sarasa_cat | starting an ideas list

Entry tags:

starting an ideas list

Will post my current list of active prompt and video game communities on DW when I get home this evening.

Until then (and based on what I did not find), things I would be interested in seeing on DW if others are interested:

1. Dragon Age specific - A weekly prompt community for wardens, hawkes, and inquisitors. Sort of like those ephemeral 30 day memes on tumblr a while back but focused more on fic/art/fanworks with thematic prompts for developing your OCs. Weekly schedule but allowing people to go back and do old prompts too, maybe as a friday free for all?

2. Dragon Age specific - ThedasCharacterFest - each week an established major or minor character from the DA franchise is nominated for a character fest: post new fic, art, meta, vids, etc., plus recs and self-recs to older fic/art/meta. To give people a heads-up, a schedule can be created. Alternatively, a random algorithm can be used to order 52 characters for 52 weeks of fest. Could also include clusters of minor characters and/or cultures like "Dalish NPCs" or "The City Elves" or "Circle NPCs" or ... something like that?

3. Final Fantasy specific - FFCharacterFest - same as above, different multi-game franchise, perhaps with a slightly different format to cover all the games more fairly? A few characters per week? Would also need chocobos week, moogles week, and Gilgamesh week. ;)

4. Video games - Weekly or fortnightly prompt community celebrating female characters in video games. Art/fic/vids/meta accepted.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I think they're all interesting. Realistically I'd contribute most to #2 and #1, though I would make an effort to reacquaint myself with FF for #3. I'm kinda surprised there's not a FF comm like that, the franchise has such a wealth of characters. #4 would depend how broad... or how specific... probably.

I made comments below on phdfans comment that push the ideas forward.

As for final fantasy, idk why I cannot find something like it. Wasn't anything like it back in the 00s either. Back then, comms were more game or character focused because fandom participation on LJ was high. Hmm...

I really love the Thedas Character Fest idea. It's a prompt, but not too specific, and would hopefully encourage people to write outside their favourite characters. I really like it. I also like the weekly prompt for Wardens, Hawkes and Inquisitors, but may be less likely to go with it... I assume it would allow people to write about any of those three with the prompt? (I'm less likely to develop my Warden or Inquisitor)

I was thinking maybe multiple prompts per round for warden-hawke-quiz. That allows ppl to develop what interests them in the moment or focus entirely on one and only one OC.

Maybe one week is "parents and siblings" which is generic for all three?

Another week is:
A. Warden & Wynne
b. Hawke & Merrill
C. Inquisitor & Vivienne

A third week might be:
A. Warden in camp
B. Hawke in amell manor
C. Inquisitor in Skyhold

Yet another week might be: "best of friends"

Etc

???

I like it :) Interesting with the PC & [character] prompts, because it might prompt people to think about relationships that they haven't focused on as much. (I'm guilty of neglecting thinking about some relationships that could actually provide a lot of interesting food for thought).

Yeah, I think AO3 and tumblr rewards pairing fic. Tag your pair on ao3 and ppl find it, especially if pair is popular.

I miss how LJ/DW comm fandom encouraged me to write across canon. Made for more interesting fic, tbh. But this sort of stuff gets lost on ao3 and tumblr. Best to make a space for it-- and with tag-navigation so ppl can go back and look at everything posted for Alienage week or for Vivienne week. Plus, could also include reqs and self reqs of existing works. So, massive one week concentration on some aspect of the work and all of it easy to find for ppl who want to browse in the future.

(Things I miss)

after I posted this, also thought about places as characters.

Fest week x: Tevinter (fic, art, meta, vids, crafts, etc)
Fest week y: Alienages (fic, art, meta, vids, crafts, etc)

Can you imagine someone coming up with recipes for typical Alienage food?!

Also other prompts could be lore related like holidays or darkspawn. Encourages thoughs about world building.

So much there could be a list of prompts for every week for the next 5 years!

Ooh I like that too. Worldbuilding prompts FTW!!

Having a more refined thought on the kinds of things that the ThedasFanFestival community would accept (now that I am home and responding by laptop).

Things like fanfic, fanart, fancrafts, and fan videos are pretty well defined while still being broad. Meta, on the other hand, has so many different meanings in this fandom, ranging from very close reads of images and text to highly emotional polemics that represent one possible reading of many while also baiting trolls and inviting wank. :/

I think, perhaps, the ThedasFanFestival should **promote** more kinds of works that aren't easily found in fandom while also acknowledging that during the weeks for really popular characters, there will also see an influx of works that are very common in places like AO3 (like, Alistair week receiving a lot of Alistair/f!Warden reqs). But, to promote the creation of or recommendations for many more kinds of harder to find works, I think that means saying "no" to certain things that are **really** common on tumblr and, perhaps, creating weekly master posts that people comment to for things that will receive overwhelming response.

For example, let's suppose one week is the Sebastian Festival week. (purely for sake of argument.) Modding out the Sebastian hate means, at least to me, that the community failed to do a good enough job from the very start to create a fun place *for* *having* *fun*. Likewise, receiving 400 posts in one week where much of it is recs of old stuff is overwhelming. (plus, that is what tumblr is for).

So, maybe a fest week for Sebastian (for sake of argument) would look like this (????):

a. Each new fanfic, new fanart, and new fan videos can be submitted as a new post to the community by the person who made the new thing. If any one person feels desires to post more than 5 new things for the week, they should consolidate the new things into 1 to 5 posts. This keeps people from spamming, on the off chance it happens... (tagged Fanart: Sebastian, Fanfic: Sebastian, and/or Fanvid: Sebastian)

b. People can also submit world-building headcanon works that are written in a format sort of like an in-world codex or supplement (think World of Thedas). Kind of like fan fiction but, really, more like metafiction. So, someone might submit Sebastian's favorite recipes. Another person might submit a journal entry written by Sebastian's nanny. Yet another person submits a visual guide to Sebastian's clothing and gear. Etc. Not sure if these would be tagged as Fanart: Sebastian, Fanfic: Sebastian, or if they deserve a special tag like WorldBuilding: Sebastian.

c. A master recs post tagged "Recs; Sebastian" would be created on the first day the week and people can comment to that post with all the recs they want to rec/self-rec of older fanworks. Also, this post will remain as something people can subscribe to and someone can add more recs long after Sebastian week is done.

d. A master post tagged "Codex: Sebastian" would also be created on the first day of the week and people can comment to that post with verbatim lore (with a no-wank comments policy). For instance, Sebastian's dialogue tree is a resource that many fic writers would like. Again, people can continue adding to this and looking at it later on.

??? Thoughts on how this? Does it make sense? Does it meet the goal of promoting new things that are hard to find (because da tumblr/ao3 fandom is so heavily focused on gifs, very personal meta, and ship fiction)? Anything I've missed? ???

Definitely would not want the community to be flooded with old recs. I would hope (personally) that the emphasis would be on creating new works :) BUT it would be useful to have access to a consolidated list of fan works that people have liked since Tumblr/AO3 is so hard to navigate, so confining them to a single post makes sense and balances both needs. :)

I've noticed that some of the character appreciation weeks on tumblr were used as a reason for previously prolific metawriters/ficwriters/artists to make a master post of all of their stuff for Character X and tag it with the Character X Week tag. This isn't a bad thing on tumblr because it creates visibility by unearthing good stuff lost in the giant scrollscrollscroll of tumblr. But it doesn't really need to be replicated on DW (which doesn't have tumblrs lostinthescrollingpileofendlesslyscrollingstuff problem.

Likewise, even when character appreciation weeks prompt people for non-ship fic, shipping is still a strong focus because fandom trains people to think of everything in terms of ships.

I think the solution we're circling around for the DW Thedas Fan Festival community is all in how the prompting works.

Example: rather than just "July 1 - 7 is Merrill Week," each week should be semi-customized with ideas that get people thinking outside of the box and beyond standard shipfic.

So, Merrill week could solicit fanworks that explore any of the following (...thinking off the top of my head... the real week would have more thought put into it):
- Merrill's experiences with her Dalish clan
- How Merrill learned magic
- Merrill's experiences with Audacity and the mirror
- Lore that Merrill has recovered through her own studies
- Merrill's experiences living in Kirkwall and the Alienage
- Merrill's thoughts, opinions, friendships, and rivalries with Hawke's companions and with NPCs.
- Gen fic/art showing a typical day in Merrill's life
- Fic/art exploring Merrill's clothing, armor, equipment, and supplies
- Epistolary fiction (or art) exploring Merrill's personal notes, journals, recipe books, etc.

...So, something like that although snappier and with a little more thought put into it.

This still allows people to post Merrill ship fic but it gets folks thinking about what more could be done, especially since the idea is about exploring characters, cultures, history/lore, etc.

??

Edited 2015-06-10 08:16 (UTC)

Hmmmm. So in other words it would be a community focused more on character/world building than character appreciation. It makes me wonder if the name could point in that direction as well - Thedas Fan Festival makes it sound (especially in the current context) like a rolling calendar of appreciation weeks, rather than a semi-structured approach to exploring new facets of characters/places that people may not have thought about. I LIKE the character/world building idea of it. Sometimes I need nudges along the lines of what you're talking about to get deeper into a character.

Well, I don't want to exclude the more traditional meaning of character appreciation. The difference is in encouraging participants to think broadly and explore/develop lore around a particular character or place.

I guess the big difference is that whenever I have attempted to follow a character appreciation day/week on tumblr, much of it felt like it focused on Character/PC fanfic and Character portrait art. (at least that is all I remember from much of them in the past, but maybe I didn't follow enough of them closely enough.)

Hm...

Edited 2015-06-10 08:38 (UTC)

Oh, man, yes! I've been thinking a lot about Ostwick and Starkhaven lately, too. Clothing, what the architecture might look like, food, etc. Oooh, that would be so much fun.

(I've seriously neglected landscape stuff lately art-wise, too. That could be such awesome practice!)

Take a look at the comment up above: http://vieralynn.dreamwidth.org/337690.html?thread=1481498#cmt1481498

Also, landscape art. Oh yes. :D

Edited 2015-06-10 08:34 (UTC)

FFCHARACTERFEST YES PLS RELEVANT TO MY INTERESTS. Ditto the female-characters one, OMG.

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I learned about a game having a story *with* female characters *doing* interesting things and sometimes even *with* the possibility of making a customizable female player character but ONLY ONLY ONLY after seeing FANFIC WITH THOSE CANONICAL FEMALE CHARACTERS.

So many games look like mostly male stories --- particularly american games --- because that's how marketing departments sell them. Or *fail* to sell them, in my case. >_<

.

As for the Final Fantasy Fan Festival, I'm trying to think about how to make it work because there are so many games that are completely separate worlds and separate casts, and quite a few fans have only played half of the games. Like, Cloud or Lightning week could receive an ocean of submissions whereas Bartz Klauser week might result in crickets.

I'm wondering if maybe (???) there should be an addition generic theme for each month: something that arcs across many or all of the games like Chocobos, Crystals, Airships, White Magic, Environmental Destruction, (idk just coming up with random ideas on the spot, might not be the best?). So, here's a random example for a month:

June (all month): Eidolons and Espers Month
June 1-7: Cloud Strife Week
June 8-14: Penelo Week
June 15-21: Bartz Klauser Week
June 22-28: Freya Crescent Week
June 29-30: Wrap up, late posting for June festival themes. Announcement of July Themes.

Comments? Ideas? Better ideas?

First off, SO MUCH YES to your first two paragraphs! In fact, this is almost exactly my feeling about Final Fantasy VII... um, well, honestly, I'd been out of gaming altogether for about twenty years, but it was

synecdochic's Tifa-centric Lullabye for the New World Order that pulled me in to FFVII and from there back to gaming as a hobby in general, and honestly, if I'd heard the general fan-hype/canon-hype about "CLOUD CLOUD CLOUD DID I MENTION CLOUUUUUUUUUUUD" first I never would have given the tenth part of a fuck about it, much less experienced that story as my stepping stone into Serious BZNZ Gaming. (Oh, good grief, the post I could make about how I want FFVII to be just Tifa's story full stop....) So, yeah, I am ALL ABOUT a "show me your awesome female game characters all of them" comm!

Which is a nice lead-in to talking about the general Final Fantasy comm... because doing something around a cross-game/cross-character theme over, say, a month, as well as shorter periods focusing on specific characters, is just BRILLIANT. (And, um. My inner stats nerd woke from her usual hibernation when you mentioned the different amount of responses that different characters/games would get based on the size of the fanbases and started gibbering about handicapping. Can I blame the recent Triple Crown winner or maybe the rebalancing of daily dungeons in FFRK or something? But for example giving maybe a shorter amount of time to characters or games that are likely to flood the comm and a longer time for those who have fewer adherents, to give their smaller fanbase time to get its shit together? Like, someone like Bartz would get a whole week and then on each day of that week there would also be a day for a more popular character? Again, I was out of gaming fandom for so long that I'm not sure if that fits the behaviors of gaming fans, I'm just going to town on seriously overthinking this?)

And you've got me thinking about other types of themes as well--- one theme I'd love to see is "fics and meta around gameplay mechanics" or around a specific cross-game mechanic like ATB, or gameplay and story segregation (the common example is, why do people die in plotline events from injuries when Phoenix Downs and Raise/Arise are a thing?). (As a gamer, my eyes glaze over when I look at the equations for how damage is calculated by different spells/weapons/etc. on the gaming-mechanics websites--- damn it, I just want to hit improbably nasty things with improbably shiny things and watch them blow up!--- but when as a writer I think about the ~in-universe scholarship~ around them they suddenly become interesting!)

And, on that note, as you pointed out, the umbrella of "Final Fantasy fans" casts a wide net, with people having had widely different experiences of the different games and their different worlds and casts, so some themes that are designed to make some connections among them might have some use? (True confessions of a late-blooming gamer: the Dissidias were a big influence in my decisions of which games to try next, and with FFRK being a comparatively new thing there might be a lot of people getting curious about FF installments they haven't played.) I'm thinking of something like having the occasional day or week or special event for fanworks that are designed around "Why you love your favorite FF installment" or "Why This FF Installment Will Appeal To People Who Like THAT FF Installment"--- kind of a "share the love" thing. (Seriously, I did not realize until FFRK how much my darling Penelo has in common with Vanille, who took a backseat in my heart to Fang, Lightning, and Sazh, in that order, so that's in the forefront of my mind right now!)

And, okay, now this is really personal wish-fulfillment, but... um, let's fact it, you can probably tell from the above that I am the God-Empress of Unpopular Final Fantasy Opinions (seriously, I would rather that Tifa and Penelo be the VP characters/protags/main-PCs/player-inserts of their respective installments, which alone is probably enough to get me flamed off the internets most places in fandom, and that's without my shipping preferences coming out, because they're even worse) but the occasional themed days around "wild ideas about your favorite game" or "spinoffs/AUs for a given FF installment" might get some interest?

Edited (...oh, dear Cthulhu, someday I will learn basic HTML, but today is not that day and tomorrow is not looking good either.) 2015-06-11 01:04 (UTC)

Btw, I haven't forgotten this -- just dealing with a bunch of deadlines and a lot of stuff that takes me away from the computer for very long periods of time. More soon ... because so many thoughts and so much desire to get good spaces on DW for more fandom interactivity!

Hey, no sweat--- I am REALLY bad about wandering away from discussions myself because Real Life Eating My Brain! If anything, it's really awesome of you to take the time to drop me a note! (And soooo with you on the desire to boost fandom interaction on DW!)

For some silly reason, I just haven't read enough FF7 fanfic and now I need to queue up "Lullabye for the New World Order" because that sounds interesting (and google just found it for me -- BOOKMARKED!)

Tifa was my favorite character when I played FF7 endlessly in 1997-98. I think she is still my fave from that game. I need to replay FF7, especially in anticipation of the (eventual) remastered release. Btw, Tifa is the first and only cosplay I ever did.

doing something around a cross-game/cross-character theme over, say, a month, as well as shorter periods focusing on specific characters, is just BRILLIANT

There are so many themes and monsters and tropes and THINGS that show up across most or all of the games, and it would be fun to explore those commonalities. In addition to fun stories and art that theoretically appeal to anyone in the fandom, it also offers the opportunity for interesting meta that crosses the series. Also offers the opportunity for cross-over fiction and the potential for hilarity ensuing. Imagine what would happen in a room full of Cids. ;)

one theme I'd love to see is "fics and meta around gameplay mechanics" or around a specific cross-game mechanic like ATB, or gameplay and story segregation (the common example is, why do people die in plotline events from injuries when Phoenix Downs and Raise/Arise are a thing?).

All of this! My first FFXII fanfic -- something I never posted, btw -- was actually a scene where I was trying to figure out whether certain game play mechanics could work in narrative prose fiction -- specifically the way full party healing/recovery was integrated with save crystals. My answer then was "Nope! This is really stupid in fiction" but, later on, I wrote fic that integrated various aspects of game mechanics. It is interesting to think about from a writerly point of view, both serious and as parody and humor.

I'm thinking of something like having the occasional day or week or special event for fanworks that are designed around "Why you love your favorite FF installment" or "Why This FF Installment Will Appeal To People Who Like THAT FF Installment"--- kind of a "share the love" thing.

This is a great idea! I find thatI benefit a lot from these kinds of essays even if I have already played the game. These kinds of essays often open my eyes to a broader way of appreciating games, characters, settings, etc.

It could also be integrated with the entire week/month. So, if this week is the Tifa Fan Festival, people could submit an essay about why Tifa appeals so much to them. It might be a little bit of a stretch for some monthly themes but fans are creative and I am sure someone will come up with ways to write about "why This Monthly Theme" appeals. Given how many games there are, there could be a general call each month for any essay that falls into the Why you love your favorite FF installment" or "Why This FF Installment Will Appeal To People Who Like THAT FF Installment" share-the-love category.

the occasional themed days around "wild ideas about your favorite game" or "spinoffs/AUs for a given FF installment" might get some interest?

Heh! These would make good overarching monthly themes. A month of wild idea essays, another month of AUs, another month of "different protagonist," etc.

But for example giving maybe a shorter amount of time to characters or games that are likely to flood the comm and a longer time for those who have fewer adherents, to give their smaller fanbase time to get its shit together? ... [and other timing things]

In my experience, I think it is much easier for everyone if the community always follows the same schedule. Otherwise it is difficult for mods to remember when to post reminder posts and community participants will be able to plan better when life is busy.

Also, DW and FF fandom are sort of quiet when compared to how things were on LJ years back. I think a low steady hum is more likely rather than big roars over popular characters. Some ebb and flow is fine.

As for timing, having single days for things is really hard for many folks with tight work or school schedules. When I co-modded ff-fortnightly (on LJ), there were weeks where I only had time to post my mod post and leave a few quick comments on fic. Sticking to weeks that start and end on the same predictable day of the week, plus overarching monthly themes allows everyone to plan ahead, which also helps when people are juggling other fandom writing/art/meta challenges.

Anyhow -- YAY! SO MANY THOUGHTS!

I am off all of next week (this week is a little hectic) and I think this is getting to the point where it will be good to float the idea among other FF fans. Also, with the hype around the FF7 remake announcement, the FF series is back on people's radars so it might be a good time to get something going.

Edited 2015-06-19 00:06 (UTC)

Oh, man, Lullabye owns my soul. I had played the very first FF back in like 1992 and loved it, and then drifted away (at that age I wasn't excited by the inability to choose your own party in later installments and, again at the time, I was also not excited about having the characters' personalities designed/included in the story instead of me getting to imagine them up for myself). Fast forward twenty years and I read one of the Lullabye side stories that Syne had posted on her journal... and, damn, I was hooked. Seriously, from where I am sitting I count four gaming consoles in my line of sight plus my computer and tablet and another one in the room but out of line of sight. Squeenix/Nintendo/Sony should give Syne a share of the profits or something.

Tifa! My girl! And an awesome choice of only-cosplay-ever. (I am trying to save All My Thoughts About Tifa for the actual comm, but. They are here! Also I think I've actually written... it's not actually a generic/universal shipping manifesto, more of a "Here is why I personally ship Sephiroth/Tifa like a shippy shipping thing". (...yeah, my ships, they are crack. Let's not even talk about my FFXII ships.)

OMG, the first thing that came to mind when you said:

There are so many themes and monsters and tropes and THINGS that show up across most or all of the games, and it would be fun to explore those commonalities.

Was "CIDS!! ALL THE CIDS!" and then your last sentence was about a roomful of Cids and OMG. (And, okay, I now want Cid from FFIV who is Cecil and Rosa and Kain's surrogate father/honorary uncle/etc. and Dr. Cidolphus Bunansa (who is possibly something similar to Vayne) talking about their respective charges/honorary offspring. Because MY TEARS. FOREVER.

So glad the "gameplay mechanics" theme has merit! And, frankly, I'd love just to see the kind of things that other people think about in terms of gamplay mechanics as fic/plot-points. Ditto for the share-the-love theme idea! I love the idea of making it sort of an "open call" where we're always free to come up with a share-the-love offering.

Oh, man, I'm relieved that the "wild ideas" themes have merit! As I said, I know I'm like the God-Empress of Opinions About FF Games That No One Else Holds, so offering that was a little self-indulgent, but I'd be excited to see what ideas other people have that maybe haven't gotten shared. (I sometimes wonder just how many of us there are who keep quiet because we're browsing along/lurking in a favorite fandom and we find that the conventional wisdom as posted in fandom is soooo very opposite, or at least sideways, to what we think of a given character/plotline/etc., so a "safe space" for minority opinions appeals to me as a way to get more of us talking.)

As for the handicapping idea: yeah, I was pretty sure that wouldn't fly (as I said, blame it on the Triple Crown winner and the rebalancing of FFRK dungeons: I got thinking about handicapping and nerfing and just went to town on it, lol.) And, yeah, regular schedules is a good thing for planning ahead. (Although--- I have no idea what use this information is, I'm just throwing it out there, but, for example, one of things that's frustrating me about FFRK is actually the regularity of the schedule for daily dungeons, because the dungeons always fall on the same days... and so does my work schedule, meaning that for the foreseeable future I am always going to get less time on the dailies that are on busy job-days for me. I'm not sure how possible it is to adapt community schedules to the overall tendencies of the majority of the membership's scheduling needs over time, but it's something I thought I'd bring up since you brought up the very good points about consistency and members' tight work schedules.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

starting an ideas list

no subject

no subject

no subject

On warden-hawke-quiz comm idea

Re: On warden-hawke-quiz comm idea

Re: On warden-hawke-quiz comm idea

Thedas festival idea

Re: Thedas festival idea

Hmmm.... Re: Thedas festival idea -- THINKING THINGS THROUGH

Re: Hmmm.... Re: Thedas festival idea -- THINKING THINGS THROUGH

Re: Hmmm.... Re: Thedas festival idea -- THINKING THINGS THROUGH

Re: Hmmm.... Re: Thedas festival idea -- THINKING THINGS THROUGH

Re: Hmmm.... Re: Thedas festival idea -- THINKING THINGS THROUGH

Re: Thedas festival idea

Re: Thedas festival idea

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Whee-- I have a minute for procrastination! \o/

Re: Whee-- I have a minute for procrastination! \o/