Why do Games Workshop keep letting Matt Ward write for them?

[Chairman Miaow]

His new Necron Codex is.... not bad actually. The fluff gives them some more character, and the crunch is average for 5th Edition.

I am familiar with the Khornate Knights unfortunately, and although the new Necron codex isn't as bad as his other works (although he still manages to include Sister's of battle getting slaughtered and that ridiculous alliance with the Blood Angels which I will pretend doesn't exist) I don't appreciate the complete retcon of Necron lore. I REALLY like the old lore, they could have added to it, not changed it all.

Edit: Also, the new lore makes fuck all sense. Before it was the C'tan going, "AWWW SHIT WE ATE EVERYTHING! let's sleep for millions of years so that stuff grows back and we can nom again."
Now it's "Hmmn, we appear to be losing this war, let's go into stasis for millions of years so we are really vulnerable and our enemies have a couple of millions years of a technological headstart!"

 

[Chairman Miaow]

I find it somewhat ironic that you people seem to hate the writer who actually added some personality to the extremely bland universe of 40k.

Thats just how this thread made it seem. I dunno.

Are you saying Matt Ward is good?

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

I find it somewhat ironic that you people seem to hate the writer who actually added some personality to the extremely bland universe of 40k.

Thats just how this thread made it seem. I dunno.

Are you saying Matt Ward is good?

Heretic! SUMMARY EXECUTION! *BLAM*

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

Seriously. I love Commissars (Hey, I read all of Gaunt's Ghosts) but, damn, really? They are fucking insane. I have to quote this:


Do not, in any way, shape, or form, give a zealous Commissar an Assault Cannon. You will have no army.


Really, why the fuck do Commissars non-stop attempt to murder their own army? I swear to god, I haven't seen a single Commissar do that much damage to the god damn enemy. They kinda need to tone it down a little.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

I find it somewhat ironic that you people seem to hate the writer who actually added some personality to the extremely bland universe of 40k.

Thats just how this thread made it seem. I dunno.

Are you saying Matt Ward is good?

Oh no. I would not know. i have only played the games and read one 40k novel (and it was awful) so i really dont know that much about how this guys writing fares with the rest.

The novel was "legion" written by Dan Abnett.

You come into a Warhammer 40K thread, imply Matt Ward might be a positive influence and then say that a book by Dan Abnett is awful?

If we were to equate nerdy forums to an Old Western Saloon, this would be the point where the barman starts putting the glasses away and the guy on the piano plays a dramatic chord into the tense silence as chairs are pushed back from tables.

 

[Mathak]

Because the only other writers they have left are Phil Kelly and Robin Crudacce.

Kelly's as big an Eldar fanboy as Ward's an Ultramarines one and can't into rules, and Crudacce's...Crudacce. See Codex: Tyranids for reference. Ugh.

Ward's fluff is terrible, but his crunch is the best of the 3.

The C'Tan were a blight on the face on the 40kverse btw. Curbstomping them was Wards best fluffidea ever.

 

[GoaThief]

I stopped 40k around the time the third edition rulebook came out (loved the second). All these fancy new races who don't sit well in the universe and all that, it died well over a decade ago so who cares?!

I guess this is a new generation getting done over by Games Workshop (again).

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

I find it somewhat ironic that you people seem to hate the writer who actually added some personality to the extremely bland universe of 40k.

Thats just how this thread made it seem. I dunno.

Are you saying Matt Ward is good?

Oh no. I would not know. i have only played the games and read one 40k novel (and it was awful) so i really dont know that much about how this guys writing fares with the rest.

The novel was "legion" written by Dan Abnett.

You come into a Warhammer 40K thread, imply Matt Ward might be a positive influence and then say that a book by Dan Abnett is awful?

If we were to equate nerdy forums to an Old Western Saloon, this would be the point where the barman starts putting the glasses away and the guy on the piano plays a dramatic chord into the tense silence as chairs are pushed back from tables.

Sorry.

The 40k universe always seemed really bland to me and if some personality is really being added then i would see that as positive. If he really is such a bad writer then i will not say that any more.

The novel really was bad though. :/

This is the point where I draw my Master-Crafted Power sword and then stand aside and hand it to Ibram Gaunt because he is the biggest bad ass ever.

 

[Roganzar]

That was just fucking dumb. There is a weird vibe of misogyny that runs through a lot of his fluff.

40K has always been pretty misogynistic. Especially the humans, The Bolter Bitches, errr, I mean Adepta Sororitas is a newer addition to the game I'm pretty sure. I don't think they even came into being until the 3rd edition of the rules.
Cuz I don't remember them when I played 2nd, dear gods I'm getting old.

 

[CAPTCHA]

I ain't big on his fluff, but his rules are fairly consistant, unlike Cruddace who's all over the place in terms of quality.

 

[Darkmantle]

I find it somewhat ironic that you people seem to hate the writer who actually added some personality to the extremely bland universe of 40k.

Thats just how this thread made it seem. I dunno.

Are you saying Matt Ward is good?

Oh no. I would not know. i have only played the games and read one 40k novel (and it was awful) so i really dont know that much about how this guys writing fares with the rest.

The novel was "legion" written by Dan Abnett.

You come into a Warhammer 40K thread, imply Matt Ward might be a positive influence and then say that a book by Dan Abnett is awful?

If we were to equate nerdy forums to an Old Western Saloon, this would be the point where the barman starts putting the glasses away and the guy on the piano plays a dramatic chord into the tense silence as chairs are pushed back from tables.

Sorry.

The 40k universe always seemed really bland to me and if some personality is really being added then i would see that as positive. If he really is such a bad writer then i will not say that any more.

The novel really was bad though. :/

no matter how bland 40k is, all the races were roughly sketched out archetypes. if this was a medieval game, the grey knights would be the equivalent of paladins, the necrons undead, the eldar are elves etc. in what matt ward wrote, the paladins are running around and killing nuns for no reason all of a sudden, the undead and some faction of humans decided to go hippy with their peace and love BS and become friends, the undead guys killed their own creators, (who are supposedly unstoppable being who devour suns and souls, and who are responsible for wiping out 95 percent of all life in the galaxy about 40 thousand years ago, humans and eldar only surviving by luck of being missed. but the undead killed them easily)

and funniest of all to me, theres a paladin wandering around hell killing everything he meets and there's nothing to 4 demon lords can do about it, cause he's SOOOOOOOOO powerful

 

[Megalodon]

That was just fucking dumb. There is a weird vibe of misogyny that runs through a lot of his fluff.

40K has always been pretty misogynistic. Especially the humans, The Bolter Bitches, errr, I mean Adepta Sororitas is a newer addition to the game I'm pretty sure. I don't think they even came into being until the 3rd edition of the rules.
Cuz I don't remember them when I played 2nd, dear gods I'm getting old.

Afraid not, Sisters were definetely in second edition, came out at least a year before 3rd ed, sorry I can't give any more detail than that but my collection of stuff doesn't go back that far.

NO Necrons have personalities. None whatsoever. That turns them from being a ultra scary tide of death to just being another faction. Whats next? Sarah Kerrigan gonna show up and take over the Tyranids?
Hell he even wrote that some Necron Lords trade with other races... And that they wiped out the C'Tan which is just 72 different flavours of bullshit.
But ultimately, his greatest crime (apart from turning the entire Ultra Marine chapter into mary sues and screwing up the awesome Salamanders) is giving us Kaldor Draigo [http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Kaldor_Draigo] who is so horrifically bad that he alone overwhelms any good Matt Ward could ever do in his entire life.

Problem is that the necrons were quite frankly boring before, there already was a life harvesting tide without personality, the tyranids. Of course then they fucked that up with the bloody Swarmlord/Doom of Malantai etc. GW is generally cyclicl, no special characters in the 4th ed nid dex, because they didn't make sense, this is emphatically reversed with the 5th ed book. I'd give it even odds that next time round the necrons will go back to being the personality-free drones of the C'tan.

But yes, fuck Draigo.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

the undead and some faction of humans decided to go hippy with their peace and love BS and become friends

I love that the faction they ally with is the Blood Angels, a notoriously violent group who often go insane with rage and kill everything.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

His new Necron Codex is.... not bad actually. The fluff gives them some more character, and the crunch is average for 5th Edition.

I am familiar with the Khornate Knights unfortunately, and although the new Necron codex isn't as bad as his other works (although he still manages to include Sister's of battle getting slaughtered and that ridiculous alliance with the Blood Angels which I will pretend doesn't exist) I don't appreciate the complete retcon of Necron lore. I REALLY like the old lore, they could have added to it, not changed it all.

Edit: Also, the new lore makes fuck all sense. Before it was the C'tan going, "AWWW SHIT WE ATE EVERYTHING! let's sleep for millions of years so that stuff grows back and we can nom again."
Now it's "Hmmn, we appear to be losing this war, let's go into stasis for millions of years so we are really vulnerable and our enemies have a couple of millions years of a technological headstart!"

Thankfully, the Rogue C'Tan and the Void Dragon of Mars still exist, and they are extremely pissed off at the way the Necrons have now screwed them over.

 

[Roganzar]

That was just fucking dumb. There is a weird vibe of misogyny that runs through a lot of his fluff.

40K has always been pretty misogynistic. Especially the humans, The Bolter Bitches, errr, I mean Adepta Sororitas is a newer addition to the game I'm pretty sure. I don't think they even came into being until the 3rd edition of the rules.
Cuz I don't remember them when I played 2nd, dear gods I'm getting old.

Afraid not, Sisters were definetely in second edition, came out at least a year before 3rd ed, sorry I can't give any more detail than that but my collection of stuff doesn't go back that far.

Fair point, I stand corrected. I think I stopped playing at that time, there have been many times that I have stopped playing, a while before they introduced them.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

This is probably some of the most hilarious news I've heard. Anyone who has played 40K tabletop knows about the international events that happen every few years. Armageddon, Eye of Terror, Fall of Medusa V campaigns. Each of these affected the fluff that comes after.

Ultramarines Vs Word Bearers in a fight to the death. [http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/wnt/blog.jsp?pid=1000006-gws]

Imagine what would happen if all the people who hated Ward's Ultramarine fetish sided together in this competition, and won? No more Ultramarines, or at least severely crippled Ultramarines.

 

[Weaver]

I stopped 40k around the time the third edition rulebook came out (loved the second). All these fancy new races who don't sit well in the universe and all that, it died well over a decade ago so who cares?!

I guess this is a new generation getting done over by Games Workshop (again).

I agree, second edition was really good. It also maintained some of that kind of... I dunno, "wink and smile" feeling. 40k is proposterous and absurd, and in second edition it knew it was. In 4th and 5th it's like they forgot and suddenly everything is massively serious.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

I stopped 40k around the time the third edition rulebook came out (loved the second). All these fancy new races who don't sit well in the universe and all that, it died well over a decade ago so who cares?!

I guess this is a new generation getting done over by Games Workshop (again).

I agree, second edition was really good. It also maintained some of that kind of... I dunno, "wink and smile" feeling. 40k is proposterous and absurd, and in second edition it knew it was. In 4th and 5th it's like they forgot and suddenly everything is massively serious.

It got GRIMDARK.

 

[370999]

Because he is a fan of the Ultramarines. Space Marine products make up around 80% of all profits made by Games Workshop on 40K.

Thankfully, it seems someone became aware of the shit he was pulling with the Grey Knights (google Khornate Knights for more), and so they got a fucking editor to watch the guy. His new Necron Codex is.... not bad actually. The fluff gives them some more character, and the crunch is average for 5th Edition.

I incredibly disagree with that. The other dex by him have been poorly writen but the essential concepts remain the same. The Cron dex is however, to me, a a big let down in that it simply makes the crons into robot samurai which isn't really that interesting. Don't get me wrong the previous angle was flawed, especially the Ctan but I think ultimately the Necron dex was possibly the worse.

As for why GW keep's him writing it's simple, he does an alright job, not great but alright. Ever played the Beast of Chaos dex by Gav Thrope in Fantasy. It was a crap dex in terms of gameplay. And ultimately GW is a model company so an author who engages in power creep is what they want.

I'm also going to say that Ward is one of us. He writes like a fanboy would, great enthusiasm but with no regards for internal power limits. Everything becomes a mary sue in his writing.

 

[Darkmantle]

I stopped 40k around the time the third edition rulebook came out (loved the second). All these fancy new races who don't sit well in the universe and all that, it died well over a decade ago so who cares?!

I guess this is a new generation getting done over by Games Workshop (again).

I agree, second edition was really good. It also maintained some of that kind of... I dunno, "wink and smile" feeling. 40k is proposterous and absurd, and in second edition it knew it was. In 4th and 5th it's like they forgot and suddenly everything is massively serious.

It got GRIMDARK.

gonna sum modern warhammer

GRIMDARKGRIMDARGRIMDARK

someone actually told me the reason I didn't like the setting is because I was too much of a pussy to handle all the Grim darkness of it

 

[Chairman Miaow]

I stopped 40k around the time the third edition rulebook came out (loved the second). All these fancy new races who don't sit well in the universe and all that, it died well over a decade ago so who cares?!

I guess this is a new generation getting done over by Games Workshop (again).

I agree, second edition was really good. It also maintained some of that kind of... I dunno, "wink and smile" feeling. 40k is proposterous and absurd, and in second edition it knew it was. In 4th and 5th it's like they forgot and suddenly everything is massively serious.

It got GRIMDARK.

gonna sum modern warhammer

GRIMDARKGRIMDARGRIMDARK

someone actually told me the reason I didn't like the setting is because I was too much of a pussy to handle all the Grim darkness of it

Wooooow.... So not because Warhammer is a super-expensive pastime for obsessive nerds with way too much time on their hands? Don't get me wrong, I love Warhammer, but I accept that it is definitely not for everyone.