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This came up on my phone's FB feed (didn't see a post here discussing it):

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?48099-Matt-Ward-departed-GW-in-May-of-2014

I'm at work so I can't do any more checking right now. The post suggests this was verified by his Linkedin profile.




EDIT: Removed '?'

Apparently that info was taken off his Linked in page so looks to be the case:

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=295203299&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=MP-b&locale=en_US&srchid=1400185011407776925055&srchindex=1&srchtotal=1&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A1400185011407776925055%2CVSRPtargetId%3A295203299%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary

Now after reading that it does not say he is no longer there. It could be that he updated his page in May and rather than put current he put a date instead and it is just out of date. It does not say he is looking which is what most people put on their Linked in page when they are no longer employed.

I believe it probably is legit and I would guess he was pushed rather than fell.

Now we can pretend the fluff in the GK dex never happened. It was all a bad dream.

Hurray!

There IS a God (Emprah)...

When did they stop naming Codices authors etc?

 Swastakowey wrote:
When did they stop naming Codices authors etc?

With the most recent Tyranids "codex" rehash.

If Ward has left, I hope they get someone new who is good at writing cool, fluffy rules like Battle Focus. Neither Kelly nor Cruddace are very good at balanced rules, and Vetock is still somewhat uneven.

If he was pushed out, I feel sorry for him. The amount of vitriol spewed at him by people online was insane. He was a game designer, not someone who worked at Haliburton or Bain Capital. The people who called for him to be fired should be ashamed.

Well, you don't really need writers for the quality of product that GW is producing these days.

Who needs a department for writing when you can just copy-paste from the past and then add random unit? A half-blind monkey, drunk on banana alcohol could randomly bang a keyboard and make more sense than what we've seen recently.

When did James Hewitt move from Mantic to GW? About May?

 MWHistorian wrote:
Now we can pretend the fluff in the GK dex never happened. It was all a bad dream.

Too bad we can't do that with all of Robin Cruddace, Phil Kelly, Andy Chambers, etc.

 MajorWesJanson wrote:
If Ward has left, I hope they get someone new who is good at writing cool, fluffy rules like Battle Focus. Neither Ward nor Cruddace are very good at balanced rules, and Vetock is still somewhat uneven.

If he was pushed out, I feel sorry for him. The amount of vitriol spewed at him by people online was insane. He was a game designer, not someone who worked at Haliburton or Bain Capital. The people who called for him to be fired should be ashamed.

Of all the authors there Kelly should have been axed. That guy has no idea how to balance a book and he has no excuse having been there as long as he has. Lets not forget he is the guy responsible for the SW naming convention not ward.

Think about it. Kelly did the eldar, demons and chaos, three of the most horrible books ever.

 Riquende wrote:
When did James Hewitt move from Mantic to GW? About May?

Aha the Mantic take over GW plot thickens.....

I believe Ward did both the last WHFB DoC army book and the current WHFB DoC book, both of which were pretty ridiculous for different reasons. The last one was attributed for "breaking" WHFB 7th edition, and the current one had the more poorly written version of Reign of Chaos coupled with horrible, horrible internal balance.

You never know all the hyperbole thrown his way could have really cut into him. He could have quit simply out of drain or depression over what people were saying.

By all accounts he was a nice guy, he didn't deserve it, he just wrote it how he thought it should be written.

I don't think codex quality will change but i'm sad to here this if it is true. Some here and on other forums no doubt must bear this but I bet most won't blink an eye.

 MajorWesJanson wrote:
If he was pushed out, I feel sorry for him. The amount of vitriol spewed at him by people online was insane. He was a game designer, not someone who worked at Haliburton or Bain Capital.

No, but you should see what some other game designers are capable of.

 agnosto wrote:
Well, you don't really need writers for the quality of product that GW is producing these days.

Who needs a department for writing when you can just copy-paste from the past and then add random unit? A half-blind monkey, drunk on banana alcohol could randomly bang a keyboard and make more sense than what we've seen recently.

This in a nutshell. Change the sentence order and artwork around a bit, add 'unit x was solely responsible for winning the battle at planet x, holding back an entire horde of x' into the timeline bits for whichever is the new, previously unseen miniature or vehicle, remove a special character or two that doesn't currently have a miniature on sale, and bobs your uncle!

I wouldn't actually be surprised if he left of his own accord in search of some creative freedom. Both the gaming and background sides of 40k/WFB have been utterly turgid within GW over recent years, and for him to have been there as long as he had he had problem reached the point of having to re-write what he had already re-written, and got to the 'all work and no play makes Matt a dull boy' stage.

Will be interesting to see what he moves on to in any case.

Wards books were hit and miss as far as rules go. The blood angels book was fantastic in its time, and in 5th ed/early 6th was powerful, though not overtly so. The 5th ed space marine book was balanced as well, and from a rules perspective necrons have only gotten unfairly cheezy in some regards because of 7th edition changes. Grey knights and 7th ed fantasy daemons have been the only huge rules foul ups, and the fluff inthe current GK dex is just horrific. I dont particularly like him, but i also dont think he deserved all the acidic hate spewed his way.

 Vermis wrote:

 MajorWesJanson wrote:
If he was pushed out, I feel sorry for him. The amount of vitriol spewed at him by people online was insane. He was a game designer, not someone who worked at Haliburton or Bain Capital.

No, but you should see what some real game designers are capable of.

I hope you arent one of those people who yell at the waiters for late food, or yell at Mc Donalds workers at the counter for delays or for running out of ice cream. (I.E the wrong people to yell at)

I am very sure (I do a lot of design for a living) he had some guys breathing over his neck pushing him to do certain things etc. The finished product, while I made it, is hardly under my control. I simply make what the guys with the money want. Im sure Matt Ward was in the same boat.

 Pacific wrote:

I wouldn't actually be surprised if he left of his own accord in search of some creative freedom. Both the gaming and background sides of 40k/WFB have been utterly turgid within GW over recent years, and for him to have been there as long as he had he had problem reached the point of having to re-write what he had already re-written, and got to the 'all work and no play makes Matt a dull boy' stage.

I think the word that sums it up best is institutionalised. Or maybe that's a little strong in this instance. Possible

 MajorWesJanson wrote:
If Ward has left, I hope they get someone new who is good at writing cool, fluffy rules like Battle Focus. Neither Ward nor Cruddace are very good at balanced rules, and Vetock is still somewhat uneven.

If he was pushed out, I feel sorry for him. The amount of vitriol spewed at him by people online was insane. He was a game designer, not someone who worked at Haliburton or Bain Capital. The people who called for him to be fired should be ashamed.

Actually, matt ward did write the battle focus rule, he suggested kelly include it while he was writing the eldar dex. To be fair wards rules really arent bad as things go, grey knights were hella OP yes but they were clearly written for 6th ed which severely toned them down to a very mid-tier army. Other than that id say hes not a bad rules writer at all, all units in his codexes are useful somewhat (theres no riptides, wave serpents, dark talons or mandrakes in his books) but his fluff is just aweful.

Fair enough. Edited to reduce the vitriol a bit. But - especially considering what people like th3maninblak posted - I'd hazard the worst of his excesses weren't exactly written with a cocked revolver at his head.

(Heck, I've been the waiter in my time. I'd be a bit miffed if diners yelled at me for late food, but I think I'd hold my hands up and take it if they yelled at me for setting the blue steak in front of the vegetarian, dropping the food on the floor, or slopping hot soup all down their front.)

 Vermis wrote:
Fair enough. Edited to reduce the vitriol a bit. But - especially considering what people like th3maninblak posted - I'd hazard the worst of his excesses weren't exactly written with a cocked revolver at his head.

(Heck, I've been the waiter in my time. I'd be a bit miffed if diners yelled at me for late food, but I think I'd hold my hands up and take it if they yelled at me for setting the blue steak in front of the vegetarian, dropping the food on the floor, or slopping hot soup all down their front.)

Yea, I wasnt directly targeting you, just used your post as an example thingy. Of course, the drafts I think he would have free reign on, then after that he is making changes based on what his boss wants. I would assume anyway, as thats how my experience with people goes.

As for the waiter thing, yes if he really did screw up, he should own up, but we cant possibly know if it was him or not. Unlike the waiter example you gave.

I am on the boat of too much flak is fired his way. Of course, being the designer and author, part of his job is taking the flak. Maybe that part of his job he just got sick of and left as a result.

I get a lot of flak when the boss gives me a wrong number and I send it off to get published. Hardly my fault, but its part of the job I guess. Or when I the published result looks ugly next to another companies page (yet again nothing I have control of) it also generates some flak.

 Swastakowey wrote:

 Vermis wrote:

 MajorWesJanson wrote:
If he was pushed out, I feel sorry for him. The amount of vitriol spewed at him by people online was insane. He was a game designer, not someone who worked at Haliburton or Bain Capital.

No, but you should see what some real game designers are capable of.

I hope you arent one of those people who yell at the waiters for late food, or yell at Mc Donalds workers at the counter for delays or for running out of ice cream. (I.E the wrong people to yell at)

I am very sure (I do a lot of design for a living) he had some guys breathing over his neck pushing him to do certain things etc. The finished product, while I made it, is hardly under my control. I simply make what the guys with the money want. Im sure Matt Ward was in the same boat.

I can't stress this enough. I sculpt minis in my spare time on commission for game devs/private collectors and it sucks when you have a great idea and concept and they tell you it needs to look X way or be catered toward Y players. It is what it is, but I have seen great work get overworked into rubbish more then a few times. I can only imagine applying creativity in a corporate setting. The definition of Hell for an artist I am sure.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Bobug wrote:

 MajorWesJanson wrote:
If Ward has left, I hope they get someone new who is good at writing cool, fluffy rules like Battle Focus. Neither Ward nor Cruddace are very good at balanced rules, and Vetock is still somewhat uneven.

If he was pushed out, I feel sorry for him. The amount of vitriol spewed at him by people online was insane. He was a game designer, not someone who worked at Haliburton or Bain Capital. The people who called for him to be fired should be ashamed.

Actually, matt ward did write the battle focus rule, he suggested kelly include it while he was writing the eldar dex. To be fair wards rules really arent bad as things go, grey knights were hella OP yes but they were clearly written for 6th ed which severely toned them down to a very mid-tier army. Other than that id say hes not a bad rules writer at all, all units in his codexes are useful somewhat (theres no riptides, wave serpents, dark talons or mandrakes in his books) but his fluff is just aweful.

Notice his books on their own are actually extremely balanced and open ended (meaning you can make countless builds) on their own. It's the core rules set that are responsible for his books being OP or falling flat. GK were brutal because wound allocation was busted in 5th. Blood Angels had a short go because vehicles were written poorly.

Now pick up a Kelly codex. Every book has an auto include in every slot and then nothing but useless broken units. Literally units that don't even work in most of his books.

His fluff was mediocre to bad. But his books were solid and balanced with his other work. He really was one of the best rule guys they had codex wise. I'm gonna miss him homestly if he's gone.

 Hulksmash wrote:
His fluff was mediocre to bad. But his books were solid and balanced with his other work. He really was one of the best rule guys they had codex wise. I'm gonna miss him homestly if he's gone.

I concur. His books, Necrons and Grey Knights, are still solid today.

 Hulksmash wrote:
His fluff was mediocre to bad. But his books were solid and balanced with his other work. He really was one of the best rule guys they had codex wise. I'm gonna miss him homestly if he's gone.

I never noticed the fluff because I usually flipped past it. Once I read the fluff from the 2nd ed codexes to death like I did as a kid I never felt the need to re-read it all through someone else perspective. His rules were extremely balanced with themselves, which actually puts fault on his colleges IMO.

And there was much rejoicing across the land....

I've had a feeling for a while that they quietly axed most of the design team. Attitude over skill, the ones that are left are the ones who shut their mouths, nodded at everything and only opened their mouths to say "yes sir, right away sir, 2+2 = 7 and snow is black, got it". It's evident for a while what a hack jervis is, it's a pension to him and nothing more.