a very quick signal boost
May. 2nd, 2011 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seventheI've been meaning to post this for a while, and I wasn't around a computer much this weekend and didn't want to post it from my phone - I wanted to at least think about the words a little bit.
I use AO3; I like AO3, I like it a lot. I have friends who are on the OTW Board, who are involved in Tag Wrangling, who do other things I only vaguely know and understand. So I'm not really involved here - only peripherally.
But... that's kind of the problem (as I say in my comment), because I don't know much about AO3 or the OTW, and they really only appear in my personal fandom circle as "Here's a place you can post that has fixed most structural problems other sites have." They're not present, they're not visible, they're not welcoming. There's no community on AO3, and community is a big part of fandom.
And that sucks.
But it wouldn't be half as bad if I didn't keep hearing faint strains of, but we want you! We want to expand to tiny fandoms, to video games and anime, to non-Western fandoms; we want to involve you. But they don't, and they haven't, and it isn't like Final Fantasy fandom is dead, I compile![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ff_press once a week, I run ff_exchange; it sure isn't dead and it keeps getting revived every time Squeenix wants another $30 from my wallet.
But they say this, and do nothing; and then other things happen that really make me feel strange and unwelcome.
I know my Circle/FList is full of non-Western media fans: Final Fantasy fans, Chrono Trigger fans, other video game fans; anime fans, Sailor Moon and Cowboy Bebop and I don't even know what else fans; even JPop and KPop and other things that just aren't represented at all on the AO3, that don't see it anywhere in their fandoms, in their daily fannish functioning. We aren't there. A lot of us got mad/hurt/upset at Yuletide this year, too. And we still aren't there. And if you look at their latest poll... we still aren't there.
And so to you guys, I'd like to invite some conversation. You're welcome to do it in this entry if you're more comfortable with me - I'll pass it on to the relevant post. But you're also welcome to do it in a more appropriate place if you can please (a) remember to keep this person's fannish and Board identities separate, as they desire; and (b) are respectful to someone who put a lot of thought, time, and work into compiling a really interesting, informative, helpful, and - you know what - downright painful entry.
I offer up here, for perusal, The OTW Server Poll and Fannish Diversity.
Thoughts welcome, and thank you to the Board member who took the time to put this public, transparent, honest document together.
I use AO3; I like AO3, I like it a lot. I have friends who are on the OTW Board, who are involved in Tag Wrangling, who do other things I only vaguely know and understand. So I'm not really involved here - only peripherally.
But... that's kind of the problem (as I say in my comment), because I don't know much about AO3 or the OTW, and they really only appear in my personal fandom circle as "Here's a place you can post that has fixed most structural problems other sites have." They're not present, they're not visible, they're not welcoming. There's no community on AO3, and community is a big part of fandom.
And that sucks.
But it wouldn't be half as bad if I didn't keep hearing faint strains of, but we want you! We want to expand to tiny fandoms, to video games and anime, to non-Western fandoms; we want to involve you. But they don't, and they haven't, and it isn't like Final Fantasy fandom is dead, I compile
ff_press once a week, I run ff_exchange; it sure isn't dead and it keeps getting revived every time Squeenix wants another $30 from my wallet. But they say this, and do nothing; and then other things happen that really make me feel strange and unwelcome.
I know my Circle/FList is full of non-Western media fans: Final Fantasy fans, Chrono Trigger fans, other video game fans; anime fans, Sailor Moon and Cowboy Bebop and I don't even know what else fans; even JPop and KPop and other things that just aren't represented at all on the AO3, that don't see it anywhere in their fandoms, in their daily fannish functioning. We aren't there. A lot of us got mad/hurt/upset at Yuletide this year, too. And we still aren't there. And if you look at their latest poll... we still aren't there.
And so to you guys, I'd like to invite some conversation. You're welcome to do it in this entry if you're more comfortable with me - I'll pass it on to the relevant post. But you're also welcome to do it in a more appropriate place if you can please (a) remember to keep this person's fannish and Board identities separate, as they desire; and (b) are respectful to someone who put a lot of thought, time, and work into compiling a really interesting, informative, helpful, and - you know what - downright painful entry.
I offer up here, for perusal, The OTW Server Poll and Fannish Diversity.
Thoughts welcome, and thank you to the Board member who took the time to put this public, transparent, honest document together.
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-03 03:26 pm (UTC)Since then, Western media companies for video games at least have tried a lot harder to provide quality, resulting in games like Borderlands (if you like that) or Portal and Portal 2, or the new Mortal Kombat. By contrast, Japan's giving us crap like 3rd Birthday that rips out the soul of once respected series in hopes of selling on cheap and shameful gimmicks, and similarly a lot of video games and animes are falling into a trap set by going after only what they think will sell more copies of something. For example, if they think sex sells, they keep adding more boobs and sex scenes. If they think little girls sell more copies of something, they turn little girls into the focus and completely ignore viable storylines that don't involve little girls. Plus, of course, for anime there's a greater obsession with harem anime or yaoi-based stuff when we used to get great stuff like Rurouni Kenshin and Serial Experiments Lain.
There are still definitely some gems out there, to be sure. Demon's Souls is a damn fine game with amazing atmosphere, Valkyria Chronicles has many anime cliches but makes use of a war setting in fascinating ways, Bayonetta takes sex appeal and takes it into an overdrive parody that somehow becomes badass in the process, etc. It's just that all the uninspired lowest common denominator crap is burying the gems from view.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-03 04:30 pm (UTC)Shin Megami Tensei seems to be an anchor for a lot of the pre-2000s RPG fans right now though.
(I recently jumped into Warcraft. I'm still having trouble figuring out what's different about the fandom - if it was a JRPG, we'd be overrun by Illidan/Kael and the het shipwars between Jaina/Thrall, Jaina/Kael and Jaina/Arthas would be epic.)
no subject
Date: 2011-05-03 06:08 pm (UTC)Considering that, my guess is they moved to those shows for the same reason I don't write many FF4 fics anymore even though I love the game to pieces. The old stuff can get a little boring to work with after a while, while the new stuff sucks (I mean in general, though in my personal opinion this applies to FF4:TA too). The shows you mentioned present something new to try out and enjoy, sort of like the thrill of opening a new box of
chocolatesvideo game and exploring that new world. There's also a fair amount of uniqueness to the new stuff, clever ideas and such, whereas Japanese video games and anime are starting to slip into finding out whatever seems to be popular at the time and recycling it.Which makes it not too surprising that more video game companies are talking about how they want to enter the FPS market after seeing the success of Call of Duty. It's making Activision a lot of money, so these companies are going to milk it until it's dry. I miss the old Japanese creative appreciation and yearning.
That's my take on the situation anyway! :)