Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Andy Hunter. Just in time for the latest installment of the Real Game Awards, we finish our look back at the first installment of the anti-woke game awards show made by gamers courageous enough to give Stuttering Craig Skistimas money. This time, we wade into the role of Warhammer 40,000 and the Real Game Awards and examine the show's impact (or lack thereof).

Topics discussed include: literally betting on a game getting a good review score, imperial cheeseburgers, the complicated meanings of Warhammer 40,000's Imperium of Man, Craig's membership dues come up, and we read a TRGA acceptance speech.

For more details on the people who get into Warhammer 40,000 specifically for the fascism, check out:

Tim Colwill, “Satire Without Purpose Will Wander In Dark Places,” June 2023, https://timcolwill.com/40K.html

Jordan Carroll, “Welcome to Warhammer 40K’s anti-fascist future,” Polygon, October 25, 2022, https://www.polygon.com/23414657/warhammer-40k-anti-fascism-space-marines-capitalism-leagues-of-votann-hate 

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell, “Why play a fascist? Unpacking the hideousness of the Space Marine,” Rock Paper Shotgun, October 24, 2024, https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/why-play-a-fascist-unpacking-the-hideousness-of-the-space-marine

Henry Neilson, “Satire Dies in Grimdarkness: Warhammer 40,000 and Fascism,” Medium, August 23, 2022, https://medium.com/@huntingsunrise/satire-dies-in-grimdarkness-warhammer-40-000-and-fascism-b0dccc2280af. 

For some genuinely good introductions to 40K's lore, I recommend you check out the work of Arbiter Ian: https://www.youtube.com/@ArbitorIan

If you'd like to read along our look at the 40K rulebook, we referred to this edition: https://archive.org/details/warhammer-40-k-rogue-trader-rulebook/mode/2up. 

More info, including show notes and sources at http://scandalousgamespodcast.wordpress.com.