My Little Pony XXXIV: There is Pony of it, no exceptions!

[Eakin]

Well horseapples. This sucks.

[Geno9999]

Oh no you dont!

I have a EV trained Arbok and I am not afraid to use it!

"Crackles Hyper Beam"

...Hyper Beam? Seriously? When you could have it use... I dunno, Poison Jab?Your loss.

Torterror, use Earthquake!
"TOOOOR!!!"

[Aotrs Commander]

Hahah! Your Pikachu is no match for my Torterra! Torterror, I choose you!

TOOOOR!!!

Oh no you dont!

I have a EV trained Arbok and I am not afraid to use it!

"Crackles Hyper Beam"

Don't make me get the rest of Carnage Team out.

Seriously, don't, we'll be there all week, there's, like eight hundred of 'em.

well...lets repost this and see if it helps improve your mood

Spoiler

Show

Marginally; though the gratuitous beauty mark rather mars it for me. (Never understood the appeal of those, I think they look pretty dreadful.)

Happy New Year.
(Provides an indestructible statue/clone/thing of Blueblood, that reacts realistically to any attack, but reforms from /anything/ in scant seconds)

(And a Discord too)

(Finally, you may note a lack of hugs in this post.)

So noted.

And thank you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have excessive violence to bestow...

(However I am gonna heal hopereaver.)

(>_>)

(<_<)

(Hugs Hopereaver)

This is gettin' to be habit...

...

Darkspark... why are you grinning like th-...don't you dare!

Piiii...kaaaaa...

Yo, Darkspark, Thunder-to-the-inards practise time!

Pik! *snaps fingers*

*points to his eyes with one paw, then points at Lixie and Hopereaver*

Pi pikapi chu.

*follows Bleakbane*

That is one mean little Pokemon.

The boss must so proud.

[Pokonic]

...Hyper Beam? Seriously? When you could have it use... I dunno, Poison Jab?Your loss.

Torterror, use Earthquake!
"TOOOOR!!!"

....Its been a while, and thats the first attack on the top of my head, okay?

[Trixie]

Say everypony while I'm not sure if it would be tonite but anypony given thought to a new thread title?

Well, we had two solid titles that barely lost last time:

A) The Thread Everypony Should Know;
B) Luna Ruined My Fanon/Canon, probably the least lucky thread name proposal

Speaking of which, it would be nice if remaining 3 pages lasted about 7-8 hours, though ^^"

[Soras Teva Gee]

How about:
My Little Pony XXXV: All work and no Pony makes Jack a dull boy
?

XXV: All work and no Pony makes Brony something something...

[CoffeeIncluded]

Perhaps something about converting everyone we know? I converted my best friend and my younger brother, and my brother converted his friend...

Friendship and ponies: The best virus ever!

[Eakin]

I still vote for "Season 2 Ruined my Fanon!" Poor title is overdue for a moment in the spotlight after getting passed over so many times.

Unless you want to come up with a title that references Hasbro pulling down the YouTube channels.

[TheAmishPirate]

I still vote for "Season 2 Ruined my Fanon!" Poor title is overdue for a moment in the spotlight after getting passed over so many times.

Unless you want to come up with a title that references Hasbro pulling down the YouTube channels.

Between those two? I'd pick "Season 2 Ruined my Fanon". Hopefully the latter situation gets resolved in a decent manner.

[Anarion]

I vote for "season 2 ruined my fanon" because it's been kicked around so many times and deserves its moment in the sun.

Well horseapples. This sucks.

Yeah, it does. There's something about this that's bothering me now that Hasbro has confirmed their position, but I'm finding it hard to pin down exactly why it's so upsetting (beyond the obvious "omg no can watch pony!!1!").

I think my issue is that Hasbro is acting correctly for its own interests and its leading to a bad result, possibly for all parties and future products. That usually means there's something wrong with the whole system. Hasbro is a corporation, it has not only incentives to make money but also a legal duty to serve the interests of its shareholders above the interests of anyone else. It knows it can make money by charging for My Little Pony and controlling distribution. But, I'm not sure that it would be in the position to profit from this control without the free spread of the show via Youtube over the last year.

So, the incentive structure of existing copyright seems to be the following: release something new and make it free because otherwise nobody will notice it. Then, when it gets big enough that you can make money, quash all free sources of the IP and charge for it. That's a really crummy system, especially since existing profitable distribution channels tend to be region-locked. Moreover, a system that leads to enjoyable properties be released then removed may eventually lead to lower overall sales in the future because fans will become hesitant to invest themselves into new releases for fear that the thing they enjoy will be taken away.

What the system should have is some way to price discriminate between existing customers who are willing to pay in order to support the media and new/potential customers who will/can only watch the media in the first place over free distribution channels. I'm not sure what this would look like though. Maybe something similar to the bandcamp distribution model, where a certain number of people paying to download the episodes would open up free downloads, or at least free streaming of the episodes via the Hub website? I'm not sure what the best way to do it would be to both maximize Hasbro's profit and give a way for people who would never have paid for the episodes a chance to be introduced to the series.

I would be interested to hear what other people think on the issue, beyond the initial suckiness (plus, if this develops into a paper, I'll be sure to credit the giantitp ponythread).

[legomaster00156]

Perhaps something about converting everyone we know? I converted my best friend and my younger brother, and my brother converted his friend...

Friendship and ponies: The best virus ever!

Yes, Coffee is one of us!

[Pokonic]

Perhaps something about converting everyone we know? I converted my best friend and my younger brother, and my brother converted his friend...

Friendship and ponies: The best virus ever!

Bout time you converted. By this rate, this entire forum will be all bronies!

Muhahahahahaha!

[legomaster00156]

So, if anyone cares to read a short story, here's the tale of how Vinyl Scratch went deaf (as she is in my fanfics).

Deaf: Vinyl's Tale

[Thanqol]

What the system should have is some way to price discriminate between existing customers who are willing to pay in order to support the media and new/potential customers who will/can only watch the media in the first place over free distribution channels. I'm not sure what this would look like though. Maybe something similar to the bandcamp distribution model, where a certain number of people paying to download the episodes would open up free downloads, or at least free streaming of the episodes via the Hub website? I'm not sure what the best way to do it would be to both maximize Hasbro's profit and give a way for people who would never have paid for the episodes a chance to be introduced to the series.

I would be interested to hear what other people think on the issue, beyond the initial suckiness (plus, if this develops into a paper, I'll be sure to credit the giantitp ponythread).

Oh, there's an easy fix to this free/premium user thing. Resolution. Paid users get high definition high quality episodes, and free users get watermarked and low quality episodes. Hasbro can then simply opt to crack down on distribution of the HQ episodes and leave the 360px ones up for everyone to view. Alternate method is free users have to see advertising, etc.

There's a certain proportion of people who will never pay for anything on the internet. You have to cater to those people because otherwise you get nothing. You also have to make it convenient for those people to upgrade. There's plenty of history for this - free to play video games, TF2, the premium user settings for mediafire and rapidshare. Make money on the upgrades and peripherals.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Perhaps something about converting everyone we know? I converted my best friend and my younger brother, and my brother converted his friend...

Friendship and ponies: The best virus ever!

I've explicitly compared it to herpes before. I now consider this more accurate:

Spoiler

Show

WE ARE THE HERD.
LOWER YOUR SHIELDS AND SURRENDER YOUR MEDIA DEVICES.
WE WILL ADD YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS TO OUR OWN
YOUR SOCIAL LIFE WILL ADAPT TO SERVICE US.

[Lix Lorn]

I still vote for "Season 2 Ruined my Fanon!" Poor title is overdue for a moment in the spotlight after getting passed over so many times.

Seconded!

[Mando Knight]

There's plenty of history for this - free to play video games, TF2, the premium user settings for mediafire and rapidshare. Make money on the upgrades and peripherals.

A TV series can't follow a good F2P game's paradigm exactly... the reason why Hasbro hasn't cracked down too hard on the internet bootlegger community is because the series was created from the start around their real source of money. A good F2P game does this within the game... how would Hasbro charge you $2.50 to have Rarity always wear your favorite hat, or have Twilight's coat dyed the same as your OC pony's?

...Actually, that might work. And a couple of exclusive-to-DVD side stories, like an extended, illustrated cut of Spike's life story as told to Fluttershy in the first episode.

[Anarion]

Oh, there's an easy fix to this free/premium user thing. Resolution. Paid users get high definition high quality episodes, and free users get watermarked and low quality episodes. Hasbro can then simply opt to crack down on distribution of the HQ episodes and leave the 360px ones up for everyone to view. Alternate method is free users have to see advertising, etc.

There's a certain proportion of people who will never pay for anything on the internet. You have to cater to those people because otherwise you get nothing. You also have to make it convenient for those people to upgrade. There's plenty of history for this - free to play video games, TF2, the premium user settings for mediafire and rapidshare. Make money on the upgrades and peripherals.

I certainly agree that a similar system has worked in some contexts. MLG, for example, broadcasts Starcraft matches for free and charges users for a pass to view the high quality streams. The MLP context does present certain challenges for the premium quality business model though. People use the episodes heavily for PMVs and remixes, so many who would pay for the high quality episodes really want a download that they can edit, not merely a way to watch the original episodes in HQ. But, once you give out the download (unless it's protected by DRM) stopping people from distributing it freely becomes rather like fighting the tide. Controlling all distribution means that some portion of bronies will pay for iTunes, and moreover that parents who want to show MLP to its intended demographic have to buy the DVDs or the iTunes videos.

There's probably a way to make the pitch that Hasbro should use a premium quality payment model like you suggest, but it's also possible that their marketing guys have run the numbers and the focus group results and concluded that it's worth more to control the DVDs than to rely on increased toy sales, a small number of premium viewers, and ad revenue.

[Eakin]

I vote for "season 2 ruined my fanon" because it's been kicked around so many times and deserves its moment in the sun.



Yeah, it does. There's something about this that's bothering me now that Hasbro has confirmed their position, but I'm finding it hard to pin down exactly why it's so upsetting (beyond the obvious "omg no can watch pony!!1!").

I think my issue is that Hasbro is acting correctly for its own interests and its leading to a bad result, possibly for all parties and future products. That usually means there's something wrong with the whole system. Hasbro is a corporation, it has not only incentives to make money but also a legal duty to serve the interests of its shareholders above the interests of anyone else. It knows it can make money by charging for My Little Pony and controlling distribution. But, I'm not sure that it would be in the position to profit from this control without the free spread of the show via Youtube over the last year.

So, the incentive structure of existing copyright seems to be the following: release something new and make it free because otherwise nobody will notice it. Then, when it gets big enough that you can make money, quash all free sources of the IP and charge for it. That's a really crummy system, especially since existing profitable distribution channels tend to be region-locked. Moreover, a system that leads to enjoyable properties be released then removed may eventually lead to lower overall sales in the future because fans will become hesitant to invest themselves into new releases for fear that the thing they enjoy will be taken away.

What the system should have is some way to price discriminate between existing customers who are willing to pay in order to support the media and new/potential customers who will/can only watch the media in the first place over free distribution channels. I'm not sure what this would look like though. Maybe something similar to the bandcamp distribution model, where a certain number of people paying to download the episodes would open up free downloads, or at least free streaming of the episodes via the Hub website? I'm not sure what the best way to do it would be to both maximize Hasbro's profit and give a way for people who would never have paid for the episodes a chance to be introduced to the series.

I would be interested to hear what other people think on the issue, beyond the initial suckiness (plus, if this develops into a paper, I'll be sure to credit the giantitp ponythread).

It does reek of bait and switch, and nopony likes having their entertainment cracked down upon after enjoying a wink wink nod nod "understanding" with the official owners. Certainly, Hasbro had benefited from the internet making this available to a fan base that wouldn't otherwise check it out. Still, we've been watching the first season and a half free of charge and we always knew this was a possibility. I don't think the argument that people will be afraid to invest in a show if they know that some time in the future it might get pulled holds up especially for a show as continuity-free as MLP. Everyone knows that shows can and do get cancelled and that's far more permanent than this.

I don't think the band camp model would be a successful one. Too many people would grab it at the minimum possible price, there's absolutely no incentive to bid higher. The only thing I can think of would be putting older episodes up somewhere for free as the "free sample" but make people pay for access to new episodes. Or pre-sell entire seasons and offer them to subscribers a day or two before they air. In a way it's a shame Hasbro can't slip ads into the youtube streams or otherwise monetize them, because I would guess that most bronies are savvy enough to just shift to other forms of digital piracy, but it makes the show harder to introduce to newer viewers.

Still, even if this became the new norm (being lenient on copyright enforcement until you have a hooked fan base then slowly restrict access) that's still better than keeping access to the show restricted from the get-go in my mind.

So, if anyone cares to read a short story, here's the tale of how Vinyl Scratch went deaf (as she is in my fanfics).

Deaf: Vinyl's Tale

Well that was kind of a downer. I admit when I clicked I was hoping Vinyl was deaf but had managed to contract some kind of synaesthesia that would let her still experience the music she created in another way. And I have to wonder; Vinyl doesn't even seem to care she's deaf and completely cut off from this world of sound she obviously loved enough to make a career. So why should I, as a reader, care either? She sounds like she could be recounting her last trip to the grocery store. This deserves to be fleshed out a bit more.

Also there's what looks like an undeleted fragment right at the end.

"I changed my I really only miss one thing these days."

gotta either split that into two sentences or take out the first part. Also I'm not sure Earth pony should be hyphenated.

[Soras Teva Gee]

I've risked incurring infractions on my account enough for today to talk intellectual property politics with everypony.

(Beyond, its not like its going to stop whatever Hasbro does everypony, youtube is only one source...)

[CoffeeIncluded]

Bout time you converted. By this rate, this entire forum will be all bronies!

Muhahahahahaha!

Yes, Coffee is one of us!

I've actually been a brony for several months.

[legomaster00156]

Ponythread, I'm feeling down. Hurl ponies at me, please.

[Eakin]

Ponythread, I'm feeling down. Hurl ponies at me, please.

*Fires Pinkie from party cannon in Lego's direction*

Also I edited in some feedback on your story into my last post.

[legomaster00156]

Well that was kind of a downer. I admit when I clicked I was hoping Vinyl was deaf but had managed to contract some kind of synaesthesia that would let her still experience the music she created in another way. And I have to wonder; Vinyl doesn't even seem to care she's deaf and completely cut off from this world of sound she obviously loved enough to make a career. So why should I, as a reader, care either? She sounds like she could be recounting her last trip to the grocery store. This deserves to be fleshed out a bit more.

Also there's what looks like an undeleted fragment right at the end.

"I changed my I really only miss one thing these days."

gotta either split that into two sentences or take out the first part. Also I'm not sure Earth pony should be hyphenated.

The accidental sentence fragment has been fixed. And the point is that she really doesn't care much anymore. As far as she is concerned, as long as the crowd is happy, so is she. She's the kind of pony who, like Pinkie Pie, siphons off of other ponies' joy. Even if she can't hear and enjoy the music, they can.
If you haven't read it already, you can find out how she plays beats by reading Music to my Ears.

[Raz_Fox]

A warning: the rest of this post is really goddamn depressing. If you don't like upsetting things, just imagine that I'm talking about why I've got a tiny Twilight Sparkle next to my bed right now and apologizing to people for letting my PM box fill up, and to Thanqol because I've really got no idea when I'll respond to his marvelous roleplay.

Oh, and, uh, if anyone happens to drop any high-quality Rarity imagedumps, that would be cool. Just saying.

Spoiler

Show

Let me tell you about my little sister, Rarity.

She loved My Little Pony. She got to know all the ponies by name - well, most of them, anyway - and she loved looking at her older brother's vast collection of pony pictures, off his phone. She decided that she was obviously Rarity, that her big brother was Twilight Sparkle, and then named all her four other siblings; she would cheerfully relate, were you to ask her, the plots of various episodes, and little quotes from them. Even though she named herself Rarity, she was as cute as Fluttershy and as happy as Pinkie Pie. She was outrageously happy, overbrimming with it, whenever she wasn't having a Rarity-esque, over-the-top, meltdown. She practically bounced everywhere, and she was always curious, always wanting to help out.

She turned three years old last week. Her birthday party was last Friday. She got to go out and see a show with her dad and all her sisters and she loved it. She was ecstatic; she was similarly so when her big brother Applejack came home from camp, and when her big brother Twilight Sparkle came home, New Year's Eve, after working all day. She was so very, very happy, almost explosively joyful.

Today, to use the metaphor we've been bandying about the thread so much, her song ended. She tried to be adventurous, like her big sister, and there was an accident. She was rushed to the hospital, but soon after, she passed away.

So that's why I've got the little Twilight Sparkle toy she gave me after Christmas sitting on my desk, and why I'm having a little bit of a meltdown right now. Because I'm crying and yet I'm smiling because she smiled and would want me to. Her name was Aimee Katherine, and she was a wonderful little sister, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again one day.

If you happen to be of a religious persuasion, please pray for my family, especially my parents. I'll muddle through this, but they desperately need your prayers.

[Thanqol]

I certainly agree that a similar system has worked in some contexts. MLG, for example, broadcasts Starcraft matches for free and charges users for a pass to view the high quality streams. The MLP context does present certain challenges for the premium quality business model though. People use the episodes heavily for PMVs and remixes, so many who would pay for the high quality episodes really want a download that they can edit, not merely a way to watch the original episodes in HQ. But, once you give out the download (unless it's protected by DRM) stopping people from distributing it freely becomes rather like fighting the tide. Controlling all distribution means that some portion of bronies will pay for iTunes, and moreover that parents who want to show MLP to its intended demographic have to buy the DVDs or the iTunes videos.

There's probably a way to make the pitch that Hasbro should use a premium quality payment model like you suggest, but it's also possible that their marketing guys have run the numbers and the focus group results and concluded that it's worth more to control the DVDs than to rely on increased toy sales, a small number of premium viewers, and ad revenue.

There is no way a casual spectator like me sitting at home can tell you if it's cost effective to do this one way or the other. If Hasbro has a team of goons capable of telling them that this is the most cost effective strategy then, hey. Game over. Question's moot. If this discussion continues, it's going to be in the realm of cold, hard speculation.

But I know that I have spent, what... seven pony shirts, plus shoes, plus toys, plus art... about $150 on pony and pony based merchandise. About $20 went to Hasbro because they simply have not been providing the services I demand; the rest went to the fandom. If MLP was premium only, that figure would be $0. There is a LOT of money in the upsell market.

[Thanqol]

A warning: the rest of this post is really goddamn depressing. If you don't like upsetting things, just imagine that I'm talking about why I've got a tiny Twilight Sparkle next to my bed right now and apologizing to people for letting my PM box fill up, and to Thanqol because I've really got no idea when I'll respond to his marvelous roleplay.

Oh, and, uh, if anyone happens to drop any high-quality Rarity imagedumps, that would be cool. Just saying.

Spoiler

Show

Let me tell you about my little sister, Rarity.

She loved My Little Pony. She got to know all the ponies by name - well, most of them, anyway - and she loved looking at her older brother's vast collection of pony pictures, off his phone. She decided that she was obviously Rarity, that her big brother was Twilight Sparkle, and then named all her four other siblings; she would cheerfully relate, were you to ask her, the plots of various episodes, and little quotes from them. Even though she named herself Rarity, she was as cute as Fluttershy and as happy as Pinkie Pie. She was outrageously happy, overbrimming with it, whenever she wasn't having a Rarity-esque, over-the-top, meltdown. She practically bounced everywhere, and she was always curious, always wanting to help out.

She turned three years old last week. Her birthday party was last Friday. She got to go out and see a show with her dad and all her sisters and she loved it. She was ecstatic; she was similarly so when her big brother Applejack came home from camp, and when her big brother Twilight Sparkle came home, New Year's Eve, after working all day. She was so very, very happy, almost explosively joyful.

Today, to use the metaphor we've been bandying about the thread so much, her song ended. She tried to be adventurous, like her big sister, and there was an accident. She was rushed to the hospital, but soon after, she passed away.

So that's why I've got the little Twilight Sparkle toy she gave me after Christmas sitting on my desk, and why I'm having a little bit of a meltdown right now. Because I'm crying and yet I'm smiling because she smiled and would want me to. Her name was Aimee Katherine, and she was a wonderful little sister, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again one day.

If you happen to be of a religious persuasion, please pray for my family, especially my parents. I'll muddle through this, but they desperately need your prayers.

And then there were no words left.

I'm not religious, but I believe in a higher power, and I believe in souls. I don't pray often, but today, I will.

[Eakin]

The accidental sentence fragment has been fixed. And the point is that she really doesn't care much anymore. As far as she is concerned, as long as the crowd is happy, so is she. She's the kind of pony who, like Pinkie Pie, siphons off of other ponies' joy. Even if she can't hear and enjoy the music, they can.
If you haven't read it already, you can find out how she plays beats by reading Music to my Ears.

Ah, well I'll have to read those as well and see if that changes my view of this, but if the story doesn't stand by itself maybe you're better off incorporating it into Music to my Ears instead of making it stand alone? Because nothing that you wrote above about drawing inspiration from the crowd comes through for me even knowing what you're going for. Which is a shame, because it's a solid idea!

[Anarion]

A warning: the rest of this post is really goddamn depressing. If you don't like upsetting things, just imagine that I'm talking about why I've got a tiny Twilight Sparkle next to my bed right now and apologizing to people for letting my PM box fill up, and to Thanqol because I've really got no idea when I'll respond to his marvelous roleplay.

Oh, and, uh, if anyone happens to drop any high-quality Rarity imagedumps, that would be cool. Just saying.

Spoiler

Show

Let me tell you about my little sister, Rarity.

She loved My Little Pony. She got to know all the ponies by name - well, most of them, anyway - and she loved looking at her older brother's vast collection of pony pictures, off his phone. She decided that she was obviously Rarity, that her big brother was Twilight Sparkle, and then named all her four other siblings; she would cheerfully relate, were you to ask her, the plots of various episodes, and little quotes from them. Even though she named herself Rarity, she was as cute as Fluttershy and as happy as Pinkie Pie. She was outrageously happy, overbrimming with it, whenever she wasn't having a Rarity-esque, over-the-top, meltdown. She practically bounced everywhere, and she was always curious, always wanting to help out.

She turned three years old last week. Her birthday party was last Friday. She got to go out and see a show with her dad and all her sisters and she loved it. She was ecstatic; she was similarly so when her big brother Applejack came home from camp, and when her big brother Twilight Sparkle came home, New Year's Eve, after working all day. She was so very, very happy, almost explosively joyful.

Today, to use the metaphor we've been bandying about the thread so much, her song ended. She tried to be adventurous, like her big sister, and there was an accident. She was rushed to the hospital, but soon after, she passed away.

So that's why I've got the little Twilight Sparkle toy she gave me after Christmas sitting on my desk, and why I'm having a little bit of a meltdown right now. Because I'm crying and yet I'm smiling because she smiled and would want me to. Her name was Aimee Katherine, and she was a wonderful little sister, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again one day.

If you happen to be of a religious persuasion, please pray for my family, especially my parents. I'll muddle through this, but they desperately need your prayers.

If my thoughts and hopes can be of any solace to you or anyone close to you, they are yours.

[Kindablue]

I have no idea what to say, Raz. My condolences to your family; we'll always be here for you.