Woo! Another article from me... never would have thought of it. What will I say... hmmm, this sounds like every second article in an American ansi zine, hey? Next thing I'll be saying <w00p!> and stuff... and I'll use "eye" instead of "I" and bullsh*t like that...

Now that I've completely lost everyone's attention, let's get down to some actual article stuff, huh? :)

The scene. "Oh sh*t." you say, not another damn article about the scene. Well, unfortunately, it is. But before you hit escape and go read a review or something, consider this :

This is an article about the scene from the eyes of that rare breed... a writer.

Not an ansi guy.

So how can I - a lit guy - write about the scene? There is no scene for someone who writes! Yeesh! Even *I* know that! :) There are so few lit groups it's criminal. But it's not a "lit scene" that I'm talking about when I say "the scene". I'm being a little broad minded here (gosh, ANOTHER rare breed) by not classifying "the scene" as any one particular area of the whole. The scene is a huge amorphous mass that we just divide up to make it simpler to organise :). It's full of different people doing their thing. That includes lit, demos, ansi, ascii, rip, vga, music, hell you get the idea. Why break it up into separate scenes? That's stupid! It's like the music industry. So much time is spent deciding on what's industrial, alternative, grunge, pop, techno, etc that the music itself becomes secondary to its position in the social structure of popular culture (wow, what a sociological term to throw in there). Why not just let it rip and decide what you like on its merits? That's how I go about music! (Seriously, I have Mozart next to NIN next to Orphans Of Cool).

Attitudes in the scene are really f*cked, IMO. There is no other way to describe it... and I think a lot of it stems from the impersonal nature of it all. The flame, indispensible little gem that it is, populates every board; vicious messages ragging off about everything that can be used against the other because you have time to think about it and make it as vicious as possible. Flames also tend towards the final blow (so the sender thinks) of condemning the other as a lamer. Which is like calling the other guy a faggot when you can't think of anything else to say; it doesn't really have any basis, but if you tell enough people and backstab a lot then it may stick. So the other person responds and picks holes in the other's "eliteness".

In the end, people are so consumed by looking for a basis for their own eliteness to defend it or the other's weaknesses that they lose sight of what the scene they're arguing about is, and what it's about. Now, I can't try to definitively tell everyone what the scene is/is about, because it's different for everyone. But to me it should just be fun, a hobby... because let's face it, that's what it is. So if it's not enjoyable, the scene loses its attraction... and if everyone is trying to pay out on the lamers to assert their eliteness, it's not exactly fun.

Maybe it's just because I'm getting older or something that I look at the scene in this way. Let's face it, it's probably because I've got some sort of life now :) (even if I do say so myself). But I still enjoy using a modem, and internet, and I would hope that the scene gets more fun because at the moment it's pretty dead. There just isn't too much happening, at least nothing that's new and exciting.

Remember when you called your first bbs? Woo! How exciting it was, filling out all the questionairres and looking at all the files. Then that got boring, and files became more a sideline. You discovered mail, and off you went with your copy of Blue Wave. Then that got boring too, so you went back to the files and had a look in an area other than "GIFS: SWIMSUIT" or whatever it's called on your local boards. "DEMOS" you say, what the f*ck are they? So you dl one. And wasn't that exciting, boys and girls! :) Pretty pictures, nice moving things and music. Soon after that you're scene-based in your use of your modem, grabbing new demos/mods/ansi packs or whatever took your fancy. [For me that meant dl'ing Revolt packs. And uhhh... well, yeah. Revolt :). And of course the 8th REALiTY pack, being the only one to be floating around the Brisbane scene.]

Back then, anything at all was new and exciting. You hadn't seen thousands of scrollies, or shadebobs, or vector stuff. You hadn't seen ten thousand pictures of Spawn, or ansis of women with huge breasts and a sword to match the proportion of her bust. But now, for me it's a year later, things are a little dull. People are too involved in how the demo was written, or how it was entered at whatever party, or whether the ansi is ripped or original, you know how it is. It's easy to understand why sysops get bored and let their phone rental lapse, leaving another bbs offline and staying there.

But then you realise something. No one is involved! Every new guy seems to be too timid to try to join a group, or too lazy to produce enough to stay in one. Magazines last three issues before they fall apart. Lit groups end with a final pack containing work from 2 different people. Ansi groups merge and dissappear or just dissappear. Op wars. Paying sh*t into a group for their 1-800 number. Death threats seem common too, lately. But people aren't getting involved, and I know that because I didn't for a long time. I finally got off my arse and applied to Revolt, so now at least I'm getting my stuff out there. I wrote for a magazine, a 3-issue wonder called Event Horizon. I'm writing for oOze as you can probably guess :). They might be small contributions, but they're there.

What the scene really needs to get it going a little better is for more people to do things. If you have a cool idea for an article, contribute to a mag. If you can write, for heaven's sake join a lit group! If you're good at something, use your talent. Get together with some friends and form a group, or join established ones (better to join established ones, unless you've got heaps of people prepared to work for a long time).

Something that we should all keep in mind is that this is Australia, not America. We're a separate country, we have different ideas, we should use them! Let's show the world that Australians are creative and, well, elite ;). Let's dispell the ocker, beer-swilling, simple-minded image that we as a nation are getting tagged with around the world.

Let's get involved! The scene is not dead, it's just at a low point. We can jump start it, if we put in some effort. But don't get too hung up about it. That'll kill it in an instant. Be broad-minded about it. People didn't think that EDEN by Psychic Monks was a demo, because it wasn't coded. OK, so then maybe it's not really a demo. But think of it in the light that it's the only thing I've seen for a while now that really made me go "wow, that is *really* cool". I don't really understand or give two sh*ts about how it got to my computer screen. It had a theme, a message. That's what was interesting.

If you want to do something new... try a demo with a plot. Or an ansi of something other than spawn. Or real lit (not gangsta rap, if you think gangsta rap is lit then go and die or something; don't release it.). But overall, let's get together and work on what we can do that is new; let's not sit back and bitch because no one else has. I'm not that old, but I'm old enough to know that if you leave it to everyone else all the time, things won't happen. You've got to do something yourself.

heretic [Revival]