With Rob's article on fanfiction, continuity, community, and authors, we asked people how they do or would handle continuity and fandom. Here's the results:
Frustration Friday: Sequels Aren’t That Big a Deal
It's not new you know.
Have you ever heard the complaints about how there's too many sequels in games and media? People are tired of Call of Duty games or a spinoff of CSI and so on? Yeah, you know the drill – everything is so unoriginal.
As an Elder Geek let me note that I've seen this before.
There were eight Wizardry games Since 1981, plus spinoffs and repackaging. There were nine Ultima games since 1980 plus all sorts of spinoffs (and yes an MMO). I could go on.
Television? 'Happy Days' gave us three spinoffs that I remember.
Movies? Did 'Star Wars' end? 'Canonball Run' got a sequel and was inspired by another film. I'm still figuring out how much was done with 'Smokey and the Bandit' as it had regular AND TV movies.
I could go on, but I think I'm depressing myself at this point.
Look, we may complain about Sequelitis, but it's not new. It's been around for years (what you think ONE 'Flash Gordon' serial was enough?). We don't have room to complain as if this is something new.
Here's my theory:
For years we had more and more innovative media, more and more foreign media, more and more television stations, and more people able to make new and cool stuff. The last few years (decades?) we had a burst of new.
Well things have tightened up economically, people are playing it safe, and people who normally might be innovators going "OK time to be careful and go for a sequel." This is not abnormal, its a change back to the way things were.
So, nothing new is happening. It's just we got used to a lot of new.
News Of the Day 7/6/2011
Another music service? More Apple vs. Samsung legal action? Facebook rolls out video chat? OK the latter was kind of obvious. Let's get to the news!
TOTAL AND COMPLETE MUST READ: Bob Lefsetz analyzes the music industry and what it needs to do today, and a lot of these rules apply to any media business. A fantastic read.
Economics/Geekonomics:
A lovely flowchart on the Debt Ceiling's probable outcomes. I find it a tad optimistic, but it's pretty interesting.
Apple tries to block imports of Samsung devices as part of its lawsuits. This is getting vicious – though are we surprised at this point? I keep watch on these legal issues since they can produce unexpected repercussions – and I still think it can get crazy with international law and boundaries.
Music:
Spotify music service to launch in US. Really. More streaming and music services? At some point there's going to have to be consolidation. If you work in any music service, it just can't be that predictable.
Social Media:
Surprising no one, it appears Google+ will also roll out to paid Google App users. That suggests to me that Google has a few more features we haven't seen for the paid users, and shows one way they'll get and maintain mindshare – by making it part of people's business.
Facebook rolls out Skype-powered video chat. It doesn't sound as powerful as Hangouts, but still it shows Facebook is trying to keep up. That may suggest future hiring at Facebook for chat development, or future hiring at Skype depending on how it reorgs under Microsoft. And, yes, Facebook's video chat is powered by a company recently purchased by Microsoft, if that doesn't give you a headache.
Video:
Hulu is definitely being sold. OK, so 1) don't send them a resume, 2) see who gets them because someone is going to. If Wal-Mart or Amazon get them? Bet on ecosystem integration.
Video Games:
Civilization World goes Beta on Facebook – basically Civilization in Social Gaming. Curious to see how this goes, as it's got brand loyalty behind it. Mostly worth seeing for what happens as success or failure will affect similar efforts.
Duke Nukem? Not a winner for Take-Two.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: Did MTV and CDs really create an anomoly in the music market?