The card game contradiction

This weekend I attended a Legend of the Five Rings Kotei, organized by my boyfriend and his friends. Legend of the Five Rings is a story-driven trading card game with an Asian theme and a kotei is an official tournament where the winner gets to influence the storyline behind the game in some way. I made myself useful in the months leading up to the event by taking charge of the Facebook and Twitter profiles of the tournament, but to be honest I didn't play the game. No matter how awesome I think collectible card games like Magic the Gathering, Pokémon and Legend of the Five Rings are, I can never get myself to actually playing them beyond a casual game once a year (which I always lose, of course).

The lore behind these games, especially Legend of the Five Rings, is amazing and constructed really well. In Legend of the Five Rings there are 9 clans in the Empire and each player aligns himself with one of these (you can switch of course but your deck of cards usually works with one clan). Every clan has its special traits and characteristics and there's a lot of dynamics going on. With players being able to influence the storyline somewhat it keeps things fresh and there's really something you achieve when you win a tournament beyond just winning a prize. There's loads of little stories about characters you can play which can be read on the official site and there's also a really amazing roleplaying game which allows you to further explore the lore of this game, which I've played with friends a couple of times.

But the card game itself... doesn't work for me, which I am pretty sad about because every time I see my boyfriend and his friends play they just have so much fun! The truth is that L5R is a rather complicated game with so many different ways to play (there's 2 decks you play with and 4 ways to win a match, to start with), but that's not the real problem for me as I can't get myself to play easier games either. The fun of any card game lies in the time you invest in it; if you play a lot, you'll get better, and by learning the game you understand not only your own but your opponents cards better, how they work together and how they interact. I think for a lot of players one of the fun aspects of card games is discovering the strengths and weaknesses of their cards and utilizing those, which I think is awesome, but it's just not for me. I just can't get myself to invest this time in it, because I rather spent my time on my other hobbies such as writing or photography. But if I can't have an equal match with my opponents I don't really enjoy playing, so I end up not playing much at all because everyone is a lot better than me (really, I have no insight in this stuff whatsoever).

That being said, I love Legend of the Five Rings for so many other reasons. I love the story as I mentioned and the roleplaying game is a lot of fun, and it always makes me so happy when I see people I care about enjoy playing. But also, maybe most of all, I love the players. Every time I tag along to a kotei I'm amazed how friendly everyone is and how comfortable I feel. A lot of players are pretty loyal to the game and I've seen them at tournaments for over five years now! I'm not a big fan of big groups and events in general, but the kotei is always an exception to that. I think it's kind of fun how I can enjoy this game without actually playing it!

The living picture

The other day I was in the park, enjoying the nice weather of early spring and taking doll pictures. A little girl of about 10 years old came up to me and asked me what I was doing. When I explained that I was taking pictures of Japanese collectible dolls she looked at me like I was crazy and asked "What the hell I did that for". I kind of laughed it off and just said I liked doing it, but when I got home and was editing the pictures I started wondering what I was doing it for, apart from the general 'I like it and it's my hobby'.

The truth is that photography became my hobby only after I started collecting dolls. Not that I didn't like taking pictures before but I never really cared much about settings or camera's or composition until after I got into doll collecting. I saw all these wonderful pictures of pullips online and I wanted to show off my dolls too, because they're simply gorgeous and I wanted to share them with everyone else! However, as with many other new collectors, I found my own pictures lacking. They just weren't good enough, and not just because I was using an old camera or because I didn't know how to use light properly (still figuring that out now, btw).

The truth was, my dolls looked like dolls. I realized this when I was re-reading my old picfic the magic chronicles. Their poses were unnatural because I was forcing them into positions their plastic bodies simply couldn't make. I was posing my dolls in ways that were impossible for them to do naturally, so they looked fake, like dolls. Which is not what you want to achieve when you want a picture that's colourful and alive.

So I started doing things differently. Instead of forcing my dolls to stand in the way I wanted them to, I decided to go by what they can do naturally. How far can you push a doll and still make it look natural, alive instead of like a puppet? Of course, this depends on body type. What some bodies can pull off easily, others can't do at all. I'm really beginning to understand why people obitsu their dolls because it just makes them so much more poseable, but it's a fun challenge to see how you can make the stock bodies look natural as well.

And this is exactly why I like photographing dolls. It's a challenge to make such an unnatural plastic object blend in the environment and make it look like it's there out of it's own free will, like it's alive, like it has a story and a reason to be where it is. It's a creative process that goes beyond the picture; it's creating a story, creating a scene that looks natural, taking your limitations into consideration.

I'm not there yet, not by far. There's so much more I have to learn, both technical and inspirational. But I love learning and criticizing my own work. And through this, my love for photography is expanding beyond photographing dolls into other fields like animals and nature. I also really want to try taking pictures of other toys in different environments, out of the lightbox. It's an amazing learning curve and I'm happy with the progress I've made so far! It's fun to enjoy my collection like this, outside of just having them on display and generally looking pretty.

The brony issue

So I recently joined a Dutch brony forum after some Dutch bronies were featured on a tv show. I don't really consider myself a brony - I absolutely love FiM and the gen4 toy line, but I would have loved it without the wholy brony hype anyway. I've been a MLP collector for 20 years, and I don't suddenly label myself differently just because My Little Pony is the hot thing right now. However, I think it's absolutely amazing that my little pony has gathered so many new fans in such a short time - and from a completely different audience no less! It's great to be able to say I love my little pony without being considered completely insane right away, and my non-collecting friends also like the series, so that's absolutely fun!
However, this new fanbase seems to exist almost separately from the more traditional my little pony fans. They have their own sites, their own fora. Now this isn't all that weird considering that the bronies are completely different people than the original collectors (young men vs. women in their early 30's, generally speaking) and because they are interested in different parts of the MLP universe. Bronies focus almost solely on the TV show, while collectors seem to be more into the collectibles and consider the show only a part of the gen4 franchise and gen4 only a part of a larger MLP legacy.

None of this is weird. Or eye-opening. And there's nothing wrong with it. What does amaze me, however, is the animosity I feel between bronies and collectors sometimes. Bronies bash the older gens (just look up some clips of the older tv show on youtube) and collectors feel like bronies are taking over their hobby.
To illustrate, let's look at the recent New York toy fair. A group of toys based on characters from the tv show were announced, together with a castle playset with the first boy MLP in over 10 years. These ponies were quickly dubbed the brony-set because it is widely believed that Hasbro created these ponies to cater to the brony fanbase. This in turn upset some collectors who felt that Hasbro was only listening to bronies now.
In my opinion, the problem isn't that there will soon be a "brony set". In fact, I think it's great that Hasbro is considering other demographics than just their target audience of little girls - and to be honest, I can see this set being very popular with girls as well! I don't believe for one moment that girls only want pink and princesses. The problem, however, is that bronies aren't the first who ever asked for less pink, more variety and boy ponies. Collectors have been asking for this for over a decade (ever since the gen3 launch) and Hasbro didn't listen even once. In fact, they did the exact opposite thing from what was asked; they released the core 7 which meant more pink and less variety.

So, of course collectors are annoyed. I know I am. Not because of the bronies; I think they're great. But because Hasbro never once listened to people who have been a fan of this line for over 20 years, who have young daughters themselves, who buy their products and have done so for a very long time, who have seen this line change and evolve all the time and who know what works and what doesn't, and yet a new but vocal group comes along and they have more success than the collectors in only a year.
Judging by the response online to this new set, it's bound to be a success. So why did Hasbro wait this long to release a set like this? Why do they seem to listen to bronies more than they did to collectors? Is it because bronies are simply a lot more vocal than collectors are? After all, collectors generally keep to their own fora and websites, while bronies seem to spam My Little Pony all over the internet. Maybe collectors have been too timid and polite all this time, and Hasbro never considered them a group large enough to make profit of to warrant a large release like the brony-set.

Or is it a gender thing, like some female collectors seem to fear? I have heard the argument that bronies are trying to make MLP less girly because they don't want to be seen as girly men who like pink toys, and are upset that bronies can't accept that MLP is a strong female brand. Personally, I think this isn't true for most bronies; they like FiM for what it is right now, a girl show with a lot of universal appeal. I think it's also a bit silly considering collectors have been asking for less-girly toys for ages as well. Why would it be okay for women to ask for less pink but not for men? My Little Pony is a brand for girls and will always be. That's not going to change because of some hype, and if it did I am pretty sure the hype will die out soon enough. It's a show and a toy line for girls that appeals to both genders at the moment; this is great! When a show for boys appeals to both genders, you don't hear any complaints about there being some more girly aspects, so I don't see why it should be a problem the other way around.
Or maybe Hasbro just needed proof that there was a different demographic for their line and simply couldn't believe that My Little Pony could have such a universal appeal until they saw it happen. Whatever the case, it's bound to be an exiting year with these upcoming MLP toys. I just really hope that Hasbro will also reconsider some other ideas collectors have had for a while; for example, release collector edition sets, make the fair pony a gen1 pony, more variety in the line with for example sea ponies or maybe a gen4 release of other gen1 ponies like Applejack? I'm exited to see what Hasbro comes up with and I think it's amazing that they seem to hear the voice of fans more nowadays!

Sylvanian Families

I think everyone agrees that the last thing I need is something else to collect, what with my Ponies and Pullips and Monster High and all. Unfortunately late last year my boyfriend decided to introduce me to Sylvanian Families which is just about the cutest thing ever.

The basic idea of Sylvanian Families is pretty simple; it's just families of anthropomorphic little animals (bunnies, dogs, cats, mice, hedgehogs etc.) that live in beautiful houses and mansions. Of course there's also schools and shops and cars and all available. These families are available in sets of four (a mom, a dad, a baby boy and a baby girl) but many playsets also come with their own little character like the Village Gift Shop set which comes with a saleslady and a customer.
Sylvanian Families figures are pretty small (the tallest ones are about 10cm), can move their arms and legs and have flocking, so they're all really soft. They all come dressed in quite traditional clothing (or in the case of theme packs, clothing appropriate to the job/holiday/school activity) which is usually of nice quality.

This toy line is originally from Japan and known as Calico Critters in the USA. It's kind of nice to realize that the American and Japanese lines carry different versions of (or altogether different) products, so it's a nice challenge for collectors to hunt down those pieces that they want for their collection.
What I absolutely love about Sylvanian Families is the innocence of it all; they're just cute critters living in a brightly colored world where they do happy things like shopping and going to school and camping and such. Their playsets really make the world come to life. You can buy their houses, shops and accessories for those separately which is both frustrating and nice. Frustrating because it costs a fortune to collect enough furniture to decorate a house but also nice because you can buy whatever you like personally and you're not stuck with extras you don't need.
There is a large variation of playsets and themed sets, so this line really has something for everyone.  The nursery and baby lines really put more emphasis on pastel colors and cute but not very realistic buildings and toys, while for example the Regency Hotel has furniture that is based on real furniture and the entire set seems to be targeted towards collectors. Needless to say the latter is pretty high on my want-when-I-am-rich list!

I am amazed with the quality of these toys. Not only are they sturdy, well-made and properly packed (without using excessive plastic like I have talked about in my previous blog post), but also because of the details. Especially the smaller playsets come with so many little things that you're not wanting for anything if you want to make a display or scene come to life. To illustrate, the Village Gift Shop (pictured at the top of this post) comes with all the little things you can see on the packaging! Downside of this is that it's ridiculously easy to lose any of this stuff because it's so small; I'm sure especially kids who play with these will easily lose things.
One of the things that I both like and dislike is the traditional family message this toy line is carrying out. On the one hand it's a nice contrast between all the battle- and fashion oriented toys that flood the market nowadays, but on the other hand families don't just exist out of a mother and father anymore.
What about single parent families, or same-sex parents? Those are real families too, but this toy line is staying far away from it, which is a shame in my opinion. Not only because I think it would be a wonderful and positive message to show children that a family can consist of different members, but also because I think a lot of children grow up in a reality nowadays where there's simply not just a dad and a mom and a sibling. I'm not sure if this is something that belongs to this kind of toy line, but it was one of the first things that came to my mind.
All in all, I really like this innocent, cute toy line which I'm sure inspires creative play in many children and which is a great collector's item. Toys that manage to appeal to both collectors and children, without having to create special collectors editions, usually are of a special quality and this line definitely qualifies!

Ponies Against Plastic

I was really happy this week as I found a new pony!!! please meet Blossomforth, pictured on the right. To be honest I think she looks kind of dopey, but I am really happy to have her. One more pony of wave 3 to go!
However, after I purchased her, I was once again confronted with the horrible task of deboxing her. Now don't get me wrong; unwrapping a new addition to my collection is always fun and exciting, and I'm sure that collectors everywhere can agree with me that it's one of the best parts of collecting!
It's a horrible task, however, because Hasbro uses entirely too much plastic and other packaging material to keep her boxed. In the box, the toy is stuck in plastic to keep her and her accessories in place, which is held to the cardboard back by another plastic cover. If this wasn't enough, her hair is tied in a plastic wrapper as well and the comb is stuck in yet another piece of plastic, and her tail and a part of her mane are also held together by a rubber band.
All of this is waste, as it's impossible to take the toy out and to save the packaging so you can put her back in

for storage or display, as is the case with some Japanese statues and PVC figures. So basically, for one little pony, there's a large pile of waste that will have to be thrown away. While the cardboard can be easily recycled (and is of some value to some collectors), the plastic is horrible for the environment (think, for example, about the Plastic Soup that exists in our oceans)and has little to no value.
What's more, this way of packaging is potentially harmful as the plastic used is often sharp and  if you're not careful you can really hurt yourself (I know I did a couple of times), even as an experienced collector or adult. Imagine a child opening this! They can get hurt on the rough edges of the plastic or even swallow the little pieces.
In my opinion, this has to change. These toys are made for the next generation and carry out an amazingly positive message (Friendship, caring, be yourself, take care of your environment) but the way they are packaged is very damaging for the environment which the next generation needs as much as we do, and toys carry out an important message to children. There's absolutely no way Hasbro can justify wasting this much in this age where it's becoming increasingly clear we need to conserve our beautiful planet. Companies like Lego have already decided to drastically reduce the impact their packaging has on the planet.
I'm actually planning to start a campaign to convince Hasbro to reduce the amount of waste on their products. The recent Brony movement is incredibly creative and vocal and I'm sure that if this is combined with the creativity and care of the collector community, we can convince Hasbro in a fun and engaging way that we care about and love their product but that we would love to see them reduce the waste it creates so we don't hurt both ourselves and the planet!!!

Nanowrimo, week 1.

Yes yes I know, this is only the sixth day of Nano so "week one" doesn't really make sense yet, but as I just crossed the 10.000 word mark I decided it was time for a little blog-rant-update after all. I have just finished chapter 345 and am one/third into chapter 346. So far writing is going well enough - not as well as last year, but as I have lots of things going on in my life (which is also the reason I delayed updating RD the past couple of months from once every week to once every two weeks, but more on that later) I am rather pleased I have made it so far already.

The chapters so far have focused mostly on one character (3 of the 5 chapters I have finished have been written from her POV). This is mostly because of her intense storyline; I had planned this to be a part of the end of part four originally, but it didn't quite fit so I moved it to the start of part five. The result is that part five jumps into action a lot faster than any previous part; things start happening quite soon which is quite different from the other parts but also makes the story more engaging. There's nobody I need to introduce and everyone's position in the story is clear. I really like this style more than endless introductions of new characters which I kind of overdid in the early days of RD. Anyway, enough cryptic talk about upcoming chapters of RD; you'll all get to read them soon enough anyway.
What is most surprising to me in this year's Nanowrimo is that I'm beginning to look forward to starting new adventures with other characters in different worlds. Don't get me wrong; I love the world I created with RD and I love writing it, but now that the end is coming closer, I find myself wandering to different places more often. There's so many other stories I want to tell and so many characters who are dying to share their adventures! I really hope that with next year's nano I can start a new story, but there's 54 chapters waiting to be finished before that can happen.
On the subject of updating the site: I am planning to resume weekly updates in December, so expect weekly updates December 2nd onwards. I have quite a bit of backup already but I want to make sure I can make even more so that I have something to read for you all even when real life is causing me to not write for a while.
And now I'm going to catch a little break from writing by taking out my gen3 ponies. I have completely lost touch with my MLP collection (more on this in a future blog post, I'm sure) because they've all been stashed away except for a lucky few, and I want to reconnect with what I already have!

The End is coming closer...

Yesterday evening I finished the last chapter of part 4 of Royal Destiny, and I also wrote the Epilogue. When I had finished that, I realized that this was the last Epilogue I was going to write for RD, ever, as part 5 doesn't have one.
It took me a while to realize this was the first "the last one" I have written for RD. Only sixty chapters are remaining which will keep me occupied for a while still, but after that it's done. After eight years, RD is finally coming to an end.
I'm happy with the way Part 4 turned out. I made up most of this story as an adult (I had a general outline for parts 4-5 from my childhood, but that was really vague and I ended up removing quite a lot of stuff, except for the very end of part 5, and I redid most of it) unlike parts 1-3 which were heavily based on what I had come up with when I was 14. This meant the tone of part 4 was quite different; there wasn't a general bad guy or threat that had to be vanquished, it focused mainly on the main characters and their personal problems, and the effects of their actions on others. I really like this way of writing more, to be honest; it allows for more character development and more interesting plot lines.
Part 4 and 5 are heavily related to each other, even more so than the other parts were. Part 4 was mostly the setup for what will happen in part 5, where all the storylines will come together. This meant that at the end of part four not much is resolved yet, but I hope I managed to give an ending to the part none the less, because the events at the end of part 4 will be a turning point in the story.
So what's in store for part 5? Of course, it'll be the end of RD, so you'll get a lot of answers and closure. The characters will be revisiting old places and you'll get to discover a bunch of new ones still. Also, there will be a new POV character. She'll be the POV for the end of part 4 as well. Can you guess who it will be? I hope you will all stick around with me until the end of RD and I really, really hope you will enjoy the final part!!!

I'm going to write a large part of part 5 in Nanowrimo, so look forward to hearing me rant about writing struggles as well!

Also, the picture at the top of this post is an insert drawing for chapter "The Mysterious Pony" (Princess Awakening, chapter 81). 3 insert drawings will be added to each part eventually! I'm really looking forward to what Lunacat will make! If this picture is any indication, I'm sure it'll be -amazing-!