Give your Gaming that Extra dose of Satire!
November 23, 2011 by beerogre
Writer of comedy games, Ian Warner has created a new sci-fi wargame poking fun at a well known tabletop battle game.
Here's what he has to say in his blurb:
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS GAME IS A SATIRE OF CERTAIN WARGAMES AND EXTREME SOCIAL AND GENDER POLITICS AND IS NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY! Truly a Wargame like no other... Whore's Blade 20,000 puts its players through the Grimdark Meatgrinder of the 21s Milennium An insane dictatorship in constant upheaval: The Empire of Woman needs your help... It's time to decide on your loyalties missy!
If you're after a humorous wargame, then why not check it out. Ian has a number of other titles available too. So, if you're in the market for something a little off the wall, then why not check out his back catalogue.
Beware she has manly hands. Therefore she’ll be rough in bed and might just rape you.
That may be the most subtly humorous faction logo since Dr Evil’s space ship.
What ? It’s just a glass of martini with an oli…
Oh.
Ooooh. Right.
If there is one thing I’m not it’s subtle: One of my first books was Chav: The Knifing!
You wrote that ?
Congrats ! I loved it !
Oh God…..do an urban dictionary search for Knifing. I’m not sure if that’s what you intended, but man I laughed. Depending on what meaning you take from the word, it seems that a least a significant cross section of your readership will be highly surprised by the way the book unfolds! 😛
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=knifing
I like this idea and I’m glad someone’s saying something. I recently had multiple hostile responses on another gaming website when I suggested that there was nothing wrong with the “arms” on current GW witch elf models. People felt the arms were too muscular, making the mini “not sexy enough” for them..My subsequent “google” search revealed that as far as athletic female body types go….gw is being conservative with their witch elves….I lose all hope for “nerd kind” when these sorts of discussions come up. “We want whores” seems to be the collective voice of the average gaming consumer.
If a woman tones her hands up, realistically, they will look slightly “manly”. If you’re wielding heavy knifes and swords, etc, your hands will tone up (it’s muscle building). It’s actually realistic.
I’d like to think GW are getting better, almost all of the female Dark Eldar look like warriors rather than fetish models for instance. Still, there’s a long way to go and as you say it isn’t just down to the producers.
What do you mean @t9nv3 ? I was under the impression all women have DD cups, booty that you can set your beer on and a healthy taste for bikini armour, top optional of corse.
Well that works for Chavs too…
Glad you like the idea: Other versions are planned for superheroes, Fantasy, and Penny Dreadfuls.
Hmm, whats the target demographic for your average wargame customer – at least the ones that dive in and spend a lot of their parents cash before they stop and think, wait, I’ve actually got to paint all these things? Young males age 14 up, ( who usually are a bit off center from the general population). And what else is on the minds of young males 14 and up? Its just a natural audience / cross market consumption at work, and since people are doing this to make a living, you sell what your customers want.
I would like to think that the people who run games companies are responsible adults and not simply profit calculators. Also that they can take their lumps when someone sends them up…
I worked for GW. In my experience, its all about the dollar. Or the pound.
I’ve seen a GW staff member try to sell Warhammer to a 5 year old. Or perhaps younger. The stupid kid was rolling dice all over the table (ALL over the table), bashing the models about. The staff member rigged the rules to try to make the kid like the game more (“you get extra attacks for being awesome!”). The father was there. It was pretty nasty in my view.
What pissed me off is I still ended up buying Finecast a few days later from that exact store. Zeus help me.
The whole concept of the retail model was based off the selling of the “Grail” – the starter box, the paint set, a bottle of glue, and the starter brush set. Back when I was running a store, this was about a $110-$120 purchase. We had numbers we had to hit. And the primary sales tactic was the intro game hook. Anybody who knew the game who watched the demo games we ran knew that the entire thing was fudged. Super simplified, designed to create energy and drama, to hook the consumer by appealing to emotions. And of course we… Read more »
Yeah but that doesn’t make it imune to mockery.
Nothing is immune to mockery, but some topics are more deserving than others. Here, your satirizing a niche commercial hobby that bases some of its appeal on the basic biological impulses that drive human evolution. I mean have fun and all that, everyone and every thing should be able to laugh at themselves. But sex has always sold, and it always will.
If sex didn’t sell, then making fun of it would be pointless. Satirising sex has produced some of the greatest comedy of the English Language(and probably other languages too) most of Shakespeare’s comedies(at least the ones they tried to teach me about) were about sex, at least as far as the times would allow, The Carry on films, Some Like it hot. Remember Tex Avery cartoons when the wolf would see the girl and his eyes come out on stalks, Pepé le Pew, or any time there was a female rabbit in Bugs Bunny? Hell if you take away the… Read more »
Let us not forget the immortal Benny Hill. But is what you are describing satire, or strait comedy / poking fun? “In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement.” – Wiki definition. This article, if it strives to be true satire and not simply comedy, is in effect striving to shame the hobby, and to shame the community that supports it, into disavowing the some of the sexual gratuity that it indulges. No more deamonettes of Slaneesh, no more scantily clad female barbarians, no… Read more »
I think I see what you mean, but I really don’t think this is an attempt to change our society into a more chaste and virtuous one- I would go as far to say that would be a fruitless endeavour- but its making us aware of how many “adult” subjects can be inherently childish, and if it laments anything it’s the failure to recognise the humour in that.
At the end of the day its the game mechanics and ruleset that matters. This game is obviously not going to interest children or teenagers. A skirmish game that we can all take with a pinch of salt is more than welcome in my book!
Actually, when I was a teenager, I probably would have at least checked it out. I know my hormones were raging, and this is just the sort of thing I would have at least investigated. I guess my whole issue comes down to the contradictory description. The author says it is a work of satire and that it’s not meant to be taken seriously. Satire, in fact, is deadly serious. So maybe its not really satire, just humor. And as I have said all along, if its just humor, then its got my two thumbs up.
I suspect its satire is more directed at gender politics, political correctness etc, than 40k. It’s probably more cynical towards battletop games.
Perhaps, but given the deliberate and obvious title, the odd art, and the tongue in cheek (no pun intended now 😉 ) symbol, I’d say its actually all about 40K and the wargamming culture. Personally, I think GW has in some cases backed off the sexual themes. Look at the latest Deamonette’s sculpts. No where near as provocative as the early 2000’s. (Layperson, I preferred the 6 breasted demonettes to the strange and relatively unattractive models they have now.) I did look at the authors back catalog as suggested, and it really doesn’t look like the goal is true satire… Read more »
You’re right there is an intention of taking the mickey out of gender politics.
Essentially the story world is MRA/RadFem ideology taken to it’s most absurd conclusion.
However I suppose that isn’t the main selling point. You’re right I do tend to be selling to the very markets I’m making fun of and they don’t seem to realise and come back for more!