Narrative Warfare: Full Copyleft! How The Hobbyist Seizes Control Of The Hobby (Step 3A: Warhammer Strats)

Not A Quixotic Quest

As I said yesterday, we're taking today and tomorrow to look at specific cases and devising strategies to make the most of them. Today it's Warhammer

First, some good news. Turns out that the changes are so badly received that officers in the corporation are panic selling their shares.

I tell you this because it is a visible reminder that victory is not impossible. It bleeds.

So let's talk strategy.

How The Stupid Toy Company Works

Stupid British Toy Campaign's core business objective is to push miniatures, paints, and related tools.

The game and tie-in media is secondary and exists to provide a reason to purchase, collect, and paint those miniatures. Bad rules design, piss-poor procedures, and other errors with the game (be it in its operations or in its presenation) are deliberate decisions by the corporation to compel compliance with the core business objective.. This should have shifted into a pure Brand Management business, but that has not happened yet.

Let me reframe this: the games and the media are customer acquisition funnels to dump prospects into becoming obsessive purchasers of miniatures, paints, and tools. Every else is there to drive these sales.

The company's business model has been explicit about Planned Obsolescene and rapid Edition Churn meant to snare boys 12-14 and suck their parents' wallets dry for about three years or so at a go. This has been the case since the 1980s, and it has more-or-less worked, especially for 40K. The corporation does this through indoctrination into "The Hobby" (i.e. a hardcore Brand Loyalty corpo cult) with a con-commitant hardcore Cult of Officialdom and a lot of Organized Play to justify that cult.

The Publisher claim to legitimacy relies on this Cult of Officialdom. You are expect to use their miniatures, their paints, their tools, and play their game exactly as they demand that you do or you get cast out. It's a very watered down version of the brainfuckery that goes on with Amway or (especially) Scientology, but it has worked to date.

The Enemy's Strategy

The Enemy seeks to leverage that Cult of Officialdom to turn their Pop Cult into a front for the Death Cult, using the massive Social Pressure that a cult-like environment puts upon those who submit to it to conform to the Poz and become Pozzed themselves. For those heavily invested emotionally and socially into this business cult, that's not a trivial thing to cope with.

They are going to use the purloined Publisher position of presumed legitimacy to accomplish this, but as the above good news shows this won't go so easily for them.

And it is because they are failing to accomplish this objective that I see victory as being viable and practical.

The Hobbyists' Strategy

Organization, Organization, Organization!

This is the key to victory. Why? Because most of the elements necessary to win are already here.

There are already plenty of (far cheaper) alternatives to Official Minis that are just as good, if not better, at a fraction of the price. The same is true for paints, tools, etc. that comprise the core of the Publisher's business. There are also plenty of suitable substitutes (2D Stands, 2D counters, etc.) that are also far easier to get, use, and replace if damaged or lost.

There are already older editions of the core game, as well as alternatives to that game, for which using these miniatures are welcome. There is also a lot of talk about the game and how to unfuck it. Combined, that's fertile ground for a Forever Edition rules manual that can be published online for free (or at cost for Print On Demand) to be made and used- and, with active promotion, soon to be used widely.

And then there's the tie-in media.

We have plenty of people already memeing the hell out of this matter, and there's already plenty of fan channels talking about it; give them something to use as a cudgel and an alternative for audiences seeking such and you'll soon have receptive folks asking for more.

So let's get deliberate about this.

The memers and fan channels reframe the Pozzed Publisher as a Chaos incursion, a Heresy that struck at the root of the Imperium- call it the High Lords of Terra itself.

Put the Heretics in the mode of Slanessh first and foremost (because man does Excess rule this Death Cult, a Excess fueled cult born of Daddy Issues). Take a page from that South Park episode, make a caricature of the key parties responsible, and make their dialog say explicitly what has been buried under bullshit by them to date.

See that? Do that, but in the 40K context. Feel ambitious? Do it for that pozzed dame in the Totally Not Fantasy reboot too. Make them out to be Chaos Karens with Daddy Issues (easy to do in 40K, as Big E is Big Daddy) and now they come off as lame killjoys having Stop Having Fun tantrums.

And this is where the lore channels--Arch, Luetin, etc. I am talking to you--come into the strategy. Tell the tales where this is the plot. You already have massive Social Proof; you can turn that against the Publisher and wield Social Pressure against them and undermine their claim of legitimacy over the Brand.

This should not stop with lore videos or wiki articles. It should not stop with shitposting memes and webcomics. Write this prompt as a novel or series of novelss, put on the trade dress, and publish it online for free in all ebook formats. Then make videos about those books, do audio adaptations of those books, and enjoy the reaction of a put-upon audience when the Emperor's Faithful clown on these Heretics as they deserve.

Cease Your Heresy Warhammer40k GIFfrom Cease Your Heresy GIFs

"That's hilarious!"

"Like that? Here's a link to the book, and if you want to play the game here's the link to the game. They're free. Have fun, guys!

The Side That Dabs On The Haters Always Defeats The Lame Killjoy Fags

Deploy the memes first. That's a defacto A/B test to see which variation of the meme attack works best. Once you dial it in, take that iteration and build the novel and lore videos around that. Have free download links on hand to spread around, and plenty of mirrors to ensure that folks who want it get it. Use the attention garnered to direct people to Hobbyist alternatives to Publisher offerings. This cultimates in a wholesale game replacement for Publisher's game, because without that there is no demand for any of the minis, paints, tools, etc.

You could, with just one or two people keeping their head on a swivel for openings, create a massive Hobbyist-driven campaign that cuts the Publisher out of the hobby within one edition of Publisher's game- if not sooner. Putting out a Forever Edition is the final blow that kills the Publisher's business model, and having it available for free kills the threat of social ostracism that the Cult of Officialdom uses to get people to buy and stay like abused children for more.

Reframe this as a reassertion of Dignity and Loyalty, and reframe the Publisher as the skeezy predatory operation that it is, and the Hobbyist side could win in rapid time.

And it would be fun to do this. Who doesn't want to have fun dabbing on creepy pervs scamming kids and their parents?