I agree its overglorified image (ultrasmurfs for instance), But allow me to remind everyone here that Space Marines are the MAIN CHARACTERS of Warhammer 40k. What 40k miniature was first? Space Marines. What all official books focus on? Space Marines. What the first 40k game focused on? Space Marines. What do the 40k games focus on? Space Marines. So of course they have to be portrayed as the pinnacle. If you want to portray them better, work for GW and become an IG writer. Honestly though, IGs seem as realistic as they can be. Simple men - farmers, teachers, lawyers, surgeons, are DRAFTED (mostly not volunteering according to the lore) into the IG army, and are given CHEAP, mass produced armor and CHEAP, mass produced weapon. They know fear, for they are just citizens who don't want to simply die. Space Marines are recruits of the best warriors, who have little relation to fear. On top of that, fear is surgically removed from them when they undergo the Astartes procedure. Don't like how "perfect" this sounds? Well that's W40k Universe for you. It is the focus on Space Marines, not Imperial Guards. I would love to see a focus on the IGs. Honestly. But I don't see how it will change the fragility image individual guard. It is the overall image that labels something - something. Space Marines are usually strong, so they are labeled as strong. IGs are usually weak, so they are labeled as weak. If there is 1 good apple out of 100 apples while the rest are spoiled, it is still a stock of bad apples.
Also, your suggestions for making the Guard more equal individually to the other races breaks your (or someone elses) point of not wanting to see Space Marines die quickly as normal soldiers. If we add strong Imperial Guards, Space Marines will die even faster, and that will break the lore further.
Will this ever stop? Eternal Crusade is going to be a video game based on the 40k universe. It is not going to be a perfect representation of the lore, the tabletop game or the lore as it is represented by any novel ever written about it. It is simple, it can't be. Why so? Because this is a game players will have to play in the end. There will be tens, hundreds of thousands of Space Marines and they will die in droves. Many (if not most) of those Space Marines will be incredibly unskilled players whose performance will have absolutely nothing to do with the elite Astartes of 40k. They will fight and die like idiots. But they will not have monstrously increased stats to die less than Orkz, Eldar or any other faction they might ever include in EC. Because, how can you play a game where the most popular faction is stronger, faster, tougher and better equipped than any other (which is not even true, but some people apparently think it is)? Why should anyone play Orkz, Eldar or any other faction they might ever include if Space Marines are to stay "true to the lore"? How would they play it? Why would they spend money on it? Differences between factions should exist. Eldar should be faster, Orkz should be tougher, etc. Equipment, roles, strengths and weaknesses should be different. But even those differences cannot be over the top. If they were, the game would be unplayable for most of the player-base. The game has to be competitive and huge differences in performance will most likely ruin it. So, please, stop citing "the lore" about how much stronger Marines absolutely have to be compared to Orkz or even Guardsmen. It is not going to happen, hopefully. But if it does, woe.
You know NOTHING about the 40k lore. Go play Starcraft. Space Marine had a very good multiplayer part... you played Space Marine or Chaos space marine, and a human was a one hit one kill enemy. The way it should always be in 40k. Of course, the developers will most likely have to think it out, do they get more money out of it if they please the space marine players, or the non-marine players.
At the end of the day, it's a moot point, as Guard aren't in the initital release, and probobly won't be released (if ever!) for a good while.
Later they could be added as a tanker/flyer faction, but we may see them as NPCS helping to defend SM bases (With cultists aiding Chaos, and grots aiding ork defenses and so on) .
That would be the most likely outcome imo. Or perhaps replacing Tyranids for faction balancing etc. (For The Imperium anyway).
