LNH/META: To Reboot or Not to Reboot....

[Andrew Perron]

(Okay, I'm gonna crosspost my reply, since IMHO, this discussion should
really be on the newsgroup in the first place; I thought the LNH Authors
group was basically "discuss future plot points without spoiling/put
stories up for editing".)

On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 1:56 PM, Lalo Martins <lalo.martins at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Maybe I'm spending too much time reading about managing and marketing, but —
> I'd go with a full reboot. As in, when it's done, that's the world we
> continue writing in.

Lalo, I mean no offense by the statement that follows this, and I do not
consider it objective fact, just my own subjective opinion.

This is an incredibly, horribly terrible idea.

Now, an Ultimate-style new universe going on beside the first?  That's
fine.  I like LNHY a lot, and another spinoff is cool!  (Personally, I'd
make it distinctively different - make all the characters feel sort of
Earth-2 - and give it a strong central idea to differentiate it from the
main universe.  LNHY kinda accidentally did this with its Biblical themes
and dark government stuff.)

But not writing in the old one anymore?  One of the reasons I *love* the
LNH so much is that so many different people have poured their ideas into
it, their different styles, their characterization and history.  A universe
that's been fleshed out as thoroughly as the Looniverse is a hard thing to
come by *anywhere*.  It's worth far too much to throw away or ignore.

Plus, in a group like this, you have to let interest organically grow.
People are going to choose which they write for, and the best thing we can
do in a group like this is have *variety* - something that'll catch the eye
for anyone who might be interested.

(Also?  I've always thought the whole "we need to reboot to keep the
continuity from getting confusing" thing was silly.  Just focus on what
matters now, y'know?)

> The reasons are: when is the last time we got a new writer? I think I'm not
> the last but the, well, last but one.

Well, not necessarily the LNH, but RACC has picked up a bunch of new
writers recently. (I'm responsible for two of them, so.) 

Really, IMHO, the biggest reason is simply nobody's going out and *trying*
to bring in new writers/readers.

 For the LNH to survive as a concept it
> needs both new writers and new readers. And one of the reasons we get no new
> readers is because we're this obscure club on Usenet (really, Usenet?)

Gaaaaaaaaaaah.  I hate the whole "LOL, Usenet is old technology!"  Frankly,
I've never seen a web board which has the same level of functionality,
especially in our well-moderated, completely archived group.

 and
> another is that it's intimidating, it's like picking up an X-Men book in the
> mid-90s, you know the funny parts are funny and you know the super-hero
> parts are interesting but 80% of them make no sense whatsoever if you
> haven't read everything in the archives. And it's intimidating for writers
> because there's all these characters that are important for this or that
> reason and that you just can't use (either because they're reserved or
> because you're terrified you'll get them wrong and the ghost of wReam will
> come in the night and give you a wedgie. I'm pretty sure wReam is still
> alive, but you get my point. Or — because you can't be bothered to go dig up
> all the archive issues they've ever been in. Or because the original author
> didn't actually finish the last storyline they were in [I'm looking at you,
> Jennifer, and, well, Lalo].)

This is pretty much why I proposed the "Intro to the LNH" project - a
single story that's all you need to read to start in on any LNH series.
It's stalled out, but getting that done will be very useful.

> Which doesn't mean people who want to keep writing on the “classic” universe
> can't do whatever they want, this is not an ISO committee. But a Looniverse
> somewhere between Ultimate and New 52 is something I'd feel comfortable
> making a push for friends to read and even try their hands writing for. Or,
> heck, my kids.

Oh, sure!  Something new like that would be interesting.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, my piece.