[Discussion] The Conundrum of Circumstance · 12:36pm Mar 17th, 2013
Was going to use the youtube video as the header, but the site dun update'ded.
A friend of mine, IceOfWaterflock (she's jus' this illustrator, y'know?) recently blackmailed me into introduced me to a game called Neopets. I approached it a similar way I did the My Little Pony fandom, at first. I got an account and played a bit on the games. Most of it is held together by glue and twine, and the site itself is nothing special, but the world is impressive. This suggests to me that they have writers and artists but lack the programmers and web designers to piece it all together.
But that's beside the point. If you're still skeptical of my taste, I'd like you for a minute to watch this video, detailing one of the factions in the latest Neopets event. I'm a sucker for faction warfare, but be that as it may, I was still rather impressed by the way this quick little event was thrown together. There are five other factions, as well; you should be able to find them in the above video's related column.
So, my question to you all is this: Was My Little Pony simply in the right place at the right time? There's no denying that the fandom had a bit of a boost from the stigma surrounding its concept and the overall brilliance of its execution. However, say no review ever came out criticizing the world of animation with MLP as its key point; say 4chan simply disregarded it and focused its attention on the latest Anonymous attack or world crisis. Say My Little Pony never took off the way it did.
Would something else, like Neopets, have taken its place? We're all mostly the same kind of people we were before we became Bronies or Pegasisters; would we find something else to fawn over?
Drop your opinions in the comments. This is a question I would genuinely like answered. Cheers!
Well I certainly would have ended up finding something else, though most likely it would have been more "appropriate" to my age + gender. Also would not have been nearly as loyal to the fandom and such, and unlike other things you can be a broke brony easily.
Neopets has been around forever, I highly doubt that would of happened since, essentially most of the 'brony' age group would already be familiar with--and grew tired of--Neopets.
On the flipside, ponies is kinda a new thing and would of been discovered as what it is regardless, even if it wasn't on 4chan.
I think any show like it could have taken it's place, had something else of the caliber existed. But it was a cartoon, throwback to childhoods and all that jazz, had good characters and started off with a pilot aimed toward basically the cute, purple-colored death of everything. To be honest, I think more people would have watched the old one if the characters weren't so flimsy.
I don't think so. This whole thing really is the perfect storm of circumstance. I think a few of us would've still discovered it and become fans, but the movement would not have been nearly as big.
Neopets has been around for a while; it's not exactly a little-known... hmm... franchise? Anyway, I think if it was going to happen with Neopets, it would have already.
In my opinion 4chan takes far too much credit for the existence of the brony fandom. More than anything, they gave us notoriety, which was both good and bad in the long run. They also continue to give us notoriety. Allow me to summarize with a single perfectly-composed photograph:
24.media.tumblr.com/5695915b40b7a397097bc4d6bb004cb9/tumblr_mix7u3rUMw1rtu6tvo1_500.jpg
I don't know. If i had never stumbled upon Cupcakes, I would have continued my existence unaware of this fandom and prolly the show in general as well.
I would have stayed a dragon junkie indefinitely.
I once had a Neopet years back, back in the days of yore when it was still relatively new and all there was to do was the Battle Dome and those silly little games, at least insofar as I was willing to do... I wanted to have adventures and actually be the heroes in those mini-games, not buy flimsy items and compete in auction houses! It's a shame you can't really have the same freedom of expression and movement in the actual game mechanics as the game's world implies. I guess it's like you say: they have a lot of imagination but not enough resources to pull it off? I watched all the videos, and they look enticing, but I still know the game behind it is rather lackluster. A shame, really.
My Little Pony is kind of different. It has a quality core work that supports a lot of imagination as well. And we don't depend on the limits of a web site to tell us how we can have our adventures. I believe MLP would have gotten a fan base regardless, due to that quality work. I remember encountering episodes and getting hooked on the show via Youtube, then coming to Equestria Daily and being excited about that long before I even heard of the great 4chan conflict.
927937
Forgive me for not knowing my internet history.
Neopets was simply a placeholder; who knows how many other startups their are on the internet daily, with none of them becoming nearly as popular as MLP.
I like to attribute most of the success to rule #19, myself.