Nah, what @happyninja42 posted is as much 'real' 40K as those videos. And so is this:
Sigh, I miss Deff Skwadron
If the Emperor had a Text to Speech Device on permanent hiatus
- Thread starter crimson5pheonix
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Sigh, I miss Deff Skwadron
Good news then, the sense of humor during the Rogue Trader en 2nd edition days was not like that.
I have no problem with it being silly, I just find it so funny that the setting itself, TAKES itself so seriously in some of it's content, but it's SO serious, it loops back around on itself into farce. And then there's just the orcs who are ridiculousness on toast at all times. It's like the setting was a collection of unique toys from a bunch of different kids, who all had different stories for the action figures, and then they took them over to this other kids house, and he had the idea to have them all fight each other. So you've got the serious kid, who has his emperor of man, all death and religion and craziness, and then the other kid who has his orcs and is just like "waaaaaaaaaahhh!!! dakka dakaa!" "steve...steve stop yelling all the time and smashing your orc guys around and throwing them around the room!" Steve: "Waaaah!! Rocket orcs!!" *Flings action figure at Jacob the brooding kid with the human action figures* Jacob: "You're ruining my serious story about zealous warriors in a religious cult of death and destruction Steve!" Steve: "Waaaah!! Death to the humans!!" Jacob: "Fine! Fuck it!! Kill all the orcs!! I declare you heretics and must die!!"
And the older brother watched them and was like "I'm going to market this shit and be rich." Like the artist for Axe Cop and his little brother.
Have you actually watched the rather funny and insightful parody show we're mourning the loss of here? One who's mocking humour primarily comes from a place of clear love for the setting?
I would say that whenever the Imperium are around, it's melodramatic. Orcs though - silly irreverent humour that is not allowed to be said in English. It's like pantomiming but only using your mouth. Tyranids are meant to be straight out horror.... emphasis on meant to.
There's a lot of truth in that statement.
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So, basically I started writing why 40K has far more thematic depth than a lot of people give it credit for, but as I wrote, I think a quicker way of saying it is that the setting is large enough that it can be two things at once. It can be over the top and insane, but also being thematically rich, and YMMV as to which 'side' of the setting appeals to you more. If you want a similar example of this, take Star Wars - a setting that also takes place over an entire galaxy, and can explore stories and ideas ranging from forest teddy bears to some of the most universal themes of heroism.
I mean, we've posted animations, so I'll share this, for instance:
Personally, I find 40K very hard to write for, and that's in part because a lot of it is over the top (having characters yell "for the Emperor!" isn't a style of writing that interests me), but what's also hard to write for is stuff like the primarchs. Y'know, giants among Men, who are still vulnerable to human foilables that would be recognisable in any number of stories. I mean, to use the above as an example, we have the Emperor who seeks to eradicate religion (in-universe it's to 'starve' Chaos, thematically, it's a reference to how anti-theism can be as destructive as religion itself), who creates the Primarchs, half of whom turn against him due to his own flaws and their own, who shatter the Imperium, whose subjects come to worship the Emperor as a god, despite his explicit goal of trying to eradicate such beliefs. 40K absolutely has a view on the nature of humanity (even before the Emperor, humans on Mars were worshipping machines, because humans have to worship SOMETHING), which is reflected (literally) via how Chaos functions (humanity's greatest enemy is fueled by humanity's very emotions), and again, that's just covering the human side of things. It's telling that the Emperor, the most powerful psychic humanity has ever produced, is shown to be a flawed individual over, and over, and over again - a godlike being who can't (or won't) understand the needs and desires of regular humans, whose arrogance fosters the seeds of rebellion, and ends up presiding over a rotting human empire, bound by superstition and fear.
Like, I get it. On the surface, 40K is over the top, blood and guts, and silly, but it's really just a surface-level reading. For a lot of people, that's all they want (the chance to smash armies together), but there's still 'meat,' there, so to speak.
I mean, we've posted animations, so I'll share this, for instance:
Personally, I find 40K very hard to write for, and that's in part because a lot of it is over the top (having characters yell "for the Emperor!" isn't a style of writing that interests me), but what's also hard to write for is stuff like the primarchs. Y'know, giants among Men, who are still vulnerable to human foilables that would be recognisable in any number of stories. I mean, to use the above as an example, we have the Emperor who seeks to eradicate religion (in-universe it's to 'starve' Chaos, thematically, it's a reference to how anti-theism can be as destructive as religion itself), who creates the Primarchs, half of whom turn against him due to his own flaws and their own, who shatter the Imperium, whose subjects come to worship the Emperor as a god, despite his explicit goal of trying to eradicate such beliefs. 40K absolutely has a view on the nature of humanity (even before the Emperor, humans on Mars were worshipping machines, because humans have to worship SOMETHING), which is reflected (literally) via how Chaos functions (humanity's greatest enemy is fueled by humanity's very emotions), and again, that's just covering the human side of things. It's telling that the Emperor, the most powerful psychic humanity has ever produced, is shown to be a flawed individual over, and over, and over again - a godlike being who can't (or won't) understand the needs and desires of regular humans, whose arrogance fosters the seeds of rebellion, and ends up presiding over a rotting human empire, bound by superstition and fear.
Like, I get it. On the surface, 40K is over the top, blood and guts, and silly, but it's really just a surface-level reading. For a lot of people, that's all they want (the chance to smash armies together), but there's still 'meat,' there, so to speak.
MajorKill's addressed this as well, for both Alfabusa and Sodaz. The situation surrounding Sodaz is debatably worse.
It actually hurt pretty bad listening to Alfabusa, the guy sounded like he was going to lose it at any moment, and funnily enough, his Patreon blew up as a result of his announcement. Anyway, GW's IP regulations thing is utter BS and everyone knows it, all they need to do is threaten and target YouTuber waves goodbye unless they've got a lawyer on retainer. Warhammer/40K lore YouTubers are getting a little wary now, unsurprisingly.
The thing is that a lot of the fans seem fixated on things like this:
The film is a technical tour-de-force created by just one person, visually and aurally amazing... and it's boring as fuck. It's Invincible Heroes taken up to power-fantasy fanfiction levels. "We'll send in five guys against an army and only the godlike monster at the end can stop them."
What happened with Sodaz sucks. Their animations weren't the greatest out there, but they always managed to feel more authentic to 40k than GW's own work. The way the community treated Sodaz was terrible as well.
And if GW actually goes after lore YouTubers... I think at that point not even YouTube could ignore their bullshit.
In fairness, the WH40K isn't really known for its coherent and well written story. As a whole all but the most blinkered of shills knows it's a hot mess, because for every hidden gem of story-writing within the setting, there's a mediocre piece staring you right in the face, or worse yet, CS Goto.
Astartes was an easter-egg filled tech demo and little more, IMO. That in itself is why it's drawn so much attention, given it was done by a single individual. 40K players are overwhelmingly SM oriented, even if it isn't their main faction and it's as you say, pure power-fantasy, for good or ill. Praise for Astartes was heaped on how the heretics used good tactics and still got their arses handed to them as a demonstration of the in-universe power level of SM's ('cos at the end of all things, humanity & humanity-adjacent has to be the best/win). I was hoping for more on the Exodite project, since it was Eldar in the first teaser and Tau in the second with more due in August... last year. -_-'
If... if... they probably will ignore it 'cos most lore-tubers aren't that big in the grand scheme of things. They'll get what low-mid six figure views at most while most are in the five figure range. YouTube won't care unless enough of a stink is kicked up about it (and even then, perhaps not). I mean, the copyright strike system is already busted as f***, so I doubt they'd care about something marginally more egregious.
I can't quite remember the exact explanation, but I think the reason GW are so twitchy about fan animation has something to do with it being transformative. If someone is doing something original with your IP it somehow loosens your iron grip on it or something, part of that work becomes theirs. If they can co opt it like astatres then I'm sure they will, but TTS is probably a bit edgy for GW.
Lore tubers are just regurgitating what already exists.
They have certainly managed to screw up their own rule sets in the past (I say, remembering back to the hopelessly broken 3rd ed. WFB when I last played).
Ah, 3rd edition WFB. Where the base rules made the game so unbalanced that they had to create an army list booklet to constrain all the factions (and conveniently force players to fork out more £££) except that it was at best only a partial fix, because several still had massive advantages. Partly because I suspect that there was gross favouritism for certain factions (mostly Chaos).
Hey, Chaos gets a massive demon that requires 8 wounds to kill, and the most powerful unit in your human Imperial army has ~1% chance of inflicting a wound per attack. Nope, can't see the problem with that at all. Hey, that Dwarf mage that costs 25% more than a human mage? He's half as powerful - lol!
Personally started later, when sixth came out.
But considering the ruining stuff, i totally remember the "Stom of Chaos" desaster, when they set up a campaign to be influenced by sent in battle results which then happened to not be as expected or desired which lead to more and more ridiculous attempts at brute-force railroading before they eventually scrapped the whole thing.
It also had very favourable army lists and rules for Chaos, coming with new models and promotions and factions boxes etc. But as the "new, shiny powerful army" is often something that beginners chose while veterans tend to be reluctant to start yet another faction, the average player experience on both sides was a bit different.
But considering the ruining stuff, i totally remember the "Stom of Chaos" desaster, when they set up a campaign to be influenced by sent in battle results which then happened to not be as expected or desired which lead to more and more ridiculous attempts at brute-force railroading before they eventually scrapped the whole thing.
It also had very favourable army lists and rules for Chaos, coming with new models and promotions and factions boxes etc. But as the "new, shiny powerful army" is often something that beginners chose while veterans tend to be reluctant to start yet another faction, the average player experience on both sides was a bit different.