Thread by @MrBCWalker

In light of GW Doing A Dumb, time to talk about IP Forking

There are two forms of forking. We'll call them Formal and Informal.

Formal Forking is obvious. This is Warcraft, Starcraft, Helldivers, Pathfinder, and several other IPs in Tabletop and Vidya- the Retroclone movement was all about this.

Formal = Making legally distinct products

Informal Forking is the role of cultural insurgency. You take the IP, cut out the offending "owner", and distribute clean manuals, tools, media made by and for the users.

This is how you get things like the UrbieLAM, Steiner Scout Lance, and other things that come to define IPs.

In hobby environments, hobbyist participation via creation and distribution of hobby materials and related media matters more than what some retard in a robe says.

Imagine if, for example, Arch were to cut a video that tells some event _but cuts out all offending references_ and ensures that proper ones are put in their place- down to depictions.

And has fun doing it. _That sells HARD!_

"But no one-"

The Black Pants Legion did this to BattleTech lore, such that people now complain about it from time to time.

Can't be helped. They're better than Catalyst at doing this, so of course the more audience-friendly stuff takes hold.

That's just what comes off the top of my head. This can, and has, happened to all hobbyist-driven media at one point or another.

"How can you breath in space?" "I'm Batman".

People accept this as legitimate.

This is the fatal flaw in the entryism strategy.

The audience has to accept it. _THE AUDIENCE GETS TO SAY "NO CUNT! FUCK OFF!"

And thanks to today's coms tech, THEY CAN AND DO WIN.

And you, oh aggrieved hobbyist, don't have to give GW (or Catalyst, or WOTC, or DC/Marvel, etc.) a penny to enjoy any of it.

Give it to your talented fellow hobbyists instead. Arch deserves that money more than GW ever will, and so on.

Meme the hell out of these twats. Bully, meme, mog, flex, and laugh at them. Draw them as the soyjacks and you as the Chad; it actually works.

Others will laugh with you and at them- and they can't take it.

This is why I say that the hobby belongs to the hobbyist, and "being left behind" is not a threat- it's a self-own by people who don't get how things work.

They think they own the network; the users do, and the network can just cut them out and rout around them.

And if you think Officialdom matters, not even their fellow travelers in OldPub think the Hugos mean anything anymore.

Counterfeit and catamite can't compete.

The cost to you, hobbyist, is _active participation._

This is not Consume Product. It is not a Lifestyle. It's a thing you create, distribute, and refine over time as part of a larger network acting as a team for common benefit. Less business, more monastic pursuit.

Gaming is best done this way. If you're ready for the real game, then the Clubhouse awaits you.

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