Online fandom in videogames.

[Sombre]

I've been thinking a lot recently, with it being a focus point for my main university dissertation, about how far fandom has come online, or more specifically in video games. Modding culture comes to mind, and how fans literally just create things they want to see, with development tools/SDK's becoming seemingly ever more prevelant online.

And with Steve talking about the Splicer meetup things, it's made me consider it more so. Can any of you think of extreme fandom that's become more obvious with the inclusion of the internet as more of a global commodity?

[toblix]

At least moderate fandom has become much easier, since you can join online communities. As for extreme fandom, there's stuff like Black Mesa: Source and the Outcast sequel -- just ridiculous stuff that would never have happened if not for the web.

What is your dissertation about, more specifically?

[Armchair General]

What about people who pay real money for cyber money/items i.e. WoW? That is seems pretty extreme fandom to me. Does that count

Andy

[Action Shakespeare]

I think the topic's more along the lines of fan-made things, not official stuff that fans could buy. If that were the case, any ol' DLC would count as fan stuff...

[Armchair General]

I think the topic's more along the lines of fan-made things, not official stuff that fans could buy. If that were the case, any ol' DLC would count as fan stuff...

I could be wrong ( I usually am:fart:) but it appears to tick all the boxes..it seems pretty extreme fandom to me to pay money for in game items as opposed for more game (DLC) and it wouldn't have happened before the internet and it's a global commodity.

Also, it could be good for a dissertation as it is widely known in the wider social context as opposed to just the gaming community.

But, as I said, I could be (probably am) wrong

Andy

[syntheticgerbil]

I'm not sure if this is what you were asking about, but I'll blabber anyway.

When I was 14, I made a 3 page comic I penciled and inked all by myself for a contest to get my name in the credits for Simon 3D. It even featured a Feeble Files reference. They wrote me back this really nice letter I wish I still had telling me how good I draw for my age.and how great the facial expression were that I created and that I should apply to Headfirst when I grow up. It was sweet and maybe it had something to do with my career path now, but Headfirst is no more either way.

I ended up winning along with some other people who did other various things (it was a contest to show you were a Simon "nutter").

So eventually the game ended up being delayed and was released 3 years after that, universally hated and ugly as all hell. It was mildly disappointing I suppose, but I was a dirty teenager and was spending most of my time doing things I shouldn't so I had no time for games. I did take the time to play Simon 3D and enjoyed it even though all of the reasons I shouldn't are obvious.

Anyways, because of that game I have a credit on Mobygames. I feel famous:

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,86175/

Maybe I can add to it one day...

[Sombre]

At least moderate fandom has become much easier, since you can join online communities. As for extreme fandom, there's stuff like Black Mesa: Source and the Outcast sequel -- just ridiculous stuff that would never have happened if not for the web.

What is your dissertation about, more specifically?

I'm somewhat torn currently. This is just for a presentation which proposes my dissertation, and for this I'm basically just talking about online fan communities, and the products they can essentially churn out. It's a hard one to define in such a short 2000 word "Speech" as it were. The concept of cosplay comes to mind, and the idea that Final Fantasy 4(?) was a big fan translation. I think it's just things like that, that I'm trying to primarily focus on, something to the effect of "The internet can be used to bring people of varying interests and ideals together to do great things: video games".

Everything said so far however, has been splendid, thanks guys!

[Armchair General]

[miffy495]

So Mother 3 sorts of things then? What do you make of LittleBigContra, where fandom of two things gets blended together to form one product? I think it's especially interesting when fans take it upon themselves to recreate one game using the tools of another. A less interesting example would be that Mario Kart level for Team Fortress 2. People do some weird shit.

[gdf]

Semi-tangential point, but I often think of the fervour games produce online. There's nothing else that produces such dedicated communities who produce art (sometimes gross), fanfic, animations, music, live action films, cosplay, entire new games and, as you mention above, translations from the Japanese. I'm not super into Final Fantasy, for example, but it never ceases to amaze me how insane a certain subset of the fanbase is.

Seems like an interesting topic to investigate, Sombre. Remo mentioned it a few times on the podcast, citing specifically the Stalker games and the small mod communities that he and Jake were involved with back in the day.

[Xeneth]

Keep at it!

It IS a large, amorphous area to cover and you could take it in a lot of different directions, but this is just the sort of thing we need more of in the world- Examples of the effect gaming has on people translating into more tangible accounts and reports the likes of which non-gamers and future generations could potentially cite or reference.

I worry sometimes that our whole sub-sub culture could easily be a generational "fad" if we fail to document the elements of it in ways that are relevant to people outside of the phenomenon...

Encouraging words aside, I have strong early memories of blocking out entirely new Mario levels on huge pieces of butcher paper laid across our living room floor.

When friends would try to join in, I would allow it... And inevitably chastise them for drawing things out of alignment with the existing blocks or adding a ton of one-off block types that don't repeat enough for them to realistically be in the tileset. As a kid I had already started to mentally break down how games are delivered to the screen just by observing patterns.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I feel like the TYPE of fandom that gaming generates in people seems to teach and pull them into the creative loop. Even if it's just WYSIWYG fiddling like the Halo 3 forge mode or create-a-track in excite bike...

Think about how many people love reading novels, but have never tried to write one. Think about how few movie lovers attempt to make indie films. Music is the only type of media that I feel approaches a similar level of attempted audience participation in the process, and even then in my (admittedly biased) experience, gamers still manage to top musicians in pure per capita attempts at crossing the line between consumer and creator.

This is amazing when you think about how complex game making is- It's pretty challenging, and involves many more cross-disciplinary skills than other forms of media. (The aforementioned musicians easily cross over into game makers when fandom inspires remixes of video game music, etc.)

[Sombre]

Update!

I sent off my proposed dissertation topic today, waiting for approval/ideas on where to head to from my tutor-

I was considering doing Posthumanism in Sci-fi Anime and Dystopian futures in Video Games, focusing on:

Anime:

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Serial Experiments Lain

Ghost in the Shell (Franchise)

Ergo Proxy

video games:

Bioshock

Deus Ex

Half Life 2

[Xeneth]

Awesome!

No Fallout because I'm assuming you're making the distinction between dystopian and post-apocalyptic.

Much luck and don't hesitate to consult us further if anything else trips you up or you just want to show off/bounce ideas. I'm not really up to speed on Lain or Proxy, but always down with a rousing discussion of themes/events in Evangelion.

I'm pretty sure a lot of us find this stuff fascinating!