Making of a Fandom

What exactly is a fandom? A fandom is essentially the fan base for any show, book, movie, comic, or even a game. The word is used on a daily basis in the geek culture, especially on the internet. What makes a fandom, though? More precisely, what effect does it have on the geek culture?

            Fandoms are subjective; Doctor Who may be one of my favorite shows, but someone else might find it boring. Although I and many other geeks find Twilight mind numbingly painful to watch, it still has a fandom and, technically speaking, is apart of the geek culture as it falls into the fantasy genre (albeit barely). Does that make it any less a fandom, since most geeks find it repulsive? No. Does it affect the geek culture? Absolutely.

            Perhaps you have heard of Comic-Con? It used to be what its name implied; a comic book convention. Nowadays it is a place for promoting the latest, greatest blockbuster movie or game that is being released. It has lost the feeling of being “geeky”, and now it is just another stage for game developers and the movie industry to promote their wares to the public. And yes, Twilight does have a booth at Comic-Con.

            The geek culture is growing; many geeks don’t understand that it is growing in nearly all directions, bringing with it both positive fandoms and negative fandoms.

Endless Blog Possibilities

Blogging to me is just another way to express one's self. If you're having difficulties in your life and you have no one else to turn to, just venting about your problems sometimes helps. Of course personal information should not be publicly shared, but typing out what is bothering you and trying to find the words to describe it is almost therapeutic. You don't even have to share that publicly; a blog could be a online journal if you really wanted it to be.

            Like many things on the internet, and the internet itself, a blog can be anything you want it to be. The possibilities are nearly endless. People that have gone through something similar to what you're going through might find your blog, and give you advice on how to deal with it. Or maybe your blog is focused on tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons; D&D players will eventually find your blog, and you'll start to attract more of an audience if you're good. Eventually you might even attract such an audience that you will want to have a meet up and have a game night. Who knows?

Character Creation

Character creation is a fundamental step in your journey on any Massively Multiplayer Online game (or MMO for short.) Now if you're just starting an MMO, you may get slightly confused at the process. There are usually around five to seven steps to creating your identity, depending on each game's style. Some games may allow you to create a completely customized character, while others may only give you general adjustments such as eye color, hair color, body type, etc. This will hopefully help you in understanding the process, but actually making your character is entirely up to you.

            The first step is usually picking a "faction." Factions depend greatly on the game you have, and how differently they affect your experiences in-game. For example, Star Wars: The Old Republic Online (or TORO) has only two factions; the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic. In some games you may change factions later on in the game, but in TORO and other games this decision is final. Be extremely careful and mindful when choosing your faction as it will affect your experience in the game, and also the next step.

            After picking a faction, you will need to pick a race. Just like the Factions, this will vary greatly from game to game. For fantasy games the usual roster will be there; Elves, Humans, Dwarves, etc. For Sci-Fi games it may be along the lines of Cyborgs, Humans, and whatever Alien species that are from that game's universe and timeline. Sticking with the TORO theme, and say we picked the Sith Empire faction, we will have Sith Pure Bloods, Cyborgs, and an alien species called Rattataki. These three species are only available to the Sith Empire. Humans are nearly always available to any faction regardless of the faction you picked, but not in every game. After picking a race you will need to decide if your character will be female or male. This decision, regardless of your own real-life gender, is usually a difficult one to make. If it is right to change your character's gender from your real-life gender, that is for an entirely different argument.

            After finally getting your basic character, you get to customize it. Like stated in the beginning, the customization options may vary from game to game. Some games may only allow you to change your hair, skin, and eye color along with body type. Others may give you full range of options. With so many different MMOs, it is almost impossible to advise you properly in this part. Many games will have sliders that change the settings, while others will have pictures of what they will look like on your character, like a small preview. This is the most basic advice that is without generalizing too much, so try to experiment with what you have.

            With your character the way you want it to look, you will need to pick its profession, also known as a class. This is arguably the most important part of creating a character; this will be how you level up, and how your experience in the game will be until you can afford to change professions (if it is even allowed.) For most MMOs there will only be combat classes, but a few MMOs will have some that are not combat related. Each profession will have different styles of armor, skills, combat styles, and weapons. Be extremely careful when picking a class; if you are just starting a MMO, do not pick a healing class. These classes are expected to know how to heal well in stressful situations. If you feel you would do well as a healer, create a secondary character as your healer. Focus on learning the game as a tank class, a class that can take loads of damage. When you have a group of friends who know you are starting as a healer, take out your secondary character and play that. Also be weary of picking a damage class; these classes are very weak, and are focused on dealing damage, rather than surviving a fight. If you're easily frustrated, this class may not be for you.

            Once you have decided on a profession, the only step left is naming your character. The only thing I can offer you for advice is this: Do not name it after yourself, your account's username, or anything relating to your password. This name will appear to everyone in the MMO, so be mindful of that. Now go, new adventurer! Conquer your enemies and make a name for yourself. Just remember there are people behind those other characters, too.