workshop’s executives say they don’t do media interviews, preferring to focus on their hobbyists. But chief executive officer Mark Wells emails me about the claim of price exploitation. “That would go against everything we stand for. It’s just not in our nature,” he writes.
Even though I am quite an aficionado and I am one of the few people on the web who doesn’t think Mr. Wells is some devil reincarnated – I still had to chuckle here…
25 years of Warhammer 40.000 - still no top story...
All in all a good article – still I don’t think this marks Warhammer’s entry into the Mainstream of Hobby. Despite more than 700 comments, the little article hasn’t even managed so far to enter the top ten of the BBC’s most read articles… well, they might do so tomorrow…
