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2018 in review
7 years ago
Some reflections on 2018 from your adorable overlord.
Again this year, I spent most of my efforts on non-furry things. In-general, I've realized that the furry fandom is becoming less important to me. I spend less time on FA and my furry Twitter is almost entirely abandoned these days. I spend more time reading sci-fi novels, playing video games, going to dinner with non-furs, and looking at real-estate and other "normie" things.
In all sincerity though, I do feel as-if I am losing something valuable. I don't actually want to abandon furry, but to be honest, I'm not sure why its losing its appeal for me, so I'm unsure how to fix it. In any case, I still don't plan to abandon Etheras. Same answer as last year: Barring any unfortunate circumstances, I intend to take Etheras as far into the future as I can. But unlike last year, I can see a glimmer of a future where I cease to publish Etheras artwork. It is a possibility.
But, this is supposed to be a post about reflections on 2018, not future plans. So! Lets talk about 2018 :)
ETHERAS CHARACTER ACHIEVEMENTS
... lots of new artwork.
... a new Etheras comic (not yet posted! Will post in 2019) :)
... pushing Etheras much harder on his original concept and fleshing out more about his realm and backstory.
... conquered some people.
... subjugated some stuff.
... crossed the 10K watchers milestone (furaffinity).
... crossed the 200K pageviews milestone (furaffinity)
ETHERAS PLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS
... working hard on video games. Nothing to announce yet, but I'm really hoping to launch or at least announce soon. Its the game-dev story that goes on forever (but still not as long as Star Citizen). I still haven't shipped the game that I was teasing last year. Unfortunately my lofty expectations have clashed recently with a bit of reality. Whenever that happens, reality tends to win.
... continued to take measures to cut down on character theft. Finally my efforts seem to be making progress. Unfortunately, these efforts include limiting the spread of artwork, and even to ask some artists not to post Etheras art publicly. This might be part of the reason why I'm losing interest in the fandom. The character / art theft problem is an epidemic, and many furs side with the thieves rather than creators, especially for RP accounts. The fandom should support its creatives rather than its thieves, if we want a vibrant fandom that makes lots of good stuff.
... posted a bunch of new journals. I need to get better at posting regularly.
... buying property. Getting sick of shelling out cash for an apartment that I don't own at the end of the pay period. I found a place that I like better than where I am staying now, which is also cheaper, and will build equity for me. My hope is to move in before the summer, and use the leftover cash to hire more staff for my video game company.
IN THE WORLD
... I really got into the PewDiePie vs T-Series meme. While I think its inevitable that corporations will take over YouTube, it doesn't seem like it will be "You"-Tube anymore. I kinda like the idea of some Swedish guy making videos in his room with a webcam being #1, and I think that ordinary people should rally and try and keep him there. So far, it has worked! So... Subscribe to PewDiePie :)
... Falcon Heavy launch - so impressive. Looking back, the launch seems a long time ago, but it was this year.
... Another terrible year for movies. Hollywood has lost the ability to make decent films. Everything is formulaic cookie-cutter sameness. The last movie I genuinely enjoyed was Zootopia, and I'm sure that furry influenced that. That last movie that I saw where I left the theater feeling as though I had experienced art was 2009's "Inglourious Basterds". I might just stop seeing movies. My time would be better-spent reminding the world what real art looks-like with my video games.
... Speaking of-which, its been sort-of a lackluster year for video games as well. Fallout76 isn't great, but its not as bad as everybody is saying. I'm genuinely enjoying it, but it would have been better as a single-player with NPCs. This year has been the year of AAA game flops, with Battlefield-V and Black Ops 4 both underwhelming fans, as did Fallout76. The only AAA that didn't flop was Red Dead 2, and I don't have a console :( . (though there are rumors that it will be out on PC).
... While movies seem to be stagnating, so is streaming. Netflix and Amazon have gotten extremely cookie-cutter too. In their arms race to win the streaming crown, quality has plummeted, and resulted in a bunch of cancellations this year.
... TV continues to die off. It seems like streaming is the future. I hope they get their act together. This year I discovered "The Expanse" and I am delighted that Amazon bought the show.
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
... Lets face it: I was horrible about my commitments last year. (again-again)
... Didn't release any video game that I had promised. (again-again)
... Etheras.com is still a mostly-blank page. (again-again)
.. no new music. I've pretty-much given up on this. My hard drive developed bad sectors this year and the effort required to reinstall all my now-outdated music software just doesn't seem worth-it. I was never that great of a musician to begin-with, and so-many other things are vying for my time.
... did not complete the Etheras novel that I spoke of last year. This will also be canceled. The Etheras novel that I had in-mind was non-canonical, and to avoid confusion and maybe broaden interest, I'm removing Etheras from it entirely and making the characters humans (boo, hiss, I know, sorry)
... I also failed to give an adequate presence to Etheras here on FA. I'll probably do a journal on this in the coming months to try and talk-out my waning interest in furry. Maybe I'm just too busy, and once I have a game or two shipped, furry will return. Who knows.
... Really, I didn't deliver on any thing that I promised last year ( sorry! #badfenn ) :(
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2019
.. Okay, I really really REALLY REALLY need to release at least 1 major video game title (non-furry). Possibly as many as 3. I mean it this time!
.. launch of www.etheras.com - I know, I know. Its taking forever, and I know I promised to have something up by the end of 2018. Believe it or not, I am actually pretty close to launching. Just having trouble finding the time to finish it.
.. why does this list look identical to last year? Its like 2018 (or 2017, for that matter) never happened. o.o
.. and of course, lots of Etheras artwork
Should be an exciting year! Hope you'll stay with me ^.^
Thanks,
~ Lord Etheras
Again this year, I spent most of my efforts on non-furry things. In-general, I've realized that the furry fandom is becoming less important to me. I spend less time on FA and my furry Twitter is almost entirely abandoned these days. I spend more time reading sci-fi novels, playing video games, going to dinner with non-furs, and looking at real-estate and other "normie" things.
In all sincerity though, I do feel as-if I am losing something valuable. I don't actually want to abandon furry, but to be honest, I'm not sure why its losing its appeal for me, so I'm unsure how to fix it. In any case, I still don't plan to abandon Etheras. Same answer as last year: Barring any unfortunate circumstances, I intend to take Etheras as far into the future as I can. But unlike last year, I can see a glimmer of a future where I cease to publish Etheras artwork. It is a possibility.
But, this is supposed to be a post about reflections on 2018, not future plans. So! Lets talk about 2018 :)
ETHERAS CHARACTER ACHIEVEMENTS
... lots of new artwork.
... a new Etheras comic (not yet posted! Will post in 2019) :)
... pushing Etheras much harder on his original concept and fleshing out more about his realm and backstory.
... conquered some people.
... subjugated some stuff.
... crossed the 10K watchers milestone (furaffinity).
... crossed the 200K pageviews milestone (furaffinity)
ETHERAS PLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS
... working hard on video games. Nothing to announce yet, but I'm really hoping to launch or at least announce soon. Its the game-dev story that goes on forever (but still not as long as Star Citizen). I still haven't shipped the game that I was teasing last year. Unfortunately my lofty expectations have clashed recently with a bit of reality. Whenever that happens, reality tends to win.
... continued to take measures to cut down on character theft. Finally my efforts seem to be making progress. Unfortunately, these efforts include limiting the spread of artwork, and even to ask some artists not to post Etheras art publicly. This might be part of the reason why I'm losing interest in the fandom. The character / art theft problem is an epidemic, and many furs side with the thieves rather than creators, especially for RP accounts. The fandom should support its creatives rather than its thieves, if we want a vibrant fandom that makes lots of good stuff.
... posted a bunch of new journals. I need to get better at posting regularly.
... buying property. Getting sick of shelling out cash for an apartment that I don't own at the end of the pay period. I found a place that I like better than where I am staying now, which is also cheaper, and will build equity for me. My hope is to move in before the summer, and use the leftover cash to hire more staff for my video game company.
IN THE WORLD
... I really got into the PewDiePie vs T-Series meme. While I think its inevitable that corporations will take over YouTube, it doesn't seem like it will be "You"-Tube anymore. I kinda like the idea of some Swedish guy making videos in his room with a webcam being #1, and I think that ordinary people should rally and try and keep him there. So far, it has worked! So... Subscribe to PewDiePie :)
... Falcon Heavy launch - so impressive. Looking back, the launch seems a long time ago, but it was this year.
... Another terrible year for movies. Hollywood has lost the ability to make decent films. Everything is formulaic cookie-cutter sameness. The last movie I genuinely enjoyed was Zootopia, and I'm sure that furry influenced that. That last movie that I saw where I left the theater feeling as though I had experienced art was 2009's "Inglourious Basterds". I might just stop seeing movies. My time would be better-spent reminding the world what real art looks-like with my video games.
... Speaking of-which, its been sort-of a lackluster year for video games as well. Fallout76 isn't great, but its not as bad as everybody is saying. I'm genuinely enjoying it, but it would have been better as a single-player with NPCs. This year has been the year of AAA game flops, with Battlefield-V and Black Ops 4 both underwhelming fans, as did Fallout76. The only AAA that didn't flop was Red Dead 2, and I don't have a console :( . (though there are rumors that it will be out on PC).
... While movies seem to be stagnating, so is streaming. Netflix and Amazon have gotten extremely cookie-cutter too. In their arms race to win the streaming crown, quality has plummeted, and resulted in a bunch of cancellations this year.
... TV continues to die off. It seems like streaming is the future. I hope they get their act together. This year I discovered "The Expanse" and I am delighted that Amazon bought the show.
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
... Lets face it: I was horrible about my commitments last year. (again-again)
... Didn't release any video game that I had promised. (again-again)
... Etheras.com is still a mostly-blank page. (again-again)
.. no new music. I've pretty-much given up on this. My hard drive developed bad sectors this year and the effort required to reinstall all my now-outdated music software just doesn't seem worth-it. I was never that great of a musician to begin-with, and so-many other things are vying for my time.
... did not complete the Etheras novel that I spoke of last year. This will also be canceled. The Etheras novel that I had in-mind was non-canonical, and to avoid confusion and maybe broaden interest, I'm removing Etheras from it entirely and making the characters humans (boo, hiss, I know, sorry)
... I also failed to give an adequate presence to Etheras here on FA. I'll probably do a journal on this in the coming months to try and talk-out my waning interest in furry. Maybe I'm just too busy, and once I have a game or two shipped, furry will return. Who knows.
... Really, I didn't deliver on any thing that I promised last year ( sorry! #badfenn ) :(
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2019
.. Okay, I really really REALLY REALLY need to release at least 1 major video game title (non-furry). Possibly as many as 3. I mean it this time!
.. launch of www.etheras.com - I know, I know. Its taking forever, and I know I promised to have something up by the end of 2018. Believe it or not, I am actually pretty close to launching. Just having trouble finding the time to finish it.
.. why does this list look identical to last year? Its like 2018 (or 2017, for that matter) never happened. o.o
.. and of course, lots of Etheras artwork
Should be an exciting year! Hope you'll stay with me ^.^
Thanks,
~ Lord Etheras
That being said, I would love to hear Etheras' back story. You have created such a charming character, I find him most intriguing.
Wishing you a Happy New Year, and all the best for 2019. =^.^=