How does such a small franchise maintain a strong fanbase almost thirty* years later? And just what is it about fuzzy pickles and odometers that reel people into the games in the first place? ## Episode Outline ### Fandom Facts **History and Origins:** > The Mother series ... consists of three role-playing video games: the 1989 Mother for the Famicom, the 1994 Mother 2, known as EarthBound outside of Japan, for the Super NES, and the 2006 Mother 3 for the Game Boy Advance. Written by Shigesato Itoi and published by Nintendo, and featuring game mechanics modeled on the Dragon Quest series, the Mother series is known for its sense of humor, originality, and parody. The player uses weapons and psychic powers to fight hostile, everyday objects, aliens and brainwashed people. Signature elements of the series include the lighthearted plots, the battle sequences with psychedelic backgrounds, and the "rolling HP meter": as player health ticks down like an odometer (damage doesn't instantly subtract HP), players can outrun the meter to heal before dying. While the franchise is popular in Japan, in the United States, it is best associated with the cult following behind EarthBound. > — [Wikipedia - EarthBound](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_(video_game_series)) **Names** Sometimes fandoms have a definitive name (e.g. "Whovians") other fandoms... struggle. Here are some of the names that [the community has come up with](https://earthboundcentral.com/2012/03/what-are-earthbound-fans/): - Starmen - Motherheads - Momma's Boys - Mother Lovers - EarthBounders - Boundies - Eagleandians **Search Data:** In a surprise twist, unlike most of the fandoms that we have covered on the show, [EarthBound fandom has been almost constant](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F01282w,%2Fm%2F01s7_9) (it's only decreased a little bit since 2004). The most notable spike in interest occured in October 2008, which likely coincides with the release of the unofficial English fan translation ...
The Nickscast discuss why a man who "died" over one hundred years ago is still popular today: We're talking about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous work, Sherlock Holmes and, more appropriately, its fans, *Sherlockians*. How is it that one set of stories sparked so many different pastiches, re-interpretations and ever more stories? What did fandom look like in the 19th century? What does the fandom look like today? Find out on this week's episode of Fanthropological: the great game is afoot! Next week, we’ll be talking about fans of Transformers (The *robots in disguise* variety). Stay tuned! ## Episode outline ### Fandom Facts **Origins:** The world's most famous fictional private detective; first appeared in print in 1887 (in *a Study in Scarlet*). The creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he is well known for his deductive reasoning, forensic science, and logic that borders on the fantastic. **Fandom Origins:** In 1897 the first "fan fiction" appears (John Kendricks' *Pursuit of the House-Boat*), during the time period when Holmes had been 'killed off' between 1893 and 1903. In 1934, the Baker Street Irregulars were founded in NYC—one of the oldest and largest Sherlock Holmes organizations dedicated to the fandom. Much later, fandom springs up around BBC's *Sherlock* (2010) and *Elementary* (2012). **Names:** Sherlockians, Holmesians **Fan terms:** > **Z**: *The hiatus* is the term that fans use to refer to the period where Sir Arther Conan Doyle was not writing any new Sherlock Holmes stories between 1893 and 1903. > **G**: Much like Harry Potter's 3 year summer, or, I don't know, the eternal wait for whenever the next game of throne book comes out. **Size of Fandom:** > Certainly, Sherlock’s audience is several million greater than the 565 people who took this survey, but they ...
This week, we make sure that everything is cleared by the ethics committee before we talk about SCP-001. That's right we're talking about fans of the SCP Foundation! ...And that's it for this season! Main episodes will be back in two weeks, but stay tuned because next week we have a special introduction to the podcast, our first regular minisode! ## Episode outline ### Fandom Facts **History and Origins:** The SCP Foundation (Secure, Contain, Protect) is a fictional organization launched in 2008 that is the subject of web-based collaborative writing project of the same name. Stories from the project often describe situations that violate natural law, and are written in an academic, scientific writing style. The series of stories started with SCP-173 on 4chan's paranormal _/x/_ board. The SCP Foundation has hundreds of different stories about various SCPs and the SCP Foundation itself, and has also inspired many spin-off works such as _SCP - Containment Breach_. **Search Data:** Interest in the SCP Foundation [follows a strange trend](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fg%2F1q2xhks7f). From 2004 to January 2012, interest was on a steady decline. However, after that point there was a sharp increase in interest followed by a mostly upward trend in interest with spikes in May 2012 (Possibly Markiplier playing _Containment Breach_ ), August 2014, and April 2017 (Series IV opens up?). The top 10 countries, by search volume are: Japan, South Korea, Poland, United States, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, and Taiwan. **Fan Demographics:** Fortunately, the [SCP Foundation website holds an annual community survey](http://www.scp-wiki.net/2017-survey-results). Here are some interesting demographics and data points from the over 6000 responses for the 2017 survey. - _Age_ : The largest group is those 15-19 (~ 50%), then 20-24 (~ 21%), and under 15 (~ 11%) - _Gender_ ...
