Thread: Fanfic: Is it just me?

Hey guys,

So is it just me, or does anyone else hate fanfic?

Fanfic, or Fan-fiction, is when people write their own fiction set in a popular fictional universe. This can happen with just about any popular series, including Star Wars, Harry Potter, Supernatural, etc. and most importantly 40k.

What bugs me about fanfic is that people are basically taking characters that are already established and then writing about them in more "detail" like they are the original authors. this by itself is pretty harmless, but when they start posting it as fact and blur the lines between cannon and fanfic, it really pisses me off.

It just bugs the **** outta me. Plus, it's generally pretty terrible to begin with. Prose is sloppy, the stories are contrived and trope-filled. And a lot of it is just offensive to me, especially if I'm a fan of the franchise.

I hate reading non-cannon/non-official authors writing about primarchs or the emperor. I generally don't read the stories, but i happen to stumble on them from time to time and then i fill the nerd rage well up in me. I don't know if it's because the writing is terrible or if I feel like they are tarnishing/stealing from the actual author's work. I know that if I was a popular writer I would have an issue with people writing about my characters. If they wanted to write about different characters, but set in the same universe, I would have less issue with that, but I would still be offended if they had taken liberties with "my" work.

Or maybe it stops being the author's work when it becomes published. Once you put it out there for the fans... Look at Lucas/Star Wars. I almost wish episodes 1-3 were fanfic and not cannon.


anyone else? What are your thoughts on fanfic? Have you ever read any "good" fanfic?

Fanfic is like Internet comments. 99.99% is total ****, and that 0.01% is good. Here's some good 40K fanfic (before it got superseded): http://www.box.net/shared/r0vrvf0nug

Something about SW players (at least on the B&C) seems to predispose them to writing fanfics, and none of them are ADB. It drives me nuts. I can really only abide pokemon fanfics, which are awesome.

I guess I'd be more open to 40k fanfics if people branched out to, say, first person nid or ork fanfic. I'd love for someone to write a short story from the perspective of a ripper... really get in and flesh that character out.

@Beamo I think that's part of my issue with Fanfic. I get that people make their armies and then want to write a bit of background about the army. Maybe this one guy has a special mark that was painted on him because of something cool he did. I get that! (Hell, that's where Tycho came from.)

But it's also a fine line between writing a background bit for your army and writing fanfic. I like they armies where they are based off of X campaign, or something like that. I don't like when it's a background peice trying to justify why they have all the vets or why the orks are teaming with necrons.

Yeah I don't have time to write a background for my army, so I just stud the shoulders and let everyone else figure it out. Also, the day someone actually tries to legitimize their broken unfun army to me with storytime, there will be taint punching... or uppercutting. something like that.

Originally Posted by RealGenius

Fanfic is like Internet comments. 99.99% is total ****, and that 0.01% is good. Here's some good 40K fanfic (before it got superseded): http://www.box.net/shared/r0vrvf0nug

Quoted for truth.

Originally Posted by mrjones

Back when space wolves got their new codex and the necron one haven't come out yet some one tried to tell me they had a really cool story on how their necrons became space wolves so that's why they were using them as a space wolf count as army. When obviously they just want to use the latest and greatest codex, which is fine but get the models don't make up some lame story lol.

wow...

Originally Posted by mrjones

Back when space wolves got their new codex and the necron one haven't come out yet some one tried to tell me they had a really cool story on how their necrons became space wolves so that's why they were using them as a space wolf count as army. When obviously they just want to use the latest and greatest codex, which is fine but get the models don't make up some lame story lol.

wow, and btw that's not a "counts as army" that would just be proxying -- even with a fluff story.

Proxy armies are basically exactly what you are describing: Using one army to represent another with little or no modification.

"Counts-as" armies require a bit more work and typically involve conversions, painting, clearly represented units and something I like to call "effort" -- Kevin's Night Lord's army is a good example. Most of the pre-heresy era armies are good examples.

Saying your necron models are space wolves is just proxying models. which is fine in friendly games as long as you are cool with it. But don't try to polish a turd and say it's a diamond. or try to pass off your fanfic as cannon. c'mon man.