Well, it is easy to fall in love with Space Marines. I hate them, by and large, and even I considered starting up a Marine army at some point. On their own, they are a very cool concept and a great looking mini range with some very iconic fluff.
But what makes them equally easy to hate is what they have done to this game. As I said, on their own, they are great, but what makes them deplorable is the utter over-saturation of them in 40k. As has been pointed out by so many posters above, the number of 40k players that regularly or exclusively play Marines is anywhere between 50% and 90%, depending on where you live. Why? Why why why?
Yes, they're a cool army, but that's not to say other armies aren't cool. Newbies and veteran players alike get sucked in by the Marines so readily. It is detestable. Personally I can't stand the argument that "They are the best army to begin with", or "They are the ultimate Newbie army". Ugh. Any army can be a newbie army. Even something as complex as DE, Eldar, or Daemonhunters. So long as a player is smart and up for a challenge, they can learn the game with any race. The upside to a newbie choosing some army other than Marines is that they have to work harder to win from the get go, and therefore one could argue that they are actually testing themselves more and refining their playstyle to a greater degree than a Marine player. In politically-uncorrect words: they can't rely on a sissy army that makes it easier to win with, and thus become better players because they actually have to cultivate some strategy in order to win.
I have the utmost respect for non-Marine players of any kind, and I've always felt we need as many of them as we can. So I guess we anti-Marine players have to spread the word. We have to counter GW's SM brainwashing tactics and steer as many newbies off of marines as we can. Otherwise, this already awful problem will just keep getting worse.
Well, at least we non-Marine players can take pride in the armies we play.
Space Marines suck.
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