Steampunk Rage![Hidden]: "Victorian clothing; add a pair of goggles and big boots. For full effect, spray paint a super soaker in some metallic colors and crazy glue on a few bits."
This is when I think the guy is just poking fun at what steampunk has become
Frenotx: "The sad truth, it seems."
[Hidden]: "What's sad about that?"
At this point, I go from being somewhat glad at finding a kindred soul, to being very sad that this person is just another on of those who are destroying steampunk...
Frenotx: "It used to be something more..."
[Hidden]: "I've only seen the genre improve in leaps and bounds, personally; while my suggestions are simple, that's just because it's a nicely accessible setting. Sky's the limit, and there's a lot more potential and use for real crafts than many other fantasy genres.
Considering how young steampunk is, it seems silly to bemoan its past."
"Oh, you have gone too far"- This is where I get pissed off.
Frenotx: "First of all, allow me to apologize. This is a subject that has really been bugging me. I do not intend to insult you, personally.
Ok, with that out of the way, allow me to start with this: steampunk is not young at all. It has been around since the late 80s / early 90s. The only thing 'new' about steampunk is it's recent explosion of popularity. Unfortunately, the majority of the genre's new-found admirers don't really understand what steampunk is. The idea behind steampunk is to inject anachronistically advanced technology in a time period where the most prevalent power source was steam. (Usually, but not always, depicted during Victorian times.)
Since silicon and microchips couldn't be manufactured in this time, advanced machinery is all mechanical. Lots of "modern" tech exists. Being based on clockwork, however, it is usually much larger than it's real-life equivalent. A lot of what steampunk is, is thinking of what this modern tech would look like, and how it would function in this time period. The fun in the genre comes from the great, "what if" statement. "What if we had air liners, back then?" "What if we had computers back then" This line of thinking- that's what stampunk is. Or at least, that's what steam punk used to be.
Unfortunately, people seem to have deviated heavily from the "what if", and completely lost sight of the "how would it work". In the past couple of years, I have watched as steampunk devolved from a stimulating mental exercise, to a fashion statement. I'll agree that ruggedized Victorian clothing and goggles are cool, but that's not all that steampunk is. This just happens to be the sort of stuff inventors / mechanics in that time period would wear. People don't seem to care about functionality at all, anymore. All that matters is the aesthetic. This is largely why your post caused me to rage so hard. It's as if you summed up my entire lament against the genre in a couple of words- especially the latter half of your statement.
"For full effect, spray paint a super soaker in some metallic colors and crazy glue on a few bits."
Really, this all seems to be the "square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square" syndrome. Steampunk machines often have brass on them, this is true. It's because in the most common steampunk time period, Victorian times, brass was commonly used in many settings. Does that mean that if you make something look like brass, that it's now steampunk? No! It means that it now looks like brass. At the very most, you could say it looks like it's from Victorian times.
The "brass = steampunk" thing is annoying, but far worse is the last bit of your statement: "...glue on a few bits" Nothing pisses me off more than when someone just throws some random tubing and gears on the outside of an everyday object, and then calls it steampunk. The only exception is when the person can reasonably explain what all that random stuff does. So many times I have seen some object with a single gear glued to the outside. I find this outright insulting. First of all, you don't glue gears into place. Gears must be mounted on an axle of some sort so they can spin. Secondly, a single gear does nothing. Gears are meant to transfer motion. A single external gear is as useless as a pulley system with no rope.
Now, I realize that not everyone is mechanically-minded. Not everyone can conceive and design machines, much less build them. All I ask, though, is for people to at least try to understand them. If you're going to be a fan of a genre that revolves around steam-powered, clockwork mechanisms, then do a little reading on how steam power and clockwork mechanisms work. It's really not that hard. All I really want is for the focus to shift quite a bit back towards the functional side of things."
Annoyed
--
"DREAMS AND REALITY ARE DUALITY IN ILLUSION, WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE
tonigh ill dine in heaven, then go boogie in the hell.
please do cheack my scrap and wips [link]
--
Chillin' like a Quillin
Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap.
i need to get a good pc again and start modelling.
--
"DREAMS AND REALITY ARE DUALITY IN ILLUSION, WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE
tonigh ill dine in heaven, then go boogie in the hell.
please do cheack my scrap and wips [link]
--
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue
>What will you do
>kill grue with sword
>what is a grue?
--
Chillin' like a Quillin
Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap.
you have some sweet 3D stuff yourself. I love your all terrain vehicle.
--
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue
>What will you do
>kill grue with sword
>what is a grue?
--
Chillin' like a Quillin
Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap.
I have good news, I am almost finished your picture, it just needs highlights.
Also, looking forward to the picture!
--
Chillin' like a Quillin
Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap.
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