³TtHhEe   SsCcEeNnEe
                             ¢TtHhEe   SsCcEeNnEe
                ²- about to become more business than pleasure?

There is no doubt that we are living in a capitalistic European society. We see
no obstacles in our everlasting quest for money and wealth. Many cultures, and
especially urban youth-cultures, has suffered badly from this. If you don't
quite understand what I mean than take a look at what commercialising has done
to punk rock, hip hop, skateboarding, and not to mention, a band called Rage
Against The Machine. As soon as there's easy money to earn, anyone will sell
his ass to the pimps.

I'm sorry to say that I think money has become a far too big part of today's
scene. So has the charts. Good chart-positions means a good reputation, a good
reputation means bigger chances to win demo-compos at parties, winning
demo-compos means money and fame, money and fame in the scene means (in quite a
few cases) work to get in game-companies. Not that there's anything wrong with
economical success, but In my opinion these kinds of references are bad for
newcomers. It may seem like one has to work 24 hours to become anything at all
in the scene, which also really is the case sometimes, too bad. Party
organizers shouldn't promise as great prices as they do. One of the reasons of
course is that they in many cases won't be able to pay them, the second one
that they lead to high entry-rates, and the third one that they cause far too
many "serious-looking" demos to appear. The forth one is already mentioned.
Sceners use too much time to produce something, wich has a bad influence on
newcomers.

It just ain't fair that one has to work so much on a demo. If you load demos
from the last year you'll probably see few which really are any good. Well,
they might be good, but anyway, they're boring to watch. Almost none of them
represent any kind of humour, and they contain a far too "serious" outlook. In
a way it's like the news on TV, hard and time-consuming to produce, but still
boring to watch. It's like today's demos say "hey, game companies, see what we
can do". The fun part of making and watching demos is totally gone. The only
reason for making demos (or any other production for that matter), probably is
for gaining money. At least that's the way it seems to be.

Anyone went to the Assembly this year? If yes, maybe you noticed how commercial
the whole party had become. This might lead the scene to become far more
money-oriented than it is today. If you want to organize a party it has to be
real BIG, and because of that you also have to have an agreement from both the
police and the fire-department. Everyone who went to The Gathering experienced
this problem. If the party had been smaller, such disasters never had occured.
Besides, when a party is big, one have to stick to certain rules. Like alcohol
not being allowed, and in The Gathering's case, no porno-movies allowed. Not
that I come to a party to watch porno, but I think it's a bit too bad to
disband porno. Another, and far more serious problem the organizers of The
Gathering had, was the fire-department. It had been much easier if the party
had been smaller. When one organize a big party one take a bigger chance than
if one organize a smaller one. Both economically and when it comes to the
organizing itself. Who needs much price-money anyway? The chances of receiving
them are small, even if you win the compo.

So should we just forget about the amount of money to be won in a demo-compo?
Yes, I think we should. If you're good enough to stand a chance go ahead, but
if not, then don't try to be. Many demos has, like I wrote before, a far too
"serious" outlook. If the routines are poor, a serious outlook (or image) ruins
the whole demo. Many bad groups try to look professional, but at the end of the
day they'd be better off with some hilarious points now and then in their
productions instead of the same old vectors and dot-landscapes. (gfx-bitmapped
guroand-shaded vectors and voxel-landscapes. -Ed)

So the "moneymania" the scene is suffering from sure is good for experienced
and skilled sceners, but newcomers should think twice before they attempt to
make profit from it. It's better to try to make us laugh than tring to look
like Andromeda when your skills are lacking. Lots of groups has earned fame
this way. (Of course I could have mentioned the word DESIGN here - but I don't
think I should).

But I guess life is what we make it. Of course the scene still can be fun, but
let's not let money become too important to us. Greed isn't too healthy in the
long run, you know.


Written by

² Substance / Illusion


²Editors small note:

 I won't start to comment whole your article - it's simply
 too long (-:
 I just wanna' say that everthing is developing, so why
 shouldn't the scene?

²-Pearl