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Post by Emilybee on Jul 10, 2010 9:33:39 GMT
I listened to every episode of Hellfire comms playthrough of Sonic 06, and damn it was boring. I always wonder.. Oh wait. I have an idea, in the meantime: www.youtube.com/user/HellfireComms
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Post by ShayMay on Jul 10, 2010 9:52:17 GMT
Admittedly, '06 was three-and-a-half years ago now, and with the up-and-coming games, as well as Unleashed, Sonic's becoming less and less like a fanfic. Although yeah, '06 was startlingly similar to one. A bad one. I don't think Sonic's dying - if anything, he's on the rise again, so I don't think there's much to worry about. And I agree with Beeth - just ignore the fanfic writers. They do not and will not influence Sega at all, and to argue with them is an excercise in both tedium and pointlessness. Of course, if you want to argue with them, more power to you, but just don't expect them to listen. I listened to every episode of Hellfire comms playthrough of Sonic 06, and damn it was boring. I always wonder.. Oh wait. I have an idea, in the meantime: www.youtube.com/user/HellfireCommsWhat... has that got to do with... anything?
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Post by Emilybee on Jul 10, 2010 22:15:47 GMT
Listening to it was pretty boring, is what I'm saying, playing it wasn't much fun either.
Fanfiction writers not influencing SEGA is a good thing.
Though certain Archie elements did sort of help themselves to Chronicles, the game itself was too slow to make the game worth buying.
You could say thats as close to fanfiction SEGA will get.
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Aria
Big Time Boomer
One of few stars and many words.
Posts: 410
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Post by Aria on Jul 11, 2010 0:01:21 GMT
Probably, and I know how old '06 is, I count the years we can move away from that, but no video game in memory has ever done that badly at a story. The new games, while I will argue they both look like [censored], do appear to be steering away from '06. I don't think Archie comics counts as fanfiction since SEGA pays them. But if you meant what I think you did, than I would have to hope so.
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Post by Emilybee on Jul 11, 2010 8:11:54 GMT
Theree was an old article on escapist magazine talking about how when an artist dies, another picks up the story. However, the creator had the ideas in the first place and had a note of HOW these characters were. The new guy doesn't have this disclosed information.
The article basically said, Superman, the Watchmen movie, and anything else we have the creator isn't around for made it so that the only thing that could come after their work is purely fanfiction. In fact when they did a special for the series "Legion of Super heroes" which had all 3 generations of Superheroes in it, one of the big-wigs in the internet fandom called the mini-series "fanfiction" and noted "usually I don't fork out money for fanfiction though".
Thats how I was comparing it.
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Aria
Big Time Boomer
One of few stars and many words.
Posts: 410
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Post by Aria on Jul 12, 2010 11:22:01 GMT
That's a good point, but that would mean every Sonic game that comes out now is fanfiction. ;D ... oh lord we're merging canon and fandom! All prepare for the universe to end soon...
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Post by WinterFlames on Jul 12, 2010 11:30:16 GMT
This discussion was briefly glanced over earlier this year and (I think) Samface pointed out that if this was taken to be true then everything past Issue 5 of STC would be fanfiction.
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Jafar
Big Time Boomer
On Wings of Hope and Fear
Posts: 104
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Post by Jafar on Jul 16, 2010 23:31:52 GMT
Just on the subject of fan characters in general:
As someone said on the first page, I think, fan characters are a good way to get into a series. I found that when I was first interested in Sonic, around 2005, once I had learned of all the mainstream characters, that it helped me understand the dynamic behind the Sonic world better by making up characters who could be seen as random civilians of Mobius. A few of my own fan characters, Venomtoad and Stinky Onion, for all you ex-STCOSSCACCers out there, actually came from my own mind before my Sonic fan years, but I put them into the Mobius setting and found that made me appreciate Sonic comics and games more.
I write Pokemon fan fiction, and the main character is a fan character with interactions with mainstream characters like gym leaders and gang bosses (Maxie of Team Magma, for example), and, as with Sonic, I find this helps me understand Pokemon and its themes (friendship, companionship, human-animal relationships, justice) more. I made a lot of fan characters for the story I am working on, some based on game characters, some off the top of my head, simply because I found that the best way to explore the limits of a video game-created universe was to fill the worlds with some multi-dimensional people.
So while I see the case against fan characters, I like them, and I think they have a value beyond fan fiction, that being that they can be taken and made into unique characters. A couple of personal examples:
- I am training in university to be a computer scientist. In preparation for this I made a Java game with my Sonic fan characters, Venomtoad the frog, called Venomfrog in the game, and Stinky Onion the onion, which uses similar dynamics to Sonic such as platforms but which is unique in many ways. I plan to enter the video game industry at some point. If I do, I plan on trying to get Venomfrog, the new name, and Stinky recognized as potential characters for an original game series, with an unique world for them which I have been working on since 2005. So, my time building up their characters through having them interact with Sonic characters could prove to be beneficial to my career path. And if not, the experience of making new characters and learning more about them through experimentation is nice.
- While the story I am working on is set in the Pokemon world, its themes have always been relevant to me. Specifically, its principal symbol is a lighthouse. I had a dream at age 12 about seeing Jasmine, the Olivine gym leader in Gold, Silver, Crystal and the remakes, being in Vancouver, near a lighthouse. I looked around for her and after much running found her and she told me that my purpose in life laid in what a lighthouse symbolizes. So, five years after having that dream, I have gained so much knowledge and insight about the value of lighthouses that I wrote a story focused on a young man, a fan character, visiting the beacons in the Pokemon world, and learning from them lessons which are universally valid. So, to jumpstart my writing career, once this fan fiction is done, I am going to write a story, set perhaps in British Columbia, where I live, or in Europe, about a young man who learns of his purpose through travelling to and visiting lighthouses. If it all works out, I have Pokemon to thank for giving me a setting to start with. If it does not work out, I still learned my current purpose in life because I chose to create a fan character for the Pokeverse.
I agree that fan characters can be bland and unoriginal and not worth the time, but they have a lot of value, too, which lies in helping aspiring artists and writers gaining confidence in their abilities through getting familiar with their unique creations in a well-established video game setting. It may not be the best way to create characters, but fan fiction, at least to me, certainly has helped me grow as a person and will be at least partially responsible for any creative endeavours I could come up with in my life.
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Post by SwiftCat132 on Aug 10, 2010 20:58:07 GMT
Hey!
I'm new to the forums (howdy everyone!)
On subject, nothing frustrates me more than Sonic look-a-likes with paint jobs masquerading as original characters. There is little creativity in googling Sonic, slapping his picture into paint, and flood filling him red.
I do like fan characters when they are well done, though - although I completely agree that they are purely personal. For me, I put aspects of myself into my characters so that I can put myself into the sonic story. (Huh, that sounded weirdly pervy).
'Well done' = they fit into their own universe, or the universe of the characters they pay homage to, and are ORIGINAL.
[self indulgence] I created my fan character when I was 9, after watching sonic satAM. I always dreamed that one day my character, a purple cat, would fit into the Sonic universe. Then Big was created, and I was like 'nevermind, one more purple cat couldn't hurt'. But now Blaze! Argh, my chances are shot! It's even worse that I actually like Blaze. I can't even make myself feel better by loathing her existance. Curses. [/self indulgence]
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Post by Beeth on Aug 10, 2010 21:12:51 GMT
That's actually reminded me of a piece of sent in art I saw printed in STC many moons ago of a fancharacter someone made, a black echidna(?) who the sender had decided to call "Shade". I'd have loved to see the look on their face when the prominent Sonic Chronicles character was announced. ;D
Well, them and the hundreds (or thousands) of other people who also made a fancharacter called Shade.
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Post by SwiftCat132 on Aug 10, 2010 21:29:11 GMT
OH, THIS HAS CONSPIRACY WRITTEN ALL OVER IT! *shakes fist*
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Pinchetel
Big Time Boomer
...And together in failure.
Posts: 212
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Post by Pinchetel on Aug 12, 2010 10:00:53 GMT
Ugh, fancharacters. I actually have some, but they're boring to work with compared to the real deals.
Clone FCs annoy me, to an extent. They're okay to start out with, but after just two or three years, you should be developing your ideas beyond that. Don't get me started on those out there who stuck with them for ten years and over...
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Aria
Big Time Boomer
One of few stars and many words.
Posts: 410
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Post by Aria on Aug 19, 2010 1:07:55 GMT
The other day, I saw a sprite edit of Tails, not even recolored, made taller with Shadow's shoes doing a pose that looks like it came out of Sonic Advance...
And it was apparently someone's fan character.
Even with my most unoriginal recolors, I can do better than that. ;D
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Jafar
Big Time Boomer
On Wings of Hope and Fear
Posts: 104
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Post by Jafar on Aug 22, 2010 2:13:16 GMT
Recolours and minor edits annoy the heck out of me, too, but original fan characters have their uses, since with a few tweaks they could be the prototypes for an original series. I like seeing Sonic-inspired opossums and lemurs, and I cringe at the headgehogs and foxes. The Sonic mainstream has more than enough hedgehogs, in my opinion.
With thought put into them, as I mentioned in my previous post in this thread, fan characters at least have use in getting their creator to think more about themselves and others and perhaps understand people better, but I think the key variable which often leads to floods of stale recolours is the word "thought".
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Aria
Big Time Boomer
One of few stars and many words.
Posts: 410
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Post by Aria on Sept 3, 2010 3:05:47 GMT
Recolours and minor edits annoy the heck out of me, too, but original fan characters have their uses, since with a few tweaks they could be the prototypes for an original series. I like seeing Sonic-inspired opossums and lemurs, and I cringe at the headgehogs and foxes. The Sonic mainstream has more than enough hedgehogs, in my opinion. With thought put into them, as I mentioned in my previous post in this thread, fan characters at least have use in getting their creator to think more about themselves and others and perhaps understand people better, but I think the key variable which often leads to floods of stale recolours is the word "thought". Sorry but the way that sounded was like if they don't use an uncommon species they didn't think much. ;D Pretty much all my characters from every fandom are foxes, and I don't typically make fan characters if they can't be anthro (because I'm picky) or resemble a fox in some way, but that's just because they're my favorite animal and I've liked them even before I was a Tails fan. and I don't think my characters are unimaginative, they're just part of an over-rated species. (I don't know why foxes are popular, I like them because they have pointy ears and bushy tails and are associated with magic in Japanese mythology and magic is badass. But I know people who just hate them because they're over-rated, my characters have always been slammed for that reason, but I just tell people to [censored] off because nitpicking at a species is stupid if the character is still well built with a lot of detail to personality.) I agree about being able to evolve original characters from it, one of my characters is original, but can be reinvented into a Sonic character if I get bored enough to write fanfiction... I tried it a few times, once posting one on here, but I don't know what it is about fanfiction but it's boring to write. And I don't like Sonic's world much, unless I can completely reinvent it. There's too much sci-fi and not enough lore and mythology-based fantasy for me. I tried writing a Sonic fanfiction once about the American comics... I got called on that because my story involved Sonic and Tails going back to their primal roots where they learned to dash on all fours and survive like beasts should, and when I tried to give their world epic mythology about how they ascended from animals into sentient beings with cool stories of war and myth. Now I write my own stories, most of which don't have much technology. (Unless it's evil.) Most of my Sonic fancharacters have been hybrids of Sonic characters and Pokemon, in that they have all been elementalists and weak against other elements. I used to make a sprite comic where such characters would battle in a tournament DBZ style and Sonic and the gang would have to master powers given to them by a wind mage. And it was through that I invented my own rules for elements, there were only ten main ones with new ones being discovered if two different ones mated, and actually wrote an original (and poorly written) story using original anthro characters I evolved from Sonic fancharacters. I should rewrite that tale when I'm done with the three I'm working on now. ^^; [/longpost]
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