Laurie Goulding

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Laurie Goulding prayed enough to the Chaos Gods to ascend from fanboy to Black Library editor, and then pleased his dark gods enough to become the chief editor of the Horus Heresy novels (so the equivalent of a Daemon Prince). He is not beloved by the community; however, he's also not that hated either. Due to his position, he now sees some of the worst side of the fandom, via it being sent to him through emails. He's said that he frequently gets emails demanding that Games Workshop pay the emailer for compensation, because something in a Black Library book was similar to their made up chapter, or that they deserve to be credited by name in all discussions involving some reveal, because their theory that they posted on a forum turned out to be true. This has made him, understandably if not unfortunately, sarcastic, abrasive, and egotistical towards fans. He still, however, has had some fan contact, through forum discussions on his webiste, and people there are generally cool with him. This is after he tried going on dakkadakka and Warseer and absolutely hated it. However, even the veterans of those sites will acknowledge that there's a lot of toxicity and garbage, so he can't really be blamed there.

The Ascended Fanboy

Once, Laurie Goulding was one of the most ardent of all 30k fanboys, back in the day when 30k was not even the ghost of a thing and was only in a forgotten card game by Sabretooth. His fandom was such that he created his own 30k fanwebsite called 'The Great Crusade', which he hosted. There the first 30k community was born, comprising those whose love of the Horus Heresy was such that they converted whole armies out of Greenstufed MK VII turned into MK IV and that one metal Mk II and III model that existed reproduced a hundred times. Goulding himself sent several petitions to GW asking for the Horus Heresy to become a game in its own right, and went to every Games Day to ask the same question in person to the GW people there. His level of commitment eventually payed off, as the Horus Heresy team at Black Library saw they needed a canon and continuity editor after several major goofs, including both Fulgrim and Magnus commanding the 28th Expeditionary Fleet at the same time, and approached him. And thus did the fanboy ascend to command the series he had once championed.

Goulding's Problems

Unfortunately, Goulding tends to embody and reaffirm a lot of the problems that people have with Games Workshop. While he does honestly try to have contact with fans, he doesn't seem to listen to what they have to say. Instead, preferring to say that the fans are foolish for interpreting a novel a certain way and say how good the novels have been and how they're getting even better. This is a problem, because it suggests that instead of seeing why fans are interpreting things incorrectly and looking to correct it in future novels, he just openly mocks people and keeps assuming he's doing it right (a true Deamon Prince of GW, indeed).

He has said that he does make changes when fans correctly guess twists, though. However, this also suggests that: a) having a twist was so important to him that he would rather change the plot so it's harder to guess (which may mean that the plot gets weakened), b) he honestly thinks that most 40k lore isn't very predictable (even most of the "twists" people see coming while reading the books) and c) that even if fans love some crazy theory that involves a twist it probably won't come true, soley on the basis that we already believed it (that and people will be demanding credit and money; see above).

The last big problem some have had with Goulding (aside from people's normal complaints) is his take on canon. Much like many people's complaints with an infamous Games Workshop employee, he has a bit of a these are my ideas and this is how it is take with the canon. While other authors and employees may allow wiggle room for your own ideas and theories to unfold, Laurie Goulding tends to have an idea in mind and for that idea to be the only one. This is fine with fan works who are interpreting cryptic or completely untold lore, but for someone official to say that your idea for your beloved chapter is completely wrong (probably followed by: and you should feel bad for it, if it's coming from Goulding) then it's a bit disheartening.

Goudling is also adamant that Blood Ravens are not Thousand Sons (or any other loyalist Chaos chapter) [1], and that only current edition codices are canon (RIP Malice).

In the end, Games Workshop is known as a terrible company that makes terrible decisions and (in the past anyways) has said that they are not hiring people based off of their skill. So, expecting too much is probably your fault to begin with. Enjoy whatever aspect of the hobby you want and just plug your ears and close your eyes towards the part you hate. After all, this should be an enjoyable pastime, not one filled with hate.