Warhammer 40K's story, how is it even remotely appealing?

[Breywood]

Since the OP has mentioned that a fanboy won't shut up, I'll quip that fans are the reason for and the ruination of the thing they love. It's one reason I don't yammer on about Diablo II unless someone actually has an interest.

As others mentioned before, the "story" is to give context to the various factions, which isn't that terrible. It will have much more to do with what various GMs do with it, which is probably nothing, given that GDW is content with the status quo, and the fans are too "munch" to make their own story with it.

 

[m72_ar]

In a way 40k story is a lot more realistic than most stuff published today.

The common theme is Salvation demands sacrifice. If you read a lot of Dark Heresy's stuff almost every monumental thing is achieved at the cost of of that guy's life or sanity. Which is a lot more realistic than your usual power of friendship and love.

 

[Ieyke]

Admittedly this might be due to over-exposure from a friend who won't shut the hell up about it, but I really can't see the appeal of the story of Warhammer 40K. (I emphasize story because the games are pretty fun gameplay wise)

The entire setting seems like a big case of Darkness Induced Audience Apathy [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DarknessInducedAudienceApathy].

I read through some wiki pages and listened to my friends and have played enough of the games to know the basic premise and factions; and I couldn't give less of rats ass who wins. 90% of the characters are jackasses and the ones who aren't are probably dead knowing this setting, and that's not getting into how there are no actually "good" or even "meh" characters.

Hell reading the wiki alone made me feel uncomfortable, there's no hope, its overly violent and its practically childish; something an "edgy" thirteen year old would make up.

Not to mention its a tad misogynistic (Such as there being limited female soldiers that aren't part of the female only faction, the eldar or the dark eldar) and obviously caters to younger males. (Something that irks me to no end)

Can someone explain the appeal of this universe to me? Because to me it all seems over the top and plain stupid.

Can I explain it and make you understand? YES!
That's the good news.

The bad news is that I'm not going to really try too hard, unless you want to pay me to teach you a college level class on it. Because I can. Easily.

What your friend has realized, which you haven't, is that you're right. It's over the top, violent as hell, designed to make people uncomfortable, and be unapologetically racist, xenophobic, dogmatic, sexist, whatever. It is a universe without hope designed specifically to instill a notion that everyone is doomed, and that the few good guys that there might be can't do anything to change that. A universe where the good guys don't always win. They rarely win, if ever. ...IF they can be called good guys.
It's a universe that plays upon the fact that all things are relative. You may say there are no good guys, but that depends who you ask, and which point of view you take.
Beyond all that, it's a setting that amalgamated all the best stuff from all fantasy, all scifi, all, history, and mythology, wove them together into an insane tapestry, and somehow had it all come out as a coherent, functioning, fairly elegant setting. That in itself is fascinating and damn near miraculous.
And then, to cap it all off, the entire setting has an awful lot of underlying grim humor self aware of how over the top bat shit loco funky bananas it is.

Your friend may not be aware of all that in so many words, but apparently he is in tune with all that enough to get how damn awesome it is. If he talking your ear off....well, it's kind of addictive, and the setting has 25years worth of fiction spanning a whole galaxy and at least 10,000 years. There's a lot to talk about.

 

[Azkar Almsivi]

It's grimdark.

Just like some adore cute things, some adore a universe where nobody is perfect at all and the ugly side comes out.
Besides ultramarines the lack of mary sues and black and white makes me incredibly happy and I greatly enjoy the lore and such.

Everything is not for everyone. If you don't like it, tell your friend you just don't like anything without good guys in it saving the day and becoming your idols.

 

[Stu35]

And the fact there are no real good guys/ bad guys - everybody is just as bad as eachother: is what makes it interesting too - also makes it easier to choose a faction to buy if thats your thing.

I actually never found that a plus in any franchise, and also why WH Fantasy > 40k big time for me. You can at least sympathize with the Empire/Brettonians/Dwarves/High Elves (sometimes) and they're clearly more progressive than the forces around them.

Bretonnians?

You mean the highly oppressive caste based country where the peasants exist solely to serve their lords? Where even the emerging wealthy trading middle class are trampled on a whim?

Empire?

You mean the highly oppressive religiously dogmatic country where even the colleges of magic are held with a deep mistrust for being different, and only the direct protection of the emperor helps keep them going?


Dwarves?

You mean those racist inflexible short arsed bastards who's culture led to them tearing themselves apart in a war over a diplomatic faux pas?



There are the forces of Order, and the Forces of Chaos - in that, Chaos is the bad guys, but part of what I used to love about the Warhammer and Warhammer 40k universes (I kinda grew out of it) was that no matter where you looked, every faction was in some way cuntish. There were no shining paragons of glory that always did the right thing.

I'm big into the Song of Ice and Fire books for similar reasons (after initially watching the TV show for Sean Bean) - When you get down to it, every faction is full of dickheads, and the ones that aren't end up getting killed for their honesty.

 

[el_kabong]

I love 40K for the variety it brings to the table. Each faction is interesting in its own right and borrow from a wide variety of classical themes, perfect for escapist role-playing. Each element is exaggerated to provide a niche for people to get into. From the gothic feudalism of the Imperium, to the loot-crazy, soccer hooliganry of the orks. From the Communist-inspired Tau Empire to the Lovecraftian Chaos gods. Whether if you're a fan of science fiction, horror, politics, fantasy, history, religion, and/or warfare, there's probably something in the 40K universe for you.

Also, if you still aren't "getting" the universe, I suggest going to 1d4chan. It is by far the best intro into the universe. It's dripping with the humor seen in the 40k gaming circles and, being a wiki, allows you to explore different aspects of the universe as they catch your eye.

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40k

 

[Zanderinfal]

I quite like the story between the Empire and the Tau, maybe, but not a fan of much else. Don't really like the whole "Space Marine" thing. The game was admittedly fucking awesome, but i don't like the story in the slightest unless it's based around the Tau (one of my favorite Sci-Fi aliens, besides Predators and the Covenant. There needs to be more than Fire Warrior to make me happy.

 

[dogenzakaminion]

Well...it comes from a tabletop miniatures game where you would essentially make your own stories in the setting provided. Didn't have to be overly grim and dark. The writers of the fluff material certainly thought so tho, and those who borrowed the license.

I like the dark setting, precisely because no one is right and there isn't really anything to win. The entire empire of man is one ball of war economy and slaughter. I think telling stories about smaller victories and hope in this setting is interesting, although I rarely see that from the video game world.

 

[kingthrall]

Admittedly this might be due to over-exposure from a friend who won't shut the hell up about it, but I really can't see the appeal of the story of Warhammer 40K. (I emphasize story because the games are pretty fun gameplay wise)

The entire setting seems like a big case of Darkness Induced Audience Apathy [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DarknessInducedAudienceApathy].

I read through some wiki pages and listened to my friends and have played enough of the games to know the basic premise and factions; and I couldn't give less of rats ass who wins. 90% of the characters are jackasses and the ones who aren't are probably dead knowing this setting, and that's not getting into how there are no actually "good" or even "meh" characters.

Hell reading the wiki alone made me feel uncomfortable, there's no hope, its overly violent and its practically childish; something an "edgy" thirteen year old would make up.

Not to mention its a tad misogynistic (Such as there being limited female soldiers that aren't part of the female only faction, the eldar or the dark eldar) and obviously caters to younger males. (Something that irks me to no end)

Can someone explain the appeal of this universe to me? Because to me it all seems over the top and plain stupid.

You need to play Orks like me, forget the ideologies and the over the top dress code and just go with the choppy choppy.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

You don't know what you are talking about. How is that when it comes to 40k people are suddenly instant experts, and when it comes to anime/videogames/tv/movies you need to know what you are talking about here?

Have you ever even read a 40k book? The games are terrible representations of good 40k stories.

I know this wasn't aimed at me, but...

I think he meant the overarching plot, not individual stories set in the universe. 40K is a setting, not a story.

OT: Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the setting. The design of the majority of the miniatures and some of the artwork I like a lot, but the universe doesn't feel well enough constructed to provide anything other than a stage backdrop for me and while they have tried to explain away some of the inconsistencies many of those explanations ring hollow for me.
There are some well written stories within the universe and a lot of amusing little short stories and humour pieces, but yeah, overall the setting is not to my taste, you just have to ignore the 14yo fanboys frothing on about THERE IS ONLY WAR!!! and babbling incessantly about how badass fictional character X is, but that's good advice for any franchise.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

The story is absolute stupid, because there is no "story". There are a bunch of diffrent and changing writers writing fanfic and some of that fanfic is then considered canon and some is not.
And whenever GW wants it, they just fuck up the stories anyway - see Grey Knights codex, where they just think the fluff is less important than a good codex.

Which is basically correct, but strange for a company which said, that balance and rules are secondary, they just want to deliver a super-duper hobby expirience. Which leads to: GW are a bunch of overworked, understaffed and on top of that incompetent dudes, who just hate to make money.

And if you talk about the games: Iirc they're all non-canon and thus never happend.
The setting could work, if anyone except the fans would sort that mess out.

All this will never be fixed by GW though, unless they get bought by Hasbro and let WotC take over.

 

[zumbledum]

I liked teh tabletop game , so i enjoyed reading the back story on the armies i was using /playing against, i like the basic univesr especial the whole imperium / marines /chaos / tyrannid part.

but like it or not you have to give it respect its fingerprints can be seen everyehere on anything that came after from star wars to gears of war its hard to find a sci fi that hasnt in some way been touched

 

[Meatspinner]

I have a huge hard-on for giant men in gothic steel clothing... yeah, so there.

Besides it's a military game that isn't about nationlistic hero worshiping and all that drivle

 

[Brownie101]

Apparently it's got some real good stuff to it if you go down the "Read everything" route. And I know I liked reading backstory on the army I was fielding (Daemons) to read up on the hero's and race's lore, but as interesting as that is for me, at the end of the day it all boils down to;

"Everything's going to shit and those guys look different. Make them explode into pretty alien colours."

So yea, backstory for individuals and races as a whole can be interesting but overall the story is as shit as it makes the setting out to be.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

When I say 40k's story, why in god's name would I mean the setting itself being taken as a story that's supposed to have a beginning middle and end? That's very ridiculous. I obviously mean the stories contained therein. What, when people say they like mass effect's story do big alarms go off saying "IT'S A SETTING NOT A STORY YOU IDIOT!"

I really hate it when people try to bring 40k down saying that it has a bad artstyle, that it's only there to be as 'cool' as possible and that it's just stupid alltogether. Because it's not.

It's art style is great. [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120502114528/warhammer40k/images/7/74/Emperor_vs_horus.jpg]
It's setting has a lot of discussion value. [http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=18]
It has a very large number of very well written books [http://www.blacklibrary.com/horus-heresy]
And it just fucking rules.

Yes, but he appeared to be talking about 40K as a setting, I was just pointing that out.

I didn't say it had a bad artstyle, I said "and some of the artwork I like a a lot". But maybe your comment was just an aside.

Same for the other two, neither are incompatible with what I said, but maybe your comments etc etc

 

[Pink Gregory]

I 'unno, it can be kind of campy when you look at it from the right angle.