Final Fantasy Fun

Signal boost -- ff.net is about to purge any fics that drifted past the "M" rating. Back up your own, and even if you don't have any, don't forget to check favorites. Some stories you like may soon be disappearing.

From ff.net news today:

“News:
June 4th 2012 — Notices:

Please note we would like to clarify the content policy we have in place since 2002. FanFiction.Net follows the Fiction Rating system ranging from Fiction K to Fiction M. Although Fiction Ratings goes up to Fiction MA, FanFiction.Net since 2002 has not allowed Fiction MA rated content which can contain adult/explicit content on the site. FanFiction.Net only accepts content in the Fiction K through Fiction M range. Fiction M can contain adult language, themes and suggestions. Detailed descriptions of physical interaction of sexual or violent nature is considered Fiction MA and has not been allowed on the site since 2002. “


I'm afraid a number of the fics on my own favorites list are about to disappear, and they're not all on AO3 (which has its own problems, but exists for just such reasons as this.)

Pass it on.

I took the OTW Community Survey!

I really got into the Final Fantasy bandwagon with VIII. While I have actually played through VII once and vaguely remember it, many of the details are fuzzy, and I recall being extremely confused by the whole Cloud-Sephiroth backstory (clone, puppet, wha?)  Also, I didn't entirely grasp where I was or what I was looking at the first time through most of Midgar, since I was playing with a lousy TV or a confused Mac Molar trying desperately to emulate a PS1.  Now, armed with a PS3, good speakers, and a screen I can see, I'm trying it again.

So yeah. I don't know if I'll get through it, but for the moment I have joined in the group playthrough here in ff7_oldschool .

I've always been fond of VII, but it's never been THE GAME the way some other games (RIVEN, FFX) are for me. 

coco_sky  asked if there was a list of Final Fantasy fandom communities. I'm going to repost/revise the answer I gave there as a resource.

1. ff_press is the motherlode for Final Fantasy fans, and the volunteers who maintain it never get enough thanks! It's an almost-daily index of new FF fanfic, fanart, icons, cosplay, and much more. They cover fandom on LJ, DW, and many other places. ff_presswatch helps them track FF activity on Livejournal, so check its profile for the names of many LJ communities. Also see their del.ici.ous archive, where they tag all the links from the newsletter so that they're searchable by game, character, ship, activity (cosplay, fanfic, icons, etc), and other categories. Here's all their bookmarks for "Communities and Websites."

2. The Final Fantasy Newbie Guide put together by bottle_of_shine needs an update, but it's well-organized and worth a look. It covers most Final Fantasy fan communities on LJ up through the early days of FFXII fandom. 

3. ff_fanlisting is a comm where Final Fantasy fans post their fandom profiles: which fandoms they're interested in, what kinds of fan activities they do (fanfic, cosplay, meta, etc). Add yours, or look for people with similar interests! They also have a del.ici.ous archive.

4. Search Archive of Our Own, a huge fan-created archive of fanworks that's been active for a year or so, and therefore maps to recent fandom activity.
Search for the tag community: ff_* and then browse each fic's tags for "Community: ff_somethingorother" to get the names of active Final Fantasy communities. If they're on LJ, the url will be  http://[comname].livejournal.com
Or, a broad search: Community: "Final Fantasy" finds Final Fantasy fics posted to ANY community, though some of these are multi-fandom communities.

5. Embrace the power of the dark side GOOGLE FU, young Padwan: 
Google search: site:community.livejournal.com "final fantasy" "community profile"
-- finds all community profiles on Livejournal which mention "Final Fantasy"

Google search: site:www.livejournal.com "User Profile" "Final fantasy"
-- finds all LJ User Profiles with the words "Final Fantasy" somewhere on the page. You may alter the phrase "Final Fantasy" to your favorite game, ship, or character, or add on another phrase in quotes.

The Genesis Awards for Final Fantasy VII fanfiction are out.

Here are the winners.

I heartily recommend browsing the list and reading them, as I plan to do!

I see that ellnyx garnered an award. This does not surprise me.

Since the GA community doesn't really overlap LJ/DW that much, this will be a good set of stories that most of us haven't seen.

Now, I'm guessing, they will start plowing through the FFX nominations. *Guilty look* I recommended a lot of fics. I wanted to make sure my fandom had a good showing!


And in other news, I totally [heart] text-to-speech. I've been listening to LHaD while doing chores to help me focus for the Big Bombtastic Climax chapter, and hearing it lets me catch a few mistakes I'd missed while revising. (Why doesn't my auto-spellchecker underline "neice", for example?!)

I've run into a couple things lately that gave me a half-formed thought about fanfiction.

First, I  ran across a bunch of comments on some random site where Anons were discussing RPGs (I will never get used to that term in reference to video games). The discussion went something like this:
A: I don't like Final Fantasy [#], it's too linear
B: Those are JRPGs (Japanese), which are more linear than WRPGS (western). They tell stories. Both have merit.
A: I don't like story-centric RPGs.
B: I do like story-centric RPGs.
C: Isn't it a shame how RPGs have been differentiated between JRPGs and WRPGs?

Second, I was reading owlmoose 's "Exchange" fic about Balthier and Vaan.

In trying to articulate what I liked about it, I started to say that she treats the characters as characters within stories, rather than as characters within games.
 
I'm not sure if that comment makes sense. What I'm trying to get at is the different ways people approach games.

( Stating the Obvious, But... )

Sooooo.

The Genesis Awards for Final Fantasy VII fanfiction have been running for a couple years [Awards for 2008] [Awards for 2007]. This year, for the first time ever, they've opened it to FFX, and are encouraging people to nominate old masterpieces as well as new.

I want to see some of the best of the best get featured. Unfortunately, I am intermittent in fandom and have no brain. I'm sure I'm forgetting many great pieces that deserve a nod. I also have a bad habit of nominating fic by my favorite writers just to make sure they get a showing, as opposed to nominating a fic because it's one of the Great FanFics of FFX.

Nominations for the 2009 Genesis Awards for Final Fantasy X Fanfiction close on Feb 28th.

Help! Let's nominate some more great fic!

Where to nominate: Final Fantasy X Fanfiction Nominations

How to nominate: Rules for Genesis Awards Nominations

So. Months of sinus infections and depression later, I am poking my head back into community. Hello, community! Are you still there? Facebook, DW and IJ have eaten some; others are back in the embrace of real life or other fandoms.

My Muse is flatter than a board, although I am eager as ever to post the next part of Love Her and Despair. While I'm having trouble getting the big battle started, some of the best parts are still in my notes. Will anyone still be around to read the last chapter? At this rate, I wonder.

In sniffing around, I noticed a comment from Renay a few months back asking if I was going to be on AO3. Well, it interests me, although getting my Muse (or, for that matter, my sinus infection/depression fogged brain) back matters more.

After much flailing to remember what AO3 stood for (and thus the URL) I signed up, put into the queue. It told me I could expect an answer on July 18. Great! Wait...that's today. This evening, it says I can expect a reply on the 19th. I'm at #65.

If the queue is being emptied on a semi-regular basis (say, once every week or 2), I might as well stand in line. If it isn't, may I beg an invite from someone? I don't know the etiquette here.

So I was glancing through the springkink promptings because ellnyx was discussing a few of them, and my cat just woke me at 6am.

First impressions:

1. Where is the yuri? I see a Talia/Susan tucked away in there, and a very few FFs, but that's it.

2. Why did Sulu/Checkov become the OTP of the new Trek movie?  Not that I object to the pairing, but it always puzzles me how a fandom seems to circle the wagons around one particular non-canon ship. (Then again, my fandom latched onto Aurikku. Damn you, fandom.)

3. This prompt? (Nov. 10) 

- Final Fantasy X - any/all - drunken antics/karaoke - "and she's buying a stairway to Yevon..."

I just got unintentional revenge on the cat by howling with laughter. It was a refreshing change from all the serious prompts.