AHC: Make Warhammer 40K More Popular Than Star Wars in 2013

Mountaineer

Thread title says it all really, with *any* non-ASB cultural and/or economic PODs after 1.1.1995 make Warhammer 40K more popular than Star Wars in 2013. September 11, the War on Terror and other terrorist attacks/wars still occur as in OTL up to 2005 as do natural disasters. The only mandatory election result is Bush jr. winning in 2001.

I think that having George Lucas mess up Episode 1 even more than OTL combined with Games Workshop selling the rights to make a Warhammer 40K film to Peter Jackson in 1995 or 1996 (this would almost certainly butterfly away the modern LoTR films which Jackson got the rights to in 1997) and have it be released in time for the 3rd edition release in 1998, maybe even at the same time as the ATL even-more-shittacular Star Wars Episode 1, would be a good starting point.
 
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Artaxerxes

Artaxerxes

Banned
Blizzard makes the deal with GW in the 90's and the Warhammer RTS is born with Blizzard becoming part of GW similar to Black Library, within 10 years the franchise piggybacks on the hype surrounding Dredd and announces a movie deal. This goes somewhat south in when the film Ultramarines is released in 2001 but it turns out to be horribly camp and cheesy and not a success with mainstream audiences, yet it does garner a cult following of dedicated nerds.

Blizzard announces World of Warhammer in the 2000's and the franchise does exceptionally well out of WoW and movie deals are whispered about over the next 10 years or so. Blizzard works alongside several animation studies and is creative consultant on several animated projects and continues producing very strong FMV's for its games. A strategy game for 40k comes out in 2006 after acquiring a small development studio responsible for WW2 games.

Thanks to the success of Game of Thrones and its TV series in 2011 GW announces the development of a low tech Imperial Guard based TV series with HBO. Due to growing disillusionment with Star Wars Warhammer is increasingly seen as a more mature avenue for geek audiences and also more realistic and consistent.

In 2013 the Horus Heresy trilogy is announced, while a projected With Hunter movie is planned to explore the Old World.
 
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Sandman396

Banned
Mountaineer said:
Thread title says it all really, with *any* non-ASB cultural and/or economic PODs after 1.1.1995 make Warhammer 40K more popular than Star Wars in 2013. September 11, the War on Terror and other terrorist attacks/wars still occur as in OTL up to 2005 as do natural disasters. The only mandatory election result is Bush jr. winning in 2001.

I think that having George Lucas mess up Episode 1 even more than OTL combined with Games Workshop selling the rights to make a Warhammer 40K film to Peter Jackson in 1995 or 1996 (this would almost certainly butterfly away the modern LoTR films which Jackson got the rights to in 1997) and have it be released in time for the 3rd edition release in 1998, maybe even at the same time as the ATL even-more-shittacular Star Wars Episode 1, would be a good starting point.
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Why this condition?
 

sharlin

Banned
That amusing bit aside the problem is the grimdark. If you look at the Warhammer 40k universe it really is a joyless place to exist and be in. It makes the Judge Dredd universe look like a playground for kittens on a sunny day it really does.

Whilst its a universe that screams out for an MMORPG and probably a manga/animated movie/series I doubt you could do a live action one without neutering the universes grimdark you'd also have to make it more popular and known in the 80s outside of the gamer market (GW don't advertise).

You'd also have to make starwar's III, IV and V be simply not as good. Regardless of how godaweful Episode I was, when you saw that trailer, you knew that you was going to see it. Nostalgia brought people back to see Episode 1, whilst with II and III we (myself included) kept coming back like a house wife returning to an abusive husband in the vain hope it would get better.
 

Saladan

sharlin said:
That amusing bit aside the problem is the grimdark. If you look at the Warhammer 40k universe it really is a joyless place to exist and be in. It makes the Judge Dredd universe look like a playground for kittens on a sunny day it really does.

Whilst its a universe that screams out for an MMORPG and probably a manga/animated movie/series I doubt you could do a live action one without neutering the universes grimdark you'd also have to make it more popular and known in the 80s outside of the gamer market (GW don't advertise).
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That's not too difficult, the ciaphas cain book series is fairly lighthearted and funny without changing anything about the background. the setting can be whatever it needs to be for whatever purpose. It's a big setting so you can chose to limit the grimdark if needed.
 
machine3589

machine3589

Make the premise less incomprehensible.

Think about it, you know all you need to know about Star Wars after watching the first half hour of Episode IV.

How much do you need to go through to get an adequate understanding of what exactly is going on in Warhammer 40k?

Also making the entire situation less bleak, especially for the Imperium, would help.

Actually, you could just throw away most of the Chaos lore and achieve both of the above. :cool:
 

Phyrx

Banned
I think you have to either make society cooler or Warhammer 40,000 more mainstream. But you know, if you can somehow get a really good high-budget Warhammer film, I think it could be popular without sacrificing the grimdark and all.
 

Uruk

Keep the more lax attitude to licensing GW had earlier, get a movie about WH40K done, have it least some kind internal logic and avoid the constant lore changes.
 

twovultures

Donor
Color-Copycat said:
Make the miniatures cost somewhat less than their weight in gold.
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This probably would do wonders for Warhammer's popularity. Perhaps they could have a shell corporation that sells cheaper (and probably somewhat less insanely detailed) figurines, keeping the game cheaper and getting more people into it?
 

Seraph

it would likely help if they decide they either stick to the dark humor parody/silliness it was early on or something that is not the grimdark overly seriously work it is now.
 

Alex1guy

Uruk said:
Keep the more lax attitude to licensing GW had earlier, get a movie about WH40K done, have it least some kind internal logic and avoid the constant lore changes.
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This I reckon, make a good Space Marine movie or something
 

Timmy811

machine3589 said:
Make the premise less incomprehensible.

Think about it, you know all you need to know about Star Wars after watching the first half hour of Episode IV.

How much do you need to go through to get an adequate understanding of what exactly is going on in Warhammer 40k?

Also making the entire situation less bleak, especially for the Imperium, would help.

Actually, you could just throw away most of the Chaos lore and achieve both of the above. :cool:
Click to expand...
All you need to know is this, I thought the setting looked ridiculous ("Orks in space, really" I thought), as soon as I read that first page I was hooked.

It is the 41st Millennium...
For more than a hundred centuries, the Emperor has sat immobile
on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by
the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might
of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing
invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is
the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are
sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die.

Yet in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal
vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the Daemon-infested miasma
of the warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit
by the Astronomicon, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor’s
will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds.
Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the
Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades
in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary
defence forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the Tech-Priests
of the Adeptus Mechanicus, to name but a few. But for all their
multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present
threat from aliens, heretics, mutants—and worse.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It
is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. These
are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and
science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned.
Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the
grim, dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the
stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter
of thirsting gods.
 
machine3589

machine3589

Timmy811 said:
All you need to know is this, I thought the setting looked ridiculous ("Orks in space, really" I thought), as soon as I read that first page I was hooked.

It is the 41st Millennium...
For more than a hundred centuries, the Emperor has sat immobile
on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by
the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might
of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing
invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is
the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are
sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die.

Yet in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal
vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the Daemon-infested miasma
of the warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit
by the Astronomicon, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor’s
will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds.
Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the
Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades
in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary
defence forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the Tech-Priests
of the Adeptus Mechanicus, to name but a few. But for all their
multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present
threat from aliens, heretics, mutants—and worse.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It
is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. These
are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and
science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned.
Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the
grim, dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the
stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter
of thirsting gods.
Click to expand...

That short intro raises far more questions that it ever answers. Besides, when you actually get into things, it is completely inadequate. No, you have to re-think parts of the fluff, STOP changing it considerably every month or so, and fire the more self-proclaimed geniouses from the staff of GW and especially GW.
 

TheImagineer

Mountaineer said:
Thread title says it all really, with *any* non-ASB cultural and/or economic PODs after 1.1.1995 make Warhammer 40K more popular than Star Wars in 2013. September 11, the War on Terror and other terrorist attacks/wars still occur as in OTL up to 2005 as do natural disasters. The only mandatory election result is Bush jr. winning in 2001.

I think that having George Lucas mess up Episode 1 even more than OTL combined with Games Workshop selling the rights to make a Warhammer 40K film to Peter Jackson in 1995 or 1996 (this would almost certainly butterfly away the modern LoTR films which Jackson got the rights to in 1997) and have it be released in time for the 3rd edition release in 1998, maybe even at the same time as the ATL even-more-shittacular Star Wars Episode 1, would be a good starting point.
Click to expand...

The prequel trilogy wasn't always a sure thing, if Lucas' comments are anything to go by. If Lucas decides not to do Episode 1 at all, a Warhammer 40K film is released at the same time would make a far greater impact in theaters and on pop culture than it could otherwise. Will it still match Star Wars' appeal? I'm not sure, for the same reasons that others have already explained. Would I watch it? Absolutely.
 

Marius Mazzini

Using the OP's provisions how about a bloodier War on Terror (including more successful attacks on American soil post-2005) leading to a darker mood nationally and neocon politicians openly identifying with the Imperium and Warhammer 40K becoming the tool of American nationalist propaganda?
 

TheImagineer

Stahlheim said:
Using the OP's provisions how about a bloodier War on Terror (including more successful attacks on American soil post-2005) leading to a darker mood nationally and neocon politicians openly identifying with the Imperium and Warhammer 40K becoming the tool of American nationalist propaganda?
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I don't know about Warhammer 40K as propaganda--it could actually work as criticism of the War on Terror since it depicts a Black vs. Gray set of multi-sided conflicts. There were a lot of similar movies in the 70s during the Vietnam War, even if they weren't space operas like W 40K is.
 
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