a very quick signal boost

[seventhe]

I'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 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.

Comments

Re: Hmm.

[salarta.livejournal.com]

I think it's mostly that the majority of people running the show at Square-Enix have no interest in or respect for previously established IPs except for money to be made, hence Toriyama's antics. He's not entirely a bad writer, if I believe people on FF13, it's that he intentionally chooses to ruin things when it's an IP that he didn't personally create. Even writing FF13, he made the deliberate decision to make it sci fi and turn the summons into mechs which ruined a major theme of the series for no good reason.

That's my take, though. Supposedly, his writing would be good/decent if it was for original IPs.

Re: Hmm.

[rosencrantz.livejournal.com]

That other post was me not logging in, BTW.

More seriously, I think the problem with SqEn games at the moment is that they aren't encouraging new talent to push in new directions, but sticking with things they think are "safe" - and therefore boring. And that is driving the new talent out to new companies. I think the biggest tell for this are all the great games that have been made by the talent SqEn has bled - Shadow Hearts and Lost Odyssey come to mind, though I know there are more. Then compare what they're making now - remakes of the early FF games, a Parasite Eve sequel that looks suspiciously like PE1, and their good sellers at the moment are Kingdom Hearts games - which they collaborate with Disney on, so they're not exactly "original" either. They even finally found a good musical replacement for Uematsu - Hamauzu - and come to think of it, he did a good job on Dirge of Cerberus, too - and that guy has already signed off from SqEn after FF13.

They just need to give new guys with radical ideas a chance. And stop bleeding the talent that they do have!

Re: Hmm.

[salarta.livejournal.com]

The "Parasite Eve sequel" you mentioned is actually absolutely nowhere near in the same hemisphere of quality as PE1. 3rd Birthday literally took everything wonderful and amazing about Parasite Eve and Aya Brea and trashed it in the most insulting way imaginable. Toriyama (scriptwriter) first and Tabata (director) second took a strong, mature, smart and appropriately sexy female protagonist and transformed her into a scared, immature, stupid, skanky-dressing (and posing, for propaganda) teenager-wannabe that just takes it when people make crude remarks about and insult her. Toriyama tried to get it excused by making her act stronger over the course of the game and then reveal it wasn't really Aya that whole time, but through advertising, propaganda and the majority of his script, he and Tabata utterly destroyed everything thing Aya Brea and Parasite Eve ever were.

Which is why I decided after 3rd Birthday's Japanese release this past winter that if they don't make a real Parasite Eve sequel next that retcons 3rd Birthday, brings back the REAL Aya and gets a lot more promotion from Square-Enix, I'm never buying anything from them again for the rest of my life. Such is my absolute disgust with the way they operate and what they did to one of the few great female protagonists to ever grace the video game medium, all because of a mix of CEOs desperately hoping lowest common denominator would sell more copies, and the creative team decided to treat the IP like a chance to make their hentai fanfic desires into canon. Also Toriyama needs to stop being such an asshole that he turns established characters into his self-inserts (Brother being a pervy incestuous cousin to Yuna in FFX-2, and Maeda being an all-out perverted creep toward Aya in 3rd Birthday).


So really it's a mix of problems. The higher-ups need to stop pressuring teams to do "what'll sell more copies" according to the marketing team's bull, and the creative teams need to give more of a damn about the IPs they're working with. Because at this point, I'd sooner pay beginning fanfic writers to make these games than the people S-E has working for them.

Re: Hmm.

[rosencrantz.livejournal.com]

THEY RETCONNED AND TRASHED MAEDA?

THEY WILL FEEL MY WRATH

This also makes me happy to have not bought a copy of 3rd Birthday, though that much was clear for me by looking at the cover art.

But Maeda? Really? I loved him in the first game. He was so socially awkward and nerdy and adorable. And now he's a hentai otaku? ;__;

*pump gun*

Re: Hmm.

[salarta.livejournal.com]

Toriyama makes his version of Maeda pretty much go on and on about her body in this creepy way. One of the most notorious lines from Toriyama's self-insert rewrite of Maeda was a line about how he wants to taste Aya's tears.

I'm not joking.

I'm not sure what to think and expect right now. In a reasonable company that actually cares about its fans and IPs, and wants to maintain a good image, I would expect them to retcon 3rd Birthday and make a real sequel that cleans up the mess made by Toriyama and Tabata. But... this is Square-Enix. They seem to enjoy reinforcing terrible directions that they take their IPs, which makes me expect they're going to try to cement 3rd Birthday as Parasite Eve universe canon and ruin the characters further with another "sequel."