responding specifically to each separate reader. Instead, he created a unique digital medium in which he, an active author, responds to his wider audience. The timing for creation and acceptance is not just a reflection of the Homestuck’s advances in internet and networking technologies, but how in Western cultures we are increasingly more connected and conditioned to the physically displaced digital world of the internet. method of responding to his audience has evolved, but his audience Hussie’s too has evolved in response to his methodology. By the time began Homestuck accelerating in its popularity in the middle of its second year, audience had Hussie’s shifted to a largely young adult based readership, as he describes in an interview with graphic author of the graphic novels: Scott Pilgrim novelist Bryan O’Malley, I think the site really did tend to attract more people in [their 30s] or a bit younger, due to a much more clearly telegraphed parody of text adventure games and those people would dig it for that reason -- the nostalgia and novelty surrounding that particular storytelling mechanism. […] Homestuck added a lot more elements, more engaging story and characters, very much in the vein of young adult content For most of […] them, I do think the text adventure elements were either lost on them or were just something that had no appeal other than something that is an acquired taste But at the onset, that archaic gaming parody stuff, and […] the slow, peculiar pacing it entails, tends to just be one of the many, many barriers to overcome in engaging with this and learning how to enjoy it. (Hussie “Interview”)
responding specifically to each separate reader. Instead, he created a unique digital medium in which he, an active author, responds to his wider audience. The timing for Homestuck’s creation and acceptance is not just a reflection of the advances in internet and networking technologies, but how in Western cultures we are increasingly more connected and conditioned to the physically displaced digital world of the internet. Hussie’s method of responding to his audience has evolved, but his audience too has evolved in response to his methodology. By the time Homestuck began accelerating in its popularity in the middle of its second year, Hussie’s audience had shifted to a largely young adult based readership, as he describes in an interview with graphic novelist Bryan O’Malley, author of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels: I think the site really did tend to attract more people in [their 30s] or a bit younger, due to a much more clearly telegraphed parody of text adventure games and those people would dig it for that reason -- the nostalgia and novelty surrounding that particular storytelling mechanism. […] Homestuck added a lot more elements, more engaging story and characters, very much in the vein of young adult content […] For most of them, I do think the text adventure elements were either lost on them or were just something that had no appeal other than something that is an acquired taste […] But at the onset, that archaic gaming parody stuff, and the slow, peculiar pacing it entails, tends to just be one of the many, many barriers to overcome in engaging with this and learning how to enjoy it. (Hussie “Interview”)