The trouble with Ward

[Space is pretty big]

So I was reading through the thread about Matt Ward making the new Tyranid codex and a thought struck me.

Much of the debate centered around Ward's motivation for creating and designing codexs.

He is accused of having a design philosophy focused overpowered units, a win at all costs rule sets, a giant boner for marines, and in other threads even a racist.

So as I read through all this I can't help but wonder:

What if he's just bad at writing codexs?

Consider for a moment that maybe he just lacks the mathematical skills for forming a balanced point system, and hasn't the creative talent for making a compelling back story.

So many on the internet weirdly describe the behind the scenes of GW (and many corporations in general) like some malicious miniature-making version of MI6, or at the very least those overly enthusiastic scientists from the toothpaste ads.

Really though, anyone working in a Corp usually knows that it tend to be just a bunch of guys in a room, sitting behind cheap office furniture and spitballing ideas which they put onto a padded out word doc.

So if we reframe the question; what do you think will happen in the new 'nid dex if all we assume about Ward is that his just kinda bad at his job?

[vectron]

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

Well, if he's just bad at his job and not intentionally skewing balance in favour of his own armies, then I suppose we might even get lucky with some units getting cheaper or better. Could go either way, sort of thing.

You also have to keep in mind that part of getting assigned to writing a 'dex is being told "look, we've been having trouble selling some kits since 6th was introduced; beef them up a bit, will you?" So anything not being good right now is likely to get beefed up - fex'es, plain stealers, gaunts etc - just because he's been told to.

[hellz]

I play high elves in fantasty and Ward wrote our new book a few months back. I think he did a really good job, theres great internal balance and the army works really well with synergy, its now hard to make a list because theres no dud units, everything has a role it can play which makes each game interesting as we are spoiled for choice and you can take a radically different list each time or make themes armies without severly handicapping yourself. The fluff for high elves is already very well established so he couldn't make a mess out of that. He made one magic item people claim is overpowered and that's the banner of the world dragon but I have taken it a few times and it has had little to no effect on the game, people I know who play demons and have actually played a game against the new elves have also not had any problem winning despite the internet armchair generals screaming the banner is OP and daemons have no chance what so ever. If ward does write the next nid book I will be happy.

[infornography]

After having thought it through some I think Ward is the dex writer we need this time through. Our codex is in terrible shape right now and Phil Kelley doesn't tend to shake things up much. I DON'T want Cruddace back, and of the regular 40k authors that pretty much leaves Ward. He writes overpowered dexes and destroys fluff wherever his gaze lands, but he shakes things up and doesn't tend to leave a lot of useless units. Once he has gotten our codex roughly where it needs to be, I hope our 7th ed author is one who is a bit better with fluff and fine tuning like Phil Kelly, but he wields a scalpel when what our codex needs really is a sledgehammer.

As for Ward being terrible at writing a codex, I will agree his fluff is pretty terrible, but Necrons came out pretty good. Lots of interesting synergy, good options in every slot, many solid competitive builds, and no significant weaknesses. Yes there are a couple broken things in it (mind shackle scarabs come to mind), but taken as a whole, it is a solid codex. More than can be said for some of the ones to come out since 6th Ed hit.

[chuckles]

Necrons fluff was great. Haven't read the HE book but I've heard good things. Ward now is not the same as Ward when he wrote the 5th ed Marines codex, he's learned a lot since then.

[ZergLord]

Aug 12, 2013 8:02:04 GMT Space is pretty big said:

So as I read through all this I can't help but wonder:

What if he's just bad at writing codexs?

Consider for a moment that maybe he just lacks the mathematical skills for forming a balanced point system, and hasn't the creative talent for making a compelling back story.

No, I won't even consider that because he's actually a good codex writer.

His codexes were very strong when they came out and are still good: SMs are a bit outdated, Necrons became better in 6th Ed and, although I'm not sure if this is true, only Blood Angels became worse. His record shows that he knows what he's doing. You also have to consider how GW operates. Many design decisions are probably forced upon the Dev team, because GW only cares about selling models.

His story writing skills are questionable, but let's be honest the rules are what matter the most in 40K. Ward's SM fluff and "everyone wants to be like Ultramarines!" never made people quit playing Space Marines, while WHFB 8th Ed core rules destroyed the game and barely anyone plays it.

Why doesn't anyone talk about Phil Kelly? Well, because he's much more subtle than Ward, and yet he's much worse. Most of the time he copy-pastes a codex. How about his Space Wolves book? That thing is a mess, too much of the stuff there is either pure garbage or insanely good and it's full of borderline insane rules. And do I have to remind you people about his 4th Ed Tyranid codex, Codex: Carnifexes? Like I said in the prevous thread, the only reason why people whine about Ward is that they got their asses handed too many times by his armies.

[N.I.B.]

Matt Ward has redeemed himself since he wrecked Fantasy with the 7th ed Daemons of Chaos, he writes excellent rules for those of us that don't care much about background. I would be happy to hear Matt Ward was the main guy behind the new Nid codex.
Cruddace is the current codex wrecker and I was happy to hear he did the Spezz Mahreens. Let every other army experience the dead hand of Cruddace.

[tylertt]

I honestly don't care who writes the dex so long as Cruddace does not. Just give us well balanced units, a few new kits, and some cool rules to help us in regards to the allies, and no fortifications issues.

[Davor]

Aug 12, 2013 8:02:04 GMT Space is pretty big said:

What if he's just bad at writing codexs?

Consider for a moment that maybe he just lacks the mathematical skills for forming a balanced point system, and hasn't the creative talent for making a compelling back story.

You talking about Ward or Cruddece?

I think Ward is awsome. Not in 40K but in LotR. You really can't say that LotR is not really balanced (well compared to 40K and Fantasy it's the most balanced system) and it was written by Mathew Ward. So he can do well awsome rules and points. When it comes to 40K, not sure why he is off. Maybe it's the other writers who don't write on the Matt scale.

[jocke01]

The biggest problem isn't the writers when it comes to gw's codexes IMO. The problem is that they don't seem to have enough playtesting with qualified players, that would solve really underpowered/underpriced units and the same with over. As well as re-writing some rules that don't make sense in practice like the tyrgon hole rule and many other.

[Davor]

The problem is not there is not enough play testers. GW has their head so far up their arse, it's not funny. I herd from a play tester for CSM 4th edition. They told them what was wrong with it. You know what GW told them? "They are wrong and if they keep it up, they will be kicked out."

So GW doesn't listen to advice or criticism. Even from their own play testers. Now I hear the play testing is done internally so it's even worse. So from my guess from what I hear, and read it's basically what the writers think, they think they are right and nobody knows any better.

So until money talks (which it doesn't seem it is) GW philsophy will not change. We can complain all we want and nothing will happen untill they don't make the money they are happy with. Sales don't matter, sales are down, but with raising prices, and cutting custs, profits are still there. So until they price themselves out and profits go down, GW will not listen to none of us.

[jocke01]

Then they don't use playtesting so that's still the problem. If that story is true then that explains why so much rules don't make sense man it's just sad.

[coredump]

They also had problems with playtesters signing NDA's, but still blabbing all about the new Dex anyway.

[chuckles]

The latest rules appear to have been playtested far better than they have been in the past, and they've started crediting them in the books. Make of that what you will

[Davor]

Aug 12, 2013 23:44:32 GMT chuckles said:

The latest rules appear to have been playtested far better than they have been in the past, and they've started crediting them in the books. Make of that what you will

That is good to know. I will see if that is in the DA and CSM codex. It's all I have for 6th edition.