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heidiSo I was reading today's New York Times' ESCAPES section and I came across this sentence:
Huh, well, that's a little different than making icons or writing fics, isn't it?
The article is here and it doesn't delve deeply into the plot of DA and doesn't even mention any of the actors from the show even though last week you couldn't turn around without seeing some Fantastic Four promotion with Jessica Alba on it.
It got me to wondering how many of the 400 participants are actually fans of the tv show itself, or if this is just another justification for them to go into the woods and shoot at other people with paint-balls. But I guess one could be interested in playing Quidditch without having read all the Harry Potter books?
Henry Jenkins has been hosting a debate in his blog about the ways men and women may consume media and create user-generated content relating to media, and this article certainly paints the "scenario paintball" activities as a "guy" thing, quoting the guy who's the producer of the battle, and not his wife.
I'd love to know her take on it, but she isn't quoted in the article at all. Alas.
There's a Deadwood battle coming up that's mentioned in the article, though:
Reading this article leaves me with a few questions:
1. Do things like this bring fandom more into the eye of the mainstream of America?
2. Did some of you read this article and thing, well, I may be in the middle of writing my Epic Fanfic Of D00M but at least I don't spend a thousand dollars on a paintball gun thus proving the *I may be bonkers but at least I'm not as crazy as those people over there axiom*?
3. Sponsored teams? Sales of high-end equipment to scenario paintballers? Doesn't that mean that someone is kinda sorta making money off of fandom? Huh.
What do y'all think?
And after DH will there be any paintball scenario games based on the Final Battle Between Harry & Voldemort that we're all expecting, where the "guns" are actually "wands"? Because (meep) thatwouldbecool. As would Daleks v Cybermen v The Doctor.
Nearly 400 players took sides for Dark Angel, a 26-hour “scenario” paintball game based, in part, on the television show of the same name and set in a part of Virginia known more for Civil War battles than the war between the Transgenics and the Breeding Cult.
Huh, well, that's a little different than making icons or writing fics, isn't it?
The article is here and it doesn't delve deeply into the plot of DA and doesn't even mention any of the actors from the show even though last week you couldn't turn around without seeing some Fantastic Four promotion with Jessica Alba on it.
It got me to wondering how many of the 400 participants are actually fans of the tv show itself, or if this is just another justification for them to go into the woods and shoot at other people with paint-balls. But I guess one could be interested in playing Quidditch without having read all the Harry Potter books?
Henry Jenkins has been hosting a debate in his blog about the ways men and women may consume media and create user-generated content relating to media, and this article certainly paints the "scenario paintball" activities as a "guy" thing, quoting the guy who's the producer of the battle, and not his wife.
Patrick McKinnon — he and his wife, Diane Howe, are producers of the Dark Angel battle — puts it another way: “It’s big boys and their toys, a real American thing.”
I'd love to know her take on it, but she isn't quoted in the article at all. Alas.
There's a Deadwood battle coming up that's mentioned in the article, though:
On Aug. 11 and 12, Deadwood will be staged by Strategy Plus Paintball - Bear Swamp Road, East Hampton, Conn. (www.strategyplus.com). The citizens of Deadwood will be split between those backing the saloon owner, Al Swearengen, against those aligned with his rival, Cy Tolliver.
Reading this article leaves me with a few questions:
1. Do things like this bring fandom more into the eye of the mainstream of America?
2. Did some of you read this article and thing, well, I may be in the middle of writing my Epic Fanfic Of D00M but at least I don't spend a thousand dollars on a paintball gun thus proving the *I may be bonkers but at least I'm not as crazy as those people over there axiom*?
3. Sponsored teams? Sales of high-end equipment to scenario paintballers? Doesn't that mean that someone is kinda sorta making money off of fandom? Huh.
What do y'all think?
And after DH will there be any paintball scenario games based on the Final Battle Between Harry & Voldemort that we're all expecting, where the "guns" are actually "wands"? Because (meep) thatwouldbecool. As would Daleks v Cybermen v The Doctor.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 04:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 04:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 05:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 07:08 pm (UTC)and
Doesn't that mean that someone is kinda sorta making money off of fandom? Huh.
{quirks eyebrow} Err, spending a thousand dollars would be a small amount considering what I've spent on computers/electronics, HP and LOTR doujinshi, SPN trading cards, webhosting/domain fees, convention costs, and all the other fannish stuff that... I'm estimating it wouldn't be too far off the mark to say I've spent $20,000+ on stuff related to fandom over the past decade. Heh, LiveJournal is the only thing that hasn't milked money from me.
I got into fandom when I was 18 and going through the 'I've graduated high school, have two college scholarships that could give me a "free ride", and a job from hell... I don't know what I'll do as a career' slump... Thus, fandom sucked up *a lot* of funds for awhile. Once I left Job From Hell (tm) and felt more human, I started spending less on fandom stuff... That and I had more bills to pay (utilities, mortgage, etc). ;-) Kinda learn to prioritize when your parents aren't paying the bills. {chuckle} I've learned to save money since then.
Dina
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 05:18 pm (UTC)Totally!
Date: 2007-06-22 05:43 pm (UTC)Re: Totally!
Date: 2007-06-22 08:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 05:58 pm (UTC)I'm just waiting for technology to get to the point where it's indistinguishable from magic.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 08:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 11:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 10:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 11:05 pm (UTC)Totally.
Also? I'm surprised nobody's written a J2 AU where JA is the master paintball scenario creator and JP is the clueless newbie at his first Paintball Experience.
Maybe now someone will?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 10:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 11:14 pm (UTC)That's weirdly cool.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-23 04:57 am (UTC)Yr resident HP gamer rants beneath after a long night shift
Date: 2007-06-23 06:23 am (UTC)And after DH will there be any paintball scenario games based on the Final Battle Between Harry & Voldemort that we're all expecting, where the "guns" are actually "wands"?
Ehhhh, probably. It wouldn't have a terribly authentic feel to me, somehow, because I'm far more prepared to associate big battles that are won through overwhelming well-deployed strength and military tactics with Star Wars and (though I'm not particularly familiar with it) other sci-fi properties than I am Harry Potter. Deadwood is a very natural fit - if anything, Deadwood shootin' irons would likely be lower-tech than yer modern paintball marker. Harry Potter conflicts are won through cunning and love and imaginitive use of just the right spell under the circumstances, not firepower. That said, yes, it would still be sort of cool if it were to happen.
Certainly the top-level paintball teams are sponsored - paintball is an equipment-intensive hobby like golf where people spend big money on hardware, which tends to make sponsorship by equipment manufacturers a very viable option - but I'm surprised that scenario teams would be sponsored. If they're being rewarded for their imagination rather than their attainment then it makes sense.
Another related question: the SCA is popular, Harry Potter is popular; crossing the two and twisting slightly, why hasn't Harry Potter-themed live action role-playing taken off? (The answer is that it probably has more than I am aware of and I would be delighted to be made aware of it.) Magic is notoriously difficult to emulate convincingly in LARP unless everyone is really good at suspending disbelief and on the same page and LARP games tend to be combat-heavy unless you take a lot of care to write them with lots of possible ways for the game to develop or people are really good at improvising and getting the scene to a satisfactory conclusion that happens to fit well into an over-arching plot. Also I think people genuinely tend to like the magic in HP being mysterious in its potency rather than assessed into a set of statistics and figures.
OK, bedtime now.
Re: Yr resident HP gamer rants beneath after a long night shift
Date: 2007-06-24 08:57 pm (UTC)Actually, a lot of people had a terrific time "dueling" at Phoenix Rising, and you remember the people who did it informally at Nimbus, too? (Or were we both too busy to watch much? Probably!)
Also, WB has not authorized the creation of any role-playing scenario books, in contrast to, say, Supernatural (it's coming out this fall) and IIRC Lost and X-Files. Maybe that's got something to do with it?
Re: Yr resident HP gamer rants beneath after a long night shift
Date: 2007-06-25 09:31 am (UTC)Some day perhaps we might get to find out more of what types of merchandising JKR personally put her foot down about and where in the chain other things got nixed. It could possibly be that WB just have some very fixed (and incorrect) ideas about the age of the fans to whom the merchandising could be targeted.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-24 07:54 pm (UTC)People in manga fandoms can spend enormous amounts of money on the source product - and if they're drawing their own doujinshi, either the computer art software, or pen/paper art supplies, or maybe both.
I've bought many Phantom of the Opera books and movies I probably wouldn't have otherwise. Others buy magazines, published books in the "extended universe" (i.e. Star Wars or Babylon Five commercial books), posters, etc.
So while writing, reading, and distributing fanfiction may not cost anything directly (archive accounts are usually free), OTOH people might be buying newer computers, upgraded broadband services, software applications, etc. *that they might not have otherwise.* So in a limited sense, fandom *does* generate revenue for others.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-24 08:58 pm (UTC)But I do know that not everyone feels this way - it's just one "argument" about an issue in various fandoms that I know has come up from time to time.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-24 11:50 pm (UTC)1. I doubt it.
2. No. Paintball's a hobby like most others and can be a lot of fun. It shouldn't be any shock that people who are really into it spend a lot of money on their equipment, any more than it's shocking how much people pay to play hockey or buy woodworking tools or expand their stamp collection. Has anyone checked out what it costs to be a competitive figure skater these days? And I'm frankly not impressed that people are snarking paintballers just for being paintballers, as though fanfic fans are somehow inherently better than they are just... because... whatever. :/
3. I doubt the scenario games have much at all to do with the TV shows. And I doubt very much that someone who's really into paintball would see an announcement for one of those games and say, "Hmm, I've never seen Deadwood so I'll sit out this game. I can clean out the garage that weekend instead." [wry smile] I mean, come on! The whole point is to run around practicing your strategy and tactics and skill, and shoot your friends with paint-filled gelatin balls; the fact that you're wearing something costume-ish to make you look sort of like a zombie or whatever doesn't change anything about the game. My gut instinct is that the scenario games are a novelty thing and will fade away soon enough, but even if they don't I'll bet that dedicated paintballers won't give the "fannish" or "theme" aspect much weight at all when they decide whether or not to participate in that particular game.
Angie
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-25 06:07 pm (UTC)2. I definitely read the article and thought, "Damn, I wish I lived there so I could join in!" But I still wouldn't buy the $1,000 gun.
3. Nah, since most scenario paintball is based on real-life events (the article cites the upcoming invasion of Normandy). And I'd bet that hardcore people who buy that stuff go paintballing at other times, not just for scenarios and certainly not just for fandom scenarios.