The Era of the Superhero

[p]For superhero comic fans, this is as good as it gets. Take a good look around. The turn of the century has ushered in the era of the superhero.

[p]After years of being given the short shift in terms of quality and vision, comics (and comic themes) have really hit the mainstream. Sure, for the most part they like to hide their comic book roots just in case people think it’s all kid stuff and for the mentally deficient, but it’s there if you look. The Matrix washed the nasty taste of Batman and Robin and showed people that superheroes could shed their spandex (admittedly for latex, but hey…) and still shine. Comic book icons like the X-Men, Hulk and Spiderman have had huge money poured into films to recreate their worlds. For the most part they have been successful, inspiring the wonder that the extraordinary should when placed in the realm of the ordinary.

[p]But we knew that already, don’t? We watch the ads and probably follow the hype long before any productions appear in the cinemas for the masses to gawk at. We get the inside jokes, spot the mistakes and sometimes gnash our teeth when something gets changed that really didn’t need to. We argue endlessly about who should star in, produce and direct our favourite properties (David Fincher to direct The Authority feature starring Colin Farrell as Hawksmoor, Guy Pearce as the Midnighter and Christian Bale as Apollo, thank you).

[p]We’ve even started to get good superhero computer games. Freedom Force was great to play and inspired a huge mod community, while there’s that superhero mmog coming out sometime I’m sure you’ve heard of.

[p]This is our time. Comics – the stuff we care about and think is at least important enough to spend our time on – are leading the pop culture.

[p]It’s a good time to be a comic book fan.

After a gushing first column, I thought I’d pull it back a bit. Let’s talk about a CoH beta and get that topic out of the way for now.

[p]If you’ve spent any time recently on the CoH forums you will have run into a thread containing “beta” in the title. There threads inevitably follow the lines of “when’s beta?”, “we don’t know”, “it should come out soon because…”, “it’ll come out when it’s ready”, “Statesman should say something about it”, “he will when it’s ready”, “it’s vapourware”, “no it isn’t”, “Batman could beat Superman” etc etc. As much as it’s probably important to the person posting it, having a question about beta every day (especially when relevant threads are still going on the first page of the General forum) gets real old real fast. Jono is threatening to bring the Wall out of retirement due to this issue.

[p]But it is a question that is vitally important to the community. I have built some relationships across my two years on the forums, but I’m here to game. I’m here to vicariously put on a cape, take on supervillains, protect citizens and have fun doing it. The real point behind “when is beta?” is the issue of when are we going to be able to play out some of our fantasies in CoH. Cryptic has us sold on their product and we are just champing at the bit to get in.

[p]The recent stream of regular updates is nice; it inspires confidence that CoH is on its way, with a play test announcement just around the corner. But after a while everyone gets tired of grasping at straws.

[p]For my mind, what the community wants is an indication of progress. What I would love to see would be some indication of what is being worked on, or what areas are causing problems – would it be wrong to put up a high-level bug list for your internal alpha? Sure, this will promote a fleet of “here’s how to fix bug X” threads, but it would show people that progress is occurring from month to month. Final dates would still be at the discretion of the Cryptic crew, but the fans get a look at what is going on under the hood.

[p]I do respect that Statesman, Rick and the great Unnamed Mass that form the rest of Cryptic are doing what they can to bring CoH to life. But I’m a gamer and just want to play in what appears to be a fantastic world. At the end of the day, I want some sign that one day soon-ish I’ll be able to walk / run / fly over the streets of Paragon City.

[p]We’re just waiting for you to open the gates, Statesman.

I’ve been asked this question a couple of times and thought I’d answer it in one place categorically; what ever happened to the Paragon Beholder? Well, pull up a chair and I’ll tell you a tale…

[p]Back about a year, there were some ideas about different types of fansites floating around. There was some discussion (Yankee Daring and Garbage Man were involved) about a CoH newspaper. After a bit of discussion, the idea seemed to fall flat. Knowing the cardinal rule of the internet (everyone knows what to do but no-one does it) I waited a month not to step on anyone’s toes, then got a webhost who registered a domain for me.

[p]The webhost in question was Feature Price (FP). I knew in general what I was looking for, but made a novice’s error in letting the webhost register the domain for me. In doing that I sacrificed my control over the administration of the domain – I could upload materials but required FP to take action if I needed account information changed.

[p]In March 03 I received an email saying that FP was closing down. Given that it contained poor grammar, incorrect spellings and a personal attack on a manager of FP, I took it as spam and deleted it. FP responded on their site that the email was incorrect, so I uploaded the latest Beholder and left it at that.

[p]FP went out of business in about May. After a short period of limbo, Atlantic.net announced that they had purchased FP. In order to get access to my domains ASAP, I signed up with Atlantic.net for a year. And then…

[p]… nothing. The Paragon Beholder’s domain was still inaccessible despite support tickets being raised. My blog site was still inoperable. After several months of complaining, a temp url for the Beholder and very little response from Atlantic.net, I am currently looking for a new web host, preferably one located in my timezone. The Beholder’s domain still exists in a limbo of sorts with neither I nor Atlantic.net having full control over it, despite promises to the contrary.

[p](It should be noted that Atlantic.net had it’s own problems with FP and entered a law suit against them. This wrangle impacted on their ability to meet FP customer needs. However, at the end of the day I am paying for a service I’m not getting so feel entitled to get my money back. Atlantic.net have just released an update about FP that doesn’t fill my heart with confidence for quick progress.)

[p]So, what now? As stated, I am looking for a new web host. The Beholder domain expires in November, so I’m thinking of registering a new one to try to kick-start the process rather than fighting for the old domain. I am still interested in doing the Beholder and hope to see it back up pretty quickly, with a new issue shortly after everything gets sorted.

[p]So now you know. I really appreciate the interest and materials that have been sent to me about the Beholder and hope I can get everything back to normal pretty quickly.

Note Well: The author of this piece has created only one fansite that is currently down. Proceed at your own risk! 🙂

[p]Fansites are the sum of a simple equation: interest in a game + some web coding ability + too much spare time. For those who need a definition, a fansite is a web site that is (mostly) devoted to covering a certain topic. Fansites have to be devoted to one topic, or one set of related topics – trying to cover a lot of topics sees fansites become more like portals or blogs.

[p]For computer games, fansites typically come in three categories: newsites, teamsites and herald-sites. Newsites report information surrounding the game, often repeating official updates and mixing them with other features such as commentary on events and community matters. A critical mass of viewers is required to keep most newsites going, especially since they often report exactly the same material. Teamsites are usually devoted to one set of players who play in the same team / guild / group. Most teamsites will only ever have a small audience, but usually that’s okay for the members involved. Herald-sites report in-game happenings from a character point-of-view (rather than a player’s POV) and can find an audience with most games.

[p]You may want to create a fansite, but what do you do? A list of things you should consider are:

[li]There are three things that websites revolve around: content, content, content. You must have periodic and / or regular content appear on your fansite if it is ever to attract people’s attention.
[li]Generating content means giving up your time to do so. The internet contains plenty of sites started by people with good intentions but abandoned after a few weeks when their interest wanes. If you don’t think you will be able to stick to it, don’t start a fansite.
[li]Have a look around at the other fansites out there. What are you going to offer that they can’t?
[li]You will need to learn a bit of html (at least) to operate your site. Programs such as MS FrontPage and Dreamweaver can do a lot for you, but being able to get in there and tinker with the code gives you more control.
[li]Who is going to host your fansite? Free web hosts exist, but are pretty inflexible in terms of space, bandwidth and setting up a particular url. If you are looking to create something that requires space and / or bandwidth, you will need to consider paying for web hosting.
[li]If you choose to pay for web space, investigate your host before putting your money down. Use Google and sites such as Your Host Sucks to determine how well a host will be able to serve you.
[li]If you pay for a web host, you will need to register a domain (and visa versa). Do not, for the love of god, use your web host to register a domain for you. Register your domain elsewhere to hopefully ensure you (and not the webhost) has control over it.
[li]Despite everyone’s promises to help you with a fansite, if you are the web mistress / master / whatever, it will fall to you to provide the updates and generally keep the fansite alive. People have good intentions but also seem to easily forget they promised to send you something.

[p]The above is hardly an all-inclusive list, but merely something to think about. You and some friends may come up with a really cool set of ideas for a fansite, but take a moment to think about what running a fansite really entails; the last thing the web needs is another half-finished and abandoned site that only spiders ever come across.

If there is one type of thread that gets to me more than any other, it’s the “who’d win if X fought Y?” thread. I’ve participated in a couple of these threads, read many more and know that they always end the same way – with two polarised camps yelling insults at each other, some more politely than others.

[p]Can Batman beat Superman? Could Thor beat Hellboy? If the Watchmen fought the Nevermen, who’d be victorious? How about Sabrina the Teenage Witch versus Buffy? Or Archie versus Riche Rich? Round and round these arguments go, with each side quoting precedents about who can do what and what the conditions of the fight would need to be for victory. The problem is that in the end there is only one answer.

[p]It’s up to the writer(s).

[p]If Spiderman, the original ‘normal man with super-powers’ character, can be given cosmic power, then anything goes. Characters can (and usually do) undergo startling changes when they are made to fight other big name characters – they forget or cheat with powers, discover some new skill (that they never use again) or rely on a deux ex machina so large that even ancient Greeks would be embarrassed by it. For the most part, special crossover / fighting issues are just sales grabs where the writers see (willingly or not) that the status quo is enforced. Superman isn’t made to fight Captain America; that’s left to Batman. Both Cap. Am. and Bats will hit each other for a while but emerge at the end with a newfound respect for the other’s abilities. Nothing changes.

[p]I remember reading a story in an interview about Erik Larson and Peter David. Larson was writing Spiderman at the time and wrote an issue where the Hulk faced off against Doctor Octopus for whatever reason. In this issue, Doctor Octopus used his admantium tentacles to pick up the Hulk (some of his tentacles braced against the ground) and throw him. Peter David was apparently furious about this and wrote a Hulk issue soon after where the Hulk rematched Doc Oct. In this issue, Doc Oct tries to lift the Hulk off the ground with his tentacles, but can’t. Hulk creates Octopus pancake.

[p]I do appreciate that “who would win…” threads can be great to just play around with, imagining the what’s and couldbe’s of such a battle. But they get predictable, they get ridiculous and they can get very, very personal. At the end of the day, unless Marvel and / or DC hired you to officially determine if Cyclops could take out Wildcat, it doesn’t really matter anyway.

[p]Besides, Hellboy would SO kick Thor’s butt…*

[p]*Kidding, kidding!