Topic: "real-world" influences on 40k?

[Re-roll?!]

Also who could forget the entire betrayal of the emperor by his favorite son who thought that he would be a better holder of absolute power and took half the angles...erm...spac e marines with him to a bloody civil war which lead to the corrupted space marines fleeing to the eye of terror. That's right out of the biblical story of God's betrayal by Lucifer and the eye of terror being hell.

Of course, GW thankfully did change a few things and had, but who can blame them it worked wonders for the development of the Imperium and they can't be sued for it so why the heck not?

[Cripple, Whose Corporeal Form is Now a Shade of Blue]

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Tyrinads=zerg=starship trooper bugs

Actually tyranids sort of coined the "bugs trying to devour all" so really they sort of act as an influence to other sci-fi settings

[u9k13]

I'd be careful about using the word 'stolen'. It's a rather aggressive term. I would go with 'inspired'. They didn't steal the design of the Land Raider from the Tank, for example, the Tank inspired the Land Raider.

Nope 'stolen' is about right. Virtually the whole of 40K 'history' is lifted pretty much directly from mythological or religious texts. And its not at all subtle about it either.

And lets face it even SM's are copied from starship troopers (the book not the naff film), most SM fluff is direct biblical plagerism, right down to the names of lots of the characters. Tyranids are archanid clones from ST.

I don't have a problem with this, but lets be honest about it.

Ironic really considering how arsey GW are about protecting their 'own' IP!

[Cripple, Whose Corporeal Form is Now a Shade of Blue]

Tyranids are Zerg clones...

No...

The tyranid concept is older than starcraft by years. Switch those around.

Hmmm... this topic appears to be straying to a discussion on who copied who, this is distressing.

[FifthWindDieGermanator]

Well, GW did copy people to get the background it has, or "got influenced", which means that is basically what this thread is about.

[praetorian1]

lord Solar Machirus campaign is close to Aelxander the great, except he failed at the end and became a drunk
Boo

[Scorn]

If you're looking at the "insect" race then the order would go:  1.  Bugs from Starship Troopers in 1959  2.  Tyranids from Rick Priestly's Rogue Trader in '87 I believe and then 3.  Zerg in 1998 the original release of Starcraft.

However, numerous other sources have involved the idea of alien insects.  Furthermore, the Tyranids to a greater or lesser degree have attempted to incorporate a generic "dinosaur" feel to them, which at least goes to set them a little apart.

As for GW Space Marines being anything like the MI from Starship Troopers, I just don't see it except for wearing power armour.

[Toad_Raider]

The Soldiers from Dune have been stated every now and then as being possible influences on Space Marines.  Again, the link is rather tenuous in my book - the 'harshest worlds warriors' before formal training seems about it really.

[Cripple, Whose Corporeal Form is Now a Shade of Blue]

Dune does have lasguns... but I suspect that that idea may have been around longer than either idea. 

[Dr. Ravingburger]

I see Drop Pods as a connection between SST (again the book, which is an excellent story)

Lots of historical stuff mostly. I just see a connection between the Adeptus Custodes and the Praetorian Guard.

[Mr Draken]

Nids were based on the origonal novels and movies from Aliens, not SST, or SC, or anything else, you want to know why? go look at the movies, specifically the look of the alien queen, hive tyrant anyone?

[Irandrura]

Or we could look at the designer's notes.

In order to do so, Jes went back to the original Tyranids, as they appeared in the First Edition of Warhammer 40,000. "A misconception that has grown up around Tyranids is that they are insects," explains Jes. "They're not that at all, but they do have six limbs. People even refer to Tyranids as 'bugs,' which I think is fine - from an Imperial Guardsmen's point of view, referring to something he is completely ignorant (and scared) of in this way makes sense!" Jes relates that originally, Tyranids were conceived more as 'alien dinosaurs,' a phrase Phil also brought up. "Even the name offers a clue," says Jes. "Tyran doesn't just relate to the planet on which the race was first encountered - it is also meant to conjure mental images of beasts such as the Tyrannosaurus Rex."

You will notice that early Hive Tyrants did not resemble the Alien Queen at all.

[Mr Draken]

Actually, they do, the origonal concept drawings for the queen were very similar to thos pics, her head was closer to her body and she had armor casing, much more like a bug then she turned out to be in the movies, and even that model i can see similarities to the queen in the movies, the head shape(minus the exo shell) looks very similar to how the queens head is shapped.

[Cpt. Pain]

Actually, the old tyrants look closer to the Xenomorph/Ripley hybrid in the later film (ressurection?).

And you are correct in pointing out that SC came AFTER 40k. Blizzard and GW did work together on SC, but as the rumour goes, they fell out, and Blizzard didn't bother changing much (terran marines), just the names. (no idea if this is actually true or not).

Overall, there is alot of "sharing" in fantasy/Si-Fi, and 40k is no exception.



Back on topic, yes 40k does borw from real-world stuff, you name a piece of fiction that DOESN'T.

[Mr Draken]

But did u know, the hybrid is actually going back to an origonal drawing for the aliens? some of the first concept art put together. it was changed into what we now know as the classic ripley aliens.
On another note, ive heard the blizzard GW rumour before, someone said to me not long ago(im a WoW player) online that GW were threatening to sue them over some of the new skins and models for SC2, as i havnt actually gone and looked at anything to do with SC2 i have no idea, but do the new game models look similar?

[Cpt. Pain]

Just glancing at the screenshots page for starcraft 2 on gamespot; the Zerg DO look quite close to the Tyranids, and the Terran Marines are some what close (but not as close) to Adeptus Astartes.



For example, this is [insert correct SC2 name] Zerg from SC2,but you could very easily pass it off as a "Dawn of War" tyranid ravener with a tyrant head:

[TiberiusThyben]

Hydralisk, its a hydralisk...

[Mr Draken]

lol whats the bet that when(if ever) DOW 2 comes out and the nids are in play GW get sued for using models to similar to the ones in SC2?, i could see it happening afterall blizzard are just as bad as GW with protecting thier IP, somewhat more in some places.
Maybe this is why we havnt seen the nids in DoW yet...

[Heretek]

We haven't seen Tyranids in Dawn of War because the engine couldn't handle them properly, or something like that.

[FifthWindDieGermanator]

We haven't seen Tyranids in Dawn of War because the engine couldn't handle them properly, or something like that.

Spoken for truth. For what GW and the desiners want the Tyranids to be in DoW, the engines can't handle it. A little part of me will die inside, however, if Tyranids never make it into DoW.