Regarding: yaoi-centric plot-tape-encouraging etc. game reviews

[petronia]

Jesus H. Christ, people. Get over yourselves.

Let's extend this beyond video games. Why the hell do people who write OOC, PWPs, et al, possibly without having seen the series or played the game all the way through - why the hell does it bother you so much? No, really, comment on this and tell me. Last I checked, no one's twisting your arm to force you to do it their way. No one's even forcing you to *read* their fics. So what the hell? Why are you threatened by this? Why does it make you so bloody angry?

You are not what Neil Gaiman called the Enforcement Arm of Fanfiction, the other day. (And *he* said it with the text equivalent of a nervous laugh, and a big Joke caption to avoid flames, which tells you something right there.) The lightweight fangirls will not give you a bad name in the eyes of society at large, trust me, because it's mothereffing fanfiction. It never had a good name to begin with. It's not a righteous war, it's something ya do for laughs.

Isn't it?

Y'all need to chill, j0. Chill.

P.S.: Does modifying an existing entry now count as making a new entry?

Comments

[fyredancer.livejournal.com]

Bwaha! The Enforcement Arm of Fanfiction.

Wait, how serious did you think I was? It's all just words, anyhow..

[petronia.livejournal.com]

You in particular, this time around? Not very serious. *g*

Kris, though... Kris was *angry* at that article, which is how the discussion got started AFAIK, and a number of other people also expressed their disapproval. What bothered me is not so much the dislike of said article - that's legit opinion - but the tacit assumption that "our" approach to gaming/fanfiction/whatever is better than "their" approach, and that "encouragement" of the latter lies somewhere between twittish and irresponsible. I find that attitude high-handed, bordering on self-righteous.

This was a very cumulative letting-go of irritation on my part. I shall see if I can formulate my point less rantily in another post.

[angrybabble.livejournal.com]

P.S.:

I do find encouragement of vapid behavior to be both irresponsible and twittish. You can find me to be self-righteous and stuck up if you like: I am that. I wil not deny it. However, regardless of what a conceited bitch I am, my opinions aren't going to change without logical debate. I dislike people using something I'm very fond of as some kind of mental dildo, and I say so; if I've offended you with my outspoken nature, well, I am truly sorry; I don't like to upset people. But I won't take back my words or apologize for them, because I'd be lying if I did. I may be overly blunt, but I try to be truthful.

And no, as I said below: I don't take all this that seriously. It's something interesting to talk about, but it's certainly nothing to actually physically get upset about. I exaggerate a lot when I write, and I'm quite sarcastic at times; that may lead to you (and perhaps others) thinking I'm sitting here at my keyboard in a frothing rage, but rest assured, I am not.

[meril.livejournal.com]

There's a reason I no longer rant about fanfiction, and you've just articulated it.

Thank you.

[angrybabble.livejournal.com]

ah, you THINK I was angry at that article.

In reality, it doesn't bother me. Did reading it put a damper on my day? Not at all! I enjoy mocking them and their stupidity.

Do I believe all the things I said? Yep. But it doesn't mean I take it that seriously. It's just FANDOM. It doesn't affect my life that much.

I usually write my rants while simultaneiously giggling to myself, going "AAAAAAAH MY EYES AHAHAHAHAHA!" and quoting chunks of whatever I'm reading to people on IRC who are also laughing their heads off. I'm not pissed off... I'm entertained.

Believe me, it takes a lot to actually piss me off. A lot more than some webpage written by a bunch of horny fangirls.

I mean, yeah, it's TRUE: it annoys me a little, and they DO make us look bad in "society" (where "society" == "fandom"), but mostly I just find the whole thing entertaining.

See posts/comments by Talya, jokersama, and iwaki for more coherant commentary on your topic.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Well... yeah. I don't mean that you were angry in the sense of stomping around red-faced in real life, any more than I was at you. *g*

But... really, you enjoy 'mocking them and their stupidity'? I'm not too sure - one fan to another - whether you or I have the right to mock someone or even judge them as stupid, merely based on the fact that they have a different way of enjoying the series/game. And yes, IMO writing bad fanfic based on nothing but character design is still a perfectly legitimate way of enjoying a game, as long as the enjoyment itself is real. Squaresoft et al make these chunks of software in order to entertain us, no more.

I think the very fact that you're worried about looking bad shows you're taking it too seriously, at least by *my* definition of serious. :P

[angrybabble.livejournal.com]

haha... well, in regard to "looking bad," I think it's just that I don't like the bad name we fangirls get in fandom as a result of the behaviour of the irresponsible few. So, you may be right; I do take it at least a little seriously in that respect. While fandom isn't my life, it's certainly something I spend a lot of time and energy on, and to have my name in fandom blackened (as it were) by the behavior of others isn't something I appreciate.

I think this quote from jokersama's blog pretty much explains my ENTIRE source of irritation:

Sadly, that actually seems to be the case, according to this article. Aiyaaa. Aestheticism, don't encourage bad habits in the fen who trusts you! It makes the rest of us seem like retards, and it's hard to defend ourselves!

"So....you like gaming."
"Yes."
"And yaoi."
"Yes. But that's not the - "
"You like pairings from the game, don't you?"
"Yes, but I swear, that's not the reason why I'm playing the game, I like the - "
"Oh, shut up and go make your Ken dolls kiss or something. We're trying to discuss the game here."
"But!"

If you see what I mean?

[angrybabble.livejournal.com]

PPS: Really, do read iwaki's lj; what she said about this is very much how I feel, and she puts it into words better than I do (I'm terrible with intellectual lingo).

As I said there in regard to my own behavior... yes, I do feel rather ashamed of myself, if you bring it up like that. But at the same time, I can't back down from this place I've gotten myself; it's my foolish pride combined with my honest feelings. I don't know what to say other than that I am probably a bad person; I can't really defend having such feelings, nor deny having them.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

...We've been playing comment tag with each other in the past hour, haven't we? ^^;;

I left a comment in your lj regarding what *I* think the Aesthe writers mean by those articles. They're really just there to serve a narrow purpose.

And as for the other... well. Speaking personally I've never gotten anything like that from g4m3rb0is. But my fangirl-name is mud in RL regardless of what articles *anyone* may choose to write, because my best friend is The Biggest Fluffy Fangirl In The World. I mean this literally.

For my sins I also love her dearly, and am willing to sacrifice myself to protect the right of Fluffy Fangirls everywhere to have their fun, thinking only of her, heigh-ho. Kind of like now, in fact. XD

[angrybabble.livejournal.com]

heh... yes, yes we have. (I responded to the one you left in my blog, BTW, and wrote up a new short entry re: this... don't be offended by my snarky tone, please ^^;)

Well, it's not just gamer guys, but the community as a whole; the other day on IRC I got into a big discussion with a bunch of other girls who, despite liking both yaoi and gaming, found the title "yaoi fangirl" or even just "fangirl" to be very derogatory and insulting, because it would lump them in with THOSE people. I found that kind of sad, because I used to take pride in calling myself such a thing. Nowadays, depending on where you are, it's a lot like announcing, "I'm a leper!"