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If I'm correct, the vast majority of wargamers feel that Matt Ward is terrible at writing codexes. Why would GW get him to write yet another one? I know that GW isn't exactly caring of their customers, but outright ignorance of their feedback just seems beyond even them, especially with something as simple as hiring somebody else.

Because internet hyperbole =/= reality.

CthuluIsSpy wrote:Because internet hyperbole =/= reality.

Do you mean people not on the internet feel differently or something?

The Vast Majority of Wargamers play Matt Ward Codexes. He is a money maker for GW.

And no, I just think it's a lot of Vocal people who have hate for Ward, certainly not the vast majority.

Hating his fluff is completely justifiable. His rules are generally quite balanced for 5th edition, while sometimes poorly written.

Matt Ward hate is just a popular bandwagon that a lot of people attach themselves to.

I think it is mostly people joining the bandwagon.

CthuluIsSpy wrote:Because internet hyperbole =/= reality.

This, a million times over.

Not just that, it may seem like most people hate ward. But the point is, the haters are all loudmouths. The vast majority has given up defending anything he writes because you just get shouted down by the "haters" anyway.

Because they know that matt ward doesnt write the fluff alone (or at all? I cant remember but either way theres a team for that which will do it or help him).
And that he doesnt make the rules alone. That the rules are play tested and many people have given the thumbs up to it.

Because from that point of view he might actually be doing nothing wrong or you can blame it on someone else.

or GW like the way he is going with his stuff even though it is not what the customers want.

yamgrenade wrote:

CthuluIsSpy wrote:Because internet hyperbole =/= reality.

Do you mean people not on the internet feel differently or something?

Most likely, I know for a fact that the majority of the people in my FLGS simply do not care who wrote it. Mat Ward gets a lot of hate, some of it may be jutsified for his horrible writing style, but here's another fact: there's a development team. Mat Ward certainly did not make any of the codices himself, they all had a hand in it. Ward gets the hate because his name is printed on the cover. I think it's really disheartening to see the amount of hatred thrown as someone how clearly loves the 40k universe, and has dedicated himself to trying to help shape it.

Thranriel wrote:Because they know that matt ward doesnt write the fluff alone (or at all? I cant remember but either way theres a team for that which will do it or help him).

This.

For all we know, there might be a new guy on the Studio fluff commitee, who's first project was the new BA codex, and he added all the OTT stuff people are raging against and Mat Ward just approved it and slapped his name on it.

Sasori wrote:The Vast Majority of Wargamers play Matt Ward Codexes. He is a money maker for GW.

And no, I just think it's a lot of Vocal people who have hate for Ward, certainly not the vast majority.

Hating his fluff is completely justifiable. His rules are generally quite balanced for 5th edition, while sometimes poorly written.

Matt Ward hate is just a popular bandwagon that a lot of people attach themselves to.

forruner_mercy wrote:I think it is mostly people joining the bandwagon.

Coolyo294 wrote:

CthuluIsSpy wrote:Because internet hyperbole =/= reality.

This, a million times over.

Soladrin wrote:Not just that, it may seem like most people hate ward. But the point is, the haters are all loudmouths. The vast majority has given up defending anything he writes because you just get shouted down by the "haters" anyway.

Couldn't have said it better myself guys

yamgrenade wrote:If I'm correct, the vast majority of wargamers feel that Matt Ward is terrible at writing codexes. Why would GW get him to write yet another one? I know that GW isn't exactly caring of their customers, but outright ignorance of their feedback just seems beyond even them, especially with something as simple as hiring somebody else.

I have this crazy idea - and I do realize that it is probably too radical for most of the people here - but I present it anyway:

How about actually READING the new Necron codex before starting another Ward-hate thread? I mean, sheesh, the goddam book isn't even out yet.

yamgrenade wrote:If I'm correct, the vast majority of wargamers feel that Matt Ward is terrible at writing codexes. Why would GW get him to write yet another one? I know that GW isn't exactly caring of their customers, but outright ignorance of their feedback just seems beyond even them, especially with something as simple as hiring somebody else.

Probably because Matt Ward codices sell. GW's overall direction during 5th edition has been more towards selling miniatures over anything else.

Personally I dislike Matt Ward codices because the over all quality is not up to scratch from a product I would expect from GW. There’s more to codex writing then just “how much damage it can do”. They often have comic book style fluff, zany special rules and follow a cheaper point cost model (deduced via comparing Matt’s BA book with his vanilla book and his GK book with his BA book). Also contrary to popular belief, I don’t find Matt’s codices balanced either. They might not be gamebreaking OP, but they are unbalanced (although nothing errata couldn’t fix).

Backfire wrote:

yamgrenade wrote:If I'm correct, the vast majority of wargamers feel that Matt Ward is terrible at writing codexes. Why would GW get him to write yet another one? I know that GW isn't exactly caring of their customers, but outright ignorance of their feedback just seems beyond even them, especially with something as simple as hiring somebody else.

I have this crazy idea - and I do realize that it is probably too radical for most of the people here - but I present it anyway:

How about actually READING the new Necron codex before starting another Ward-hate thread? I mean, sheesh, the goddam book isn't even out yet.

I'm not judging that, it's just that he's had (Three?) chances and none of them have been that great.

And whats the team? I haven't heard anything about it.

yamgrenade wrote:

Backfire wrote:

yamgrenade wrote:If I'm correct, the vast majority of wargamers feel that Matt Ward is terrible at writing codexes. Why would GW get him to write yet another one? I know that GW isn't exactly caring of their customers, but outright ignorance of their feedback just seems beyond even them, especially with something as simple as hiring somebody else.

I have this crazy idea - and I do realize that it is probably too radical for most of the people here - but I present it anyway:

How about actually READING the new Necron codex before starting another Ward-hate thread? I mean, sheesh, the goddam book isn't even out yet.

I'm not judging that, it's just that he's had (Three?) chances and none of them have been that great.

And whats the team? I haven't heard anything about it.

The SM codex is fairly competetive yet balanced and has some good fluff and some fairly good ideas for fluffy lists.
The BA codex should never have existed so it's hardly his fault.
The GK codex wasn't all it could have been but as a codex it's balanced has some good fluff (Ignoring internet hyperbole) but in some places suffers from lack of detail (read Bloodtide)
By and large he has done a good job (From what has been attributed to him) and frankly i like it.

He really isnt that bad hes more of a joke to me now than anything else.

People dislike Mat Ward because he writes like an annoying internet fanboy and sounds like one in interviews and videos, and he wrote two of the worst books for WHFB, one at the bottom of the heap and one that damn near killed the game.

Like it or not, Ward's name is in the book as the author. Each codex has a list of who worked on it and in what capacity. Guess who's the only one with writing credits in his books? Those thinking or trying to argue his books aren't almost entirely his are deluding themselves.

Ward had enough leeway to change the transport capacities for drop pods and land raiders in C:SM without it getting stopped by IP control until release after which he "got his knuckles wrapped" for it in his words and subsequently didn't carry over.

His books have awful, atrocious fluff with random zany rules, and nobody likes a fanboy, hence why many dislike him.

Wards works have high sales because they're already very mainstream, relatively popular armies, and, especially in the case of GK's, very easy to start given brand new kits and super small model requirements for certain builds. SM's are always going to sell well regardless for a huge number of reasons no matter who writes them.


That said, there's something to be said about his books so far in 5E in terms of balance *relative* to other authors, though the only other two 5E codex writers have fewer books to their credit this edition to judge by and one of them was a massive 5 year reboot project while another was hamfisted into a release slot to keep theme with other releases so make of that what you will.

Oh man, it's been at least 3 weeks since I got to read one of these threads. What fun!

People on the Internet whine about it disproportionally. Yeah, he has some dumb fluff. His rules are generally pretty good, and have pretty good internal balance. The Necrons look awesome, and the vanilla Codex: Space Marines is a great book.

Mat Ward keeps getting codices because the people who bitch and moan about his fluff, myself included, do so after they've laid down a ridiculous amount of cash money to purchase said fluff.

The answer to any and every question regarding why GW does anything is the same: because it makes (or they think it will make) money.

Well look at it this way. Necrons needed big sweeping changes in fluff and rules, but mat ward was the only one with the gonads to do it.

Another idea, they like him because he is new and can give a fresh look on old armies.

Maybe the choices of who makes the codex is based on a giant spinning wheel.

nomotog wrote:Well look at it this way. Necrons needed big sweeping changes in fluff and rules, but mat ward was the only one with the gonads to do it.

He was the one given the assignment. That's not to say another author may not have done something similar, we'll never know, but attributing the massive changes in Necron fluff purely to Mat Ward's will to do so is rather silly.

I tend to agree with Vaktathi for the most part. However, the amount of hate and related threads is just annoying. I don't like what happened to Grey Knights, and the Space Marine book is a bit of an Ultramarine fan spank, but definitely nothing to lose sleep over. You can't change it, and you can't stop it, so its best to just suck it up deal with it.

On an unrelated note, I can't help but miss Brother SRM's old Duke Nukem avatar. Throws me off.

Vaktathi wrote:

nomotog wrote:Well look at it this way. Necrons needed big sweeping changes in fluff and rules, but mat ward was the only one with the gonads to do it.

He was the one given the assignment. That's not to say another author may not have done something similar, we'll never know, but attributing the massive changes in Necron fluff purely to Mat Ward's will to do so is rather silly.

Maybe I didn't put it right. They (GW) needed (maybe just wanted) massive changes to the necrons, so they called up there youngest freshest writer (MW) to do it. I mean if you wanted to completely rip apart a codex and rebuild it all from the ground up, who would you pick for the job.

nomotog wrote:Well look at it this way. Necrons needed big sweeping changes in fluff and rules, but mat ward was the only one with the gonads to do it.

I’m going to debunk this comment as well. Necrons was always due for some sort of overhaul and this isn’t specific to Matt Ward as the general pattern so far is that any sort of faction with a very old codex gets some sort of overhaul.

Blacksails wrote:On an unrelated note, I can't help but miss Brother SRM's old Duke Nukem avatar. Throws me off.

I had the vow to keep it til the game came out, and I ended up keeping it until I made Spehs Mehren a week or two ago. Part of my poorly thought out marketing strategy, as it were.

One thing people forget is that what is in the codex is rarely the work of one person. For example: The dreadknight is in the GK codex because someone at GW said "Grey Knights need something big", the sculptors sculpted up one, and told Mat Ward to write rules for it.

Sasori wrote:The Vast Majority of Wargamers play Matt Ward Codexes. He is a money maker for GW.

And no, I just think it's a lot of Vocal people who have hate for Ward, certainly not the vast majority.

Hating his fluff is completely justifiable. His rules are generally quite balanced for 5th edition, while sometimes poorly written.

Matt Ward hate is just a popular bandwagon that a lot of people attach themselves to.

Regardless of who wrote C:SM it WOULD get played.

Cause he is cheaper than <censored by mommas boy inquisitor> so he gets to write so much. He may suck but he sucks for a lot less than a high quality writer. I may or may not be implying he is a whore.

I have a feeling that perhaps Wards writings are going to become standard. Perhaps he does favor the SM and the GK a little too much, or maybe he'll be giving every race he writes the Over-powered and ridiculous treatment. So far, he seems biased. We shall see.

I'm holding out judgment untill I actually read the codex. And since necrons have always been a favorite army, albeit a shelved one lately, I'm looking forward to picking up the book. If it has any glaring issues or other terribleness then will deal with it at that point.

In either case I am just waiting or the "omg necrons are OP, and can't be beat" threads, not to mention the probally no less then 5 separate undying YMDC debates about how certain new rules or wargear work. Ultimately we will have said threads locked pending the FAQ.

But at least wait for the book to release before judging.

Because his books sell.

Yes, the fluff is bad, and he is a very bad writer who is also bad.

But his armies are also genuinely fairly balanced and fun to play, and IMO most players don't seem to care too much about the fluff in the codex, in comparison to the crunch.

Due to this, his codices sell.