|
Post by Loogs on Feb 5, 2016 21:48:20 GMT -5
at pohatu's behest, I'm making a solid thread to discuss our history, because jesus, we've logged something like at least 17 years if you take Kara's 1999 date as a starting point.
specifically, I've been musing a lot about the Snitz recently, looking over the archives at old RPs (oh, it's baaad), wondering what it is that makes people romanticize the Snitz Era so much, because the writing sure was awful.
So, ITT:
POKESCHOOL AGE
Groudon Era (aka Ascension Era) (200?-2004? I forgot when those boards were decommissioned) Snitz Era (aka the Golden Age i guess) (2004-2005) (was the snitz really that short-lived??) TCGPlayer Era (aka the Dark Age) (2005-2015?? when did they pull the plug on THIS one?)
EXODUS AGE
Early ArchEx (2006-2007) - the formative years ArchEx Nouveau (2008-2009) - the appearance of new blood brought in, kids who never knew Pokeschool ArchEx Revival 1 (aka the Age of Bibble) (2010-2013) - a major sea change in writing style and themes ArchEx Revival 2 (2015-present)
if you got snappier names for these eras hmu
|
|
|
Post by Loogs on Feb 5, 2016 21:56:46 GMT -5
re: TCGPlayer Era: one, I suppose we can cut it off at 2006 since that's about when we finished the exodus to, well, the Exodus. two, I've been thinking, maybe it's regarded with such disdain not just because it's widely regarded as the Dork Age, but the transition was mostly unwelcome: I remember a lot of us having trouble parting with the Snitz, but then Chedy decided to collapse Pokeschool into his big conglomerate (which is where the Exodus came to be--for those who don't remember, our original url was actually archipelagoexodus)
ETA: who tf changed pokeschool lost (one word) to filter to archipelagoexodus and why
|
|
|
Post by Tout-Perd on Feb 5, 2016 23:27:38 GMT -5
We changed it when we changed our URL, since otherwise like EVERY single link on the site broke.
|
|
|
Post by Tout-Perd on Feb 5, 2016 23:34:57 GMT -5
D-Web, btw, was basically our ancestor in a weird way.
Well, like a parallel evolution. Pokeschool was originally hosted on Ascension Web, IIRC, before the Groudon era. D-Web (For Descension Web) was basically a spin off for people who couldn't stand how quaint the pre-M2k era was, and who had some drama with various people on the main page. Wasn't Ascension Web actually a proto TCGPlayer, where a variety of TCGs/interests shared a forum, and P-skool split off because it was getting big and causing trouble by dominating so much attention. IIRC, don't Moose and Swingy actually come from the MTG boards there?
(I actually was very active way back in the day around 2000-2001, but I didn't get really involved in RP until a year or two later. Zebedee had a brief debut as Lee in 2001, where Swingblade glued his hand to a fake arm, and a vampire character of Moose's made him bleed into his lungs)
|
|
|
Post by Tout-Perd on Feb 5, 2016 23:38:18 GMT -5
So if you're chronicling p-skool, their spinoffs have been D-Web, Pokecharms, and the Exodus (and TCGPlayer which hollowed out their corpse and wore it like a suit).
And technically, THE MOVIE THEATER. Which last I checked a few years back, was still online. : 3 Wasn't there like two or three other small fizzles?
|
|
|
Post by Loogs on Feb 5, 2016 23:52:14 GMT -5
LEE THAT IS NOT A THING. IT IS SIMPLY NOT. A THING. NOPE, NOT CANON, NEVER EXISTED, NAH
|
|
|
Post by Tout-Perd on Feb 5, 2016 23:54:30 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Beelzebibble on Feb 6, 2016 0:01:25 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Tout-Perd on Feb 6, 2016 0:08:55 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Beelzebibble on Feb 6, 2016 0:25:28 GMT -5
I only wish.
|
|
|
Post by Loogs on Feb 6, 2016 0:28:54 GMT -5
wait, hold up a second, you mean to tell me you weren't making fun of our dorky weeb RPing style because that bio actually reads as effective parody, a la that one topic by, was it Iron Mouse? ETA: "Camelz and Pandaz" is 100% sincere tho. idk I've become so used to this new snarky Pohatu that I then go back and I read everything that's super dorky as Pohatu snarking it up sly parody-style
|
|
|
Post by ch00beh on Feb 6, 2016 0:34:38 GMT -5
i am so lost
|
|
|
Post by Tout-Perd on Feb 6, 2016 0:59:18 GMT -5
I dunno, Dorky Pohatu is a lot more likable than how angsty most of us were. He seems... well adjusted, whereas everybody else was As I was saying to loogs, back in the day: -Hector cried blood -Zebedee perpetually bled from stigmata. -Ender had an EDGY DARK DEMON FORM that I'm pretty sure ripped his skin off to transform. "If somebody wanted to kill of ORP, all they needed to do was infect somebody with a bloodborn pathogen."
|
|
|
Post by ch00beh on Feb 6, 2016 1:03:02 GMT -5
nah i got the demon form cuz i was watching my cousin play Devil May Cry. The dark energy black holes were based off Sin and the demi attack in Final Fantasy X, if I recall.
PS. by based off I mean stolen from
|
|
|
Post by Tout-Perd on Feb 6, 2016 12:18:08 GMT -5
Loogs and I were talking about why classic flamepants Hector is so prominent, and we hit upon the idea of iconic characters, the characters who provided a "face" for their era, and that a lot of the time, when we're talking about classic!Hector, we really mean "The Snitz" as a whole.
Going off of that: -Groudon Days: Wudge was the big man here. Lots of DBZ style fights and drama were king, and Wudge was chief among these. -Snitz Days: Hector Cruz was the guy. Lots of lower-key anime style stuff with quests and transformations and a new evil sword every week. Hector also exemplified the "none of us have jobs, we're all wanderers" that really defined the era. -TCGPlayer: Zebedee was at his most prominent here. We toned down the action, and ANGST ANGST ANGST ANGST ANGST. And Zebedee was the angstiest. Ironically, because his angst was less over-the-top, being more of an undercurrent thing, it was treated a lot more charitably by readers than the more overt cases (Valon, Yoshimitsu, and Hector all come to mind). -Early Exy: Prime, for sure. We had lots and lots of quest role plays, and Prime and Aurora wrote SO MANY we couldn't track all of them. -Resurgence Exy: Terrian Brogue. Marked our move to more down to earth plots dealing with real world concerns, politics, moral ambiguity, and so forth. In prior eras, EVIL was a tangible force you could punch in the face. In the post-Terrian era, THE EVILS WAS INSIDE YOU. Oh noes. (But really, it does mark the point where "Angst" finally dropped off the radar, and instead plots dealt with moral ambiguity and internal conflict instead of "BAD THINGS HAPPEN AND I BITCH ABOUT THEM UNTIL THE RIDE STOPS") -Renaissance Exy: Really had to say because we're only six months in. Almudena and Deandre both have decent shots, though ironically the Snitz Throwback Flint seems to be our most prominent character. Lorenna also has a decent shot... I'd say the key to this era is being a distinctive character with low key fantasy elements and a dynamic, unique personality.
|
|
|
Post by Tout-Perd on Feb 6, 2016 12:22:28 GMT -5
In other terms: -Groudon Days: DBZ -Snitz Days: Inu Yasha -TCGPlayer: Something Wangst-y. Maybe, like, S-cry-ed or something? I dunno, I tune out of any anime with overt histrionics. -Early Exy: Bleach, sooo Bleach -Resurgence Exy: Baccano -Renaissance Exy: Hmmm... What's a good bizarre slice of life series with a touch of fantasy?
|
|
|
Post by ch00beh on Feb 6, 2016 13:59:09 GMT -5
Harry Potter before it escalated?
|
|
|
Post by Tout-Perd on Feb 6, 2016 15:13:34 GMT -5
I'd say Dresden Files, but that kinda breaks the sequence of using nothing but Anime to describe us. : 3
|
|
|
Post by ch00beh on Feb 6, 2016 15:24:09 GMT -5
i have not read dresden files yet. all i know is that there is a story about jim butcher arguing with someone on the internet where one guy was like "ideas are more important than execution" and he was like "execution is way more important. name me two terrible concepts and i will make it work" and the other guy was like "lost roman legion and pokemon" and he ended up writing Codex Alera
|
|
|
Post by Loogs on Feb 6, 2016 15:40:37 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by ch00beh on Feb 6, 2016 15:50:01 GMT -5
oh god i am going to start looking at stuff from me pre 2006 aren't i
PS. so something that really strikes me about 2010 is not the shift in focus to more Baccano style stuff; it's the fact that we got REALLY ambitious. Househeld, Aleta, and Ish were all in full swing around that time. I think there was an APCARP reboot around that time, too. This was the year of Homestuck as well as Baccano so we were all about that nouveau stuff. We did pretty well, but looking back it makes sense why things petered out with mild feelings of disappointment. I think that was our collective first foray into new territory.
|
|
|
Post by Loogs on Feb 6, 2016 16:10:06 GMT -5
oh, and I guess I only talked about this with Lee, but:
I was trying to think of a way that I could take all of this effort and make it Useful for school, and I figured it out: it'd make a really cool senior project. (Explanation: at the end of your time here at MCAD, to finish your BFA, you have to do a big senior project that you then exhibit at the school in one big end-of-semester show. For comics majors, this usually means something like a 24-page story.)
However, because I long resigned myself to the reality of my best work being unmarketable experimental ventures, and as an anniversary present of sorts, I was thinking I could compile all of this work into a half-documentary half-memoir book? In the style of Lynda Barry, if you know who that is. (If you don't, in short: her work is usually in the style of a collaged journal) It would be this compendium of Exodus history starting all the way back in the Pokeschool days.
so yeah, there's that, so don't be shy about sharing any and all stories and observations you have (as long as you're cool with me using it in this project)
|
|
|
Post by Tout-Perd on Feb 6, 2016 16:55:44 GMT -5
GAZE UPON MY WORKS YE MIGHTY, AND DESPAIR. And that does sound like a cool idea, though you'd probably want to frame it in perspective to yourself, because that's what MCAD likely will care about. : 3
|
|
|
Post by Loogs on Feb 6, 2016 17:07:32 GMT -5
I'm sticking this here, in case I make more anniversary banners and change the one I have now. Might do some alliance-themed ones?? shrug
|
|
|
Post by Tout-Perd on Feb 6, 2016 17:08:29 GMT -5
Also, I think Choobs nailed it- 2010 was a peak like we'd never seen before in quality, activity, and ambition, but I think we'll never ever hit that height again. Nothing saying we can't do BETTER, but I think the higher ups on the site have come to realize that limited expectations will be much better rewarded than blind ambition. Fittingly, as the era of Pohatu it was defined by great hubris, and amazing creative work.
And much like the fall of the Roman empire, our issue came from over-extending ourselves. Different authors crashed cross-purposes, everybody was too busy to post in eachother's RPs, and it ended up turning into a hostage situation where we all were making our posts contingent upon other people hitting our projects. Didn't we have Crystal Part 2, Ishkabibble, Radiance, Aleta, Househeld, and an event or two from me or El ALL IN THE AIR at once. Hell, I think Prime tried to pitch an event plot or two.
Which led into 2011, where everything kinda died back, 2012 where I tried to build things up but had too much clutter from the old stuff, and then 2013 and 14 where the site was dead except for a handful of quiet RPs.
(I'm not blaming Pohatu for all of this- I'm blaming the site because we all *TRIED* to be Pohatu. And even he can attest that's no easy job and he got a bit too ambitious, saying in retrospect that Ish and Househeld were both about 30% too big for what they could handle.)
|
|
|
Post by ch00beh on Feb 6, 2016 17:18:31 GMT -5
I think it was mostly that we were too young and inexperienced back then, but you can't get that experience until you have your failures. Not to say 2010 was a failure, just that it didn't live up to the goals. Shoot for the stars, land on the moon.
Since we can intelligently reason about all that, I have a feeling our baseline quality in the coming year is going to look as good as we wished we looked in 2010.
EDIT: oh man even more 2010 stuff. I was running Head Games and Biscuit was running his Joyeuse stuff. Biscuit, as usual, turns out to be the smartest one among us and keeps things limited to him and 90 with cameos from me and not trying to recruit anyone else with their 50 other projects.
Also Bullogne was in full swing and Triannual was coming to a close
|
|