Everyone vs Just Us

 

   This silly title sums up the debate that goes on right now with things like Warhammer and The Rings of Power and TSR.

   Companies try to make stuff for Everyone. That’s just Economics 101. Nobody wants to make things for a niche — it’s bad for business.

   But some fans seem to think that those “things” and that “stuff” should be made exclusively for them.

   If you read more than 3 mangas, you are a fan; that is, you’re the same thing, the very same thing, as that Japanese teen who read five thousand mangas.

   If you drink kombucha at least once a month, you are a fan — the very same thing as that woman who drinks kombucha every day.

   A fan is a fan, period.

   If we try to make fandom more complex, it’s a very slippery slope. Indeed, who’s to decide if you’re a worthy or unworthy fan? Who is going to be the judge of that? It is gatekeeping.

   Someone who read The Hobbit when they were 10, but not any of the other books since then, and who haven’t seen any of the movies. Fan, or Not A Fan?

   Someone who only ever saw Ralph Bakshi’s movie, back in 1978, and only ever read the first half of The Silmarillion. Fan, or Not A Fan?

   Someone who saw the first two films of the Peter Jackson trilogy, but not the third one, and not The Hobbit trilogy. Fan, or Not A Fan?

   Someone who played a heck of a lot of MERP in the late eighties and early nineties, saw all the movies several times, but never read any of the books, because reading is hard. Fan, or Not A Fan?

   Someone who did a PhD in Fantasy literature with an emphasis on Tolkien, but only ever watched the first Peter Jackson movie and disliked it. Fan, or Not A Fan?

   Someone who’ve seen every movie 35 times, read every book 9 times, and have their own YouTube channel devoted to the realm of Lindon. Fan, or Not A Fan?

   Someone who named their open-source medical imaging service “Orthanc.” Fan, or Not A Fan?

*

   Fandom does not have levels. You can’t be a Level 5 fan or a Level 12 fan, or a Level 20 superfan. That is my opinion. Of course, lots of folks will disagree.

   My belief is that fandom is declarative, just like becoming a Muslim; if you say the words out loud, you automatically become the thing. There is no trial period, no probation, no test, and no prerequisites. For instance, if you say, “I am a huge fan of the Royal family!” you just became a fan of the Royal family — it really is as simple as that.

   Like saying you love something.

   “I love strawberries.”

   “No you don’t. You don’t KNOW strawberries like I do, and I love them WAY more than you ever will.”

   Preposterous, right?

   What we have here is a dad protecting his children from “everyone” and effectually keeping things “just between us.” Ernie Gygax got in trouble for that one, even though it was his business partner who posted the image.

   It means that TSR (that’s the sixth or seventh one) wants to keep playing tabletop role-playing games in the same style as before. But the picture here absolutely sent the wrong message.

   Same goes for this—

   Warhammer wants to keep its lore exactly as it was established in the beginning — but they still need Lyla Mev’s and Dana Howl’s and Senasuke’s and Sword ’n’ Steele’s business, as well as the countless other female gamers and hobbyists who don’t have YouTube channels but play the game and paint miniatures nonetheless.

   So, Just Us needs Everyone’s business, or else they’re gonna go bankrupt.

   “True” Tolkien fans still need everyone else to watch the movies and subscribe to Amazon Prime… or else there would be no movies or shows.

   If you remove all the people who don’t know Middle-earth all that well, and if you subtract the money they spent to see Peter Jackson’s movies or buy the DVDs, those trilogies would’ve flopped for sure.

   Amazon is making a show for everyone — your mom, your fourteen-year-old niece, your Sri Lankan landlord, people in retirement homes, et cetera.

   Hardcore fans will always disagree. Obviously.

   One YouTuber said that The Rings of Power is fake fan fiction. At first, I was puzzled by that. I’m a fan of Conan the Barbarian… I write a novella about Conan… but… it’s fake… so I didn’t really write it? WTF?

   Then I realized the guy didn’t mean [fake] fan fiction, but rather [fake fan] fiction. Okay, that makes more sense, sorta. But it brings us right back to: what in the name of God is a fake fan? Who decides if you’re worthy to love something? Who has that kind of authority?

   It is frightening.

   In MMORPGs, noobs are the Everyone to level 60 trolls’ Just Us.

   And, to a lesser extent, D&D is the Everyone to Pathfinder’s Just Us.

   But this is definitely not restricted to gaming and entertainment.

   The ultra-rich are the biggest of all Just Us clubs. Any society that allows 1% of its people to control more than 50% of the wealth is in R’lyeh-deep trouble.

   Again, Just Us needs Everyone’s business — and debt — in order to be able to remain “Just Us.”

   For the tip of the pyramid to remain the tip of a pyramid, it needs the rest of the pyramid, but for the base of a pyramid to remain the base of a pyramid, it doesn’t need the tip.

   That’s why I believe the base shall win. In the end, Everyone will prevail over Just Us.