Things inspired or influenced by 40k

[grailkeeper]

Unpopular opinion but in the movie "Showtime" with Robert DeNiro and Eddy Murphy the bad guys obviously have bolters.

Never heard of but I like those actors. Any good?

[Brother Tyler]

Putrid Choir brings up a very important point that needs to be considered: Just because something developed after the creation of WH40K incorporates concepts that are reminiscent of concepts that are in WH40K doesn't necessarily mean that the later thing is necessarily inspired or influenced by WH40K. WH40K, after all, draws upon so many sources of inspiration and influence that it's possible that the later settings are drawing upon those earlier sources, too. So much creative content these days is a reinvention of older material, so there are bound to be similarities.

[Sloeberjong]

Honestly, I think most of these things have influenced 40k more than the other way around. The exception being Event Horizon where the director and writer have stated to be familiar with the 40k universe. I think that movie should be 40k canon. However, Starship troopers (a wonderful satire and great movie if you ask me) has influenced 40k a LOT. I mean, after that movie came out they made new cadians and we all know what they look like. 

 

until later 2000's 40k was pretty niche and GW is notorious for borrowing (some would say stealing) from others. Basically, my opinion is that GW has taken things for 40k that have been done before, so it's a circular reasoning to believe stuff has been influenced by 40k when it originated already from another place...if you get what I mean. 

[Lexington]

To get back to OP, I think Mutant Chronicles was fairly derivative of 40k; it was basically 40k + Cyberpunk. The combat also had a similar cross platform bravery; they simultaneously released a miniature game, a role-playing game and collectible card game.  

 

More than you'd think, even. I just came across this post in a Warzone/MC group this morning, which is supposedly by someone involved in the creation of the setting. They say Mutant Chronicles was originally conceived to support the release of a Space Crusade ripoff in the US market, since GW wasn't looking to port their game stateside any time soon. They never did release that particular game, but Target ended up following GW's business model in a lot of ways regardless.

 

However, Starship troopers (a wonderful satire and great movie if you ask me) has influenced 40k a LOT. I mean, after that movie came out they made new cadians and we all know what they look like. 

 

until later 2000's 40k was pretty niche and GW is notorious for borrowing (some would say stealing) from others. Basically, my opinion is that GW has taken things for 40k that have been done before, so it's a circular reasoning to believe stuff has been influenced by 40k when it originated already from another place...if you get what I mean. 

 

Ehh, I think you may be seeing things, re: Cadians. The current plastics didn't come out until a better part of a decade after Starship Troopers was released. They also look a lot more like plastic versions of the old metal Cadians than anything else, and that line predates the movie.

 

You're right in general, though - the gaming scene of the 90's was fairly incestuous, ideas-wise, and was caught up in the larger congealing of nerd culture market around the comic book boom and definitive sci-fi movies of the era. 40K's always had aspects that set it apart from the rest, but a lot of what makes it distinctive today is that, unlike a lot of others, it managed to survive.

Edited August 27, 2021 by Lexington

[Dumah]

 

Unpopular opinion but in the movie "Showtime" with Robert DeNiro and Eddy Murphy the bad guys obviously have bolters.

Never heard of but I like those actors. Any good?

In a word: no

[Sloeberjong]

 

However, Starship troopers (a wonderful satire and great movie if you ask me) has influenced 40k a LOT. I mean, after that movie came out they made new cadians and we all know what they look like. 

 

until later 2000's 40k was pretty niche and GW is notorious for borrowing (some would say stealing) from others. Basically, my opinion is that GW has taken things for 40k that have been done before, so it's a circular reasoning to believe stuff has been influenced by 40k when it originated already from another place...if you get what I mean. 

 

Ehh, I think you may be seeing things, re: Cadians. The current plastics didn't come out until a better part of a decade after Starship Troopers was released. They also look a lot more like plastic versions of the old metal Cadians than anything else, and that line predates the movie.

 

 

I must be getting old. It seemed so short after each other, but yeah, turns out it was almost a decade. I still think they look like the troopers from the movie tho. The old Cadians didn't have chest armour like the "new" ones. The shoulder pauldrons are still there though, the starship troopers didn't have those. It could be a spin on the general space soldier trope (like in Aliens or whatnot).

 

Anyway, I must say, although I think GW took more from others than the other way around I agree that they did put their own spin on things to make it stand apart. 40k does have a specific kind of atmosphere different from many other sci-fi settings. It wasn't a critisism of me towards GW, if you borrow something better do it right and make it good because I love the 40k setting. 

[N1SB]

I'm late to the thread as I thought a long time whether or not to even post. Ultimately, I think this might be a really useful sharing.

+++ It's hard to pinpoint sources of inspiration or influence +++

I talked with Andy Chambers, 1st gen 40k designer who really spearheaded its development from 3rd ed onwards especially, about things that drew inspiration or influence from 40k, specifically StarCraft actually (and he'd go on to become Creative Director of StarCraft II). He quite frankly didn't seem to mind any direct or indirect similarities, but what most interested me was how he framed the issue:

"We all draw from the same well/river."

The above quote is almost a direct verbatim from him, I don't remember the analogy being either a well or a river, but it's like many people drink from the same water source. He himself cited the impact of Tolkien on fantasy as a whole, whether it be Warhammer or Dungeons & Dragons or Warcraft, etc. We all watch the same science fiction films or TV.

Because everything does flow together, it's hard to pinpoint exactly from where things come from, except in the following example.

+++ But I KNOW 1 game drew inspiration/influence from 40k +++

There's a browser-game called Archmage that absolutely drew inspiration from 40k. It's from the late '90s/early 2000s, a cross between Magic: the Gathering, the old DOS game Master of Magic, Sid Meier's Civilization and a football manager program.

Btw, on the original site, moving the mouse over the side panels/buttons caused it to light up like a tinted window.

The reason I'm so certain is...well, I designed the front-end for it, as shown above. It's an interesting story or how inspiration/influence works in product design, so I share it now. Seen from the outside, it's this nebulous artsy-fartsy thing; however, from the inside, it's actually pretty operational, managerial.

The original design for the website was done by our South Korean colleagues in the late '90s. The East Asian website design mentality is different...not better or worse...just different. My goal was to organise a lot of gameplay-related information, rules, tutorials and so on in a way that better suited a worldwide audience + 1 thing more: I had to invoke a Western medieval fantasy look & feel.

The challenge was to explain this to our South Korean colleagues. My American manager, who didn't speak Korean, just kept repeating:

Gothic. Gothic. GOTHIC.

Imagine being techy South Koreans who didn't speak English 100% fluently, trying to understand this. They knew Gothic is a form of architecture. By itself, the word "gothic" didn't convey what my manager thought it does. He was almost certainly thinking Teutonic knights and crusades and so on. We know of a different word for what he meant:

Grimdark.

I remember being in this conversation and I waited until my manager was done, seeing the blank expression on my South Korean colleagues' faces, and I said 1 phrase:

"Like inside a dark church."

The metaphor came to me from years of playing Warhammer, it was simply the 1st thing that came to mind, like a page from a Sisters of Battle codex or something. You guys know what grimdark is, but it's hard to say what it is, yet we know it when we see it. I used an analogy with simple English words, but they immediately understood the concept and were quite supportive of it. One would later tell me he was thinking of Blizzard's Diablo, which itself might have been influenced by Warhammer Fantasy, which starts inside a dark church in relation to how it relates to medieval fantasy.

At this point I don't think I even mentioned Warhammer to them, but I completely drew from that blackened well. I was trying to remember if I was even thinking of Warhammer at that point, as this was during my lapsed period between when I left The Hobby around 3rd ed and long before I returned around late 6th, and I think it was subconscious at best. If anything, I remember I lifted something from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series in one of the tutorials I had to write. The Warhammer inspiration/influence simply seeped through.

As I was working on the site, I definitely thought more and more consciously about Warhammer, however. For example, there was a weird glitched unit on the Beta server that I decided to preserve as is, redesigning its lore with the following:

"This is not the death that I had hoped for as a child, but it will do." - unnamed Dwarvern Deathseeker.

The Dwarves are a proud people, valuing their honor over their lives. The Deathseekers are outcasts of Dwarven society that have been shamed, requiring that they dedicate the rest of their lifetimes to seeking redemption at the hands of worthy adversaries. These disgraced warriors are utterly zealous, resorting to desperate tactics that no rational person would use, such as carrying tanks of venom so poisonous that simply being in its presence shortens their life spans considerably. From the Dwarven Deathseekers' viewpoint, this practice simply accelerates the ultimate goal.

This was a fusion of Warhammer Dwarven Slayers with a little bit of Pratchett's humour. In case you're wondering, the quote came from a Japanese samurai's seppuku haiku (I found out at some point before a samurai committed ritual suicide, they had to write a poem). I actually imagined this as the Dwarven Samurai equivalent of Warhammer Slayers at the time.

TL;DR - I know for this 1 experience Warhammer inspired/influenced quite subconsciously at 1st. It wasn't even 40k specifically, but it was simply the general grimdark atmosphere that my mind would rally back to. Inspiration/influence actually is quite insidious in how it works.

I didn't even think about much of this until I had to write this post, that's how subtle it can be. At that time, I tried to explain what we were going for as "like inside a dark church", but if this happened now, I might honestly say, "like Warhammer" because of its current brand recognition.

Edited September 9, 2021 by N1SB

[phandaal]

One of the best 40k films that isn't a 40k film- Event Horizon. I should really watch it again, its been a while.

Event Horizon is what happens when you attempt a warp jump without a Geller field.

[TPS]

The reason I'm so certain is...well, I designed the front-end for it, as shown above.  It's an interesting story or how inspiration/influence works in product design, so I share it now.  Seen from the outside, it's this nebulous artsy-fartsy thing; however, from the inside, it's actually pretty operational, managerial.

 

The original design for the website was done by our South Korean colleagues in the late '90s.  The East Asian website design mentality is different...not better or worse...just different.  My goal was to organise a lot of gameplay-related information, rules, tutorials and so on in a way that better suited a worldwide audience + 1 thing more: I had to invoke a Western medieval fantasy look & feel.

Hey, I played this and remember the stained glass panels. Big thumbs up for getting them on the page - I really liked them!

[Snazzy]

I'm late to the thread as I thought a long time whether or not to even post.  Ultimately, I think this might be a really useful sharing.

 

 

+++ It's hard to pinpoint sources of inspiration or influence +++

 

 

I talked with Andy Chambers, 1st gen 40k designer who really spearheaded its development from 3rd ed onwards especially, about things that drew inspiration or influence from 40k, specifically StarCraft actually (and he'd go on to become Creative Director of StarCraft II).  He quite frankly didn't seem to mind any direct or indirect similarities, but what most interested me was how he framed the issue:

 

"We all draw from the same well/river."

 

The above quote is almost a direct verbatim from him, I don't remember the analogy being either a well or a river, but it's like many people drink from the same water source.  He himself cited the impact of Tolkien on fantasy as a whole, whether it be Warhammer or Dungeons & Dragons or Warcraft, etc.  We all watch the same science fiction films or TV.

 

 

This is a great point.  40K itself is heavily influenced by Dune, one of the most influential sci fi properties of all time.  40K also carries over lots of influence from Tolkien and Moorecock by being the sci fi version of Warhammer Fantasy.  There is also a visual inbreeding, as well.  John Blanche, the most important artist for establishing 40K's aesthetic is open about being influenced by Ian Miller's artwork featured in the Lost and the Damned, as well as Slaves to Darkness.  40K also drew on British sci fi like 2000A.D.  It is likely that what we are seeing as influenced by 40K are in fact products that can trace their lineage back to older sources common to 40K's development.

[mc warhammer]

purely on aesthetics, the terran empire in the latest star trek discovery series; especially when compared to what the mirror universe visuals used to look like in previous ST iterations, it seems to have incorporated a lot of 40k style:

 

https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/619667229975969057/

[nanosquid]

EYE: Divine Cybermancy

 

There's a reason StreumOn got work with Deathwing and Hired Gun.

[USNCenturion]

I remember playing Warcraft 3 when it first came out, and the gryphon rider had a click quote that said “This warhammer cost me 40K, hehehe”. In later versions of the game that quote was gone so Blizzard must have been slapped on the hand by an Inquisitor lol.

[Antarius]

 

I'm late to the thread as I thought a long time whether or not to even post.  Ultimately, I think this might be a really useful sharing.

 

 

+++ It's hard to pinpoint sources of inspiration or influence +++

 

 

I talked with Andy Chambers, 1st gen 40k designer who really spearheaded its development from 3rd ed onwards especially, about things that drew inspiration or influence from 40k, specifically StarCraft actually (and he'd go on to become Creative Director of StarCraft II).  He quite frankly didn't seem to mind any direct or indirect similarities, but what most interested me was how he framed the issue:

 

"We all draw from the same well/river."

 

The above quote is almost a direct verbatim from him, I don't remember the analogy being either a well or a river, but it's like many people drink from the same water source.  He himself cited the impact of Tolkien on fantasy as a whole, whether it be Warhammer or Dungeons & Dragons or Warcraft, etc.  We all watch the same science fiction films or TV.

 

 

This is a great point.  40K itself is heavily influenced by Dune, one of the most influential sci fi properties of all time.  40K also carries over lots of influence from Tolkien and Moorecock by being the sci fi version of Warhammer Fantasy.  There is also a visual inbreeding, as well.  John Blanche, the most important artist for establishing 40K's aesthetic is open about being influenced by Ian Miller's artwork featured in the Lost and the Damned, as well as Slaves to Darkness.  40K also drew on British sci fi like 2000A.D.  It is likely that what we are seeing as influenced by 40K are in fact products that can trace their lineage back to older sources common to 40K's development.

 

Definitely. And in the same way, it is likely that many other creative products/franchises whose origins predate 40k have been inspired by 40k later on in their development (or reimaginings/reboots etc.). Inspiration moves in circles and 40k’s visual design language and atmosphere is both pervasive and inspiring. Inspiration is also kind of vague and amorphous, so it isn’t neatly arranged into categories or corresponding to specific franchises.

 

For example, someone doing a movie adaptation of 2000AD comics today would be very likely to be aware of -and inspired by- 40k in addition to the 2000AD source material.

[Skaorn]

the PC game Age of Wonders: Planetfall has some elements that reminds me of 40K.  Not the part about it being a fantasy franchise that decided to go Sci-fi, but things like the Star Union falling apart due to the collapse of  FTL travel for a time.

[Domhnall]

I'm sure there's quite a lot of things that have been influenced by 40k, but the other side to consider is that there's a good chance some have been influenced by the same thing that the 40k equivalent was influenced by. 

Which admittedly is less fun to theorise, but is interesting in that it's like a family tree of influence.