Thoughts on Geekiness
Mar. 26th, 2007 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teddogMight as well be Thoughts On Yaoi.
Is it just me or is this potentially the year of geeky films? Or, at least slightly retro geeky films.
Let's see what there is...
- TMNT (both from the comic and the I-remember-this-from-when-we-were-kids standpoint)
- Grindhouse (b-movie/cult film fandom)
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (adult animation/Adult Swim fandom)
- Spider-Man 3 (comic fandom)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (newer, but still in the land of the geek)
- Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (more comics)
- Nancy Drew (more of a retro geeky thing for girls)
- DOA: Dead or Alive (video game fandom)
- Live Free or Die Hard (More Die Hard, which is just cheesey if not geeky)
- Transformers (Don't need to explain this)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Ditto)
- Hairspray (remake of a cult film)
- The Simpsons Movie (pretty clear on this one)
- Fanboys (Yes, a movie ABOUT geeks)
- Underdog (animation fandom)
- Halloween (back to cult films)
- Mr. Bean's Holiday (While this PROBABLY won't be as big as in the states, Mr. Bean was a huge geeky thing in Canada back in the late 1990s.)
- In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (video games)
- Resident Evil: Extinction (ditto)
- The Dark Is Rising (based on a cult book series)
- The Golden Compass (ditto)
- Alvin and the Chipmunks ( o__________O )
- I Am Legend (I'm sure how to count this, but it's both based on a classic scifi novel and the popular Charlton Heston adaptation)
- Alien vs. Predator 2 (Don't need to explain this.)
There's also "Thomas Kinkade's The Christmas Cottage" which seems extremely goofy but not in the same pool of fandom as the rest of it.
And your fandom or childhood isn't up there, rest asured that 2008 will bring us "The Smurfs", "Power of the Dark Crystal", "The Dark Knight", "The Incredible Hulk", "Get Smart", "Iron Man", "The Day the Earth Stood Still", "Speed Racer", "Prince Caspian", "Indiana Jones 4", "Star Trek" and "Opus: The Last Christmas".
Now, admittly, I AM waiting for some of those films - If I could, I would have an Indy 4 ticket right now. It's also great that with some of the better films (of which there are probably going to be few, since some seem like stinkers already), us geeks can share a slightly more palatable version of our world with friends who are "normal". However, I am worried on two fronts.
First off, it's now not taboo to make money off of geeks. As my friend Mike noted, we aren't the underground... except I can't fully agree with that statement. I don't believe that we're completely part of the mainstream. The industry would LIKE to have us seen mainstream, but they can't. At least, not completely.
Take anime, for a big honking example. The anime fandom is vast - we have the public face of it, usually what's played on Adult Swim or YTV. There's good stuff there, mixed in with the crap. Yet, while the front of the anime is becoming more and more well known, the skeletons in the closet are still there. It might be cool to turn a profit from Naruto, but what about extreme ends of the loli fanboys or yaoi fangirls?
Examples like this aside, I think what's happened is that the industry has finally has noticed that we have buying power and is no longer afraid to make money off of geeks. The flooded market is the end result that we see and is making geeky passtimes more mainstream compared to the past. On the flip side, that puts a lot more responsibility on us to spend our money wisely. The cash flow is not longer only just supporting the industry, but is making someone a big fat profit. With this comes the realm of consumer responsibility, which is a very personal issue and really up to each geek to decide.
The other problem I have is tied directly to the market relying on remakes and sequels. That being, there's no new stuff being produced.
Geeky fandoms usually are the result of some piece of media somehow making it out when it shouldn't have, thus causing a cult following. However, if all the focus is on the cult fandoms of the past, there's less of a chance for the cult fandoms of the future, creating a dry spell of sorts. It's very hard to create a longlasting fandom with the intent of creating a fandom from the start. They tend to be freak occurrences.
This is a trend you can slowly see growing in video games - the focus is on feeding the fandom for certain types of games and the market is slowing down. I love video games, but I'm more of a "wierd and wacky" game fan and have been annoyed that Sony and Mircosoft are offering me nothing at the moment. Dude, when Sonic is suddenly geared towards the gamers seeking a hyper realistic violent rush WE HAVE A PROBLEM!
The bigger problem with this isn't so much how people like me feel, but rather the next generation of geeks. Get-Them-While-They're-Young doesn't quite work if you're gearing towards gamers in their late teens and older and then, only giving them more of the same.
And those are my geeky thoughts at the moment. They probably are a little off kilter from the norm, but I'm not of the older geek demographic. At least, not yet.
Is it just me or is this potentially the year of geeky films? Or, at least slightly retro geeky films.
Let's see what there is...
- TMNT (both from the comic and the I-remember-this-from-when-we-were-kids standpoint)
- Grindhouse (b-movie/cult film fandom)
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (adult animation/Adult Swim fandom)
- Spider-Man 3 (comic fandom)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (newer, but still in the land of the geek)
- Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (more comics)
- Nancy Drew (more of a retro geeky thing for girls)
- DOA: Dead or Alive (video game fandom)
- Live Free or Die Hard (More Die Hard, which is just cheesey if not geeky)
- Transformers (Don't need to explain this)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Ditto)
- Hairspray (remake of a cult film)
- The Simpsons Movie (pretty clear on this one)
- Fanboys (Yes, a movie ABOUT geeks)
- Underdog (animation fandom)
- Halloween (back to cult films)
- Mr. Bean's Holiday (While this PROBABLY won't be as big as in the states, Mr. Bean was a huge geeky thing in Canada back in the late 1990s.)
- In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (video games)
- Resident Evil: Extinction (ditto)
- The Dark Is Rising (based on a cult book series)
- The Golden Compass (ditto)
- Alvin and the Chipmunks ( o__________O )
- I Am Legend (I'm sure how to count this, but it's both based on a classic scifi novel and the popular Charlton Heston adaptation)
- Alien vs. Predator 2 (Don't need to explain this.)
There's also "Thomas Kinkade's The Christmas Cottage" which seems extremely goofy but not in the same pool of fandom as the rest of it.
And your fandom or childhood isn't up there, rest asured that 2008 will bring us "The Smurfs", "Power of the Dark Crystal", "The Dark Knight", "The Incredible Hulk", "Get Smart", "Iron Man", "The Day the Earth Stood Still", "Speed Racer", "Prince Caspian", "Indiana Jones 4", "Star Trek" and "Opus: The Last Christmas".
Now, admittly, I AM waiting for some of those films - If I could, I would have an Indy 4 ticket right now. It's also great that with some of the better films (of which there are probably going to be few, since some seem like stinkers already), us geeks can share a slightly more palatable version of our world with friends who are "normal". However, I am worried on two fronts.
First off, it's now not taboo to make money off of geeks. As my friend Mike noted, we aren't the underground... except I can't fully agree with that statement. I don't believe that we're completely part of the mainstream. The industry would LIKE to have us seen mainstream, but they can't. At least, not completely.
Take anime, for a big honking example. The anime fandom is vast - we have the public face of it, usually what's played on Adult Swim or YTV. There's good stuff there, mixed in with the crap. Yet, while the front of the anime is becoming more and more well known, the skeletons in the closet are still there. It might be cool to turn a profit from Naruto, but what about extreme ends of the loli fanboys or yaoi fangirls?
Examples like this aside, I think what's happened is that the industry has finally has noticed that we have buying power and is no longer afraid to make money off of geeks. The flooded market is the end result that we see and is making geeky passtimes more mainstream compared to the past. On the flip side, that puts a lot more responsibility on us to spend our money wisely. The cash flow is not longer only just supporting the industry, but is making someone a big fat profit. With this comes the realm of consumer responsibility, which is a very personal issue and really up to each geek to decide.
The other problem I have is tied directly to the market relying on remakes and sequels. That being, there's no new stuff being produced.
Geeky fandoms usually are the result of some piece of media somehow making it out when it shouldn't have, thus causing a cult following. However, if all the focus is on the cult fandoms of the past, there's less of a chance for the cult fandoms of the future, creating a dry spell of sorts. It's very hard to create a longlasting fandom with the intent of creating a fandom from the start. They tend to be freak occurrences.
This is a trend you can slowly see growing in video games - the focus is on feeding the fandom for certain types of games and the market is slowing down. I love video games, but I'm more of a "wierd and wacky" game fan and have been annoyed that Sony and Mircosoft are offering me nothing at the moment. Dude, when Sonic is suddenly geared towards the gamers seeking a hyper realistic violent rush WE HAVE A PROBLEM!
The bigger problem with this isn't so much how people like me feel, but rather the next generation of geeks. Get-Them-While-They're-Young doesn't quite work if you're gearing towards gamers in their late teens and older and then, only giving them more of the same.
And those are my geeky thoughts at the moment. They probably are a little off kilter from the norm, but I'm not of the older geek demographic. At least, not yet.
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Date: 2007-03-26 07:34 pm (UTC)The internet really helped in accelerating the mainsteaming of Fandom/Geekdom whatever you want to call it. It allowed every geek, nerd, pundit, egghead, savant and what have you spew forth their mass of collective knowledge and I think the Simpsons usually protrayed this well.
Tangent: I was watching the commentary for Friends pilot with BillySoup and they mentioned Chandler being one that was least stereo-typical at the time. To me he's played as a bit of geek, but not fully and never overtly (except for comical purposes). I see myself in somewhat of the same light because though I enjoy many of these things on the inside I tend to keep them to myself. Chandler could of possibly allowed the somewhat quirky, cynical character to become more acceptable.
I don't know, I'm just rambling.