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It hits my hobby trifecta like no other.
Social, creative, and competitive.

 BBAP wrote:
I've seen complaints that 8th Edition has dumbed the game down and boiled out some of the tactical depth - which is true, but it's also made the game a lot more fun than it has been in... well, ever. 4th through 7th the game was far too slow and dull to thrive on its own merits; you played it because your friends did. 8th Edition seems like a much quicker and less formal affair, and I think the game itself is more entertaining for it.

I played 7th because I enjoyed it. I quit 8th because it got worse.

I enjoy "your dudes," kitbashing and chop-shopping and converting, and coming up or against "rogue" 40k lists. In a roundabout way, 40k has taught me about pitfalls to avoid in game design, and has inspired me to write rules for fun.

For me, 40k's ideal is when it's the perfect intersection of LEGO and competive balance, and it gets frustrating when either element gets put at risk.

pm713 wrote:
I played 7th because I enjoyed it. I quit 8th because it got worse.

Horses for courses I suppose. I like how the game is now, it flows better and there's less faffing around to do in remembering who shot what and who can or can't move etc. Speeds things up considerably.

I joined in Eigth because of this nice modern-ish ruleset. I like the optimism that came with eighth - problems wil be looked at, balance is a goal, and tournaments are largely reducing the houserules that turned me off before.

My biggest draw is the ease of customization. With so many models (and editions of those models) I've found it pretty easier to customize any figure I want. I was really surprised how many options I have for tyranids.

Fluff-wise:
- Dark, dystopian environment, Gotham city on a universe scale.
- Big sprawling organizations, entire planets or solar systems can almost literally "fall in the cracks".
- Due to the sheer horror of all that is going on, anything you do seems almost heroic in comparison.
- Decades of material generated. More lore to hook into to dream-up pretty much anything.

Game-wise:
- It is a pretty good game for fussing like crazy with army lists.
- Tying into the fluff, you can pretty much field what you imagine from a book or a bit of lore.
- Great heaping amounts of dice. We have a fetish for such things right?
- Strategy and tactics happen. It is not high-brow tactical but you want to find people to play against right?
- You cannot seem to take the game entirely... seriously. You could just as easily laugh at your opponent succeeding in a highly improbable event as you can failing miserably on your own critical roll.

Model Miniatures:
- The fine line of form/function vs looks. In any other setting these designs would look insane. You can certainly say it all has character.
- It steals from a little bit of everything science fiction. You can find your style of choice somewhere in there.
- There are HORDES of people that do not play but paint a ton of these models. There is no shortage of every conceivable way of completing a model or converting it and tying into anything... I am still reeling from "Hello Kitty" and "My Little Pony" marines.
- This is more company specific but the last few years plastic model kits fit incredibly well.
- The scale is just within the realm of being portable.
- You want variety, you could conceivably run out of money before you get everything you want.

So, still hanging on since 2nd edition, there is alot to love as long as your are not trying: "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women!"

Setting wise I love the stories of great heroes and villains clashing in an otherwise vast and uncaring universe, that in some cases is actively trying to kill them.

The sheer vastness of it all is crazy, and the aesthetic rocks.

The setting: the materium and the warp.

not too attached to the specifics of specific stories.

That and i do enjoy the memes.

Edit: also the models.

they have been getting soo much better and better including AOS stuff.

edit2: except for the FW space wolf stuff. poor space corgis.

As everyone is saying, the background and the lord. I also love the satisfaction of finishing a model and it looks great, then being able to wreck face on the table

I love the theme, the marine models, especially terminators, the lore, and painting. And I love playing the 40k game, and especially Space Hulk and Blood Bowl.

Warhammer 40k, somewhere between the imagery, lore, and tactics of it all, gives my head something to think and imagine on that helps me go to sleep at night. Thoughts about painting models, moving the models, designing/counting up lists, hundreds of orkz firing large gunz and rokkitz, how awesome an ork with a Shokk Attack Gun would look, thinking about a trukk full of Orkz with automatic rifles just opening fire at everything, all just help me relax. Like someone who might count sheep or something.

Game time is usually played with beer in hand, and spent awkwardly trying to make tedium of setting up/moving models somehow fun while we process the game waiting for a hopefully epic end that we can talk about excessively. Only to walk away imagining how awesome the next game is gonna be.

Introducing people that know virtually nothing about 40k to 2nd edition, and watching their faces light up as their Tactical Marine annihilates a Gretchin, with a frag grenade or rapid-firing boltgun.

Never gets old .

For me it's the Space Marine fluff and the datasheets. I could pore over the stats all day. I think for me a Codex is my ultimate book