Interview - M1SF0RTUNE of TECS

Hello there.

As the editor of polish bronies monthly called "Brohoof" I made an interview with the M1SF0RTUNE. It was originally planned to be publish only in Polish, but I decided to submit it in English too. Have a nice reading then!

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Verlax : Before I will ask the first question, allow me to make short introduction. M1SF0RTUNE is american brony, the founder of The Equestrian Critics Society group on FimFiction.net and the author of several fics. The Equestrian Critics Society was created to critize and review stories in deep and professional way. From now, TECS has a lot of members, you got quite big amount of reviewers. However, there are a lot of groups that are actually reviewing other’s stories. Could you tell us, what are the differences between The Equestrian Critics Society and other groups?

M1SF0RTUNE : Yes. There's two other main groups I know of that do reviews, and that's WRITE and Seattle's Angels. I'm not too familiar with how they do their style of reviews, but from what I've heard and talked about with some of their members, they focus more on critique and helping the author improve.

There are also groups that do recommendations on fics.

TECS tries to do both, basically. Our goal is to break down a story by its' parts, and judge it based on its' own merits, whether they be good or bad. We give our summary and score on a fic based on how well we think it stands on its' own, then publish reviews for the public to read. We want them to be both beneficial to the author as well as the reader, so the author knows the big points of what makes or breaks their story, and we want the reader to know if the story's a good read. We also want to promote these good stories, because there's not a reliable way of that beyond the controversial Feature Box.

Verlax : How you actually came up with the idea to set up this group?

M1SF0RTUNE : Part of it came from my own selfish desires, at first, as shameful as that sounds. I wanted to get my story recognized, but there was no great way to do that and demonstrate the quality I try hard to put into it without it falling into the pile of hundreds of other stories, a lot of them lousy in quality or even intentionally bad.

Part of it also came out of my interest in criticism in general, namely video game criticism, and helping authors. I feel I have lots of knowledge, and I want nothing more than to share it with everyone and see other talented writers improve their craft.

So I thought I'd take some Guild experience from my MMO days and other community leadership skills I've gained over the years, take my interest in helping other authors, interest in criticism, and try to get my story out there, and do it all in one big project that became The Equestrian Critics Society.

Verlax : Maybe this time, some less serious subjects. How did you become brony in the first place?

M1SF0RTUNE : Funny story actually.

I was one of those reluctant individuals who thought the My Little Pony thing was this girl's show. I thought it was a steroeotypical chick flick or high school drama-type stuff, yknow, very boring nonsense.

One day my best friend comes in going nuts over this show and he got me and another friend of ours to watch it. I dismissed this cuz this friend's into cartoons and girly stuff, he's fairly open-minded, unlike myself.

What ultimately convinced me to watch the show was one day when I was flipping through shows that were on our On Demand, and it was showing previews of shows and movies on the On Demand. While I was aimlessly browsing, a clip from the Dragonshy episode popped up, and that was the "briefing" before all of the main 6 went to the mountain. What captured my interest was the word "dragon" and the Fluttershy being afraid of her own shadow joke, which I thought was silly but I couldn't help but smile at it.

Afterwards, curiosity took hold, I asked around about the show, was shown the Sonic Rainboom scene playing with Guile's Theme, and the rest of the pieces fell into place from there. I watched the first couple episodes with the promise of less cheesy episodes as I went, and I got hooked.

I think the fact that I was also a member of the furry fandom before this might've contributed to that, but I dunno.

Verlax : How did you invent your nickname?

M1SF0RTUNE : It's an old gaming alias actually. I've used it since about '05 or so during my Counter-Strike: Source days.

The name was sorta inspired off a series that's played a major role in my interest in becoming a writer, and that's Metal Gear Solid.

M1SF0RTUNE was sorta inspired from the character Fortune in the second Metal Gear Solid. An old clanmate also help me make the name too, and it had fancy letters in it instead of the simpler ones I use nowadays.

Verlax : What do you do when you are not involved with writing, or taking care of TECS?

M1SF0RTUNE : Gaming, that's almost about it!

But no, I also like socializing with my friends, listen to music, watch random YouTube vids when I get bored, and maybe watch a TV show on occasion.

Though if anyone knew me even a little bit, they'd kinda know I was a game addict. I do own like 500+ games for my PC alone after all.

Verlax : Who is your favorite author (published or fanfiction)? Do you have a favorite story or novel?

M1SF0RTUNE : I don't really have a favorite. I don't think I could pick one if I had to choose. I've read between the Eragon books, Pendragon series, other young adult stuff, but I stopped reading a lot after high school. I'm trying to read Game of Thrones, The Gunslinger, Angels & Demons and stuff like that right now, but again, I don't think I have a favorite.

Verlax : Do you have any tips for aspiring writers, or writers who are struggling with their own stories?

M1SF0RTUNE : That's quite a tough question, if I wanted to say something that not almost every other writer has said. But if I had to give them one tip, and really it's universal with any art form or skill, and that's just to write.

It's the most unhelpful thing when said, sure, but it's actually kinda true. You just plain and simply need to write, and write about something that interests you or you're well-knowledged with. The more you write, the more natural and easier it becomes and the more diverse your writing becomes.

In my opinion, there's no better tip you'll ever get on becoming a good writer other than "just write." Trust me, I had to learn that myself.

Verlax : Equestria Girls became really controversial topic for some time. What is your opinion on that matter?

M1SF0RTUNE : Short answer? No. Just no.

Long answer, look, I get the idea that they wanna do something different, that's fine. I get the argument that we watch a girl's show, and that Equestria Girls should get the same open-mindedness MLP does.

But in my opinion? I hate high school dramas with a passion. They make me livid, because they're overdone, stereotypical, and generally dull. It's a far too normal situation that has a far less interesting premise than what drew me to Friendship is Magic, and that was the fantasy setting, not to mention the shocking amount of lore that went into that universe.

Base something in the real world though, no matter how talented and well-crafted the content is, it's immediately uninteresting to me.

Verlax : So as much as I can undestand that, the problem is setting the plot in the typical High School ( which is overdone, steoretypical and generally dull ), and not the idea of humanizing MLP characters itself?

M1SF0RTUNE : The High School thing is definitely a big fault for me, especially considering that's what I thought Friendship is Magic was gonna be; a high school girl talk drama nonsense. No grand adventures, no crazy cartoony wackiness that I can live with, and no big things in the world like Wonderbolts, Crystal Empires, etc.

But regarding humanizing the MLP characters... yeah, I don't think I like that either. I don't like their design, at all. Though this is minor in comparison to the setting of Equestria Girls.

Verlax : What is your opinion about the upcoming Season 4? Can the upcoming episodes give the writers more ideas for stories?

M1SF0RTUNE : I liked Season 1, I loved Season 2, but I grew to hate Season 3. My opinion on Season 4 is low because of how disappointed I was with 3.

I loved Seasons 1 and 2 because they played on situations where you put two of the characters in a room and you watch what happens, and maybe they threw an interesting character (like the Flim Flam brothers that I like, or Discord) into the mix to make things interesting. I also enjoyed the way some of the world building was handled.

Season 3 sorta went all over the place, catering to fan fantasies and requests, like the Scootaloo episode, and striking out in really weird ways that weren't successfully executed, such as the Crystal Empire episodes and the Spike episodes. Sombra was a very uninteresting villain, the Crystal Empire didn't seem that more unique apart from sparkling ponies and a magic heart that spews rainbows if enough love was dumped into it, and don't get me started on the Season 3 finale, because I have a lot of foul things to say about that rush job.

So rounding back to Season 4, I got the impression that by Season 3 they ran out of ideas and were digging through the fan trough to produce their episodes, but that's just for some normal episodes. My big worry is that since they completed a character's arc, essentially, they'd have to do the same with the rest and I don't think they'd be well executed, seeing as how Season 3 turned out. Not to mention I think that they'd remove one of their main cast members which made a great foil with the rest of the main 6 by turning her into an Alicorn Princess, who I'm assuming will live away from the cast.

The short version of what I think? I just think the idea barrel ran dry and the end of the series is going to come on a sour note with maybe one or two genuine laughs along the way. I don't have high hopes for Season 4.

Verlax : Is there a thing in the fandom, that you really wished that it would be done/created?

M1SF0RTUNE : Apart from Fighting is Magic (that I wish wasn't shut down by Hasbro) and maybe a genuine MLP-style episode that I was hoping Double Rainboom would be, not really.

Verlax : Are there some genres of fanfiction that you really like/dislike?

That's a tricky one to answer. I generally hate Clopfics and I think they are insulting to genuine talent that are actually trying. The only exceptions are something akin to Cold in Gardez's "Salvation", which had sex, but it wasn't tasteless or spontaneous as seen in a lot of other fics.

On a more positive note, I'm interested in Alternate Universe, Dark, and Romance stories, though I can get behind almost anything as long as the story has an interesting premise and is written well.

Verlax : Is there anything else you’d like to add?

M1SF0RTUNE : I think that'll just about cover it.

Verlax : Thank you very much for the interview. I wish you more success as the writer and as the admin of TECS.