The Golden One - April 16, 2024


Has the Time Come to Say Farewell to Games Workshop & Warhammer？ ESG & Sinister Political Ongoings

Topics
Games Workshop Warhammer ESG politics
Hosted by
Marcus Follin
Mentioned
Games Workshop Horus Heresy Horus Rising Larry Fink Great Lion Bud Light Sanguineous Arthurian
Nightmarish Crime in Sweden. Enough is Enough I Was Called an Incel – Is It Over？

Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

179.89

Word count

1,679

Sentence count

129

Harmful content

Misogyny

10

sentences flagged

Hate speech

6

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The time has come to say goodbye to Games Workshop. Has the time come for them to go "Woke"? Or is there a political agenda behind it? Or is it simply a bad business decision by a corporate giant? In this episode, I discuss the reasons why G&W has gone "woke" over the last few years, and why it's time to say farewell to one of gaming's most beloved brands.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Has the time come to say farewell to Games Workshop?
00:00:04.000 Now, perhaps you aren't familiar with Games Workshop,
00:00:07.000 perhaps you aren't familiar with the Horus Heresy,
00:00:10.000 with Warhammer 4K.
00:00:12.000 Even if you aren't, I would still encourage you to
00:00:14.000 listen to my profound insight in this video,
00:00:17.000 because as we are all appreciators of Hermetic Wisdom,
00:00:20.000 we know that as above, so below.
00:00:23.000 So you can use this example to analyze other similar happenings.
00:00:28.000 So basically, I'm not going to go into all too much detail here,
00:00:32.000 because we're going to get to the point relatively quickly.
00:00:35.000 So anyway, Warhammer 4K, Warhammer Fantasy, even the Old World,
00:00:40.000 it's gone increasingly woke over the last few years.
00:00:44.000 And now, why is this? You might ask.
00:00:46.000 And you can see many examples of this.
00:00:48.000 So when they revamped the Old World,
00:00:51.000 which I was excited for to begin with,
00:00:53.000 but then they started immediately the first new novel,
00:00:56.000 showing Bretonnian female knights.
00:00:59.000 And we'll get into this in a minute as well,
00:01:01.000 with female representation, 0.86
00:01:03.000 because it's absolutely not what it's about.
00:01:06.000 But first things first.
00:01:08.000 Why is Games Workshop suddenly going woke,
00:01:11.000 or suddenly, over the last few years?
00:01:13.000 Yes, one would think that it's to cater to left-wing extremists,
00:01:17.000 and the left-wing extremists,
00:01:19.000 they probably flatter themselves by believing so themselves.
00:01:22.000 But we can look at the major shareholders in Games Workshop.
00:01:26.000 And then we see a certain company, BlackRock.
00:01:29.000 Now, what does BlackRock do, you might ask?
00:01:32.000 Yes, they have a certain system in place,
00:01:35.000 which rewards companies for being essentially woke,
00:01:38.000 to use that terminology.
00:01:40.000 When I say woke, I mean extreme leftist.
00:01:43.000 You can use whichever term you want.
00:01:45.000 So when I say leftist, in this sense,
00:01:47.000 I don't mean someone who's concerned with working-class rights,
00:01:51.000 or anything like that.
00:01:52.000 We're talking about degeneracy, basically.
00:01:55.000 So, there is a thing called ESG,
00:01:57.000 and that basically means that it's easier for a company to get loans,
00:02:02.000 if they are also woke.
00:02:04.000 And, of course, you have two ways to make money,
00:02:07.000 or to gain money, rather.
00:02:09.000 So you have a loyal customer base,
00:02:11.000 or you can get loans from various institutions.
00:02:14.000 And if you have a high score of ESG,
00:02:17.000 you will have an easier time getting these loans.
00:02:19.000 And to get a good rating here, to be trusted with loans,
00:02:24.000 you have to implement certain policies, certain woke policies.
00:02:27.000 So there is actually a quite brutal example of this.
00:02:30.000 Perhaps you even remember.
00:02:32.000 Bud Light.
00:02:33.000 Now, I'm not a fan of beer at all,
00:02:35.000 and I don't mind if a beer company goes bad for a beer company,
00:02:39.000 because I don't think you should drink beer.
00:02:41.000 It's highly estrogenic.
00:02:42.000 So if you're a woman, you can drink beer, of course. 1.00
00:02:44.000 It can even be good for you.
00:02:45.000 But for a man drinking beer, not so good.
00:02:47.000 But even so, it shows how, you know,
00:02:50.000 a policy coming from one side,
00:02:52.000 it is damaging to the brand,
00:02:55.000 but they do it anyway because the politics,
00:02:57.000 it's more important than making money.
00:02:59.000 And this is also something everyone needs to understand,
00:03:01.000 that for many individuals, myself included, by the way,
00:03:05.000 money is not the most important thing.
00:03:07.000 Your political mission is the most important thing,
00:03:09.000 including the individuals who are behind this woke madness.
00:03:13.000 They put their own political principles,
00:03:15.000 they put that mission before any revenue.
00:03:18.000 So I don't think Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock,
00:03:21.000 I don't think he really cares if Games Workshop loses customers.
00:03:25.000 I really don't think he cares if Warhammer goes into something,
00:03:28.000 transforms into something completely unrecognizable.
00:03:32.000 I really don't think he cares.
00:03:34.000 I don't think any of these big investment firms care at all
00:03:36.000 if a hobby such as Warhammer goes bankrupt even.
00:03:42.000 I don't think they care. They have a political agenda behind it.
00:03:44.000 So that is something to keep in mind.
00:03:47.000 And I can only say that for a businessman, a brand owner myself,
00:03:51.000 I can only suppose it hurts a damn lot for these guys in Games Workshop
00:03:56.000 to know that they have to butcher their brand to make female custoders, 1.00
00:04:00.000 female space marines to transform their entire lore to accommodate 1.00
00:04:05.000 for these big investment bankers.
00:04:08.000 I can only suppose it hurts because they have to do it.
00:04:11.000 They have to play ball.
00:04:12.000 They're being forced.
00:04:13.000 They're being bullied by bigger bullies in the playground to do certain things.
00:04:18.000 And then they can of course comfort themselves with saying,
00:04:21.000 oh, we do it for these individuals who want more inclusivity.
00:04:25.000 But it's absolutely not what it's about.
00:04:28.000 And as I said in the beginning of this video,
00:04:30.000 we'll get to it, this thing with female representation. 1.00
00:04:33.000 So Bretonnia, based on the Arthurian legend and medieval France,
00:04:37.000 they already do have females. 1.00
00:04:39.000 So they have enchantresses and sorceresses and stuff like that. 0.98
00:04:43.000 So they are already, you know, a natural normal place for women in that particular faction. 0.99
00:04:49.000 We also have them in Warhammer 40k.
00:04:51.000 So this is also the same universe as the Horus Heresy, which I've recommended. 0.94
00:04:55.000 So you have the Sisters of Silence, for example.
00:04:58.000 And you have the Adepta Sororitas.
00:05:00.000 So you have two female factions there fighting for the Imperium. 1.00
00:05:03.000 So it's not about being inclusive to women.
00:05:06.000 There are already plenty of women to be found in both Fantasy and 40k. 1.00
00:05:11.000 But it's about them destroying things for us.
00:05:13.000 And I saw on Twitter yesterday something that illustrates left-wing mentality in the best possible way.
00:05:19.000 And this goes for anything, really. We're only talking about Warhammer now,
00:05:22.000 but you can use this as an example for everything, really.
00:05:24.000 So let's have a look.
00:05:25.000 And this person says,
00:05:26.000 It brings me so much joy to know that you feel like all your favorite hobbies are being stripped away from you.
00:05:32.000 You will never get what you think you had back, and that is hilarious.
00:05:36.000 So this illustrates with perfect clarity the left-wing mindset.
00:05:41.000 And now we're talking about something quite innocent as, you know, a hobby.
00:05:45.000 We're talking about games, we're talking about books.
00:05:47.000 But use this as an example to something bigger, something deeper, and you have a true danger on your hands.
00:05:53.000 So this is scary stuff.
00:05:54.000 Believe me, you can look at the Bolshevik Revolution if you want further examples of this mentality coming into play. 0.58
00:06:00.000 Then you have total chaos and carnage. Truly horrifying stuff.
00:06:04.000 So this is the side who celebrates the wokeness of Warhammer.
00:06:09.000 And meanwhile, us fans, been fans for over 20 years, we're of course quite sad seeing this happen.
00:06:14.000 So then you might ask, Great Lion, what do I intend to...
00:06:18.000 What is my course of action? Because I have, of course, I have recommended The Horus Heresy.
00:06:23.000 I will finish reading The Siege of Terra, but after that I will not read any more Black Library books.
00:06:29.000 Because, yeah, I don't want to be fed by all of this wokeness. 0.97
00:06:34.000 And besides the quality of the books, the quality of the books, it has deteriorated.
00:06:38.000 I'm very sad to say that.
00:06:40.000 And, yeah, anyway, if you want to know more about The Horus Heresy, check out my video I made on the series.
00:06:46.000 I also have a reading list for it.
00:06:48.000 When it comes to the game itself, I played a lot of Warhammer Fantasy back in the day.
00:06:52.000 I haven't played Age of Sigmar, I actually haven't played Warhammer 40k.
00:06:56.000 I have painted some models.
00:06:58.000 So I play Warhammer Underworlds and I will, of course, continue to do so.
00:07:02.000 But I will see if I continue to sponsor Games Workshop with my money.
00:07:06.000 I will probably not do so.
00:07:07.000 So, yeah, anyway, it's a bit of a tragedy.
00:07:09.000 I'm sure most of the individuals in Games Workshop, they only want to, you know, develop good games,
00:07:15.000 write good books, have a good fan base, have fun together.
00:07:18.000 Because it's a great hobby.
00:07:20.000 I mean, I've been in it for 20 years or something on and off.
00:07:23.000 And it has brought me a lot of joy.
00:07:25.000 So it pains me to see that this fine company is being treated in this way and being forced probably against their will.
00:07:32.000 Now, of course, I haven't talked to anyone in the leadership of Games Workshop.
00:07:35.000 So I don't know. Perhaps they also agree with this.
00:07:38.000 But I doubt that most of the truly passionate workers and fans and the management in Games Workshop,
00:07:46.000 I don't think they appreciate what is going on.
00:07:49.000 So anyway, that all being said, I will probably say farewell to the great world of Warhammer 40k and Horus Heresy
00:07:57.000 as soon as the Siege of Terra concludes.
00:07:59.000 But yeah, I can say Horus Rising, that book is still a masterpiece, will always be so.
00:08:04.000 And even if I say farewell to Games Workshop now, I will still...
00:08:08.000 The company and Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Old World, Horus Heresy, they will always have a place inside my heart no matter what happens now.
00:08:16.000 And yeah, the good memories, the motivation, the German motivation, everything like that, it will always be with me.
00:08:22.000 So thank you for all of these years of joy and inspiration to Games Workshop.
00:08:27.000 And I say that in the most sincere way possible.
00:08:31.000 And lastly, since we are on the topic, funnily enough, one of the most commonly asked questions I get,
00:08:37.000 without exaggerating, it's actually what my favorite Primark is and what my favorite chapter is.
00:08:42.000 So I'd say Sanguineous and the Blood Angels. 0.96
00:08:45.000 So, all that being said, I wish you a Hithumos day ahead. 1.00
00:08:49.000 XXO, BOOM!
00:08:52.000 Can you?
00:08:53.000 It is a pic at World of Thoughts from exciting time.
00:09:01.000 God bless.
00:09:06.000 Seems too late.
00:09:07.000 But in an audience where you want to stand and in, you will always be 앞에 and to your friends class.
00:09:12.000 How old are you?
00:09:13.000 If you haven't been down to the, that مت and, you're not.
00:09:15.000 What43 looks like.
00:09:16.000 And live in!
00:09:17.000 What4 feels like.
00:09:18.000 What's realistic?
00:09:19.000 That is real!