Matthew Ward
Matthew Ward is a writer working for GW, as well as the world's single largest Ultrasmurfs fanboy.
There are few things so capable of inflicting apocalyptic rage in the 40k community writ large as this man. He is as hated by Space Marine players as much as he is loathed by Chaos Marine players. He is as reviled by Tyranid and Imperial Guard players as he is despised by Tau and Dark Eldar. Orks, Eldar, and other factions of the 41st Millenium may normally wish nothing but to murder each other into oblivion, but the one thing virtually all will unite upon is their blinding fucking hate of Matt Ward, a burning rage so potent that it would give an Angry Marine pause.
Take C. S. Goto and give him carte blanche to play with the setting of the 41st millenium. You now know why Matt Ward is hated.
Overview and Analysis
There are two things Matt Ward is infamous for: atrocious fluff-writing that induces vomitting and making fucking broken rulesets for armies.
Your classic case of an ascended fanboy; Matt is a stereotypical over-promoted moron who chooses to change things not based on any respect or reverence for the franchise he works for, but rather to reflect his own personal agenda and how he feels things should be. Initially this was primarily what he was known for, but in more recent times he's gotten better with the crunch in exchange for creating fluff so horrifically stupid that it is worthy of C. S. Goto. Note that whilst his work on crunch has improved, he is known to add a bit of brain-igniting retardation here and there just because he sucks that badly.
In essence, /tg/ regards him as a living embodiment of every giant fuck-up Games Workshop has ever made.
Overhyping a single faction to the exclusion of all others, constantly blowing stories so far out of proportion that they lose all context or believability (especially in the face of previous fluff), constantly trying to one-up his last bullshit story with an even-less-believable story, and not really giving a damn about what any of the other players think of what he does, Matt's abuses have been so consistent and numerous that it has caused several posters on /tg/ to say that Matt Ward is the herald of the impending demise of Warhammer 40k - as if he were one of the horsemen of the apocalypse, riding ahead on an endless wave of Space Marine releases that will inexorably alienate every player of every single faction - both those being updated and not - until each give up in disgust and rage and leave the hobby.
Gallery of Disaster
Below is an ongoing list of Matt Ward's considerable fucktardedness in a concise, easy-to-read format. Feel free to add further examples...
- Responsisble for the Warhammer Fantasy Battles Daemon Codex, which is considered by most players to be the single most game-breaking army list in WHFB history. Matt purportedly set the codex up to be this cheese specifically because he felt Daemons should just be awesome like that. Completely shattered the general game balance and is largely considered the reason he's not allowed to write codexes for WHFB anymore.
- Responsible for widely-ridiculed and openly-despised Fifth Edition verison of Codex: Space Marines, which is basically a Codex full of Ultramarines fanfiction. About half of the Fluff and Crunch was centered around the Ultramarines, with the fluffy bits portraying the Ultramarines as second to the Emprah in damned-near all regards, and that all Space Marines view Roboute Guilliman as their spiritual liege. Even in the face of their own Primarchs. [[[Space Wolves| Any]] who don't are clearly deviants on their way out, no matter how they outnumber the Ultramarines. In some cases, certain special characters are "rumored" to rival (of not exceed) the motherfucking Emperor's power. Did we mention that Matt Ward plays Ultramarines?
- Responsible for the equally-ridiculed and openly-despised Fifth Edition release of Codex: Blood Angels, which brought us the cheese of deep-striking Land Raiders and Flying Librarian Dreadnoughts, both two of the most absolutely broken things ever put to tabletop, and proof that Games Workshop hasn't learned a fucking thing from the WHFB Daemon Codex disaster. The resulting bullshit from this Codex has made players nostalgic for when Necron march of doom and Fish of Fury were the extent of their problems. Don't worry though, he ruined the fluff, too: He's also responsible for the fluff in the aforementioned Codex that has caused /tg/ to announce that the Blood Angels and Necrons are totally bros 4 lyfe, seeing as how Matt Ward depicts the two factions teaming up to take down the Tyranids and then peacefully parting ways afterwards.
His Taint Spreads
As of February 27, 2011, he was known to be writing the Grey Knights codex. /tg/ cringed in horror.
One big question about writing this codex was, if the Ultramarines (his favorite chapter) are already the best out there and their fluff is overdone to the point of enciting Khorne Berserker-esque rage from Reasonable Marines, how the hell is Matt going to write about the Grey Knights, a chapter that is literally, in canon, the best of the fucking best?
A bit of leaked fluff gave us the answer: he'll do it like the total fucking asshole that he is. Gray Knights roam around carving their names in the daemon hearts of daemon primarchs, an act unthinkable until Matt Ward said that it was done. They burned down the gardens of Nurgle, killed Greater Daemons on their own turf, and destroyed Daemon Worlds. All in the warp.
Oh, and he gave them Gundam-esque battlesuits that make even the Tau facepalm.
That sound you heard was your brain shifting without the clutch. Like all fluff Matt Ward produces, it's stupid, ignorant, makes no sense, and goes against a decade and a half of established canon: Meaning it's exactly what we've all come to expect out of Matt "I'm a Giant Faggot" Ward.
Gallery
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Matt Ward masturbates furiously to this every single night.
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The most broken army list in 40k to date.
