World of Warships Ends Partnership With YouTuber Arch Warhammer At The Behest Of Games Workshop
John F. Trent
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World of Warships, the free-to-play naval warfare MMO, announced they have ended their partnership with YouTuber Arch Warhammer at the behest of Games Workshop.
World of Warships’ move to end their partnership with Arch Warhammer came after Twitter user Darren Bogus used Games Workshop’s divisive “Warhammer Is For Everyone” statement to attack Arch Warhammer.
Bogus’ attack came in response to the Warhammer Community twitter feed announcing they were collaborating with World of Warships at the end of June. The collaboration allows players to “pick up bundles packed with 41st Millennium-themed goodies” in World of Warships on PC and World of Warships: Legends on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
The bundles “contain ship skins, commanders with unique voice-overs, camouflage patterns and flags celebrating the Imperium of Man and the dread forces of Chaos.”
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More specifically they allow players to theme their ships in the fashion of Ignis Purgatio led by Justinian Lyons XIII or Ragnarok led by Arthas Roqthar the Cold.
Bogus tweeted in response to this announcement condemning World of Warships for their partnership with Arch Warhammer , “Just FYI, Wargaming is running a paid sponsorship for this partnership via Arch Warhammer, a YouTuber known for his misogynistic, racist, and hateful remarks. Please do not support this if you feel that ‘Warhammer is for Everyone.’
World of Warships would respond to Bogus’ accusations indicating they ended their partnership with Arch Warhammer at the behest of Games Workshop, the company that owns Warhammer.
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World of Warships tweeted out a statement announcing the end of their partnership with Arch Warhammer.
It began, “Dear World of Warships players and Warhammer fans, Due to a human error on our side, a rather controversial figure in Warhammer community, Arch Warhammer, was involved in our marketing activities for World of Warships and World of Warships: Legends.”
Their statement continued, “While working on our Warhammer collaboration, we were specifically warned by Games Workshop not to work with this influencer, and we agreed to it. Thus, we ended up sponsoring the person we don’t want to be affiliated with and failed to fulfill an important and rightful request of our partner.”
“We take full responsibility for this incident and sincerely apologize to you and to Games Workshop for letting this happen,” the statement added.
World of Warships then wrote, “We are against any form of discrimination. Once the issue became evident, we have terminated the partnership with Arch Warhammer and ceased the sponsorhip.”
They continued, “We also have sent a request to take down the promotional video. To avoid such incidents in the future, we will ensure our internal communications are improved and the influencers we plan to work with are vetted better.”
The statement would also be shared in response to Warhammer Community announcing the collaboration between Warhammer and World of Warships.
Arch Warhammer would respond to the Wargaming ending their partnership with him on YouTube.
He begins the video by thanking his followers for supporting him while he’s come under attack from “political extremists essentially who don’t care about any of the consequence that they do.”
Arch Warhammer continues, “I am for free speech unlike my opposition. This means that you can say whatever you want about. You can think whatever you want about me. You can outright hate me if you want. We can disagree on every topic beneath the stars, but we can still agree on the very least, one thing, and that is putting the entire Warhammer community at risk due to a personal axe with one content creator is stupid.”
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Arch then details that he received a strike from Games Workshop on his YouTube channel. He read off the complaint he received, “This mark, referring of course to Warhammer, is being used without permission on a channel where monetized videos are being hosted containing subject matter based on GW’s products. Accordingly, such use amounts to trademark infringement and therefore GW seeks the removal of this mark.”
After discussing the strike briefly, he then responded to Wargaming ending their partnership with him at the behest of Games Workshop.
Arch begins, “This is actually excellent. So, they made a tweet in response to something, not even their own tweet as far as I can see.”
He then reads off World of Warships’ tweet announcing they had ended their partnership him.
After reading the tweet, Arch states, “If you look up the definition of malicious compliance you will find this tweet. Because what just happened there is…Remember how I talked about U.S. trade law that if you don’t protect it, it’s gone.”
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He elaborated, “Well, my first argument was, they’ve known about me. They’ve known about me for months and probably years. I can show this via the Warhammer Heroes program where people sent them messages with my name, the full one. I can also show this, by the way, via Creative Assembly. This is now the second of Games Workshop’s sponsors stating that yes they have apparently known about me.”
“Because remember that official CA stream where they said Arch Warhammer is a dickhead. Well, another close partner to Games Workshop that knows about Arch. Strange. Of course I also have the email I sent to them with Arch Warhammer in it. And now Wargaming as well is going, ‘Yea Games Workshop knows about this guy. They know about this person specifically,'” he explains.
Arch continues, “And this campaign, by the way, I was contacted about this campaign in May. And considering the size of this campaign, there’s custom art assets, the preparation, not to mention the negotiations between two the two parties, which has apparently gone so far as to include black lists, must have taken weeks probably months.”
“Another example of Games Workshop choosing to not protect their trademark according to their own interpretation. I wonder just how long we can prove this has been going on. Now, we know for sure months. We already have circumstantial evidence of a year and even more so in the case of the Creative Assembly thing and Warhammer Heroes,” Arch details.
He adds, “And better yet, this is an art work here, they also point out they specifically warned against this particular… and they said not to work with him.”
Arch then state, “I wonder, pure speculation of course, could they have said something meaner at that meeting? Could they have accused me of something? We do have some laws surrounding saying things that might make people think less of them. And reasonable people urging someone to not work with someone for example. That’s borderline. That’s quite borderline.”
He then ponders, “Of course I’m sure they didn’t say anything like that. After all, all we have is a statement from Wargaming indicating that. Wargaming they are just Russians. This is beautiful.”
He then states, “All I am going to say further on the matter is that malice is difficult to prove. And that’s my final comment on that.”
Arch then details that he believes Warhammer is for everyone unlike Games Workshop’s statement which adds in a but to that statement.
Arch explains, “I even made a video stating Warhammer is for everyone. Full stop. Unlike Warhammer, the official community, who stated Warhammer is for everyone but. I don’t add in the but. I say everyone, literally everyone. In the literal meaning of the word, I am welcoming of absolutely everyone no matter what. Your race, your sexuality, even your political leaning, which is the greatest crime of our current decade it seems. Even that is fine.”
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He then cracks a joke, “Hell, I have even allowed on one occasion one of the most heinous crimes in human history. Namely, allowing a friend of mine to paint his Khorne Berserkers blue, bright blue mind you, cobalt.”
He declares, “Because at the end of the day it’s a hobby, we should all have access to it. Full stop. No buts. No nothing. Everyone. End of discussion. Simple as that. That’s my position.”
Arch then specifically addresses Wargaming’s termination of his partnership, “But it’s fine. The video has gotten all the views it’s likely to get. I’m still getting paid. Wargaming has gotten all the benefits it’s likely to get out of the video. It’s gotten all of the clicks already. Everything worked out beautifully for both parties.”
What do you make of World of Warships and Wargaming’s decision to end their partnership with Arch?
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