The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Monkey Island fan fiction - not very good?

In a recent PC Gamer article, Monkey Island was being used as an example of particularly bad fan fiction, with this not so flattering statement:

"In particular LucasArts� Monkey Island series of games have been the target of countless attempts at allegedly humerous fan fiction over the years."

Rough stuff indeed, and while I don�t always hold PC Gamer�s word as gospel, I actually tend to agree with the author here; I�m not a fan of the vast majority of Monkey Island fanfic I�ve read so far. At the same time, as our current poll probably reveals, we are currently considering adding a fan fiction section here, but are having second thoughts in the light of this article. What we would like, is to hear some feedback from our readers. Is PC Gamer wrong? Or would adding fan fiction like this make it seem like we�re catering for sub-standard material? Make your voice heard in the comment section.

A big thanks to our Emma for finding this article.

Um. There's already a whole site for fan fiction.
http://definitive.mixnmojo.com/.

Posted Mar 28, 2002

Right, which - according to original plans - would be sucked into TSB. Geeze, pay attention, Mort. :)

Posted Mar 28, 2002

Yes, and that site's pretty damn good.

But to the point - I think TSB should get a fan-fiction section, even if most of it isn't that good. People will never be bothered to write better if their work isn't shown off, and having a fan fiction page might inspire great writers (I know a few around here) to write some stuff. The only way this part of the fan community is going to improve is if it's encouraged, dammit!

Interesting article... I wonder how much MI fan fiction this guy's actually read though?

Posted Mar 28, 2002

I don't really see what the problem is here, all MI fans are waiting for a sequel of course and in the meantime they can read and play some new (ok with less quality) stuff.

I recently played a MI game made by a fan called 'the Devils Triangle' (play it at www.geocities.com/datadogg/dtsite) and I loved it!! So what is the quality is poorer. It was just a lot of fun!!

I agree with Gabez's points, fan fiction actually can inspire great writers. A lot of fan fiction could help to inspire Lucasarts to make a fifth MI game I think because they will see how many people wouldwant more MI!!!

Posted Mar 28, 2002

I've tried to read like three stories based on Monkey Island. Right up front, I will say that I wasn't overly impressed. To me, they didn't capture the characters well enough, and I found myself annoyed at certain people doing things that I felt they would never do. Which can be good, but not in the situations I'm referring to.

As to whether the site should have a fan fiction section...I think you should. As someone already stated, it will inspire people to write their own and is a good spot to have their works displayed.

Posted Mar 28, 2002

hmm..
i think fans should not be criticised so roughly on a few fan fictions. A mi-fan can have the urge to write a story and touche if he isn't good at writing. Who cares? As long as they have fun with what they're doing right?

And PCGamer obviously never saw MI FanART that makes up for the lack of quality in fiction a million times with artists such as Paco and you-know-who-you-ares :)

Posted Mar 28, 2002

I think that this guy really shouldnt write an article without knowing the whole fact...he wasted a good part of the magazine writing nonsense, a part that could've been used for something better, like grandma's cooking recipes or a blank page...=)

Posted Mar 29, 2002

Well, the only truly good fanfics I've read are Chari's, but TSB needs a fanfic page, if only for the sole purpose of saying "The only things worth your time here are Chari's."
The Devil's Triangle is nice, but the writing wuality of the written piece it's based on isn't high.

Posted Mar 29, 2002

In my opinion, fan fiction is the result of being an overly obsessive fan. I hate it, thus I agree with PCG.

Posted Mar 29, 2002

Interesting article. Thanks for the post...

And I'm sort of with Gabez here. What's got me curious is, why MI fanfic? I mean, it's a backwater. A ghetto. Nobody writes it, and nobody reads it. There aren't "countless" Monkey Island fanfics out there... you'd be lucky if you scraped in at a hundred, and at least twenty of those are no longer extant anywhere on the Internet. I'm surprised PC Gamer knows this little fan niche even exists. And I'd love to know the particulars of which stories they've read.

I do agree there are few talented MI fanfic writers, and dozens of low-grade comedy stories out there for which the 'comedy' consists of quoting lines from the games (although the article sounded like the writer was commenting on the quality of Monkey Island *Mistings*, which are even harder to track down; this might just be bad writing though), but let's not make any sweeping generalisations. The best stories are usually the more serious ones, anyway: I defy anyone to read Ti'ana Katarina's Return to Monkey Island (http://lucasfic.cjb.net/fanfic/return.htm) and tell me it's a bad story. Or Matthew Kelly's Monkey Island 1 script (http://www.worldofmi.com/features/fan/scripts/m-kelly/MI1.shtml) and tell me it's not funny.

And on a personal note, I might even get some traffic out of this! (http://lucasfic.cjb.net, thankyou for the plug).

Posted Mar 30, 2002

"Master Muppet, what does 'defied' mean?" :)

Posted Mar 31, 2002