View Full Version : The case against "extreme niche fandom"
royterp
05-11-2009, 09:23 PM
In today's Washington Post, staff writer Hank Steuver wrote a fantastic essay (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/10/AR2009051002034_pf.html) about extreme niche fandom and the resultant quibbling, particularly concerning (but not limited to) the new Star Trek movie.
I bring this up because a friend here at work has such a rigid notion of what Star Trek is that she will not go see the new film. (It's something I refer to as "radical fandamentalism".) Even these same TRS forums experienced a small measure of this during the whole change away from the old openings to the new missions.
Overall I tend to agree with the WaPo essayist, but do others think he got it right when he claims that "Quibblers inhibit revolution"? Thoughts?
-Roy
darknessgp
05-11-2009, 10:13 PM
The problem I see is that this "niche fandom" is a very small minority. In most cases, the issue is not that they have a problem, but that they are very vocal about it and people actually listen to them. Do they "inhibit revolution", not at all. They are not the ones inhibiting it, the ones inhibiting it are the ones that think they must please this tiny group. End the end, the people that don't think this new Star Trek is a real Star Trek are only hurting themselves by having such a finite definition of something as vast as the Star Trek IP.
joeyrock
05-11-2009, 10:20 PM
To be fair.. new star trek exists because those fandamentalists have been pouring buckets of money in the franchise over the last four decades. The fact that they (and there's a lot of them) were going to see it no matter if it sucked or not, also gave it the green light.
Meh. They don't harm anyone. They just care and are a reliable source of income for certain franchises. I don't see that they do anything other than create the avenue for "revolution" in the first place.
diane
05-12-2009, 01:26 AM
There are annoying though. Like the petition that the Joker never be used in a Batman movie again. I just want to say, really? People like this are nothing more than pathetic losers who have no imagination. Yes Ledger did an amazing portrayal, but to say that no one should ever be allowed to try another interruption says more about them than it does Ledger.
What really gets under my skin is that this tiny portion of fans of any given franchise are the ones the press latches on. That is more annoying than anything.
joeyrock
05-12-2009, 02:09 AM
There are annoying though. Like the petition that the Joker never be used in a Batman movie again. I just want to say, really? People like this are nothing more than pathetic losers who have no imagination. Yes Ledger did an amazing portrayal, but to say that no one should ever be allowed to try another interruption says more about them than it does Ledger.
What really gets under my skin is that this tiny portion of fans of any given franchise are the ones the press latches on. That is more annoying than anything.
The press latches on because they are an easy target they are just as at fault there.. and equally annoying. More annoying actually because the crazy fans don't have as loud a voice.
I didn't hear about the petition to not use the joker again.. and I doubt there are many serious star trek fans who would actually boycott the new film. Unless the small minority do something stupid like go on a 'phaser' rampage in school. It's not really an issue.
Look at it from this perspective. We are a geeky crowd here ourselves. There are probably myspace pages with people saying how we are annoying. Hell, look at "JV's world" down the page on Rev3 forums. That guy was saying exactly that toward Rev3 forum members on this very subject, he had a whine and a cry because he perceived us to be overly picky and not give him a chance. It's all swings and roundabouts.
masherscf
05-12-2009, 02:47 AM
"Extreme niche fandom" is the right of every geek.
"Extreme niche fandom" is the right of every geek.
I'd go even further and say that it is the quintessence of geekdom.
deegraww
05-12-2009, 08:31 PM
/peeks his head in...
"Is this the Star Wars is better than Star Trek thread?"
siraim
05-12-2009, 08:39 PM
/peeks his head in...
"Is this the Star Wars is better than Star Trek thread?"
No.. I'm sorry. That's down the hall and starts in an hour. This is the thread where pots and kettles have a chance to get together.
deegraww
05-12-2009, 08:51 PM
No.. I'm sorry. That's down the hall and starts in an hour. This is the thread where pots and kettles have a chance to get together.
Awesome thanks for clearing that up.
dh_jin
05-13-2009, 01:31 AM
hahaha
i'm not gonna start up a fire but i think the idea that Star wars is better is probably coz it has more mainstream appeal. thats all i'm saying.
and i'm laughing at imagining a phaser attack or something…i probably shouldnt.
i didn't know that there was a joker petition but not shocked at all, i think the problem with extreme niche fanbois is that they seem to have such a vocal presence with the media. when directors and such listen to them it just turns into a fan-gasm of irrelevant crap.
take the xmen and spiderman movies, both third instalments where fecal matter, the gratuitous of cameos in xmen was just silly, the same with spiderman, there was no point for that stupid final boss fight at the end, and the dance sequence with gwen? wth. just the general "cool cat" bit was like ugh.
we now have this expectation for "geek/nerd" IPs to be crap, i'm gonna watch star trek but i'm going into it new, don't really know anything about it except in one trailer kirk says his middle name is like tiberius? and the extreme niche fanbois got into a huff about that.
most of my friends don't care for nerd/geek things and aren't gonna even attempt to watch star trek. but star wars they went and saw the weekend it was out. theres a perception that star trek is too nerdy for the mass populace but it still has done quite well so to the media taking "risks" like listening to the fans is a great idea. story already written and fanbase already there.