One of my absolute favorite aspects of fandom is the costuming and roleplaying, and I would have to say they are the two most maligned and stigmatized things that we do.  Let’s start with the most accepted by the popular culture and proceed to the least understood.

Computer Roleplaying Games

Mass appeal of video games have normalized RPGs on the computer, and why not.  Final Fantasy, Mass Effect, and Knights of the Old Republic were all such brilliant games, it is hard to see how they couldn’t have had a mass market appeal, but in the one place where Roleplaying should flourish, it is all but extinct.

There was once a type of game known as the Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG).  The problem is that these too entered the popular culture, and they spawned a new bane: badge collectors.  A sizable number of the MMORPG players became obsessed with their statistics, what badges they earned, and what loot they could get.  The software companies saw these players as their core audience and in some cases, there only audience.

The games were increasingly designed for these players and not for the fans of story.  Coinidentally, the acronym was shortened from MMORPG to simply MMO.  Players have done what they can to keep roleplaying alive, but they are generally isolated to a specific server or guild, and they are not aided by the software designers who more and more are crafting games that challenge your prowess with a keyboard and mouse and don’t require any thought whatsoever.

This is one of the reasons I am so excited about Star Wars: The Old Republic and Stargate Worlds.  They are trying to bring story into the games and make it front and center.  I wish them the best of luck.

Table Top Role Playing Games

Table top RPG fans are the geeks that geeks love to hate.  Don’t believe me?  Listen carefully to a lot of the podcasts out there.  It won’t take you too long to find people having a geeky conversation about their favorite tech and occationally mocking TTRPG players.

Table Top games are not  as easy to play as their computerized bretheren, but they are a lot more fun.  There are more requirements to play:

• The Rule Books
• Friends who have free time to come over
• Dice
• Creativity
• Imagination

I didn’t stutter at the end, and no, I am not padding the list.  Creativity is the ability to think originally, and imagination is the ability to see with the minds eye events as they are described to you.

I think those last two more than anything else makes people not like tabel top games.  Personally, I love them.  I run an Earthdawn game at the house every Sunday.  Nothing brings friends together for a good time like a shared adventure built from the collective imaginations of everyone there.

Live Action Role Playing

Live Action Role Playing (LARPing) is penultimate expression of role playing.  There are numerous systems for LARPing and they all generally involve renting a location, playing in a park, or the storyteller’s home.  Most LARPers dress up in elaborate costumes and carry props to aid in game play.

I used to play Vampire: The Masquerade both as a table top game and as a LARP, and I have to say, the LARPs were always more fun.  We played at local conventions and I ran a chronicle that spanned various players homes, parks, and a few businesses who allowed us to use their establishment.

Who doesn’t enjoy getting dressed up and spending a night as someone else?

One aspect of the LARPs I’ve played that made them so fun was that they were locked to the locations they took place.  The story was handled through notes given to the players to explain what happened between sessions, and a couple players who agreed to play according to the scripted motives I provided for them.  To this day, some of my favorite memories took place at LARPs.

We were a part of a LARP network where storytellers coordinated large scale events between cities, and at conventions our players would play through pivitol stories.  The largest LARP event we threw had 500 players in attendence.  3,00o players made up the network.  We coordinated through a email list.

LARPs are emense fun, and I miss them terribly.  I had hoped that MMOs would provide a platform for virtual LARPs, but so far, they haven’t.

Costuming

Some people just love dressing up.  They don’t roleplay at all, they just wear the costume for enjoyment.  For some, it is an uniform.  For others, it is an expression of their identification with the character or race they are recreating.  And others do it for the challenge of recreating the costume.

Steampunk is an entire movement built around costuming for the sheer fun of it.

Fans who Play together Stay together

Most of the deep, personal relationships I have developed with fans over the years has been between fans I have roleplayed with.  We share an experience that is truly unique to the players who were there.  Memories of events that are not replecatable in real life.

All these years later, I still run into people at the conventions who remeber the night my Taleison should have seen his reflection in the mirror and went mad.  We talk about it like a moment from a movie or series that we loved, but our connection to the event is so much more personal because we were there when it happened.

So if you haven’t before.  I hightly recommend to gather up your friends and play a game with them.  Feel free to choose the type, but make sure it is one that will build those memories that will last a lifetime.

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I loved Mass Effect with a fever I haven’t felt for many games.  The above trailer for Mass Effect 2 sent chills through me and my mind is already racing.  I have to know what happens to Commander Shepard.

BioWare’s community coordinator Chris Priestly added the most curious hint about the new game:

“This is just your first taste of Mass Effect2. We are not yet discussing the details of the game… However… don’t delete your Mass Effect 1 saves yet (Video Gamer).”

I assume that means we will be able to pick up where we left off, or maybe they are going to take into effect the choices we made in Mass Effect to establish how the characters react to the players.  I cannot wait to play.

(via Gay Gamer)

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Even though Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 is a few years old, I keep coming back to play it.  I love the wide variety of game play you can have.  From sandbox mode where you can do whatever you like and have as much money as you need, to career mode where you have tasks you must complete. This game is hours of fun.

I’ve always been impressed with this company’s attention to detail when it comes to theme rides and decor.  Even with the first edition of RT, they gave you the opportunity to pimp out your park with horror-themed shops and scenery.

A new thing with this version is that you can make your janitorial staff match your theme.  We used to be able to change the color of their outfits, but now you can make your janitors wear western or skeleton overalls.

They must have had real horror fans creating this version because the visuals leave no spooky stone unturned.  From the Blood Shake Booth to the pumpkin head entertainers, these visuals are horrorfying.

They have options for you Sci Fi fans too.  Including a steampunk-like planetarium, robots, spaceships, and even an alien entertainer. 

For those of you who tend to migrate towards water parks, they have a massive pool complex library that you can create large pool complexes with including diving boards, hot tubs, showers, slides, lifeguards, and wave pools.  Once you build one of these puppies, the customers flock to your park in droves.  The walkways and ride add-ons are slightly difficult to maneuver at first, but once you discover you can make multi-level pools and large sunbathing areas, you’ll be hooked!  Don’t forget to put an Inflatable Stall just outside the changing rooms so that your people can ride around the pool on alligators, dolphins, and turtles.  The way these two separate items work together is just one of the ways this version is more “real”.

They did not leave you country folk out.  There are dozens of western rides and attractions including animatronic cowboys, Indians, and banditos.  If you set them up properly, they will have a shoot out across the paths.

There are only a couple of technical issues with this game.  The first is when it becomes nighttime.  For some reason the game will slow up.  It seems to get worse if you have a lot of lamps installed.  The second is when you get over 3000 people in your park and build a lot of intricate rides over a large space.  Considering how graphics intensive this game is, it’s not hard to imagine why.  With so much activity, the computer has difficulty keeping up.  I’ve enjoyed this game on Windows 2000,  XP, and Vista and these are the only two bugs I’ve found.

This game is by Atari and is rated E for everyone, so gather the family and spend a night creating your dream theme park.  But I warn you… this game is highly addictive.

You can purchase Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, by clicking this Amazon portal.

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I am working on a series on the future of entertainment media: music, audiobooks, books, comics, movies, television series, and I am curious where you think everything is going.  Piracy, copyright, creative commons, user generated works, streaming, and online collaboration have changed the media landscape forever.

The old models for production, distribution, and monetizing entertainment media have been changed forever, and there is no clear path forward.  To make this series, I want to gather as many ideas as possible.  No one has the answer yet, but together, we can start moving in the right direction.

So what are you ideas, you can post them in the comments here, or email me your thoughts.  Is there someone you want us to try to get a comment from?  The best posts will be included in the series.  Let’s get the dialogue started!

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Back in December, I took on Meg Guroff in my post, Fandom is not Obsessive Weirdoism! for saying:

One distinctly modern form of obsessive weirdoism is fandom: becoming so devoted to a work of art that you want to augment or even inhabit it. Out of this impulse was born the Klingon Language Institute (www.kli.org), the phenomenon of “fan fiction” (unauthorized stories by civilians advancing new plotlines of beloved films and TV series) (The Urbanite Magazine),

She responded by saying:

Hey, thanks for the shout-out, but anyone who reads the essay—or even just the rest of the sentence you truncated—would know that your outrage is misplaced. This passage is not an attack on fandom, it’s a defense of it. I’d invite the curious to read the essay for themselves or visit my (built, obsessive, weird) site at powermobydick.com. Best wishes.

Originally posted as a comment by Meg Guroff on dashPunk using Disqus.

The rest of the sentence I truncated simply said: “and also, one might argue, my ever-growing Moby-Dick website, which now includes not only a full annotation but also links to artwork, poems, movies, and even cartoons based on the book (The Urbanite Magazine).”  I am glad she enjoys working on a fan site, and I am sorry if I offended her by intimating she had attacked fandom, but the fact remains that characterization of fandom as obsessive and weird obfuscates the fact that what we are seeing is the birth of a new culture, not merely a niche cultural phenominon.

History of Fandom

Hugo Gernsback forged the modern Science Fiction genre in 1926 when he founded Amazing Stories magazine.  In the letters section, he published the addresses of the fans who wrote in.  Readers began to organize themselves into local clubs.  In 1934, Hugo founded the Science Fiction League, a correspondence club where local clubs could apply for membership.

Chicago’s Science Correspondence Club published the first known science fiction fanzine, The Comet, in 1930.  The first convention was held nine years later when at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, when the World Science Fiction Society held the first WorldCon.

Fred Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth, members of a New York fan club called The Futurians, wrote the oldest known filks in the 1950’s by taking the music from folk protest songs and changing the lyrics.

It wasn’t until the  1970 that the conventions grew in popularity as a result of Speculative Fiction taking on the role of mythology.  More people found Speculative Fiction gave them a set of values, goals, and practices. Through our conventions, filksings, fanfic, and fanfilm, we have developed a culture that is uniquely ours.

Pattern of Behavior

Fans don’t just watch the shows they love, or read the books, they devour them.  We take in these stories, critique them, and rush to share and discus them with our friends.  We often watch the shows or read the books multiple times to see if we missed something.

We flock to conventions to meet the stars, creators, and authors of the works we love, and to spend time reveling in the series we love.  We roleplay, craft fan works, and some even engage in cosplay and LARPing (Live Action Role Playing).

Characteristic Features

It is not hard to spot a fan.  The t-shirts we were, the calendars on our walls, the tchotchkes on our desks, and the phrases we like to use.  Many of us use fanspeak around mundanes and not realizing it until we see that confused look on their face, and realize we need to translate into English.

Shared attitudes, values, and goals

The one thing I have always found most intriguing about fans is how a true fan is not hard on new fans, and wants to make sure everyone is having a good time.

Most of us grew up with Star Trek, and took to heart the idea of IDIC (Infinite Diverity in Infinite Combination) to heart.  Where ever we are, we try to bring IDIC, foresight, and community with us.  Life is to be enjoyed, and nothing cuts off the fun quicker than bigotry, ignorance, or that one guy who is looking to have a good time at the expense of everyone there if necessary.

Fan culture is always developing.

Dear Meg

I wish you the best of luck with your Moby Dick site, and I hope I didn’t upset you further.  My complaint with your article was merely that you used the phrase “Obsessive Weirdoism.”

Any culture is “Obsessive Weirdoism” when viewed from the outside.  You have a fannish heart, and I think it is time you stopped talking in a way that excuses your fannish tendencies to the mundanes.  You are a fan.  Be out and proud about it.

At any rate, I am a little jealous, I can see the merit in Moby Dick, and I can understand from where your passion derives, but I don’t think I will ever share it.  You see something most of us don’t.  That is a gift.  Relish it.

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If the video of Star Wars Battlefront 3 gameplay footage or Dark Obi-wan concept art made you drool over the prospect of playing the game from bankrupt Free Radical, then there may be some good news:

Free Radical Design has found financial sanctuary in German developer Crytek, who is reported to have purchased the struggling Nottingham, UK dev for an undisclosed amount (Kotaku via Gay Gamer).

What this means for the future of Battlefront 3 in unclear, but its chances for release have gotten better.

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No Angelina Jollie will not be in the new Tomb Raider movie, along with possibily Lara Croft:

Lin will produce the project via his Lin Pictures banner while Stephen Gilchrist will co-produce; Ian Livingstone of Eidos will exec produce. Matt Reilly is overseeing for Warners. Lin is the producer behind Warners’ upcoming Guy Ritchie-directed update of “Sherlock Holmes” and the adventure film “Jonny Quest.”

The new project, however, is expected to revamp the character and her mission and bear little resemblance to the original pictures. It will reimagine the origins of the character, her love interest and the main villain (Hollywood Reporter).

I find it interesting that all of my spell checkers mark the word reimagined as a misspelling because it is not a word.  Well it is a new word.  I much preferr the idea of imagining a good story, but I am sure that is too much to ask from the studios in Hollywood.

I will keep an eye on this production, but it is already on shaky ground.

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I love the Final Fantasy series and mourned with many fans when Hironobu Sakaguchi had to leave the series behind but was overjoyed to see that he would keep making wonderful and fun games.

“I think the Wii is a wonderful system.  It’s very unique, starting with its iconic controllers.  We have no plans at the moment, but I would love to make a Wii game in the future.” -Sakaguchi

Then my mind was blown when reading these words and asking “What would a Sakaguchi Wii Game Look Like?”

Sakaguchi’s games already immerse me in their immaculate reality bringing both excitement and intellectual satisfaction to my playing experience.  Hopefully he does take up the charge to create a game for the Wii so that I add to the experience and interactive depth too, wow that would rock!

(via The Wire)

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Let us all collectively use the force to mind trick some game company into buying Free radical, because if the gameplay video wasn’t enough to make you want to play Star Wars: Battlefront 3, this concept art of a Sith Obi-wan should be!

(via Topless Robot)

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I really want to see Battlefront 3 hit the shelves, and after watching this footage which promises the game for the XBox 360, PS3, and PC, I want to play it all the more.

But there is one tiny hitch in the plan…  Free Radical, the company making this game, is on the auction block.  Hopefully, someone will buy up Free Radical, or at least the code and developers for this game.  If not, this may be the best Star Wars game you never play.

(via Gay Gamer)

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