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 Red Corsair wrote:

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

Daemons aren't chaos?

 Sigvatr wrote:
I...I...words cannot express the joy I feel. Genuine joy. I am so, so, so happy right now. Genuinely happy. I am overwhelmed by my feelings.

Screw you Ward. Screw you. I hope you never get employed ever anywhere again. This is fair justice for ruining Codex:Necrons. For pooping all over our race. This is fair. This is what you deserve.

In the name of all TruCron players, of all Necrons, of all Necrontyr and all C'Tan...be gone. All the worst for you. Bye. Forever.

I hope I didn't come across like that. Especially since I essentially agree with you two - Swastakowey and Red Corsair - in that 40K has been directed by higher-ups down this particular path. But I'm still a bit sceptical about how much or little autonomy he had (Same experience here, Corsair, but at the end of the day they commission you for a reason) and IMO 'great internal balance in 40K book' is like... someone who orders a diet coke with their double-mega-cheeseburger and supersize fries...

Happy to be proven wrong if he takes on writing duties for another company and turns out to be the Wyld Stallyns of wargaming.

He had no business writing fluff. Rules, he was alright by GW standards. (Which isn't saying much.) But his fluff alone should have gotten him fired long ago. I actually used to like GK. But then Ward wrote their codex and I've disliked them ever since.

I don't believe for one moment matt ward had free reign to write whatever fluff he wanted and whatever rules he wanted,the direction and style of the army books most likely came from above his head and was a management decision. Poor guy just became a public face for the vitriol and anger at the contempt games workshop shows to its customers.
I do think as mentioned he may struggle to get further game design work, guys name is mud to a lot of gamers but good luck to him

Or they toned down the Mary sue bull draigo fluff and he nerdragequit

So, the guy that gave us the only good version of Celestine has left?
Oh, wait, actually I remember he just did the fluff part of that codex, which was like everything 10 years, i.e. a rehash of 2nd edition dex+Liber Sororitas WD article. Okay. And he did the blood whatever sister killing stuff.

 Wilytank wrote:

 Red Corsair wrote:

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

Daemons aren't chaos?

He probably means Chaos Space Marines, the most popular Chaos faction in 40K.

These truly is the end of days.

 BrookM wrote:
Hate to be the (gaming) company who hires him, the community will turn against them straight away.

Think it will be interesting to see what he turns out when (if?) he does move on to another company in a creative capacity. We'll then know if it was the 'suits' pushing him into writing schlock 2D comic-book characters, or his own spin on things.

Top nominations for a new company? Mantic, Warlord and Battlefront probably have the most ex-GW people (not sure how much he is in to historicals for the last two?), but possibly someone like FFG or even going out on his own?

 Pacific wrote:

 BrookM wrote:
Hate to be the (gaming) company who hires him, the community will turn against them straight away.

Think it will be interesting to see what he turns out when (if?) he does move on to another company in a creative capacity. We'll then know if it was the 'suits' pushing him into writing schlock 2D comic-book characters, or his own spin on things.

Top nominations for a new company? Mantic, Warlord and Battlefront probably have the most ex-GW people (not sure how much he is in to historicals for the last two?), but possibly someone like FFG or even going out on his own?

That's assuming he does not pull an Andy Chambers and move on to a video game company.

I'm a little giddy.

Not because MW deserved all of the hate sent his way (but certainly some of it) but because forced change is just as good as voluntary change at this point.

That is, unless, someone in a suit has decided that all these pesky designers are just an unnecessary expense and they can just ask their 8 year old boy what they want in the game and make it happen....

 MWHistorian wrote:
He had no business writing fluff. Rules, he was alright by GW standards. (Which isn't saying much.) But his fluff alone should have gotten him fired long ago. I actually used to like GK. But then Ward wrote their codex and I've disliked them ever since.

What was so bad about the fluff? Did he radically change things like making Sister of Battle genetically enhanced with gene-seed like Space Marines?

He did not change the slightest thing about Sisters. He did had that event where some Grey Knight bathed in Sister's blood to protect themselves from some demonic stuff, though.

Plus Draigo/Mortarion and the Necron/Blood Angel brofist of doom.

Oh, and the whole Ultramarine/Spiritual Liege thing.

 Azreal13 wrote:
That is, unless, someone in a suit has decided that all these pesky designers are just an unnecessary expense and they can just ask their 8 year old boy what they want in the game and make it happen....

Don't. Give. Them. Ideas.

Anyway, only time will tell what this means games development at GW. The fact that the last few books have not credited a specific author is very telling.

Because it is awful when *anyone* loses their job, I feel bad for him and hope he lands on his feet as quickly as possible.

Love him or hate him, he wrote good rules and...not so good fiction. Maybe.

Depending on your point of view, etc. etc.

So, here's to hoping he quickly finds himself employed and at a place he enjoys working for!

Twilight Episode 4. Head writer: Matt Ward.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
He did not change the slightest thing about Sisters. He did had that event where some Grey Knight bathed in Sister's blood to protect themselves from some demonic stuff, though.

I was just using that as an example, since I don't really know what he changed about the fluff.

 Azreal13 wrote:
Plus Draigo/Mortarion and the Necron/Blood Angel brofist of doom.

The what????

 mechanicalhorizon wrote:

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
He did not change the slightest thing about Sisters. He did had that event where some Grey Knight bathed in Sister's blood to protect themselves from some demonic stuff, though.

I was just using that as an example, since I don't really know what he changed about the fluff.

 Azreal13 wrote:
Plus Draigo/Mortarion and the Necron/Blood Angel brofist of doom.

The what????

It happened, 5th Ed BA codex, and was referenced again in the Necron book IIRC

 Alpharius wrote:
Because it is awful when *anyone* loses their job, I feel bad for him and hope he lands on his feet as quickly as possible.

...
So, here's to hoping he quickly finds himself employed and at a place he enjoys working for!

Agreed.

I have little sympathy for Ward as a writer. His rules were okay-sh, his setting writing abysmal. The absolute terror of the last Necron codex will haunt me forever.

It does seem like he could have been forced out, but if it happened because GW needed a scapegoat, well, that's yet another Kirby-ism to add to the collection.

From what I understand, the "brofist" was that Blood Angels and Necrons assisted each other in wiping out a Tyranid invasion and went their own ways afterward without trying to wipe each other out of existance. It was apparently one of the first, if not the actual first, instances of Imperial forces encountering an Overlord led army of Necrons.

Wow.

Please tell me they didn't actually bro-fist and you are just using a metaphor.

 mechanicalhorizon wrote:
Wow.

Please tell me they didn't actually bro-fist and you are just using a metaphor.

How do you think this image was created?

But no, there is no explicit bro-fist and there's obviously some hyperbole going on but to see the xenophobic Space Marines be willing to "spare" and not continue to engage the Necrons after their impromptu alliance left many feeling that it was Ward trying to make an excuse to combine his favourite factions together.

I haven't read the new Necron Codex yet, but I thought the Necrons were also pretty genocidal towards living beings.

I'll have to re-read his Codexes now.

I think Matt wrote one of the best rule sets ever. Lord of the Rings, great ruleset. Clear concise rules. Great game play, and lots of tactics. Simple and not complicated.

He also made great rules for the codices as well. Not sure why all the hate. So some of the fluff was stupid or people didn't agree. To HATE someone because of that? Speaks more of the posters than it actually speaks of Matt Ward.

 mechanicalhorizon wrote:
I haven't read the new Necron Codex yet, but I thought the Necrons were also pretty genocidal towards living beings.

I'll have to re-read his Codexes now.

It was a very weird bit of fluff as the BA codex preceded the release of the Newcron book so when it was initially read it made even less sense as the only Necron background at the time was in the old codex (The newer book made them less "Terminators" and more "Tomb Kings in space"). I even remember staff at Warhammer World scratching their heads over it when I discussed it with them.

It makes far more sense when looking at it with the Newcron background. Newcrons and BA are fighting. Nids show up. Newcrons and BA team up and decide yadayadayada something about honour to go their separate ways rather than continue fighting one another after the Nids got destroyed.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Davor wrote:
I think Matt wrote one of the best rule sets ever. Lord of the Rings, great ruleset. Clear concise rules. Great game play, and lots of tactics. Simple and not complicated.

Pretty sure Rick Priestley conceived the original groundwork for the LOTR rules.

 mechanicalhorizon wrote:
Wow.

Please tell me they didn't actually bro-fist and you are just using a metaphor.

It's a case of internet hyperbole. The Blood Angels and Necrons are fighting, but then Nids arrive and the two fight the interlopers. The two factions beat the invasion, but decline to start killing each other again, with the BA commenting that it would be dishonorable to go back to fighting the Crons just after fighting alongside them, and the Crons just leaving.

 paqman wrote:
I still beleive to this day that the credited authors were there only for the fluff part and that the rules were written as a collective.

According to the Codex Blood Angel notes from WD a few years back, BOTH are collectively written. The main difference is that the studio has a specific overseer for the fluff that approves everything that makes it into a book(and it wasn't Ward) so that it doesn't go against the direction they want to move the background in.

So blaming any single author for the fluff is disingenuous BS.

The people celebrating his leaving frankly boggle my mind. Some of us like actual rules to go along with the stories of our tiny plastic men, and with Ward gone the only designer left with a passable chance at writing a decently balanced codex is Vetock. Do you really WANT more armies given the Cruddex treatment?

The problem wasn't that they were having Ward write the codexes. The problem was that they weren't giving all the rules sections of the codexes to Ward and leaving the fluff to the other guys.

 MajorWesJanson wrote:

 mechanicalhorizon wrote:
Wow.

Please tell me they didn't actually bro-fist and you are just using a metaphor.

It's a case of internet hyperbole. The Blood Angels and Necrons are fighting, but then Nids arrive and the two fight the interlopers. The two factions beat the invasion, but decline to start killing each other again, with the BA commenting that it would be dishonorable to go back to fighting the Crons just after fighting alongside them, and the Crons just leaving.

It's not though. Imagine reading that (and a LOT of people did I'm sure on release) with only the Oldcron background to hand. It destroys every single part of the characterization they had built up for the Necrons prior to that. Now, such a thing is moot as this kind of thing fits with Newcrons background but at the time it simply did not gel.