I'm a little surprised somebody gave this guy a 'Redundant' rating. He makes a good point. Part of the problem of the vast majority of Fanfics (for any franchise, not just SW) is that the writers of these feel that they need to make the story as familiar as possible. "I better reference everything I know about Star Wars so that these people realize they're reading about it!" So what happens? Too much familiarity, too little creativity, too little risk-taking.
Believe me, that won't be an issue with Second Strike. That will become more apparent as we hit Act II on St. Patrick's Day 2003.
That's a legit copy on Kazaa if it's 29 MB. One of the project's biggest fans sent us a better-compressed copy soon after we released. We're slowly making the rounds of getting that smaller file up on all of the mirrors and the main site.
Good eye, though. Good eye.
Nice to see Slashdot taking an interest in the project. Of coure, now we're on a frantic hunt for more mirrors so 2S doesn't kill the entire StarWarz/JediNet server, but that's okay.
To answer some of the comments (particularly the ones that show that the poster has no clue what they're talking about):
Don't expect GL or LFL to kill the site. For those who haven't been keeping up, fan productions such as fan films have been around for years, and are an ever-expanding community. Lucasfilm takes a fan-friendly approach to the genre, only curtailiing those that somehow tarnish the SW name through extensive sexual content (Tripping the Rift, StarBallz, etc.) or use film footage direct from their films (the original version of The Dark Redemption, for example). While fan productions cannot receive official approval from Lucasfilm, many projects (including Second Strike) have received positive comments from people who work with or work for Lucasfilm or LucasBooks. (Daniel Wallace, for instance, has a regular segment on Second Strike's sister project, ChronoRadio, while Kevin Rubio, Ann Crispin, and others, have interviews scheduled for CR as well). In other words, there's no need to worry about LFL "shutting us down." They're about the most benevolent company in terms of fan productions that there is.
FearUncertaintyDoubt: That's why you'll never hear a space explosion in Second Strike, only ones in the mid-atmosphere, at the highest.
Fan Fiction Naysayers: There's a difference between fan fiction that directly comes out of a film and an original story set in the context of a fictional universe. Second Strike does the latter. It has very few tie-ins directly to previously released materials. It simply uses the backdrop of the time frame created by one comic book series and one novel series as its setup. After that, it could be an audio presentation of any other story or an entirely separate story. The Star Wars tie-in, though, represents the community we wanted to present it for, as a thanks for the support given to the projects that many of our 40+ cast have worked on in the past. In many of our cases, this is the last hurrah before leaving the fan production community.
StewyGriffin: Perhaps it didn't make the page, so you didn't know. The entire production has cost *maybe* $40, mostly for food and such that our Mixer has been using as fuel for late-night mixing. Pretty much everything has been done with programs that we all had to begin with, and, after that, all that was required was time. A fan *film* on the other hand, require a decent sized budget. Part of why Second Strike is audio is to cut down costs to almost nothing.
a1englishman: Listen to the opening of 2S. That's what we're paying homage to. You can tell the most in the model used for the opening narrator.
I'll try to check back again tonight or once I get back to Atlanta this weekend. Just have to remember to ignore the trolls and keep an eye out for people who *have* bothered to check it out who can therefore make *informed* comments. --NPB http://www.starwarz.com/timeline /2s/
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a little surprised somebody gave this guy a 'Redundant' rating. He makes a good point. Part of the problem of the vast majority of Fanfics (for any franchise, not just SW) is that the writers of these feel that they need to make the story as familiar as possible. "I better reference everything I know about Star Wars so that these people realize they're reading about it!" So what happens? Too much familiarity, too little creativity, too little risk-taking. Believe me, that won't be an issue with Second Strike. That will become more apparent as we hit Act II on St. Patrick's Day 2003.
That's a legit copy on Kazaa if it's 29 MB. One of the project's biggest fans sent us a better-compressed copy soon after we released. We're slowly making the rounds of getting that smaller file up on all of the mirrors and the main site. Good eye, though. Good eye.
Nice to see Slashdot taking an interest in the project. Of coure, now we're on a frantic hunt for more mirrors so 2S doesn't kill the entire StarWarz/JediNet server, but that's okay.
e /2s/
To answer some of the comments (particularly the ones that show that the poster has no clue what they're talking about):
Don't expect GL or LFL to kill the site. For those who haven't been keeping up, fan productions such as fan films have been around for years, and are an ever-expanding community. Lucasfilm takes a fan-friendly approach to the genre, only curtailiing those that somehow tarnish the SW name through extensive sexual content (Tripping the Rift, StarBallz, etc.) or use film footage direct from their films (the original version of The Dark Redemption, for example). While fan productions cannot receive official approval from Lucasfilm, many projects (including Second Strike) have received positive comments from people who work with or work for Lucasfilm or LucasBooks. (Daniel Wallace, for instance, has a regular segment on Second Strike's sister project, ChronoRadio, while Kevin Rubio, Ann Crispin, and others, have interviews scheduled for CR as well). In other words, there's no need to worry about LFL "shutting us down." They're about the most benevolent company in terms of fan productions that there is.
FearUncertaintyDoubt: That's why you'll never hear a space explosion in Second Strike, only ones in the mid-atmosphere, at the highest.
Fan Fiction Naysayers: There's a difference between fan fiction that directly comes out of a film and an original story set in the context of a fictional universe. Second Strike does the latter. It has very few tie-ins directly to previously released materials. It simply uses the backdrop of the time frame created by one comic book series and one novel series as its setup. After that, it could be an audio presentation of any other story or an entirely separate story. The Star Wars tie-in, though, represents the community we wanted to present it for, as a thanks for the support given to the projects that many of our 40+ cast have worked on in the past. In many of our cases, this is the last hurrah before leaving the fan production community.
StewyGriffin: Perhaps it didn't make the page, so you didn't know. The entire production has cost *maybe* $40, mostly for food and such that our Mixer has been using as fuel for late-night mixing. Pretty much everything has been done with programs that we all had to begin with, and, after that, all that was required was time. A fan *film* on the other hand, require a decent sized budget. Part of why Second Strike is audio is to cut down costs to almost nothing.
a1englishman: Listen to the opening of 2S. That's what we're paying homage to. You can tell the most in the model used for the opening narrator.
I'll try to check back again tonight or once I get back to Atlanta this weekend. Just have to remember to ignore the trolls and keep an eye out for people who *have* bothered to check it out who can therefore make *informed* comments.
--NPB
http://www.starwarz.com/timelin