2017 Rewind - The Better Parts of the Year of Hell

2017 will not be remembered with any fondness. In fact, it might be remembered only as the year which staggeringly managed to be even worse than 2015 and 2016, despite the low bar set before it. Proving that bad things could only get progressively worse, everything from the worst aspects of the political landscape to old media problems seemed to return with a vengeance. Many big scale franchises churned out multiple disappointments with Star Wars, in particular, proving that even the easiest of victories can be botched with the wrong people backing it.

Yet, you know all this. In fact, many of you have likely been looking into the many "Worst of X" lists and retrospectives created by Youtube personalities and bigger websites calling back to those moments. A few of you likely also took a gander at the "Best of X" as well, and that's sort of what we're here to do today. As bad as the year was, as horrific and disastrous as it proved to be for many, this is to reflect upon a few of the successes of the past few months across entertainment in general. From tabletop games to films, this is going to just point out that we did have a few great moments despite everything bad which was thrown our way.

The Redemption of Games Workshop

This could easily take up a list several times this length, but it cannot be stated enough that Games Workshop has massively improved in a matter of months. I honestly cannot recall the last time that a franchise, and a company as a whole, pulled such a dramatic 180 in terms of policies and approaches to fans. In fact, the difference between the company a few years ago and what we have now is night and day.

We commented a bit upon this a while back, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. It's true that the company began to retain a much bigger focus upon lore, but you also need to consider everything else it has done. On the 40,000 front the Primaris marines for starters offered a long-standing demand for true-scale space marines, the rules were slimmed down dramatically and new campaigns were made to decide the setting's fate. Yeah, remember when that was last a thing? Equally, Age of Sigmar saw improvement after improvement with multiple armies people have grown to love, vastly improved lore, better novels and even a genuinely massive change within the setting. It seemed as if, if the fans had been asking for it, the company was willing to offer it.

Moreso than this, the company managed to open its doors to others without betraying its core. A very old criticism of Games Workshop itself was how it repeatedly shunned older gamers in favour of new fans, while hiking prices so high only the old guard could afford it. Amazingly, the company answered this in multiple ways. For starters, the long radio silence was quickly broken as it re-established multiple social media outlets. Along with humorous images, answers and professional responses to comments, it repeatedly spoke with those involved in the community and made it clear their voice was being heard. Atop of this, the company started working with Youtube, maintaining Warhammer tv with multiple painting and gaming tutorials, opinion pieces, and even working with established community members.

Finally, the company re-introduced a number of assets and ideas which had not been seen for years, and then built upon them. Full starter sets with mini-squads, paints and a brush were promoted and sold at a cheaper price in a variety of shops. Then various squads started to come with mini-rulebooks devoted to that specific unit, and more beginning friendly variants were introduced into the setting. More pre-established builds which lacked the detail or customisation options of the versions with more pieces, but were cheaper and easier to work with. It's amazing to think that the company has gone from this to a company which might as well be setting the gold standard for communication with its consumers.

On a personal note, the only negative thing I have to say is that I was not given the chance to fully cover and praise them for such efforts over the course of this year.

A Moment of Sanity for Patreon

Independent creators lead hard lives. While it's easy to lob accusations at those making a living via websites or home businesses, claiming they do not have "real jobs" it only takes a cursory look to see how difficult it is to maintain such a career. Jim Sterling put it best when he slammed Youtube, citing how it played fast and loose with the lives of others, and failed to even keep those making it money up to date with current events. Not to mention forcing them to navigate an increasingly insane network of policies and methods which risked financially ruining lives.

Between the Adpocalypse and the ever increasing inability to rely upon basic adverts for income, many creators were left horrified at the prospect of Patreon hiking its prices. Charging those supporting creators more for their efforts, it seemingly forced a new financial rule with no forewarning. One which would disproportionally affect those paying for various tiers of rewards, and immediately had backers withdrawing their support from creators before their finances could be drained further. Many suspected thanks to the methods of previous companies in pushing widely derided policies - again, just look at Youtube - that this would be it. Instead, Patreon saw the backlash and stopped it entirely. In fact, they even issued a full apology.

The move still negatively affected creators, and left many with fewer backers than before. Others were left pushing to rebuild their previous support base, and no one will deny that Patreon should have asked for outside opinions first before even considering this move. However, their actions were a rare moment of sanity within the online scene which reminded people that not every company was willing to throw their money-makers to the wolves at a moment's notice. At least, in backtracking on this and attempting to communicate with others, a few thousand creators are not out of a job just yet.

Nintendo's Switch of Fortunes

For a long time the console war seemed like little more than a two-platform race. You had Sony on one side and Microsoft on the other. With the Wii's more casual friendly focus - to the point where many regarded it as more of a toy than a full console, and the mismanaged promotion of the Wii U, most wrote off Nintendo as a gimmick company. The sort of one which was more akin to a bizarre experimental offshoot of the industry or crackpot creator of the video game world. The introduction of the Switch changed all of that.

The big thing about the Switch - the most obvious benefit - was the fact Nintendo was treating it as a console. Whereas the Playstation 4 and Xbox One were desperately fighting a losing battle against the PC's for performance and sheer power, Nintendo opted to pick and choose its battles. Favouring areas the PC could not cover yet, and restoring the idea of accessibility over top tier performances. While many of its key titles lacked the cutting edge textures and sheer power of PC titles, the likes of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey proved that there was beauty to be found there along with fantastic content.

Furthermore, the company also opened itself up to other groups. With steam being so oversaturated with titles that many great indies were being buried beneath a constant tidal wave of new titles, Nintendo offered to feature them on the Switch instead. Combined with a massive promotional campaign, these moves quickly boosted Nintendo's profits and a sizable chunk of the market. With the return of Samus to look forward to and a willingness to keep experimenting with existing technologies, the future looks bright for the company.

Marvel Proves Continuity Isn't The Enemy

The big criticism against comics has always been how continuity supposedly prevents people from jumping on. Despite much of the world having access to every information resource they could desire - and a direct online link to fans for questions - it seems to keep driving people away. While 2017, unfortunately, proved to be a poor year for Marvel comics, it was nevertheless an excellent one for its films. Even almost ten years on from Iron Man kick-starting the entire cinematic universe, the tightly woven network of crossovers, details, and events are paying off as the links are further solidified. With Thor: Ragnarok connecting to several existing stories, it managed to give the impression of a greater universe without becoming obtuse or overly focused upon fans reading up on events to enjoy the production.

This was to say nothing of the other films produced this year. Spider-Man: Homecoming featured a take on the character which cinema fans had not seen before now, while Guardians of the Galaxy II continued to create a bright and weird universe for the cosmic characters to live in. All the while, references, notes and connections were made with one another, from characters showing up to plot devices arising from one film and then the next. Everything was connected, and yet retained its independence.


Furthermore, the disastrous (and quite insultingly bad) adaptation of the Inhumans was quietly shunted off to a forgotten part of the setting to die off; finally silencing the Ike Perlmutter's raging dickery and justifying every reason to just ignore the man whenever possible. Other adaptations on the small screen proved to be much more effective, with the Defenders crossover successfully combining together the heroes into a satisfying single narrative, and giving Iron Fist some much-needed needed quality storytelling.

DC Comics Listens to the Fans

In some bizarre reflection of its major rival, as DC Comics fumbled a rushed attempt to start its own cinematic universe ahead of time, the comics exploded into a new golden age. One of the sort of bright, vibrant insanity we have not seen since the late 90s. Discarding much of what was hated about the New 52, the company launched the Rebirth initiative with every major title, bringing the focus back to the main universe and greatly improving its renewed titles.

Rather than delving into the grim and depressingly death heavy depths we had seen before, many of the comics instead favoured an openly optimistic tone. Many direct criticisms and cited failures of the New 52 were directly addressed, from the treatment of female characters (including their costumes) to preventing editor issuing so many demands that they drove writers from the company. Better yet, the stories themselves opted to break new ground. Rather than relying too much upon old overdone ideas or rehashing previous concepts, the comics opted to instead ask "We tried this previously, what could we do differently with these characters? What could we have done better?"

The result has been some of the best storytelling DC Comics has seen in years, and some of the funniest. With Superman having benefitted from multiple extremely strong arcs, and even the likes of All Star Batman having been revamped as a genuinely great title while following its original directive. With 100% less Frank Miller no less. Honestly, there's never been a better time to get into or back to the universe where a man can fly.

The Hammer Drops on Microtransactions

2017 will be remembered for the one-two punch of AAA greed in the video games industry, ruining the legacy of two beloved franchises. The first of these was Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, a bad joke which used the presence of orcs and an upscaled sense of warfare to push every greedy money grabbing trick possible. The other, the much-anticipated apology for its predecessor, was Star Wars: Battlefront 2, a game which took the idea of pay to win to its most extreme form. These were acts of industry avarice taken to its extreme, and the latter received the kind of backlash not seen since the days of Mass Effect 3's ending.

The very act of playing each game was a bad joke, with them both ending on cliffhangers and artificially ramping up grinding to push players into shelling out more cash. Combined with some power-ups which granted literal invincibility and bug-ridden mechanics, followed by Electronic Arts' inability to perform any act besides shooting themselves in the foot, sparks a wildfire of fury. Many took notice, including more than a few governments.

This was finally a step too far for many politicians, with various American states and European countries taking a very close look into microtransactions in video games. Some banned them outright, deeming them gambling, while even those who considered them not to be were still ready to maintain a close watch on the industry and this facet of it in particular. While it might not have been the death knell for this overly abused monetization scheme, it was the first crack in its armour, and sent a few companies running scared.

The Renaissance of Fan-Films

Fan films are hardly a new thing, and from the late 90s onward there have been plenty of acclaimed releases. However, 2017 benefitted from a multitude of excellent fan-made releases, and promising trailers. The big one proved to be the long-awaited Strontium Dog fan film which we reviewed here, while many others saw either very promising trailers or full productions in this time. Bangarang: A Hook Prequel proved to be a solidly entertaining and expertly produced short prequel to the old Spielberg production. Uncharted: Ambushed lived up to Nathan Drake's legacy, Word’s Finest gave us a better crossover than a big budget superhero attempt, and Star Wars Episode II: Twins of Alderan proved to be more professionally written than the vast majority of Disney's attempts in this year.

Perhaps best of all, Warhammer 40,000 fans were offered a glimpse at a proper attempt to bring both the Adeptus Astartes and the Horus Heresy to life with this little trailer:

Say what you will about the rest of the year, but we were not starved for good fan content.

The Return of 2D Favourites

Metroid and Sonic. Really, what more do I need to add? The former saw a game which both redeemed the franchise's creator, rebooted a seemingly dead license and returned the bounty hunter to her roots for the first time since Fusion. The latter saw the first outright great game he and his ilk have seen since the golden age of 16-bit games, one made by fans no less.

Many others even arose in this time with Nintendo, in particular, benefitting from a slew of new titles for its handheld devices. Say what you will, but sometimes someone can pull off a miracle.

Warcradle Studios' Dystopian Age

One very sad moment arose in the previous year in which Spartan Games closed its doors due to manufacturing problems. Despite hosting two successful franchises in the form of Dystopian Wars and Firestorm Armada, several expansions and even making money hand over fist with an incredible Halo tabletop game, miscalculations while attempting to kick-start in-house manufacturing led to its end. This proved to be an especially heavy blow to fans of the aforementioned licenses, which were pushing toward a big new change within their settings, and were even finishing up a two very successful Kickstarters. In truth, the only reason this website had not covered them before was that plans had been made in 2017, and were promptly derailed time and time again by intrusive outside influences.

Many fans expected the death of Spartan Games to be it, and the two successful small-scale franchises would never be heard of again. Instead, we ended up with quite the opposite. Warcradle Studios bought up the remaining assets to each, and promptly announced their Dystopian Age revamp for the steampunk wargame. Offering free digital copies of their new rulebook to previous buyers and even putting up a previously limited edition ship up for open purchase, they have begun earning back goodwill and attention alike from their audiences.

While we have seem admittedly little of the game itself thus far, in an age where second chances are so rare outside of the biggest names, this is a very welcome turn of events. After the likes of All Quiet on the Martian Front failed and other efforts have gone quiet over the years, to see one stunning success be given a new lease on life was a definite sign of hope.

Victories of the Indie Industry

When it comes to video games, it's difficult not to deem corporations as "evil" now. When you have the likes of Electronic Arts and Activision up there, when Ubisoft makes mistake after mistake and Valve stubbornly refuses to fix a damn thing on their storefront, no one would blame you for thinking the AAA industry was a singular failure. It's a very good thing, then, that indies are having an easier time to get their works to a broad audience these days.

For those who did look into the "Best of X" lists relating to video games on most websites, you might have noticed a slight trend. More than a few of them, even among the big ones, were often indie titles. Either independently produced or backed only by a very small scale publisher, the likes of The Sexy Brutale, What Remains of Edith Finch and others all kept showing up. Rightfully so as well. While this isn't an entirely new trend, there has been an increasing focus upon these games as the bigger budget studios start to have their own releases falter for one reason or another.

Even the most ardent of big-budget supporters have begun to swing in favour of smaller games, and with lower production costs and the benefit of word-of-mouth, this could be the start of better things. While Nintendo has turned things around, as people lose patience with Bethesda's buggy releases, Ubisoft's intrusive DRM and Electronic Arts... Look, it's Electronic Arts, just pick any example - The point is that people are losing patience. If there is a cheaper and more reliable option bereft of old flaws, the chances are they start to buy them over the disasters of the AAA industry. If this keeps going, the old companies will be left with one decision to make: Change or die.

The Orville's Return to Bright Science Fiction

From its inception, most felt that The Orville would be a single one-shot passion project and little else. Despite his obvious talent, Seth McFarlane has been hit or miss over the years, and after a poor promotional effort more than a few audiences were ready to write this off as Star Trek: Family Guy. Then the first episode came out and everyone changed their minds.

What we ended up with was closer to Star Trek: The Office, with moments of McFarlane humour and gags, but a classic Trek message and a great take on show ideas. The jokes themselves were well placed, the characters were likable, the new races sidestepped being little more than stand-ins for old versions, and the tributes to Trek were just that. They were tributes, not some effort to milk nostalgia and slum it on past victories.

Perhaps most important of all, The Orville retained a sense of optimism and hope much of science fiction had lost. Not a blindly hopeful one, but a brighter alternative to the constant war stories and dystopias the industry had been churning out without fail for the past few years. It proved that sometimes surprises could be nice rather than some dreaded wait to see how something would betray its audience.

The Success of Reboots

2017 saw no end of reboots of past franchises, and usually, this would mean a bad thing. Reviving endless franchises, late sequels and full-fledged restarts has been an old criticism of Hollywood, and it seems to only lead to disappointment. Let's face it, for all the good that has come of this, there has been a lot of bad.

Surprisingly, however, 2017 had far more critical successes than anyone would have guessed. Despite many believing it would fail outright, Blade Runner 2049 proved to be a worthy successor to the acclaimed cult hit. Despite everyone believing otherwise, Jumanji proved to be a great popcorn film with an interesting meta element, while Kong: Skull Island strengthened the new monsterverse and Power Rangers proved to be a competent take on the old franchise. 

Even without getting into the likes of Logan or Spider-Man: Homecoming, others like It and Murder on the Orient Express remained solid alternatives to their predecessors. For once, for every dud like The Mummy, there was a great deal more good to go around.

If you still feel that 2017 was terrible, I do not blame you. This hardly makes up for the bad that happened, and quite frankly I personally hope to high heaven that 2018 finally starts to see a few of the major problems of the last three years fixed. Whatever the case though, I hope you have a happy new year, and that we will have better things to comment on in the months to come.