I’ve been painting all these since April I believe and I’ve gone through so fucking much that I can’t believe the collection is done! I’m so happy!!! I made a huge effort believe me ugh!
long story short bethesda accidentally doxxed people who complained
in case you missed it, the chain of events is roughly as follows:
1. fallout 76 launches. it is entirely online. there are a lot of bugs. a whole lot of bugs. people report countless bugs, many of which are game-breaking. bethesda’s communication leaves a lot to be desired. fallout 76 officially has a no refund policy, but due to the large number of people requesting refunds, many refunds are issued.
throughout the following events, they are largely vague in regards to patches, support, outreach, and the fallout community is split between defending or criticizing their actions.
2. people begin to realize that the $200 collector’s edition, which promised a canvas bag, came with a low-quality nylon bag. bethesda claims it was too expensive to make the canvas bags and that they cannot possibly honor their $200 bundle, despite promotional material listing the canvas bag as part of the bundle up until release and until shortly after.
3. bethesda offers 500 in-game atoms (game currency) to individuals who purchased the collector’s edition. to receive the atoms, players must submit a support ticket with personal information, images, and proof of purchase. it is worth noting that these 500 atoms are worth approximately $5 USD, and cannot even purchase an in-game canvas bag.
4. after significant backlash, bethesda begins producing the promised canvas bags. to get the bag, people have until january 31st to submit a support ticket proving they purchased the collector’s edition. again, this requires submitting a ticket with ample personal information.
5. at some point, everyone’s support tickets became viewable to people who submit their own support tickets. meaning, the full names, usernames, addresses, phone numbers, emails, proof of purchases, and partial credit card details of everyone who submit a support ticket for any bethesda product were viewable. it also allowed anyone to open or close anyone else’s support tickets. bethesda effectively doxxed the most hardcore of their fanbase – the ones who spent the most money and were most likely long time fans. the long time fans who may have been inclined to defend bethesda up until this point. following this leak, a huge chunk of even the most hardcore fans have stopped defending bethesda.
the status of the leaked data is currently unknown. it is also unknown how long the leaked information was visible. several people took screenshots, meaning that it was possible for all of the leaked personal information to have been collected, scraped, or otherwise saved with nefarious intent.
summarized by a screencap from the linked article:
My first “serious” writing–IE, had a continuity, was not abandoned as soon as it got hard, went through an actual editorial process where a red pen was applied to my precious pages–was for an ElfQuest fanzine called Dreamberry Jam. I wrote about a glider/sea elf cross named Gull, who basically hopped from one disaster to another, because I was a sixteen year old girl with the power of life or death in her pen I WAS UNSTOPPABLE and I was having so much fun. So much fun.
My high school LJ (which became my college LJ, which became my post-college LJ) was studded with Buffy the Vampire Slayer fic (not gonna lie: lots of porn there, much of it written for my girlfriend of the time, who had a thing for Buffy/Faith), with Veronica Mars fic (including my Shakespearean adaptation of season one), with Halloweentown fic (I am most of the fandom). I have participated in every single Yuletide. My agent knows I will turn down work in December so that I can remain a pitch-hitter for defaults.
What are my thoughts on fanfiction authors who start writing and publishing original stuff?
I’m in favor.
But you’re right: people do get some shit for their fannish pasts, and by “people” I mostly mean “women,” because “being a fanfic writer” is a “giggle giggle let’s show porn to the actors and see if they get mad” thing that girls do, while “putting myself in the story” is a manly masculine imagination thing that boys do. Almost every guy in my high school creative writing classes began with a self-insert Trek or Wars character, assuming they weren’t writing up their D&D or World of Darkness campaigns, but they never got the scorn from the teachers or other students that the girls got for admitting that maybe they gave their OCs the hair color they’d always wanted. It goes all the way back to elementary school. It was totally normal for the boys to be racing around BEING STAR WARS PEW PEW PEW, but weird for the girls to want in.
(I know this is gender essentialist, I know, and I’m so sorry about that, but I’m talking about my elementary school experience, where girls would literally be pulled out of aggressive pretend play, and my high school experience, where the boys were encouraged to file off the serial numbers and the girls were told to write what they knew. The lens of the past is dusty and cold.)
Most of the shit I see slung at former fanfic writers (or professional authors who still write fanfic) is thrown at women who write YA, because, well, fanfic is juvenile and YA is juvenile (unless you’re a man writing YA romance and then it’s world-changing and revelationary). They are hence easy targets. You’re right: it’s sexist. It’s unfair. It will, hopefully, decrease and even go away. It will not happen fast enough for people to stop leaving bruises on my friends.
But here is the thing about fanfic: fanfic never dies. From kids playing on the playground to elementary schoolers writing their first stories to adults on the internet, fanfic is the human urge to interface with the stories that make us. A lot of very successful, very powerful works are saved from being fanfic solely by the fact that their source material is no longer under copyright. As the number of those works increases, as the scholarship on and around fanfic increases, the stigma is going to decrease. I genuinely believe that. I look at fandom now and compare it to fandom ten years ago, and I see so much more acceptance of fanfic on both the fannish and professional levels.
Crappy internet abuse aside, fanfic is restorative and powerful and important, and if it’s a thing you enjoy, you should absolutely embrace it with all the joy you can. The abuse may be here for a while yet. I will not lie about that.
But I think our stories are stronger.
“here is the thing about fanfic: fanfic never dies. From kids playing on the playground to elementary schoolers writing their first stories to adults on the internet, fanfic is the human urge to interface with the stories that make us.”
