"Why ‘Redwall’ Should Be the Next Huge Movie Series"

[Ashleg]

Shame shame for the 90's and early 2000's as I was either nonexistent or an infant during that.

Another active Redwall forum is "Redwall Survivor", and on the forum FeralFront there are several Redwall  roleplayers, me included.
DeciantArt also has a stable and growing Redwall community.

[LordTBT]

So basically like every online fandom ever. The supposed "good old days" everyone who was active in a fandom in the early 2000s reminisce about.

It was before the early 2000s mainly. And Grond mentioned it too. The internet was a different place. And it was in the midst of books being published, also a different time.

Only about 4 of them. But that's not really the point, is it? I won't see most of them, and the ones I do, I most likely won't look for online fandoms to join. Those movies having any success won't necessarily make a large number of people join online communities for them.

I don't think that's the right attitude at all.

Presently I only know of 2 active Redwall fandom sites- this one and the Redwall wiki. I am not sure how active the Redwall wiki is, as I rarely go there

We've had new fan artwork and/or fan fiction submitted just about every week for over a decade. Of course, there were more people around when there were new books. I'm expecting a surge once again after RWB is released next month. We'll have many articles that need writing, new images for submitting, etc. Everyone is invited to come assist with that effort.

[Andy]

I don't think that's the right attitude at all.

Why not? It's simply an observation. Most people are too busy with their lives for many, if any, online fandoms. I personally don't have the time or energy for it and most people probably have more responsibilities than I do. I'm the only person I know irl who's involved in any online fandoms, and joining more communities than I'm already in wouldn't be feasible at all. People are busy, and have limited energies to expend on things—that's the way it is and always has been.


Some people will have the time and energy to join new fandoms, and those people will do so. Most people will simply go, "You know what? That was a good movie. I'll watch it again some day." Then they'll move on with their lives. It's mostly teenagers who jump into new fandoms, and that's because they have the time and energy and means for it. That's what the majority of new fans brought in by The Warrior Reborn, or if it ever happened, a new film, would be.

[LordTBT]

Why not? It's simply an observation. Most people are too busy with their lives for many, if any, online fandoms. I personally don't have the time or energy for it and most people probably have more responsibilities than I do. I'm the only person I know irl who's involved in any online fandoms, and joining more communities than I'm already in wouldn't be feasible at all. People are busy, and have limited energies to expend on things—that's the way it is and always has been.


Some people will have the time and energy to join new fandoms, and those people will do so. Most people will simply go, "You know what? That was a good movie. I'll watch it again some day." Then they'll move on with their lives. It's mostly teenagers who jump into new fandoms, and that's because they have the time and energy and means for it. That's what the majority of new fans brought in by The Warrior Reborn, or if it ever happened, a new film, would be.

While you personally may not have the time or energy, that's fine. But you don't speak for "most people," and life has informed me that the phrase "too busy" is nothing but an excuse. You're projecting your own lack of time, energy, and interest onto "most people." Anyone who wants to do something makes time for it.

[James Gryphon]

@LordTBT: I can't disagree with your concluding sentence, but that being the case perhaps a spoonful of sugar would be helpful in making the medicine go down here.



I haven't done a statistical analysis of our members, nor had a deep involvement with the Redwall online community prior to 2011, but the experience I do possess, as well as my intuition, suggest that practically speaking Andy is not far off about the majority of online members being in the teenage age range (I might add "pre-teen" to that statement as well). Historically most of our RAF members here have been around that age, and the limited study I've done of other once-prominent Redwall community sites (such as the Redwall.net forum and the Long Patrol Club) seems indicative of a similar userbase.

That said, the audience that is being marketed to in every case is teenagers, so it's not logical to guess that a majority of the audience are not the type to jump into new fandoms. It's impossible to tell what exactly the outcome of a Redwall film would be on the community, but by the sheer virtue of the advertising and publicity that would accompany such an endeavor, it's a reasonable guess that it would not be a non-event. There are several Chronicles of Narnia forums, for instance, that seemed to have sprung up and peaked after the films were made, in spite of the books being around for half a century before that time period. Massive exposure does result in new fans. (If I had a million dollar advertising budget I bet I could get a few new members on here without having a film.) My expectations for the game are more subdued, for reasons of scale, but if it's well-done and successful enough to inspire more games in the series, there's no reason to suppose that it wouldn't shoot some extra life into things for a while.

[Jetthebinturong]

Andy's right though. For every, let's say, twenty people who play WR who weren't already fans, only one will care enough to look into the rest of the series. For every fifty people who do that, only five or so will be interested enough to get into the fandom. There won't be any great surge in popularity just because there's a video game out now. Most people do not get obsessive over fiction. To the world at large, fandoms look like they're full of crazy people.

Andy's also right that we're an incredibly exclusive community. We all know this, some of us have just chosen to forget what it was like to join this forum. You really had to make an effort to force your way in. We've all done it and carved out our own place. But to people on the outside, that's intimidating.

Of course it's the same for every other forum in existence, but this one in particular because our numbers are dwindling, and because no new content is inspiring people to join. Most fans are adults now. If you'll notice something, most of the people who have joined this forum recently are older fans returning to the series, not new fans.

I, for one, didn't join this forum because I wanted to talk about Redwall, it was because I wanted to join a Redwall Minecraft map (Gears' old one, not Abbeycraft, to those of you who are confused).

[LordTBT]

@LordTBT: I can't disagree with your concluding sentence, but that being the case perhaps a spoonful of sugar would be helpful in making the medicine go down here.



I haven't done a statistical analysis of our members, nor had a deep involvement with the Redwall online community prior to 2011, but the experience I do possess, as well as my intuition, suggest that practically speaking Andy is not far off about the majority of online members being in the teenage age range (I might add "pre-teen" to that statement as well). Historically most of our RAF members here have been around that age, and the limited study I've done of other once-prominent Redwall community sites (such as the Redwall.net forum and the Long Patrol Club) seems indicative of a similar userbase.

That said, the audience that is being marketed to in every case is teenagers, so it's not logical to guess that a majority of the audience are not the type to jump into new fandoms. It's impossible to tell what exactly the outcome of a Redwall film would be on the community, but by the sheer virtue of the advertising and publicity that would accompany such an endeavor, it's a reasonable guess that it would not be a non-event. There are several Chronicles of Narnia forums, for instance, that seemed to have sprung up and peaked after the films were made, in spite of the books being around for half a century before that time period. Massive exposure does result in new fans. (If I had a million dollar advertising budget I bet I could get a few new members on here without having a film.) My expectations for the game are more subdued, for reasons of scale, but if it's well-done and successful enough to inspire more games in the series, there's no reason to suppose that it wouldn't shoot some extra life into things for a while.

Ah, well I don't operate on intuition. I use facts. I have raw numbers - and people younger than 17 are the minority. By a substantial percentage. I would expect a major motion picture to be marketed to teenagers and youth, sure. And in the past, ROC members were largely teenagers, but that's changed.

[Ashleg]

Because they've grown.

But they were teenagers when they got into it.

[Grond]

Another thing to keep in mind that the change of the internet itself might be a barrier to seeing a revived ROC, as it existed in the past, even with the video game and a motion picture. In the 90s and early 2000s forums also filled a social media function. Facebook, instagram, and all those other sites only came into existence in the mid 2000s- like around 2004/2005. With their rise in recent years they have overtaken forums. Also on these sites people write relatively short messages/posts in most cases, which is like due to using phones to surf the internet as opposed to laptops or desktops. Computers are much more convenient to type long posts on than phones- which are better suited to instant messages, short replies etc...

So teenagers today would be less likely to seek out forums I would guess. Whereas LordTBT you mentioned much of the present ROC is over 17 and they maybe former members of the old ROC which explains why they maybe drawn to this site or your Redwall wiki- which resemble the traditional ROC more than social media platforms do...

[LordTBT]

Another thing to keep in mind that the change of the internet itself might be a barrier to seeing a revived ROC, as it existed in the past, even with the video game and a motion picture. In the 90s and early 2000s forums also filled a social media function. Facebook, instagram, and all those other sites only came into existence in the mid 2000s- like around 2004/2005. With their rise in recent years they have overtaken forums. Also on these sites people write relatively short messages/posts in most cases, which is like due to using phones to surf the internet as opposed to laptops or desktops. Computers are much more convenient to type long posts on than phones- which are better suited to instant messages, short replies etc...

So teenagers today would be less likely to seek out forums I would guess. Whereas LordTBT you mentioned much of the present ROC is over 17 and they maybe former members of the old ROC which explains why they maybe drawn to this site or your Redwall wiki- which resemble the traditional ROC more than social media platforms do...

Social media is a very good point because it's something that didn't exist then.

But there was also an energy about the newness of the internet and wanting to create your own website and mess with HTML. Everyone wanted to have their own personal website of some kind. (And social media largely replaces that).

With no Geocities or Angelfire, I don't even know where a kid would go to create their own free website.

[Ashleg]

Proboards.

Or Google Sites.

Or Weebly.

[LordTBT]

Proboards.

Or Google Sites.

Or Weebly.

And none of these require learning a programming language to build your own website yourself. Key difference in the era.

[Ashleg]

Well, kids can still build their own (Redwall-related) website using those things, HTML or not.