Vampyr Posted August 27, 2019 Share Posted August 27, 2019 For those of you who have been around since the HHNvault days, you’ll probably remember how active those forums were, especially when the event was less than 10 days away as it is today. Every day I would log-on and would have to catch up on at least 30-50 new posts. Now, after 2-3 days of not logging into this forum, I only find 2-3 messages have been posted. While this is not the first year I have noticed this, this is the first year that has really hit me. It’s really sad. Is the HHN fandom dying? Of course, this is all revolving around the online fandom. Based on the crowd levels last year, obviously the fans are still attending and spending money to support the event. Mind you, I am aware “back in the day” we had intricate websites that required us to search for clues and of course Legendary Truth which made up for a lot of the online postings in the past. The online backstories and websites of the past are a major reason on why I started to follow the event the way I do and ultimately became a fanboy. The new generation of fans will never be able to experience this, thus not seeing a point to go online and join a forum. This is my opinion on why the fandom has decreased. So, what’s your take on it? Where did everyone go? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark M. Posted August 27, 2019 Share Posted August 27, 2019 1. Social Media 2. Over-Saturated Blogs, Vlogs and Podcasts that cover the event. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ueeediot Posted August 28, 2019 Share Posted August 28, 2019 I feel the fandom is still there. But, many are aging out of the days of being able to post and search and do the 'back in the day' things you mentioned. I am a late bloomer to this party and got hooked so fast it wasn't funny. But, I have even noticed a turn in the direction of the event. I recently watched Theme Park Review's History of HHN on YouTube and found it to be pretty good. They were able to highlight some of the missteps that the HHN team have made over the years and how HHN has pretty much propped up the parks until a certain wizard came along. I see what you mean about the earlier years of HHN and I see where they are headed now. Fear is not as fun or as important as profit. The online backstories are declining year over year and with so many IP houses, which don't require any back story, I feel that portion of Creative is also declining. Look at this year's merch. Its almost all ST and GB as the main focus. Not only is the event turning soft, they are not creating anything, they are just riding the IPs. Which all leads to less and less to talk about. The other thing, as mentioned, Vlogs. I know that Saturday the 7th, my wife will have the video up and we will see the inside of each house. Gone are the days of videos stopping at the entrance and picking up at the exit of the house. Now, as credentialed media, certain vloggers push the entire event out the 2nd day. All of us who wait until later in the year don't have anything to really talk about or even banter about with those who have gone. Stranger Things was soooooo successful GhostBusters!? Wow! I'm so stoked for a comedy house! How the hell do they bring back an icon (any of them) if the event is going to continue to run towards the tween demographic? "We are NOT becoming family friendly" Brings back ST, GB, Killer Klownz.... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombieman Posted August 28, 2019 Share Posted August 28, 2019 I wonder sometimes what the response from the GP would be if HHN slow played their announcements the way they did back in 2008, revealing some slight tweaking of the site every few days, adding games, etc. Would it excite a new generation of fandom? Would they say "meh" and go elsewhere after two minutes? Last year I was sending HHN announcements to my 16 year old daughter. This year she is beating me to it. So whatever they are doing is working for her. Hard to believe that dozens of people sat online staring in unison at the wallpaper of the Storyteller's room, looking for clues "you can clearly see Jack right here!" "No, that looks more like Eddy!" "Look! They are using caps within the words. I've done some anagrams of the letters and..." That was so cool. I think that since the event has become so IP heavy, we can't go back to that. You can't slow play an IP like that. It must be released at a specific time and date according to a contract. The handcuffs of IP extend to the lack of online games, lack of announcement clues, etc. Personally, I wish we did NOT have the house list in April. Universal did not have such terrible leaks way back when... Now the only speculation is which of the IP on the list is going to get Screamed. It would be nice if there was a real life "Black Mirror" feature that blurred out all of that. But my only option is to stay off these sites until late August. I actually did do that one year. Avoided all things HHN related until I got to Orlando. I cleared my browser cache so I wouldn't see HHN ads during Google searches. It was a total pain in the butt buying HHN tickets online ahead of my trip while avoiding seeing what they were presenting. I had no idea what was being presented until I hit the automated walkways heading from the parking garage into Citywalk and saw the giant banners hanging from the ceiling. And what was my reward for all those months of self-imposed torture? "Damnit! Walking Dead is back again!" You just can't win... 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenjaminNicholas Posted August 29, 2019 Share Posted August 29, 2019 (edited) The fandom is changing, clearly getting younger. A lot of the discussion I see on the net feels disjointed, not really event detailed and is really much of the same questions asked repeatedly. The young fan of this event ain't reading Chaucer on their downtime, that's for sure. It doesn't help that US marketing is doing near zero to hype the event using well-designed websites and creative social media. They know the event sells itself now and don't need to dump a ton of money into the front-end to push ticket sales. I guess that's good, but it's a lot less fun for those of us who got used to it in the past. The true fear in the event is long gone. Now, it's a push to sell as much as they can and upsell as hard as possible. Edited August 29, 2019 by BenjaminNicholas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Veritas_ Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 Piggybacking on what a few have already said, it's def just a change of the times. We're all still here- perusing and looking and piping up when we want. But especially with the lack of material for us to really sink our teeth into online (I.E months long campaigns where they slowly reveal things like they used to) it's not the same kind of build up and suspense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthSpielberg Posted September 20, 2019 Share Posted September 20, 2019 Another big thing is kind of the death of the classic online forum. There are so many new forms of communication online, through social media platforms and new chat and group programs like discord and such that a forum like this one just isn't the main source of information any more. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OhHaiInternet95 Posted September 20, 2019 Share Posted September 20, 2019 (edited) On 8/28/2019 at 9:23 AM, Ueeediot said: I feel the fandom is still there. But, many are aging out of the days of being able to post and search and do the 'back in the day' things you mentioned. I am a late bloomer to this party and got hooked so fast it wasn't funny. But, I have even noticed a turn in the direction of the event. I recently watched Theme Park Review's History of HHN on YouTube and found it to be pretty good. They were able to highlight some of the missteps that the HHN team have made over the years and how HHN has pretty much propped up the parks until a certain wizard came along. I see what you mean about the earlier years of HHN and I see where they are headed now. Fear is not as fun or as important as profit. The online backstories are declining year over year and with so many IP houses, which don't require any back story, I feel that portion of Creative is also declining. Look at this year's merch. Its almost all ST and GB as the main focus. Not only is the event turning soft, they are not creating anything, they are just riding the IPs. Which all leads to less and less to talk about. The other thing, as mentioned, Vlogs. I know that Saturday the 7th, my wife will have the video up and we will see the inside of each house. Gone are the days of videos stopping at the entrance and picking up at the exit of the house. Now, as credentialed media, certain vloggers push the entire event out the 2nd day. All of us who wait until later in the year don't have anything to really talk about or even banter about with those who have gone. Stranger Things was soooooo successful GhostBusters!? Wow! I'm so stoked for a comedy house! How the hell do they bring back an icon (any of them) if the event is going to continue to run towards the tween demographic? "We are NOT becoming family friendly" Brings back ST, GB, Killer Klownz.... Let me be clear and say that I do not think the event is at all perfect. That disclaimer out of the way... ...there’s seven other houses. And back in the day there would still be one lighter house. So same number of straight houses this year as, say, 18 and 21. Still, I definitely prefer the originals this year over the IPs (sans Killer Klownz). I present Nightingales Blood Pit to argue that they still do complex stories. Also, IU has as active a discussion each year as Vault did, IIRC. Edited September 20, 2019 by OhHaiInternet95 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheZodiac Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 (edited) On 8/27/2019 at 7:52 PM, mz_ said: 1. Social Media 2. Over-Saturated Blogs, Vlogs and Podcasts that cover the event. Or maybe it's the way you run this site? I'm a veteran from back in the day and this website didn't help my fandom. They're plenty of other active HHN Veterans/newcomers on other sites. Especially with people flocking to the new Vault is telling. Edited September 24, 2019 by TheZodiac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ultimateforce Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 I spent this season with different online groups and basically ran out of "social media" time when it came to this one an IU. The Facebook groups are useless and I will mute them next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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