Misc snippets
Bits and pieces I wrote in comments and side-posts relating to the topics discussed throughout the challenge.
On general nerdery as a gateway into media fandom:
"I think that seems to be a common thing, I know a lot of the RP/worldbuilder people I've known over the years have drifted into fandom. I just never followed. Myself and fandom don't click, it doesn't scratch the same creative itches, and I just kind of felt like I was cosplaying something I wasn't when I tried to fit in. I can't even write fanfic! Though I do enjoy reading a good one. I think in the cases when I am a fan of something I'm more affirmational than transformative."
On modern "original species" vs cyberpets and RP:
"What feels weird to me is that the idea of species design hasn't gone away, you can still find a million original species sheets on DA. So many of those would make great webpage pets but they just sit there. Maybe it's the obsession with closed species and selling adoptables?
But it makes me think of the other thing that bugs me about most modern species which is that they don't feel like cohesive parts of their own world with their own story. Having a little adoption agency page, where you have that framing device of going out into their world, would make them feel a bit more whole rather than just a design template, you know?"
On reconstructing old forum RPs (from a post about collecting scattered Wayback Machine pages and text logs):
"It's interesting seeing how much was going on. When I said unearthing old content feels like remembering an old cartoon with missing episodes, and also cancelled before its time, I mean this. I still want to know what would have happened if some of the storylines had been able to come to a full conclusion. There's still one from later on in the RP - late enough that the writing and characterisation still feel genuinely good - that I come back to because it feels like reading the first couple of chapters of a novel that was never finished, but should have been. If this were a fandom then it'd be pure fanfic fuel. There are other threads that I remember existing, but were never indexed and are probably lost forever unless someone else has them logged, and honestly finding one person with text logs was a big enough miracle."
On original works with noticable media influence (from a discussion about Lion King fanart and xenofiction):
"I had no idea until I read this that the Lion King Fanart Archive still exists and is active. I was never a part of it myself (was definitely a TLK kid but didn't do fanart), but I know it was a Thing back then. Pretty cool that it's still around. It's hard to be certain but I think a lot of old roleplay settings had some Lion King roots even if they weren't blatant.
Come to think of that, that's another thing that I remember, settings that very obviously take inspiration from existing properties but aren't. Even my own current main setting does that. I guess a common example would be the multiple dragon bonding cyberpet agencies which were very much Not Pern but clearly inspired. Compare with stuff like Warrior Cats where people lift the clan structure, ranks, naming systems wholesale, their settings are more obviously Warriors But Elsewhere. I don't think I've ever seen a setting inspired by Warriors but still its own thing? Could be wrong, though.
I don't know if that's to do with legality, I was never into Pern but I heard stories about how lawyer-happy things got. Then by the time you get to Warriors fandom is more accepted. Maaaybe? But huh I went and looked up when it came out and the first book is from 2003, that's a lot older than I thought. I admit I don't know a ton about the timeline of legal acceptance of fandom, not really my area. I guess I'm better off leaving that to the experts. Maybe it's just that Pern was just that bad for legal crap that you had to diversify. But either way I don't see that same level of 'cool idea, I'll borrow it and make it my own' so much?"
and on a later discussion:
"So what I was really thinking of here was the difference between full on lifted settings, AUs, fanfic, and things that clearly take influence from an existing property but are not intended as fanworks.
All of this is speculation, but for example the Dimar setting feels like it has obvious Pern influence, what with it being sci-fi with dragons on another planet, but it's very much not Pern at the same time, and the creator has mentioned being on the receiving end of legal threats for drawing Pern fanart too. I don't think it's a coincidence that they put their own setting into the public domain probably as a response to all that. Which is why it's so heartbreaking that the setting seems to have sunk without trace, since it was specifically put out there for others to play with. It's at least still readable and includes a whole novel, which is pretty rare for this sort of thing.
There's also a lot of old defunct Not Pern cyberpets, as well that are more obviously reskinned, but I don't know how much of the distinction was for legal reasons and how much the concept of 'you are a candidate for bonding one of these dragon eggs' maps well onto the concept of a static site cyberpet agency.
And again I don't know how much of this is legality, if Pern fandom had been more accepted in the 90s, would we have all just made Pern fanworks instead... I dunno. I was never really that into Pern myself, the concept was cool as hell but I picked up the main book as a teen and it just didn't grip me as much as I hoped."
...
"But back to my point I don't think I've seen too many inspired-by settings these days. You can definitely find pro published works that take obvious inspiration from prior works, but online it's fanwork heavy. Like how in my comment I mentioned Warriors, you don't so much get people deciding they'll make their own cat clan soap opera with their own spin on it so much as directly copying the clan structure, naming system, and ranks and using them elsewhere - it's still obviously Warriors.
Or with daemons, you see plenty of daemon AU fanfics, but you don't see a situation where you have creatures that are obviously daemon inspired but at the same time clearly aren't the same thing. Or on the other side pokemon fans getting inspired deciding to make their own bestiaries. Maybe it's the pressure to monetise what you can, maybe it's the fear of being called a ripoff, maybe it's just that a fanwork gets you more attention. I do love daemon AUs. There's some beautifully thought out ones that really go into depth about how a society would function with them, which in turn has given me a lot to think about how other creature-companion settings would accomodate them. But it isn't the same as making your own inspired-by but original space."