Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-37824639-20190407170034/@comment-38454773-20190412092731

DrBobSmith wrote: ArmadillooftheAges wrote:

Maybe you're right. What a pity. I feel like there's not much more I can add than what's already been said. I think it's safe to say Creepypasta as we know it is pretty much dying out. I see it as an art form that is evolving.

Some people say that Hollywood movies are dying and that they are all reboots, usually worse than the original. Yes, Hollywood has turned out quickly forgotten drivel in the last ten years. Yet, I can think of several really imaginative films that have come out. Two of my favorites were obscure little indie films made on tiny budgets.

The days of rebooting Jeff The Killer or spouting some meaningless ritual and getting the Creepypasta audience to buy it are over. It will flop, just as badly as the recent Ghostbusters reboot. To succeed in today's crowded creepypasta marketplace, you need to constantly improve.

Of course, what is a success in Creepypasta? It's not like I do this for money. It is an art form, a hobby. To me, a successful pasta is where it is the best story I can do at that time. If each story is a little better than the last, I am succeeding. Describing it as an art form that's evolving, to me, is looking at it in a more positive way. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but for old folks like Ned, Skelly, and myself, it kind of kills what we originally loved about them. If you ask me, Creepypasta moving from user-generated text stories on /x/ in the mid-to-late 2000s to Hollywood movies with million-dollar budgets is not really "evolving"; it's more like falling into the hands of corporate executives who want to make a quick buck. So I guess "popularity" would be a better word than evolving.

I suppose there exists an argument that, yeah, it's evolving because nowadays most pastas aren't so shoddily-written and tend to have more developed plots and characters. I guess if you want to consider that evolving then that's fine, but when I read Pastas back in the day, it wasn't so much to read an intricate piece of horror literature or like something I'd read in an actual novel. It was to read something cheap, short, and crude but really fun. And also, "Creepypasta marketplace" lol. Sounds more and more like an industry everyday.

I've said this numerous times already, but Creepypasta, in my opinion, was always just about having fun by scaring yourself. No standards or anything like that.

Side note: To be completely honest, I enjoy movies, but I'm not a voracious movie-watcher, at least not to the extent of some people. I'm more of a literature and show and gaming fan. And I've read and heard several arguments about how people feel that independent works are far more creative and interesting than works being produced by big-name studios. We have to take into consideration the fact that a lot of work produced by major companies is often at the mercy of executive meddling and public relations while independent works tend to be free and more about the creation and making something awesome than hoping it will sell.