Poll: Is 40K serious?

[Soviet Steve]

Hello there escapist!

I've been curious lately as to how many people who are familiar with the Warhammer 40K universe can take it seriously and get into the setting and so forth. I've found it immensely goofy and over the top for the longest time and my recent purchase of Dawn of War 2 + expansions did not help matters in the slightest. (Tubby bloke encouraging to drink puss coupled with 'Noise Marines' shooting purple rays and making lots of loud noises is not scary or depressing to me)

Oh and for those of you who have yet to be introduced to the Warhammer 40K universe this ought to be a good start:

 

[rockhard556]

What your not taking seriously there is chaos and taking chaos seriously is kind of a backwards concept

 

[MrPeanut]

While it tries to be ultragrimdark, there are some things that are not really serious.

Necrons are dead serious while Chaos and Orks are the complete opposite.

Note: In the actual fluff the noise marines are not so much as scary as they are sick bstards.

 

[Soviet Steve]

What your not taking seriously there is chaos and taking chaos seriously is kind of a backwards concept

Well this is in accurate, I suppose I should have elaborated, there isn't any particular species I can take seriously in the 40K universe. Humans are dumb, Orks are.. well.. Orks, Chaos is silly, Eldar schemes are always uncovered and foiled, and that about does it for the 'main' actors. I am aware of the Tau, the various types of Chaos and the Tyranids and so forth but the whole "must depress must gritty must be gory" attitude sortof breaks it for me, plus the over the top nature of everything leaves it ripe for parody.

I don't mean to impose my opinion here as fact, I'm curious to see how many people are able to suspend disbelief to this extent.

 

[Catchy Slogan]

That was one of the funniest videos I've seen all day

 

[Versuvius]

It's a mix. It is grimdark and srs bsns to them, obviously, but to us...well. Praying and waving incense around, then hitting the mystic, arcane "on rune" with your ceremonial hammer to make it work? Orks who bend reality through sheer psychic enthusiasm...noise marines who used to look like KISS rejects? Warhammer 40ks was more 'fun' that it was now with great levels of taking the piss, but maintaining interesting and deep, time spanning plot (12,000 years or so to play with) under it. People who hate 40k do it without reason, they don't like the setting because it's either too absurd or too dark, then fine, fuck off, but people who like that mix (Fallout has the same, its grim and crapsack but still bloody funny). Recently Matt Ward has been thoroughly screwing the dynamic somewhat, you also need to understand it also depends on the author. Ciaphas Cain vs Gaunt's Ghosts is a good one. Both are valid more or less lore abiding (even if Abnett doesn't quite know what heavy weapons do what, this can be hand waved by the weapons being designated differently, or different patterns. It's a big fucking universe, it isn't a blanket "these are the fucking rules, live with them").

That help?

 

[Eccentric_Jon]

In all seriousness. I didn't enjoy the game, and think it detracted from the 40k universe.

However, I couldn't ignore clicking the third poll option. My bad

 

[warthoggunner]

There is a small book called "The Imperial Infantrymans Uplifting Primer".
It describes standard equipment, tactics etc.

One "stealth" tactic basically IS parody. No one would recite a "litany of stealth" when sneaking up on an enemy.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Yes. Warhammer is dark and grim, and never, ever, ever tries being not completely serious about itself. Haven't played Spess Mehren tho.

 

[archvile93]

No, I can not take it seriously, because it's simply too grimdark. I'm not saying I'd take it more seriously if they made it all sunshine and rainbows, but when they took the dark ball they didn't just run with it, they blasted off of the edge of the multiverse at a speed so fast they made the entire trip in only ten seconds. I heard it also use to be a more blatent parody of dark things, back when they had drucken space dwarves on motor trycicles, and I recall hearing about a hero with the name Kenobi, though those are no longer part of the lore. I think I might like the Cain novels, since I heard they like to point out the absudity of the setting.

 

[Versuvius]

It's not as if i can hide in lava. Gork knows i aint tryin' dat again...


Paraphrased because im stupid.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

No you don't take it seriously... you enjoy it FOR it's lunacy. Even the books aren't meant to be taken as works of art. It's OTT and proud of it.

Jesus why do people think it needs to be serious, just because it's dark?

 

[Versuvius]

No you don't take it seriously... you enjoy it FOR it's lunacy. Even the books aren't meant to be taken as works of art. It's OTT and proud of it.

Jesus why do people think it needs to be serious, just because it's dark?

Lack of imagination. A very narrow view on what things should be. It's not CoD. All of the above.

 

[Aeshi]

It suffers from a little thing called "Poe's Law" in that it was meant as a Parody but people think it's supposed to be serious.

There is a small book called "The Imperial Infantrymans Uplifting Primer".
It describes standard equipment, tactics etc.

One "stealth" tactic basically IS parody. No one would recite a "litany of stealth" when sneaking up on an enemy.

This is actually a semi-hidden joke as the "Litany of Stealth" isn't actually in the book, meaning "If you're trying to sneak then shut up."

 

[Nomine88]

Hello there escapist!

I've been curious lately as to how many people who are familiar with the Warhammer 40K universe can take it seriously and get into the setting and so forth. I've found it immensely goofy and over the top for the longest time and my recent purchase of Dawn of War 2 + expansions did not help matters in the slightest. (Tubby bloke encouraging to drink puss coupled with 'Noise Marines' shooting purple rays and making lots of loud noises is not scary or depressing to me)

Oh and for those of you who have yet to be introduced to the Warhammer 40K universe this ought to be a good start:

I am curious as to whether you thought out what you posted or not. Not to seem rude, as I mean that in an honest way. Do we (people who enjoy an over the top game series for a hobby/entertainment) take the game SERIOUSLY? No. No one takes Warhammer 40k seriously. No one SHOULD take it seriously. It's a GAME. Do you take Call of Duty or Halo 'seriously'? If you do, you should probably review your world values. There are plenty of serious things going on in the world, games don't need to be on the list of things taken 'seriously' (In the way that you mean. I am not talking about the whole 'Games are Art' thing and what not. That's serious, but not THIS kind of serious)

Now, what Warhammer does do, and what people should take it as, is over the top fun. Call of Duty and Battlefield profess to being realistic (At least, Battlefield does openly) but they are not realistic at all. Why? Because people don't want realistic shooters. It's just not as fun, anyone who regularly plays shooters knows that. Occasionally realism is fun for a change, but generally you do not want to always play a realistic shooter. Warhammer is just upfront and honest about what it delivers - hilarious, over the top hyper-violent gore soaked FUN.

I do not want to get on a shooter and shoot terrorists. That is boring. I want to get on a shooter and watch entire planets burn, shoot orcs that spew out gallons of blood from paper-scratches, and generally see things that can only happen otherwise in imagination-land.


Essentially, my advice is to anyone who can't "get" Warhammer, to isolate the thing you are having trouble with - say, ask yourself "Why are Space Marines so lulzy big with rediculous armor?". Now take that question, and rephrase it this way - "Wouldn't it be funny if. . .There were super-serious-sam-Space-Marines that wore half a tank worth of armor into battle modelled after Roman-Catholic monk-orders (Who are generally, historically non-violent)?

Or, "Why do orcs sound so stupid?", rephrase too "Wouldn't it be funny if there was an entire race of greenskinned orks who had the WORST British accent imaginable?"

If your answer to any of those questions is 'no', then you either have no sense of humor or Warhammer just isn't for you, so ignore it.

/rantoff

 

[Lieju]

No, but I was always uncertain of how serious it was supposed to be.

The designs just look ridiculous and uncool to me for the most part, though, and I don't think that's the point.

 

[Ralen-Sharr]

I tried reading one of the WH40K books... had to quit after reading several chapters that had a character picking his nose and wiping the booger on furniture as the most interesting part.

I don't remember which one it was, and I don't care to remember. It was dull and put me off the WH40K mythos.

Then I played the demo for Space Marine, and didn't like it. So now I'm done with WH40K.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

No, but I was always uncertain of how serious it was supposed to be.

The designs just look ridiculous and uncool to me for the most part, though, and I don't think that's the point.

Just worth noting for anyone who reads this that if you think the designs are uncool, it's not for you. There is some decent backstory and lore, but if you don't like the aesthetics it won't get any better for you.

In fact even within the fandom of 40k, there are huge differences in tastes. I for example love how chaotic and wild Ork tech is portrayed as, but can't stand the uniformity of the Tau or Imperial guard.

Simply put, it just isn't for everybody and I'd be hard pressed to argue taste when the fans can't even agree.