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Hello everyone, I have been trying to kick this nasty habit for a while now, and have just given up.
I have realized that it is not necessary to keep up with the most current rules, fluff, and models to enjoy The hobby.
I have been disinterested in the game and mechanics since 6th edition. But I still love 40k
I am really drawn to 40k by 2 things.

1. I really enjoy lore.
The lore in the 40k universe is vast, and very deep. Although at times, it is lazy, the overall lore is very good.

2. I really enjoy the models.
I have always been into plastic soldiers. ever since I was a child I have loved to assemble plastic kits. Tanks, airplanes, romans, gauls, parthians... I love plastic soldiers. Gw offers a nice range of highly customizable plastic soldiers.

So I would like to ask all of you: what draws you?
The lore? Models? Rules?
Let me know
I'm genuinely interested

Thanks
austin

When I was younger my father used to travel all across Europe and pick up toy soldiers from each place he'd visit. Over the years, I had thousands of different soldiers from different nationalities. Unfortunately, as I grew up and moved a lot of my past has been lost. The first time I walked into a GW I walked right out when I realized that I would be paying almost the same price of an actual video game but I'd have to paint/build it as well. It would be after I got married that I got the THQ bundle where I learned about the grim dark world. Afterwards, a friend and I went halves on the Dark Vengeance box, and the rest, as they say is history.
I've been playing, building, and collecting the game for 2 years because of the following:

The LORE
It doesn't have any good things. The bad guys are justifiable (most times) and the good guys do some really bad things. I LOVE that. It seems real. Throw in something about war (another interest of mine) and you've got me hooked line and sink.

The Models
They seems cool. Most are a fun to paint and collect and when done proper look amazing and really bring the battle to life. With that said there are some models that look stupid. Those I don't bother buying.

The Game
I love playing the tabletop game. I may not like all the rules and can think of some things are not balanced/fair - over all I enjoy it very much.

All these reasons and more make it hurt when poorly made rules are made. I'm smart enough to know when they are after my money and are willing to sell me garbage to empty my wallet.

Back when I was just another video gamer, I got a game called Dawn of War from Best Buy. From the moment I saw the cover/back art of it, I had to have it.

Then, I played it...damn! The only other RTS game that I'd really played up to that point were Warcraft, and Star Craft, but in THIS game, you didn't control individuals. YOU CONTROLLED ENTIRE SQUADS! That was huge for me at the time.

It wasn't until years later(and 3 more expansions) did I find out it was a Roleplaying game(then a wargame)!

In this order of what drew me in:
1.The Look - Things just look awesome! From the 'good guys, too the 'bad guys'! Nothing has disappointed me yet.
2.The Universe - Poor bastard humans fighting in a universe that threatens to eat them whole, and all they have is a flashlight, cardboard, and balls of steel? Also, ORKZ!
3.The Sweet Ass Models - Sweet Ass Models!

I don't believe any other game series has been able to hold my attention as strongly as 40k. Of course, this was at a time that I'd finally grown bored of Warcraft after so many years.

Like others, the lore. Nothing is truly good. Everything is either pure evil (DE/chaos i.e.), to questionable at best (Tau and ethereals's control over the majority of tau), to doing terrible things just to survive/lack of will to care (IG meatgrinders i.e.).

The models: There's something for everyone, along with plenty of lore friendly conversions that can be done, and look AWESOME.

The only reason I've slowly been getting out is due to GW's shiity, no feths given attitude towards balance (and TFG in our local group who says WKs aren't super tough, because one time it died in a game when someone fired everything they had it for 2-3 turns. Or that scatbikes aren't THAT good, as a LR compeletely shuts them down... somehow, that he can't explain other than it's AV14. And back in their 6th ed codex that serpents weren't even good, and that they died super easily.)

I like 40k for several reasons:

-The fact that it combines vehicles and infantry in the same game. There are plenty of tabletop games that are composed mainly (if not entirely) of infantry. But here, I can have giant tanks fighting alongside swarms of guardsmen, or very heavily armored infantry riding around in an even heavier armored tank.

-The customizability of the models and the armies. There are few other games out there where I can give the models different weapons, different heads, or pose them any way I want.

-The mostly stable community of gamers. At least where I've played, 98% of the time I can show up to my local GW store on a Saturday and find an opponent up for a game. As someone with a real difficulty arranging games, that's a godsend. I'd have much less of a guarantee of showing up to a FLGS for a game of, say, Flames of War (if I liked WWII that much).

-On lesser notes, I also like it because I've always been interested in Science Fiction more than Fantasy.

I don't much care about the rules. Sure, I recognize their flaws, as I read the boards. But flawed rules are not enough to make me give up this game, and give up my weekly battles.

Mostly the lore, but also the quick and easy rules that hold up perfectly fine for a game I play in my friends garage while we talk nonsense. It's for hanging out and enjoying war stories for me.

The lore and the pauldrons, oh boy, the pauldrons.

Hulking space monstrosities as a force of nature and entropy.

I was in holiday with my family in a medieval city in France twelve years ago, and at some point, I was walking in the street with my dad near a big cathedral and I saw the first GW of my life.

Inside, about six players were playing WFB with their big fully painted armies. It was a siege and a three of them had to assault an awesome castle bigger than anything I could have build by myself.

I was stunned and this was also the first time I get a Warhammer Box, high elves basic soldiers. I can still see the artwork in my memory ahah. When I went back to school, I was inhabited by the light of Warhammer and soon, I dragged many of my friends in it. Gool old times...

THe ability to let my imagination run rampant and create incredible and sometimes impossible war machines that while insane still fits in the insanity of the setting.

Love the models; love the fluff.

Epic battles are fun, even unmatched armies and make a good game with dice.

The lore eh, I use the basic setting and can the rest and the named characters and I wish the emperor was like a guy who would die and get replaced occasionally.

Modeling is great, especially with Orks I love gluing random other sprues on models. Putting in a sound system on a battlewagon, chariot parts on an IG Basilisk, or even when I played Eldar I put Tau guns (the ones that look like a gatling gun) on jetbikes, endless possibilities.

For me it has to be the universe. The grim dark where everything is bad, everything is on fire, and every paragon is stained with blood and the sins of their own making.
I just love making my own chapter/regiment/craftword and filling them with people just trying to survive the horrible world they live in.

The universe, the nice miniatures. Game is also fun if you comp it a bit to make it more sensible with your group, tournaments for me are the place to make those ridicilous lists ( often they are comped too though. )

The art, the lore, the fluff, the miniatures -- and the ability to enact epic battles with buddies while we BS

What boy doesn't like toy soldiers? I just never grew up, and 40k are the ultimate toy soldiers.

The background and art are what keep people inspired and engaged in 40k.
They are proportionally as good as the rule set is awful.*
(*In terms of clarity brevity and elegant functionality.)

If I want to play epic battles in the 40k universe I use the rule set written for this.(Epic Armageddon./Net Epic)With minatures of the appropriate scale to fit on a standard gaming table.

As someone who's only recently got back into the hobby, I would say for me the main draw is the lore and fluff. It's a great story and setting. It also helps that there's a really great model range, that's well supplemented by the forgeworld stuff.

What drew me in was the melange (heh) of tropes from the "classic" SF novels I'd been reading for a decade - it blended aspects of Dune, Starship Troopers, Foundation, Judge Dredd and probably a few other sources into a new whole.

That WAS enough to keep me in it for 20ish years. I am no longer drawn to it - the constant "1 minute to midnight" doomsday clock trope got tiresome after a while.

Fluff, models, popularity for finding games/interested people.

Evocative setting and nostalgia in equal measure.

I love painting the models and telling a story though the game.

A while back I said "screw these imbalanced rules in playing Warmahordes!" And it made me realize why I like 40k

1) the rule set is simple enough that it makes intuitive sense. You don't need to worry about twenty kinds of tokens or card flipping or positioning your dudes all perfectly in some convoluted overlapping AOE formation...40k looks and feels natural.

2) the models are both gorgeous and yours. Every Warmahordes army looks the friggin same. Half of them don't even bother to paint them because they're in it for the hardcore gaming strategery.

3) the most important is the community, which varies but in my area is just perfect for 40k. 25-50 people at my local club any given week, mostly casual collectors just laughing and having a good time as opposed to a dozen middle aged guys practicing for the next major WMH tournament.

Adaptability of the models/units is a big draw for me. Glueing the models in a single option takes a lot of the modelling away from the hobby, and lots of other games are like that.

The fluff and background are bigger than I thought it would be. Looking into other games left me looking at the shallow background, trying to find the reason to have the fights games simulate.

The player-base. Try finding a game of anything else, without knowing where to look first. People play 40k everywhere, and I doubt there are many clubs which don't.

Evocative setting and models in equal measure.

I find the 40k rules to be incredibly ho-hum. GW has written some amazing rulesets covering warfare in the 41st millenium. 40k is not one of them.

the_scotsman wrote:
A while back I said "screw these imbalanced rules in playing Warmahordes!" And it made me realize why I like 40k

1) the rule set is simple enough that it makes intuitive sense. You don't need to worry about twenty kinds of tokens or card flipping or positioning your dudes all perfectly in some convoluted overlapping AOE formation...40k looks and feels natural.

2) the models are both gorgeous and yours. Every Warmahordes army looks the friggin same. Half of them don't even bother to paint them because they're in it for the hardcore gaming strategery.

3) the most important is the community, which varies but in my area is just perfect for 40k. 25-50 people at my local club any given week, mostly casual collectors just laughing and having a good time as opposed to a dozen middle aged guys practicing for the next major WMH tournament.

My local meta is horrible. Everyone is a WAAC.
It sounds like your meta is awesome.

Thanks
austin

I came for the Space Marines, stayed for the fluff.

I really like 40k for the lore as I think everyone else has said.

I struggle with GW's attitude for rules

I love the way every model can be changed to suit you and the painting and modelling aspect keeps me going, and I enjoy writing lists!

I think from the comments so far, we can safely say the background and art of 40k is inspiring.
And is totally enough to get people hooked and committed to the 40k universe!

This leads me to ask the question, why do GW feel the need to sacrifice rules quality to 'inspire new purchases' , when the background in the books and artistry in the models do such a great job?

I think more people would be drawn to 40k , and stay with it, if the 40k game had better quality rules.
As this would let it appeal to more people, and higher volume sales would allow lower prices...

Improving rules quality would just add value to 40k, IMO.ATM people buy into 40k despite the rules GW sell for 40k.

A rules overhaul, and a stop to certain other policies, would save GW.
They've lost all good-will from a huge section of the gaming community, and fluff and inertia can only hold the rest of us for so long. If a worthy successor turns up, that's the end of GW.

I liked the Dark Eldar models(the first version, though the new ones are better) and the game was mostly fun.

My answer now is Less and Less with every new edition, and price increase.

The fluff has always been a bit meh, being rewrites of other things I had read when I was younger, changed to fit the setting.

I got dragged in by CSM from dawn of war.