Am I the only one wondering about this? Never before have the creators of books, video games, films, etc had access to as much, as detailed and as easily accessible feedback from those who consume their products. They have the opportunity to tune the works in progress based on what the “buzz” is on the net.
I worry that this leads to a sort of “creating by committee” or similar, where some directors, authors, whatever listen too much to their public. One example (which I thank the stars for) is that the internet community made it very clear that Jar-Jar Binks was horrible, and in the next movie he got a mere 5 minutes of screen time. I also worry that perhaps J.K. Rowling will screw up her coming books in the Harry Potter series, changing things she had already decided on if the internet community has “guessed right” in their fanboy conjecture. It makes me a little paranoid.
On the one hand I think it is great when there are “nods” to the fanboys (and girls of course), but I do worry about how this might progress in the future. Anyone have any thoughts on the subject?
Ever watch Babylon 5? The series creator, J. Michael Straczynski, was online talking to the fans all the time. It definitely influenced the direction of the show, but certainly didn’t make it worse.
I think most writers ignore fanfiction/fan suggestions and speculations as much as possible. For many I’m sure they just aren’t interested in hearing what other people think they should do with their own characters and stories, but there is also a reasonable fear of lawsuit if they happen to use any ideas that previously appeared in fan works.
This has happened to more than one writer, including Marion Zimmer Bradley (who had previously both read and encouraged fanfiction set in her Darkover world). This is why unsolicited television scripts are returned to their authors unread, and why writers for many shows are actually forbidden to read fanfiction based on their show.
Interesting question. While almost every author that I know of has said that they completely ignore fan feedback and suggestions regarding their future works, I wonder whether it’s possible for them to be influenced without being consciously aware that it’s happening. Let’s face the facts: no author who’s writing a long series ever has the entire thing planned out right from the start. While they may have an outline for what happens to each character, for example, that’s just an outline. If they observe that some character has become extremely popular with the fans, the story arch that said character goes through might remain as they planned it, but it would be hard to resist the urge to pay that character a bit more attention, and have them appear in a few more scenes than was originally planned.
In terms of direct influence on creators, the 'Net has probably less influence than you think. That’s because the fans seldom speak with one voice. (Jar Jar being the notable exception.)
Take Harry Potter as a hypothetical example. Group A might wish that the series end with Harry’s death, group B might stridently demand that Harry not die, and group C might hope that the series will not end in seven books at all. You can’t accomodate all the groups at once.
(And even if you could accomodate everyone, you probably shouldn’t. Often people don’t want what they say they want. They want something better than they can imagine.)
As a specific example, Terry Pratchett occasionally posts to alt.fan.pratchett, serving to enlighten people about this obscure reference or that character’s creation. He makes it clear, however, that he doesn’t want to see unsolicited manuscripts or fan-fiction of his Discworld stuff, right out in the open where he can see it, because of the fear of lawsuits. Sure, there’s copyright for independent creation, but that’s no reason to leave yourself wide open.
I expect the Internet has homogenized some movies and entertainment; the industry can see exactly how many people it’ll piss off by casting, say, Keanu Reeves as Douglas MacArthur, or casting Michael Jackson as Edgar Allen Poe. “How many fans can we afford to lose?” they’ll ask, and shoot for the widest fan base.
On the other hand, you get the Lord of the Rings movies, which have come out rather nicely, with a lot of Internet fans offering opinions on various things: enough fans, apparently, that they are credited in the Special Edition credits as such.
Net result, so far: Slight edge given to dumb, lowest-common-denominator entertainment. In other words, no change.
