Why when I was young......
May. 14th, 2004 09:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
puppetmakerI have been going to conventions since I was about 12. That was a while ago. I was thinking this morning after checking some of the internet boards I read about how much easier fans have it today in many ways. Then I started feeling like an old fogy.
When I first started playing Dungeons and Dragons it was a couple of books. There was a basic set in a blue box and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The only place you could get them was a game store called “Sword of the Phoenix. Before that I played Chainmail. I can remember getting roped into play testing a new game by a group called White Wolf with was the first LARP I participated in and one of the last too. Not my cuppa. My little brother has a nasty scar on his leg from a game held by NERO when he was an orc and jumped into a ditch to get away from some other players and landed on some brush and wire. I can remember when we got in Magic the Gathering cards for the first time. I played for a while but then sold my cards since I wasn’t playing anymore. Made a bunch of money because Magic fever hit and my cards were really “old” and valuable. I learned to play Mage Knight at a GenCon when it first came out and they were teaching people how to play. I keep up with the gaming trends by reading various publications and occasionally playing a new game at a convention. My current favorite is Munchkin by Steve Jackson Games but then I always loved Car Wars. I think my brother has the original version in its plastic bag.
Fanzines use to be the only way that I found fan fiction. I would go to a convention at get a couple with authors I like and would read stories about the characters I loved. I accidentally found out about slash from one along with lessons in fisting and bondage. I was more careful about my fanzines after that. Now on the internet, I can go to google and find just about any kind of fan fiction. Not all of it good but it’s out there. I see only a couple of fanzine and fanzine dealers anymore. APAs went the same way. There is still a Hugo for fan publications but I think the rules changed so internet was added to the category.
I remember my first dealers room. I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head with all the stuff. It use to be that conventions and a few mail order businesses were the only places to get fan related stuff. Now you can find just about anything you need on the internet and a bunch of stuff you don’t NEED but would really like to have.
I remember going to panels to hear what my favorite authors and actors had to say. Now most have their own web sites that are updated sometimes. Use to be that I could only catch up with some of my friends at conventions. Now I can keep up by reading their blogs. I have “met” fans from all over the world through the internet. We might never meet in person but we have a sort of friendship built up through our contacts on the net. Also just about any fan can now find like minded people out there in cyberspace. Which gives a sense of community that you use to find only at the conventions and through pen pals. Then there is the negative aspect of people forgetting that there are people on the other side of the comments and blog and fanfic and website. They type things that they would never say to the person’s face. Or they don’t have to own up to what they said since they can be anonymous so who cares. I wish people would remember that this is being written on a computer by a human being with feelings, thoughts , and headaches. I try to always remember that there is a person on the other end of the net connection.
Overall I think that fandom is much better off with all these changes. We can feel less isolated and more part of a group. But I still remember when I would wait in anticipation for a convention and all that went with it before the internet.
When I first started playing Dungeons and Dragons it was a couple of books. There was a basic set in a blue box and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The only place you could get them was a game store called “Sword of the Phoenix. Before that I played Chainmail. I can remember getting roped into play testing a new game by a group called White Wolf with was the first LARP I participated in and one of the last too. Not my cuppa. My little brother has a nasty scar on his leg from a game held by NERO when he was an orc and jumped into a ditch to get away from some other players and landed on some brush and wire. I can remember when we got in Magic the Gathering cards for the first time. I played for a while but then sold my cards since I wasn’t playing anymore. Made a bunch of money because Magic fever hit and my cards were really “old” and valuable. I learned to play Mage Knight at a GenCon when it first came out and they were teaching people how to play. I keep up with the gaming trends by reading various publications and occasionally playing a new game at a convention. My current favorite is Munchkin by Steve Jackson Games but then I always loved Car Wars. I think my brother has the original version in its plastic bag.
Fanzines use to be the only way that I found fan fiction. I would go to a convention at get a couple with authors I like and would read stories about the characters I loved. I accidentally found out about slash from one along with lessons in fisting and bondage. I was more careful about my fanzines after that. Now on the internet, I can go to google and find just about any kind of fan fiction. Not all of it good but it’s out there. I see only a couple of fanzine and fanzine dealers anymore. APAs went the same way. There is still a Hugo for fan publications but I think the rules changed so internet was added to the category.
I remember my first dealers room. I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head with all the stuff. It use to be that conventions and a few mail order businesses were the only places to get fan related stuff. Now you can find just about anything you need on the internet and a bunch of stuff you don’t NEED but would really like to have.
I remember going to panels to hear what my favorite authors and actors had to say. Now most have their own web sites that are updated sometimes. Use to be that I could only catch up with some of my friends at conventions. Now I can keep up by reading their blogs. I have “met” fans from all over the world through the internet. We might never meet in person but we have a sort of friendship built up through our contacts on the net. Also just about any fan can now find like minded people out there in cyberspace. Which gives a sense of community that you use to find only at the conventions and through pen pals. Then there is the negative aspect of people forgetting that there are people on the other side of the comments and blog and fanfic and website. They type things that they would never say to the person’s face. Or they don’t have to own up to what they said since they can be anonymous so who cares. I wish people would remember that this is being written on a computer by a human being with feelings, thoughts , and headaches. I try to always remember that there is a person on the other end of the net connection.
Overall I think that fandom is much better off with all these changes. We can feel less isolated and more part of a group. But I still remember when I would wait in anticipation for a convention and all that went with it before the internet.
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-14 02:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-14 04:20 pm (UTC)I still have and work to carefully preserve my xeroxed hand-collated fanzines. I, too, miss the days of being part of a more exclusive group with the keys to a fannish kingdom only we knew about. Ah well.