Kotaku: fandom

The Dangers of Fanaticism

Maggie Greene — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:30:00 MST

Well, it's obvious than fandoms aren't all fun and games, but Peter Parrish warns that fanaticism could be downright dangerous for the industry at large — just imagine a world where unchecked fandom desires dictate how future games are going to play out. Using the example of the apparently large and vociferous Sonic fandom, Parrish points towards what he sees as a devolving series based on the whims of the 'fan-artist' and 'fan-author.' Oh, but it doesn't stop there:

You may not particularly care about Sonic, but the problem reaches beyond a solitary blue hedgehog. Visible pockets of fans can easily be mistaken for commercial opportunities, and developers are always under pressure to follow the money. Consider a future where Valve paid heed to the most unbalanced aspects of fandom. In this grim world, the Portal sequel is 12 hours of twee comedy songs played by a sexualized companion cube - where the end of every torturous utterance rhymes with "cake" or "triumph." Half-Life 2: Episode 3 becomes an extended anime-style romance between Gordon and Alyx (while her creepy dad watches), and Left 4 Dead is a tale of four hardy neck-beards battling a legion of flying ninja-monkey-zombie-pirate-samurai.

My first instinct is to say 'Oh, come on' — of course passionate fanbases with money to spend may have some sway, but I have a hard time seeing developers trawling through hundreds of pages of badly written fanfiction in order to cater to the whims of excitable fans. We could also argue about what constitutes the 'most unbalanced aspects' of fandom. Fanaticism doesn't appeal to all of us, but I really think there are bigger fish to fry in the industry than fanatics who have access to a tablet and a word processor.

Fast-Track to Fanaticism [The Escapist]

In Space, No One Can Hear Your Cardboard Spartan Armor Crinkle

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:20:37 MDT

Oh, sure, go ahead and laugh if you must. But after digesting that YouTube user and Halo uberfan "fartbuttface" (<-- lol) is idling away his time crafting Spartan armor, weapons and accessories, instead of making your little petty jabs and pokes, think of this: this kid is probably going to invent a cardboard car that runs on cardboard, save the earth, become a billionaire and score unfathomable amounts of pussy. Dude's that good with his hands. Seriously, did you see the Halo 3 machine gun turret? My brain melted at that point.

via Bungie

Quests Chess Tells Kasparov To Try Another Piece

Mark Wilson — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:40:06 MST

Quests Chess is the product of an extremely talented point-n-click adventure game fanboy without many new adventure games to play. Apparently (and sadly) turning to chess to fill this void in his/her heart, "BioJ" crafted this chess set from Fimo clay. With star appearances from Monkey Island, Simon the Sorcerer, Roger Wilco and Day of the Tentacle (plus who are we missing here?), we only wish that we had the correct items in our pocket to click upon the board in proper celebration. Alas, we have but a crank, some fishing wire and a hamster with hypothermia. More pics after the jump.

Diorama-Rama [via theadventuress]

Hang Oblivion Around Your Neck

kotaku.com — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 17:40:00 MDT

In a message thread over at Evil Avatar, someone suggests that if you bought the Oblivion collector's edition, you can use the included coin to create garish piece of jewelry. More disturbing, however, is one poster's plan to brand himself with the coin, thereby creating an eternal, and backwards-reading, tribute to the game.

I guess now we know who's paying for downloadable horse armor.

Oblivion Bling Bling [EvilAvatar]