News From The Fandom
Hello! After the relative success of my latest flashfilm, Super Dimension Fortress: Macross, I thought it would be nice to go and discuss what's up with the fandom these days. As you know, the Robotech fandom is in a relatively bad rut now, what with the imminent release of this "Shadow Chronicles" thing. (More on the fandom in a couple'a days.
The Shadow Chronicles Dilemma
To coincide with the release of this Shadow Chronicles, there has been a significant increase in 'sticky thread' pollution in the Robotech Fandom & Events forum. The effect is that threads concerning the creative side of the fandom is being pushed out (like my Macross film :P) and other art/music related threads into oblivion. This leads us to the fundamental problem of combining Fan events with art. Official sources claim that a forum dedicated to art would be a waste in resources since nobody would be posting anyway. I say, bullshit. It's the company's (namely, Harmony Gold) fault in repressing creativity.
First we have the Fandom & Events forum, which suffocates art-related threads. If they don't appear in the main forum, they're considered as good as gone forever. I doubt any fan would actually search for the bloody things. There doesn't seem to be any end to the stream of 'sticky threads' posted by HG's rep since they're already posting events that would a happen as late as August.
Second, we have the ever limiting 480x480 pixel dimension limitation in the art gallery. What does this mean to an artist? That his work would have to be shrunk to a pathetic size. Minor details would be lost due to bad compression. Couple that with the relative ugliness and confusing nature of the art gallery in general and you have the biggest reason why noone likes posting art (there are many reasons, but this is one major contributing factor).
Third, flash gallery. Once upon a time, Harmony Gold commissioned fans to create flash films / fan films for this contest. Nearly four pages worth were submitted during that period. That was way back in 2002. Now? Nothing. The flash gallery just sits there. Like one a rusted old statue or some other analogy I can't seem to give now. No one sees any purpose in making films.
All these reasons, and quite possibly a few more have literally made fans not care about making fan-made content. The biggest problem I can see now is when Harmony Gold starts suing people for using their property ala Marvel.
