Editing Advancing the Storyline (section)

==Why they're wrong==
Some people — [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|Daddy Issues Dembski]] being one of its most frequent proponents — hold the view that this attitude is a load of shit, and that it completely misunderstands the nature of the 40k setting.

This is because 40k isn't a story, and in fact, doesn't have a "storyline"; while events from it, such as the [[Black Crusade]]s and the [[Badab War]], have had their stories told, there's no single, overarching story that the setting exists to tell (unlike universes such as those of [[Star Wars]] or [[Doctor Who]], where all other stories are anchored to one central, unifying narrative). 40k is simply a setting in which stories take place, and has ten thousand years and a whole galaxy in which to set them, so expecting the timeline to "advance" to "continue" or "finish" the "story" is a stupid idea.

The other, more practical issue with advancing the storyline is that a major change to it is likely to have severe reprecussions on one or more of the different factions, which may not always be welcome changes. To use the most obvious example, consider what effect story progression would have on the Imperium of Man. The majority of 40k players favor one of the many Imperium-aligned factions. Assuming that the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|God-Emperor]] doesn't get resurrected and the Golden Throne isn't fixed before it fails (which itself is rather unlikely and has a good chance of causing problems of its own), the sheer number of threats that the [[Imperium]] faces on a constant basis will tear it apart as soon as the Emperor snuffs it, leading to the enslavement and/or destruction of humanity. And no Imperium means that about half of the armies currently in the game will no longer exist, leaving numerous [[fa/tg/uys]] stuck with unusable armies and a serious grudge over being given the [[Squat]] treatment. Needless to say, Games Workshop's profits would be hit incredibly hard by the departure of so many paying customers, so they have no choice but to keep the Imperium afloat. Although this has the infuriating side effect of causing the setting to grow stagnant and unchanging (much like the Imperium itself), GW can't afford to appease one group of complaining neckbeards over another which would complain even more loudly if their armies were suddenly made unusable.

At the same time, it would be equally risky for GW to risk upsetting the status quo for any other race. For example, if the [[Tyranids]] started arriving in full force, the [[Tau]] would cease to exist as well because they'd be the first to get nommed; naturally, this would infuriate Tau players. The [[Eldar]] dying out completely and forming [[Ynnead]] would meet with an equally chilly reception from both Eldar and [[Slaanesh]] players. Similarly, unified [[Necrons]] would be such a juggernaut that they'd be able to wipe out all other factions effortlessly (unless the Mechanicus shares with other Imperial factions, which will never happen), which is also something GW wants to avoid. If the removal of the Squats (which were always a rather small army with only a handful of players) was enough to produce a major outcry, then the [[rage]] produced by the removal of a major faction will be truly unimaginable.

Basically, in order to keep everyone happy, any advancement of the status quo in 40k would have to result in all the factions still being more or less equally matched. That is, the same essential status quo would have to be maintained, making the plot advancement meaningless. Meaningfully advancing the story would logically spell death for a playable faction, and GeeDubs has no financial incentive to kill off a playable faction. Would you want to play a [[Imperium of Man|faction that gets canonically boned no matter how well you play?]] No, no you would not, <s>and GeeDubs won't ever do that to you.</s> WRONG, see the End Times below.