While we're in a reflective mood, it's worth noting that this is also our traditional Anniversary season, as the posts which would directly lead to the creation of the Parodyverse began popping up in earnest on the Avengers Message Board back in September 1998.

It's been a strange and awesome ride since then. At the time, I didn't even have a home internet connection. Once a day I'd make a trip to the local library to post from their computers, and all of my stories at first were written sitting there within my allotted 1 hour (which always went a ways over, because back then nobody lined up for using the internet when there were all of those useful books just filling the shelves around you anyway.) Now, I can't even imagine limiting my online time to a single hour a day, and sadly the concept of whipping out a story within said time seems ludicrous.

Still, what drove the creation of this board and our own little genre was the unique properties of this thing called the internet. The Avengers Message Board gave us a gathering place to share about our hobby, one that offered more than just a passive spot to sit and observe it. On a daily basis, posters there were in contact with the very people creating the thing they all gathered around. The writer Kurt Busiek and the editor Tom Brevoort were regular posters over there. That was a pretty exciting change in the way fans interacted with what they loved at the time.

Of course, new issues were still a month apart (and there weren't a slew of Avengers titles coming out back then) so people needed to fill the gap in entertainment somehow. As it turns out, when you gather a bunch of people together and let them share their talents, they can get pretty damn creative. I think that's the main thing I love about the internet... that potential for creation. People go crazy with creativity through this shared experience. Sometimes quite literally.

Which brings me to my subtitle. First, a little background:




If you can't watch the video, its basically an account of how the latest version of My Little Pony came to be an internet craze. Now, I was aware of the show before as I help look after my 4 year old cousin a few times a week when both of her parents are working, and since that little girl loves all things Princesses and Ponies, the brand is like crack to her (what with having actual pony princesses in it and all.) I'd seen bits of it with her and found it enjoyable enough, and then a couple of weeks ago I was given an assignment that used the same background style as the show did, prompting me to look up the episodes on YouTube. This is what brought the Pony craze to my personal radar, and resulted in the Fleabot cartoon from before:




I probably should have stopped digging there, but the fan devotion to this thing fascinated me. These ponies weren't made for them, and it didn't slow them down in the least. They simply filled in what they wanted from it, all with a healthy dose of irony amongst the real affection. It was like witnessing the birth of the Parodyverse for a generation that took the kind of connectivity the internet provided for granted.

And what a baffling generation it is. But, also pretty awesome... I mean, sure... these people did their fan fiction. (By the way, if you're looking to write something that gets replies, apparently Pony stories are the way to go. The Equestria Daily message board sees about one million page views a week, and the posts and stories there seem to rack up 100+ replies very easily.) But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The sheer amount of content that is generated is staggering. Artwork, videos... people there compose and remix music based on the show. Regularly. Often enough that there a multiple updates a day about new songs and mixes available.

Of course, even though the intellectual property exists solely to sell products, it wasn't designed for this fanbase. Hence, there really aren't any products targeting them. Apparently, that doesn't matter any longer... they'll just make them themselves:



That is a My Little Pony fighting game that is being developed. It's not just a skin of an existing game, mind you... it's being built from the ground up. Original animations, original programming... hell, the fighting music is a kick-ass original composition built around some existing themes from the show. As someone who works in the game industry, let me tell you... that's some damn impressive work. The development team has gotten write-ups in some major gaming publications. And they can never sell a single copy of it. They're making it because... well, they're fans of My Little Pony, and who else was going to step up and provide a Street Fighter style Pony game?

For me, one of the most interesting things about this use of the internet to tear down of the barriers between the fans and the producers of the intellectual properties is that it is increasingly a two-way street. With the Avengers Message Board, there was always the chance to influence the creative team of the book. Hell, Ian even got a shout-out from Steve Englehart within the pages of an issue by having one of Mantis's "clients" named after him.

And why not? The people who make this stuff are the same as the rest of us... something that was driven home by the near instant affiliation between Magneto, Master of Magnetism, and My Little Pony. Basically, over the weekend Pony fans apparently had a marathon on-line viewing of the entire first season of the show in preparation of the beginning of the second season. This coincided with the launch of "X-men: First Class" on DVD, and a somewhat ubiquitous pop-up ad for said film that was constantly pushing its way into frame while people watched:



This promptly led many to declare that Magneto was in fact their favorite pony, hands down. Naturally, Hasbro Toys, maker of My Little Pony, responded in the only sensible way they could... They added Magneto to their official online My Little Pony store:

http://www.hasbro.com/mylittlepony/en_US/shop/details.cfm?guid=F4DC0C22-6F95-1014-AC4F-9CBB844E488B&product_id=23883

A major corporation's website is in on a joke made by the non-targeted demo of their fanbase. Within 24 hours of the joke being made. On a weekend.

This is the state of fandom today, just over a decade from when we started our own little bizarre corner of the internet. The lines between creators and fans have blurred beyond recognition. This ability to share our odd hobbies with each other while utilizing the full extent of our individual talents has had an amazing (and bizarre) effect on culture. People take what they love and they make it their own, and they increasingly have the tools for creating whatever products aren't already in existence. One wonders if a decade from now people will even have to wait for a new issue of a comic, or season of a cartoon, or the release of an action-figure or video game. Their fellow fans will rush in to fill the void.

Had we all started this little Parodyverse of ours a little further into the future, I don't think we would have had to settle for Micro-heroes, basic artwork and stories... Our community would have provided the models for our 3-D printers to churn out our custom Lair Legion action figures while we made our animated series and put out episode after episode. Provided, of course, that we weren't to busy playing various Parodyverse video games or going out wearing our Lair Legion clothing.

I'm not sure what happens when geek culture becomes completely self-sustaining. It's probably not good for the economy. Then again, maybe that's exactly what leads to that "Star Trek" style utopia where nobody *has* to do anything and yet everyone is still productive. I've gotten free legal advice from Lisa. I've provided artwork for Scott's novel. People here, and apparently elsewhere, are all too happy to pitch in their particular talents in pursuing their common interests... and through the internet it can apparently focus into some powerful creativity.

And if the rode to Utopia happens to pass through the Parodyverse (and Ponyville) along the way? All the better.