\I[Money - A Threat Towards the Scene|By Note|Section: The Scene of Ours]
\F2\4\MMoney -
\MA Threat Towards The Scene
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\C[ClipArts/pinnen.Chnk]
\2You all know that the scene is more or less commercial by now. No one can deny that fact today. The entrance fees at parties are getting higher and higher and so are also the prize money in the competitions, not to mention the party organizers earnings. Well, this is actually accepted by now and I think that is something we could live with. The higher prize money just make the groups work harder to make better productions.
But when will demos be so good that groups can earn money by selling them? When will demos go commercial? We have already seen the big groups selling their demos after the competitions at the big parties. That's one step towards total commercialization of the scene. Who knows, one day one of the big groups might release a demo that isn't Public Domain. The other big groups will follow that example and after a while, the small groups also try to do the same, just to find out that no one would like to buy their productions, and then they will die. Then, the scene is nothing but commercial.
There is nothing wrong in earning money on things that we like to do but the money shouldn't be the main force in the scene.
Some groups have already gone commercial in one way or another; Virtual Dreams is a very good example of that. Is there any doubt they get a really stunning amount of money from Fairlight for using Fairlight-logos in their productions? Rumour has it that members of Virtual Dreams live on Fairlight money. Fairlight and other cracking-groups don't belong to the scene, they are already too commercialized. Fairlight even appears in some "Best demo group"-charts. Why? Is it possibly that some sceners believe that Fairlight makes half of Virtual Dreams' demos?
Traders are another bunch of people that really are commercial. The best traders are the rich ones and the ones who get their phone bill paid by their parents. That isn't real scene-philosophy. The same goes for swappers, they have to pay for their stamps (if they don't fake). Still we need them. It's a pity that it has to be that way. According to my, quite left-winged philosophy, phone-calls, stamps and collective traffic should be financed by the State, but that isn't the way it is.
The bad thing is that the people with the best computer-equipment have got bigger chances to win the competitions of today. Today, 68030 50MHz has become standard in the demo-competitions. We could at least demand that every demo in the competitions should run on a standard A1200, and that is 2Mb Chip, 68020, 14Mhz and NO fast-mem. They could show the demos on a faster computer as long as they run acceptable on a standard A1200. The Party V didn't have the rule that the demos have to run on a standard A1200. That means that other parties will follow their example and that is not good. The poor scene-guys will surely quit very soon if this kind of commercialization goes on.
I think that there are a lot of other commercializing movements in the scene that I don't know about. I've heard about groups who have "bought" members and forced them to write a contract. That means that it is possible for everyone to buy a bunch of talented people and use them in a group. I guess that sources, music and graphics also are for sale. A lousy graphician could buy graphics from a better one and sign it with his own handle and get famous that way.
If there are someone of you out there who have been in contact with this kind of things, we would be glad if you would like to contact us (the "No Sense" staff) or write a follow-up article. If you are a really corrupted and commercialized scener and if you dare to expose yourself, write something you too.
If the scene goes more commercialized than it is today, I, and many with me, will surely quit. That's not a threat, that's a promise.
