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Whelp, I'm bored at work and don't have many tags to do, so I think I'm just gonna babble about fandom like I was thinking of earlier.
It's interesting looking back and realizing I've been in the KH fandom for almost five years. And what's more, I still don't see any intention of falling out of it in the future...even though the canon has gone through a whole ton of weirdo stages and expanded far beyond what the first game was. I've decided my policy will be that as long as I continue to have fun, I'll keep enjoying the games and fandom. I'm still having fun right now, so I'm still in the fandom. Who knows how that'll be after KH3...just taking it one game at a time.
I first got in around when CoM came out, since I had JUST finished playing a friend's copy of KH1 before then. CoM really got me all excited, so I started in on fanart, and then fanfic and more. I think it helped on my art, and is still helping, since fanart has always been a great motivator to work on developing art skills that I wouldn't otherwise. And then I got into KHFFR, where there were a whole bunch of cool people, and got into the ranting/sporking side of things. To be honest, I'm really glad that I did that. I made a bunch of friends through KHFFR and other such places, friends that I still have today and even got to hang out with in real life! And that, I'm not gonna lie, has been pretty dang awesome. I wouldn't trade the friends I've made here for anything.
Although when I first got into the fandom and was doing more ranting stuff, I was also WAY more passionate about fans screwing up the characters or just doing poor work, and got way more angry about it. Like, it would just piss me off a lot how stupid people were being about certain things, because I cared so much.
And a whole bunch of games have happened inbetween entering the fandom at CoM, and now...definitely a lot of changes to the canon. Since then, while there is still stupidity, I've found that it just doesn't bother me as much any more. Part of it may be I've just gotten used to it and have found it's really not worth the worry...much easier to laugh at people being stupid and move on than to get really angry about it. And the stuff that seemed so important and BAD before doesn't seem all that big now. Part of it may also be that I've sort of...closed my fandom circle more? I post stuff here on my LJ and a lot on my dA, which is where I think most people watch me. But that is mostly regulated to me posting my fic, art, silly comics and LPs. But most of my discussion about the games themselves goes on on my Plurk, with friends over IM, or with what goes on in the RPs I'm in. I don't do things like visit the kinkmeme or the anonmeme or trawl ff.net. And in that sense, it's made fandom a lot easier on me. I pretty much never worry about wank, and just focus on the things that I enjoy doing the most.
The one thing I worry about with being more insular now in the fandom is that while I don't worry much about wank or problems, I know it's also harder for me to make new fandom friends. I feel comfortable now with the group of people I know, but I may be cutting myself off from a potential good friend; I don't know. But I guess that's true of most anything in life.
There's no way of knowing how the future will go, but for now, I'm pretty content doing what I am now...discussing and freaking out with my circle of friends, RPing with friends, doing the LP, drawing and comicing, and the occasional fic. And as long as I'm open to new friendships, I think that's how it should be.
It's also rather interesting comparing what I'm doing with KH fandom now with how X-Files fandom went when I was in high school. On the one hand, I feel like I do much better on my art and fic than I did when in X-Files, and that I've also made a LOT more friends in this fandom. My X-Files fandom friends, while they are still my super-biffles today, I pretty much only had IRL. On the other hand, I think I had a LOT more freedom to experiment and do whatever I wanted in X-Files.
But expanding on that, I think part of that may have also been the "format" that fandom manifested in. Back in the X-Files days, there was no centralized fandom social network or focus. You pretty much made your own websites using Angelfire or Geocities, or actually paid for a real good one, and provided all your own content. If you wanted to discuss things, you used something like Yahoo Groups or old forum sites. So while I did fanfic and fanart, I also went all-out and did whatever the heck I really wanted in X-Files. There was a lot more room for creativity there.
It's interesting, because I think X-Files had TRUE BNFs as they should really be understood (and lol, I was not one of them. I just worshipped them like everyone else did...I think the idea of BNF has become diluted over the years.) Also, looking back at the history of it, I think X-Files may have been one of the wankiest fandoms in the history of all fandom. Just back then, there was no central communication, so I was never aware of it while it was going on.
Compare that to nowadays, where fandom is pretty heavily centralized and compartmentalized due to things like dA, LJ, wank comms and anon memes. (Although now, things have more moved to Plurk and Tumblr.) You pretty much just work in news, fic, art, video, RP, LP or cosplay, and it's hard to think of stuff venturing out of those areas now.
Is it better or worse? I don't think it's either...it's just different. And I suppose things will continue to change as the internet and fandom culture and people change. But as long as I continue to have fun in some form or other, I think I can stick with it.
It's interesting looking back and realizing I've been in the KH fandom for almost five years. And what's more, I still don't see any intention of falling out of it in the future...even though the canon has gone through a whole ton of weirdo stages and expanded far beyond what the first game was. I've decided my policy will be that as long as I continue to have fun, I'll keep enjoying the games and fandom. I'm still having fun right now, so I'm still in the fandom. Who knows how that'll be after KH3...just taking it one game at a time.
I first got in around when CoM came out, since I had JUST finished playing a friend's copy of KH1 before then. CoM really got me all excited, so I started in on fanart, and then fanfic and more. I think it helped on my art, and is still helping, since fanart has always been a great motivator to work on developing art skills that I wouldn't otherwise. And then I got into KHFFR, where there were a whole bunch of cool people, and got into the ranting/sporking side of things. To be honest, I'm really glad that I did that. I made a bunch of friends through KHFFR and other such places, friends that I still have today and even got to hang out with in real life! And that, I'm not gonna lie, has been pretty dang awesome. I wouldn't trade the friends I've made here for anything.
Although when I first got into the fandom and was doing more ranting stuff, I was also WAY more passionate about fans screwing up the characters or just doing poor work, and got way more angry about it. Like, it would just piss me off a lot how stupid people were being about certain things, because I cared so much.
And a whole bunch of games have happened inbetween entering the fandom at CoM, and now...definitely a lot of changes to the canon. Since then, while there is still stupidity, I've found that it just doesn't bother me as much any more. Part of it may be I've just gotten used to it and have found it's really not worth the worry...much easier to laugh at people being stupid and move on than to get really angry about it. And the stuff that seemed so important and BAD before doesn't seem all that big now. Part of it may also be that I've sort of...closed my fandom circle more? I post stuff here on my LJ and a lot on my dA, which is where I think most people watch me. But that is mostly regulated to me posting my fic, art, silly comics and LPs. But most of my discussion about the games themselves goes on on my Plurk, with friends over IM, or with what goes on in the RPs I'm in. I don't do things like visit the kinkmeme or the anonmeme or trawl ff.net. And in that sense, it's made fandom a lot easier on me. I pretty much never worry about wank, and just focus on the things that I enjoy doing the most.
The one thing I worry about with being more insular now in the fandom is that while I don't worry much about wank or problems, I know it's also harder for me to make new fandom friends. I feel comfortable now with the group of people I know, but I may be cutting myself off from a potential good friend; I don't know. But I guess that's true of most anything in life.
There's no way of knowing how the future will go, but for now, I'm pretty content doing what I am now...discussing and freaking out with my circle of friends, RPing with friends, doing the LP, drawing and comicing, and the occasional fic. And as long as I'm open to new friendships, I think that's how it should be.
It's also rather interesting comparing what I'm doing with KH fandom now with how X-Files fandom went when I was in high school. On the one hand, I feel like I do much better on my art and fic than I did when in X-Files, and that I've also made a LOT more friends in this fandom. My X-Files fandom friends, while they are still my super-biffles today, I pretty much only had IRL. On the other hand, I think I had a LOT more freedom to experiment and do whatever I wanted in X-Files.
But expanding on that, I think part of that may have also been the "format" that fandom manifested in. Back in the X-Files days, there was no centralized fandom social network or focus. You pretty much made your own websites using Angelfire or Geocities, or actually paid for a real good one, and provided all your own content. If you wanted to discuss things, you used something like Yahoo Groups or old forum sites. So while I did fanfic and fanart, I also went all-out and did whatever the heck I really wanted in X-Files. There was a lot more room for creativity there.
It's interesting, because I think X-Files had TRUE BNFs as they should really be understood (and lol, I was not one of them. I just worshipped them like everyone else did...I think the idea of BNF has become diluted over the years.) Also, looking back at the history of it, I think X-Files may have been one of the wankiest fandoms in the history of all fandom. Just back then, there was no central communication, so I was never aware of it while it was going on.
Compare that to nowadays, where fandom is pretty heavily centralized and compartmentalized due to things like dA, LJ, wank comms and anon memes. (Although now, things have more moved to Plurk and Tumblr.) You pretty much just work in news, fic, art, video, RP, LP or cosplay, and it's hard to think of stuff venturing out of those areas now.
Is it better or worse? I don't think it's either...it's just different. And I suppose things will continue to change as the internet and fandom culture and people change. But as long as I continue to have fun in some form or other, I think I can stick with it.
Current Mood: 
bored
boredCurrent Location: Work
2 comments | Leave a comment
disappointed
okay