It just seems like more often than not, it's the same cardboard cut out of a story - you know the one - where Revan and Crew go to an after Star Forge celebration/cocktail party where there is some token angst and some token sith kind of show up in a poorly thought out plot and once they're dispatched everyone goes back to their angsting and discussion of each other's relationship problems (there are other story archetypes that people overuse - this is probably the most popular one though). I guess I just don't get the appeal of those stories or why some brilliant stuff gets overlooked in favor of something like that.
I'd venture to guess that in kotorfic, these plots are so prevalent because there are so many people who light on that as the first thing they think of after playing the game. They write it to get it off their chests before they lose interest, or to answer the question of "what happens next?" in their own minds, rather than writing to stretch a creative concept. Or they're writing to fill in the gaps left by the limitations of the game. By nature of the game, the romances are stripped down to a few short conversations (because people don't play CRPGs solely to get romanced by pixelated characters. I mean, I would, because I'm that kinda tool, but I'm not the target demographic, either. :P ). The external plot is a little more developed because it's full of action and adventure, and it's relatively complete at the end of the game--the girl is saved, the bad guys are defeated, the heroes are rewarded.
It just kind of sucks to see some brilliantly written stuff fall through the cracks - and the authors get discouraged because most people are off reading fluffy Carth/Revan romance #1278.
There isn't much you can do to change people's preferences, but the sheer amount of kotorfic that's out there can easily drown a good fic just by volume alone. I'm really hoping the new search system will help.
Booksellers will tell you that the books that really break out have no rhyme or reason to them, besides the element of word of mouth. Someone likes a book enough to tell their friends about it. Maybe we ought to bring a discussion about opening up the forums for fic discussion. Traditionally, we've avoided a "fic recs" thread because of the potential for pimp-spamming, but maybe we could set something up on a trial basis. maybe "nominations for recommends" where you have to give a reason for your rec.
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Date: 2007-03-22 02:17 pm (UTC)I'd venture to guess that in kotorfic, these plots are so prevalent because there are so many people who light on that as the first thing they think of after playing the game. They write it to get it off their chests before they lose interest, or to answer the question of "what happens next?" in their own minds, rather than writing to stretch a creative concept. Or they're writing to fill in the gaps left by the limitations of the game. By nature of the game, the romances are stripped down to a few short conversations (because people don't play CRPGs solely to get romanced by pixelated characters. I mean, I would, because I'm that kinda tool, but I'm not the target demographic, either. :P ). The external plot is a little more developed because it's full of action and adventure, and it's relatively complete at the end of the game--the girl is saved, the bad guys are defeated, the heroes are rewarded.
It just kind of sucks to see some brilliantly written stuff fall through the cracks - and the authors get discouraged because most people are off reading fluffy Carth/Revan romance #1278.
There isn't much you can do to change people's preferences, but the sheer amount of kotorfic that's out there can easily drown a good fic just by volume alone. I'm really hoping the new search system will help.
Booksellers will tell you that the books that really break out have no rhyme or reason to them, besides the element of word of mouth. Someone likes a book enough to tell their friends about it. Maybe we ought to bring a discussion about opening up the forums for fic discussion. Traditionally, we've avoided a "fic recs" thread because of the potential for pimp-spamming, but maybe we could set something up on a trial basis. maybe "nominations for recommends" where you have to give a reason for your rec.