Equestria Girls, complaining, and the value of free speech. · 8:58am Dec 18th, 2013
"You should be thankful you got even that much!" These words are invariably spoken by either an abusive parent who just told his child he's lucky to receive a moldy slice of bread for dinner, or else a dictator telling the people he rules that they're lucky he let them eat cake (keep in mind that when the phrase "let them eat cake" was first spoken, it referred to mold), and, these days, by fanboys who think its somehow wrong to criticize a work that doesn't meet expectations.
It's not just Bronies, really. People who purchased Diablo III were given similar bullshit--"You should be thankful!" "You've got entitlement issues!" "You're selfish!" and so on and so forth--over how the game can arbitrarily decide not to let you play it due to how its copy protection scheme works.
Yes, the internet actually believes that if you payed $50 for a game, and the perfectly-reasonable expectation of "I should be able to play it" is not met, and you complained, you are in the wrong. Somehow, entertainment conglomerates have managed with works of fiction what Hitler couldn't manage with legions of soldiers: Turning people into willing and loyal bootlickers.
For more examples, just go to that hive of scum and villainy--TV Tropes--and read their "Ruined Forever" or "They Changed It Now It Sucks" pages, both of which imply at every angle that the things people complain about aren't really bad and its always, ALWAYS, just the over-sensitive fandoms overreacting. Even things that are legitimately bad are treated as if complaining about them makes you automatically wrong.
It's pretty similar to how you can't compare something to the Nazis--even something that's blatantly similar, like genocide--without someone declaring you're wrong because Godwin's Law (incidentally, using a law to auto-win an argument is itself a Nazi tactic, but nobody ever thinks of that).
... This is the part where I say "How did this happen?" But why bother? We all know how. It's nerddom, after all. Most nerds have absolutely no confidence, having absolutely failed at school, been picked on in real life by their social peers, been ignored by their families. The internet is the one place where they can have any sense of superiority, and so naturally they let it get out of control. They can't stand being disagreed with because any disagreement brings to mind the possibility that they are "wrong," which sets off all their insecurities. So they need to be right, all the time.
This is exactly like what I said in my previous post, about Bronies being "posers," because its a lot of the same B.S. at work. They would feel invalidated if, for example, Equestria Girls was really a bad movie and they watched it anyway, so they need to believe it was good if not perfect. And god forbid you tell them that the money they spent on Diablo III went to support a corporate conglomerate that has no reason to care about its customers and instead only looks out for its own interest, and is totally okay with selling people a product that customers might not be able to actually use!
The problem is that the ability to complain is essential to society.
The reason is similar to a phenomenon every fanfic writer is familiar with: If nobody complains about what you do, then you can't ever improve, and whoever comes after you won't know what to do better and what to not do at all.
If we don't complain about invasive DRM, then game companies won't know that DRM is bad.
If we don't complain about the direction MLP has taken, Hasbro will think its a good direction.
Some people may think "Well, they're a big corporation, and the franchise is doing well, why should they care what a vocal minority thinks?"
It's funny, but in Dune Messiah, author Frank Herbert provides a quote that almost directly corresponds to this issue. I don't have the book with me so I have to paraphrase from memory (and for that matter, it may have been in Dune or in Children of Dune, but definitely one of the first three), but somewhere he comments that a leader may start out as caring what people think, but then he reaches a position where he's so high up he stops caring. He feels on top of the world, and becomes deaf to the cries of people above him. This, inevitably, is what always causes their downfall.
And real life history bears this out. The entire Comic Book industry is one huge case in point: It used to be big, and the "Silver Age" (from the 50s to the 70s) was its peak. But then the companies felt they could do no wrong, got pretentious, and started using blatant money-grab marketings in the 80s and 90s. This alienated readers. Now, comics are supported almost entirely by a small fanbase of people who revere their favorite superheroes almost as much as Catholics revere the Bible, and when those existing fans grow old and die out.... (this is precisely why Marvel and DC are both trying to break into Hollywood, but they show again and again that they haven't learned from their past mistakes, and so are doomed to fail). Ironically, the manga industry, which actually listens to its readers, has been going strong and now accounts for 1/3rd of all books published in Japan, and is a strong competitor against Marvel and DC comics in their native country.
For another example, try Sega: They used to be big, they used to be giants. Older folks will remember back when every console generation was Nintendo vs Sega. That's right: Sega, not Sony, not Microsoft. But Sega turned out to be run by idiots who had no clue what they were doing, and tuned out any and all fan complaints. People hated the Sega CD because it was an expensive add-on for the Sega Genesis which wasn't well-supported and didn't provide any clear advantages. So what did Sega do? They made the 32X, another expensive add-on which wasn't well supported and didn't provide any clear advantages over the regular Sega Genesis. Then Sega releases the Saturn... but they try to surprise everyone by releasing it three months early, which forces games to be rushed out the door and alienates not just fans, but developers (I should note that in Japan, where Sega handled things differently, the Saturn was quite popular). And that's just a brief overview. Part of the reason the Sony Playstation became Nintendo's chief competitor was because they knew what people wanted, Sega didn't (they even hired Bernie Stolar to be the chairman of the North American branch, after he had been kicked out of Sony for making disastrous decisions that led to many of the platform's best games not being localized).
Now Nintendo is about to go the way of Sega, and for that matter, the entire gaming industry is about to go the way comic books went, because they're letting personal interests cloud their judgment and making a lot of patently bad decisions because of it.
... Now, let's talk about Hasbro.
To be honest, I'm not surprised that FIM basically went downhill after the first season. If you go back and watch any previous Hasbro-based cartoon (like say the G1 Transformers and G.I. Joe or, hell, the G1 MLP), Hasbro has a tendency to let their marketing department rule everything, usually with disastrous results. While there are fans willing to say that Transformers: the (Animated) Movie was quite good (and it actually was), not many people look favorably upon the third season, which was all about new characters and not the beloved Ironhide or Wheeljack or anyone else we recognize... purely to force kids to buy new toys. Likewise, the writers of G.I. Joe themselves wound up hating a direction Hasbro went with the toyline, where they tried to build a mythology that Cobra was actually the military arm of a thousand-year-old cult of snake-people.
And now, of course, Hasbro shows that they didn't learn anything. They forced Cadence to be an alicorn against Faust's wishes, they forced Twilight to become a princess to sell a toy nobody wanted, they created Equestria Girls just to push more toys...
This is the point where someone says "But, the whole point of the cartoon is to sell toys!"
True, but being meant for that purpose does not mean it has to be a commercial. Just for example: If someone were to watch He-Man and the Masters of the Universe today, and go into it totally blind with no prior knowledge... you would have no idea that it's based on a toy, just from watching. That's because the people behind the cartoon actually felt telling good stories was a higher priority than selling toys (a point which actually drew contention from the toy company in question). Same goes for most of the better cartoons from the period: She-Ra and Thundercats.
In addition, one thing I think marketers don't really understand is that if the story is interesting enough, merchandise will be demanded anyway. Tolkien never in his life envisioned that there would be Lord of the Rings action figures, never figured there would be any product beyond the book itself. The book is certainly not written with merchandising in mind. And yet, merchandise exists. On a similar note, when Akira Toriyama pinned Dragonball, he never in his wildest dreams believed it would become a marketing empire (indeed, he originally planned to end it after just two volumes), and nothing in any volume of the manga hints at marketing as a driving force. And yet, the Dragonball merchandising machine is so strong that merchandise is still being produced decades after the original anime and manga have ended.
Marketers are not the brightest bulbs in the bunch, is what I'm saying.
And the reason they're so fracking stupid is because they're in a position where they're guarded against any sort of outside input. Nobody except like-minded CEOs (Who also are blind to outside input) get to tell them anything. You can't slap these people upside the head for their stupidity. And so they fail, again and again.
I, for one, think its time for a paradigm shift.
If it was a choice between Equestria Girls or not getting a movie at all... I'd have preferred no movie at all.
Your points about criticism being taken on board by creators makes me think of my own experience. Now, the most excited I have ever been for a game was definitely LittleBigPlanet for the PS3. For over a year I scoured videos, articles and screenshots, and managed to get onto the beta. When the game came out, I absolutely loved it. I spent pretty much two months straight playing through the story, completing it 100% and even made my own level which amassed over 35,000 plays. (Someone uploaded a playthrough of it here) I was an incredibly active member of the community and spent much time on LBP Central and other forums. I was in paradise.
Now, while chatting to other happy gadders (it's what the LBP fandom calls ourselves) I noticed that some were annoyed about certain mechanics of the game. Some were annoyed that there was no water, or no way to make AI characters, or that the creation tools were too difficult to use. Some wanted to make certain genres and weren't able to. But as far as I was concerned back then, these people were just looking for faults. They were whining, probably because they were jealous that their levels weren't getting plays or that they were too impatient to learn the tools properly, or they were simply too demanding of the developers. They should have been thankful for what they got, which in my eyes, was incredible.
So what happened? The developers listened. They visited the forums. They took notice of the criticisms. They made updates to try and curb previous problems. And then? They released LittleBigPlanet 2, which made the original game's creation tools look like utter tripe. You want water? Here you go. Easier creation tools? Sure. Ability to create AI characters? Yup. Level links? Minigames? Cutscenes? Voice recording capabilities? Shooter mechanics? Programmable microchips? A better campaign? Competitive online multiplayer? Of course, and take all of this extra stuff that would take you years of playing to reach the full potential of.
What did I learn? That I was wrong, and the people who complained and pleaded for bigger and better things were the reason we saw such a massive improvement. The members of Media Molecule, for all their talents, aren't unbridled geniuses. They don't have all the answers. But they do listen to both their fans and their haters alike, interact with them, and make improvements to give the players something special.
Not bad for a game aimed at little kids.
1620552 You know, I never played LittleBigPlanet. I probably should though, since my PSP needs more love.
I stick mostly to the old-school when it comes to gaming, but I still find the best games come from when they listen to fan input.
I should be fair though, because sometimes listening to the fans can be a bad thing. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (I include the subtitle so we're absolutely clear that this is not a typo) is fucking Gaming PERFECTION, it is the most genius masterpiece ever printed on physical media.
And the fans hated it.
Which led to the Metal Gear Solid series going to shit almost immediately. Seriously most of the games after 2 are a chore, or outright unplayable.
But that's rare. Hideo Kojima happened to be the rare genius who actually did know what he was doing and was hindered more than helped by outside input. The grand majority of artists and game designers do, in fact, need help.
I can't stand most media nowadays, because practically everything is made by some egotistical artsy guy at the top who thinks he's so clever. The new Doctor Who, Peter Jackson's butcheries of Tolkien, most cartoons, they all reek of this. And they all need to be slapped in the face.
1622330
I've not played the LBP on PSP. I would suggest getting either LBP2 or LBP Vita if you can, but if not, I'm sure the one on PSP is good also.
Oh, and as a huge Metal Gear fan, I too don't understand the amount of hate that MGS2 got. It was revolutionary for its time and to this day holds up really well.
Thinking about video games, this is another form of media where simply saying "this is aimed at kids" is really not a viable argument against criticism. I mean, wouldn't that give license for ever game maker to push mediocre pap onto the shelves and say "it's aimed at kids, what d'you expect?" I mean, seriously. Kids notice this stuff.
In terms of TV, kids are more than capable of analysing a story or questioning certain things. I remember when my little brother came back from watching Shrek 3 and said pretty much the same as every adult reviewer said. It wasn't as funny as the last, the villain sucked, the story wasn't very interesting. He was eight when he watched it. And again with the Ratchet and Clank series, my little brother was really dumbfounded by how R+C 2 was seemingly swept under the rug in terms of canon. (The existence of other Lombaxes, Quark's evil deeds) Again, this was coming from a little kid. You know. The target audience.
One other thing that I don't get, is if bronies are so insistent in reminding people that "this is a show for little kids," why are they watching it then? The whole argument that the fandom made to begin with was "This is more than just a show for little girls." And that was the whole point. We became fans of the show because it was better than anyone would expect from a show about little ponies. For us to be rabid fans of something that is just a silly little show for little girls would make us all... posers... huh...
But what gets me, is when the writers produce something with such a distinct lack of passion, many bronies don't care. But a fanfic writer does the same and is lambasted. I mean, let's take a scenario. Luna becoming Nightmare Moon. In the season 4 premiere, this was portrayed in an extremely lazy way, with little explanation.. Deep insight into Luna's road to madness and eventual downfall? Nope. Celestia's reasoning behind one thousand years imprisonment? Nope. And the big kicker? That Nightmare Moon is such a legandary tale, yet Luna succeeded in nothing. She just refused to lower the moon for a short while and then two minutes later was banished. Where were the days of night and the hardships faced by the citizens? There weren't any.
And then we have the memory of Discord's first defeat, in which he is taken out by the power of the Elements. And yet... in the season 2 premiere he sees those exact same coloured stones that you think he'd remember after a thousand years encased in stone, and sits back helplessly.
What we have here, ladies and gentleman, is an example of the the writers actually regressing the mythology. And what about the Elements of Harmony? The explanation for them? No? Just going to put them in a tree and forget they even exist? Even despite the tons of questions like how Celestia was able to wield them before on her own, or how the mane six were able to produce the same effect without them in Equestria Girls... Ah, f*ck it. It's a kids show. The writers can make it all up as they go along.
And I already know what bronies will say. "Just wait! They might explain it all later on!" Sure. They might. The thing is, I actually want a good explanation, one that doesn't leave me scratching my head searching for a head-canon with roundabout logic.
I mean, after MMC bronies kept reminding us that it was just the first of a 3 parter, and so to wait before passing judgement. Season 4 came, and the explanation behind Twilight's princesshood was just as pathetic, with no explanation behind what actually causes ascension, her role as a leader, the reasons for her staying in Ponyville after staying in Canterlot that episode, (which you'd think would have been a no-brainer after the amount of fuss that was made about not being with her friends) or indeed anything that couldn't have already been accomplished if she were a unicorn. (Oh, except Zecora's potion only works on alicorns! Oh, I completely forgot about that vital piece of information that means Twilight needed to ascend without a shadow of a doubt to push the story forward. Oh, how blind I've been!) Oh, but her friends treated her a bit differently and Twilight acted a bit differently. That's alright then! Top job, writers! Big tick! Gold star! Awesome character development there!
And that's why I turn to fan fiction, because more often than not the writer is passionate about their story. And it's disheartening when most fan fiction has more substance than the show itself.
But whatever. It's a kids show anyway. Trust the writers.
Okay...
I'm going to continue to violently disagree with your stance on a certain season three episode but your posts are thought provoking and you raise good points about the fandom and how marketing drives can destroy the quality of story telling and I very much agree with your stance on DRM.
Also what you posted somewhere else on the more current series of doctor who... the direction that series has taken since the regeneration has been upsetting to say the least.
So yes I shall follow you for being thought provoking.