Talk:Second-Degree Fandom
What an interesting concept! I definitely have a few second-order fandoms myself. I wonder what one would call a first-to-second order fandom shift? For example, I’ve been a fan of Destiny 1 and 2 and enthusiastically followed the lore (a little obsessively, to be honest), but since it’s a live service (serialized lore? idk), the newer updates have been not to my liking and I haven’t really acknowledged new lore for a few years. first-order fandom split? — Schnikeys (talk), 14:56 2 October 2021 (EDT)
- Mm, I've also been thinking that "Selective Canon" or something along those lines could be a related yet separate page on its own. TV Tropes has a page called "Fanon Discontinuity" that also has to do with fans rejecting certain parts of a story while embracing others.
- In my understanding, "second-degree fandom" has to do with fans having minimal to no experience with source material, ever. Picking and choosing canon, like enjoying earlier lore then rejecting later updates, seems related yet separate. Though drifting or migrating from first-degree to second-degree could be a relevant topic.
- — PictoChatCyberBully (talk) 19:23, 2 October 2021 (UTC)
- Ooh, Selective Canon sounds like a very important term, and “Fanon Discontinuity” too. Especially useful for cases (like Destiny -_- ) of live canons, like live video games and webcomics and other serialized things, where there can be a big difference between someone who’s been following updates as they happen and someone who backreads — it’s a different experience! There’s still engagement with canon, but not ALL of canon.
- (This also makes me think of zealously canon-referential fics such as Sansûkh by determamfidd: I’ve never read Tolkien’s books myself, but I enjoyed that fic, and enjoyed reading all of the footnotes citing parts of the canon.)
- — Schnikeys (talk), 15:32 2 October 2021 (EDT)
Video game fandoms
I also wonder whether there could be finer-grained descriptive terms for video game fandom “degrees”, like the difference between someone who doesn’t own/play the game themselves but has watched LPs/read datamined lore and makes/reads canon-compliant fic (EDIT: maybe “backseat fan”?), and someone who DOES play the game themselves but solely writes/reads AU stuff. — Schnikeys (talk) 15:06 02 October 2021 (EDT)
- I think "backseat fan" might be a relevant and interesting section. It's a unique case. In that scenario, a "player" and a "watcher" could be equally familiar with the canon lore, and create fan works informed with the same level of knowledge regarding canon. But there's also that similar kind of friction between "real fan" vs "fake fan", right?
- — PictoChatCyberBully (talk) 19:23, 2 October 2021 (UTC)
- Curiously, at least on the more transformative side of fandom, I haven’t seen many (or any?) “fake fan” accusations leveled at people who primarily engage with video game canon via LPs or datamined lore compilations. This is probably because even for fans who HAVE played the game, for a lot of big, choice-based games, it’s just not practical to go play the whole game to check the lore — especially when some segments of the game might be really difficult, and therefore inaccessible anyway! Even people who’ve played themselves and are invested in canon compliance will check YouTube compilations for convenience.
- — Schnikeys (talk), 15:38 2 October 2021 (EDT)
term vs. phenomenon
It would be good to add some clarifying statements about what community uses the term "second-degree fandom". I am familiar with the phenomenon, but I've never heard it called that.--aethel (talk) 03:52, 1 June 2022 (UTC)
Move to Metafandom?
Move contents of this page to "Metafandom (glossary)"? — PictoChatCyberBully (talk) 03:59, 11 October 2022 (UTC)