
Minesweeper Fanfiction - frozenport
https://www.fanfiction.net/game/Minesweeper/
======
mercer
I love these kinds of things, and I consider this one of the best things about
the internet.

I've spent entire days exploring weird subreddits, their social rules, and the
way some of them interact with each other. And from the 'pc master race'
phenomenon to the enmity between reddit, 4chan, imgur and 9gag, from a forum
filled with nothing but elaborate (and often well-researched and well-written)
alternate histories to the troubling 'men's rights' movement, from the
ecosystem of Minecraft to the parallels between cults and the more fanatical
bitcoin 'groups': I can observe all of these things effortlessly without
leaving my house.

How amazing (and sometimes terrifying) is that?

~~~
samspot
I have to ask what is troubling about the men's rights movement? Sure there
are a lot of people hanging around there that don't get it, but the primary
issues are important. It is particularly troubling to me that male rape
victims are still routinely laughed out of police stations. Issues like these
deserve attention, and there are very few people working on them.

~~~
mercer
Ah, my apologies. Of course there are plenty of legitimate issues, but my
experience has been that there is too much misogyny in some of these
communities, which is what troubles me.

It's a bit like how some of the conspiracy groups are rife with overt anti-
semitism (although they'd probably not call it that). Regardless of how I feel
about the conspiracies that may or may not be there, I usually bail out as
soon as the theory ends up blaming the jews for everything.

------
lmm
Most subcultures look weird from the outside - HN is probably weirder than
fanfiction.net in many respects. It's unhealthy and self-defeating to mock
them for that.

~~~
Houshalter
I don't see anyone mocking them. It's just funny to me that it exists. There
are far more ridiculous short story topics posted in /r/WritingPrompts every
day, and that's a default subreddit.

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gerjomarty
Don't forget the Minesweeper crossover fanfiction!

[https://www.fanfiction.net/Minesweeper-
Crossovers/441/0/](https://www.fanfiction.net/Minesweeper-Crossovers/441/0/)

------
pcwalton
On a somewhat related note, it makes me extremely happy that the longest piece
of literature in the English language is a piece of _Super Smash Bros._ fan
fiction—by a non-native speaker of English, no less!

[http://kotaku.com/this-smash-bros-fan-fiction-
has-3-5-millio...](http://kotaku.com/this-smash-bros-fan-fiction-
has-3-5-million-words-s-899629991)

------
StavrosK
For people who were lost like me, these aren't comments on one story. Each is
one complete story, and these are the titles. Click on one to read the actual
story.

The hell?

~~~
spatten
We (mostly my cofounder at Leanpub, Peter, but I've done it once or twice) do
the same thing when talking about "the rise of serial fiction via fanfiction"
to a publishing audience.

We show them the "books" page of fanfiction.net[1] and then note that the
numbers there are the number of stories written in each book's universe, not
the number of readers or views or anything like that. Go look if you haven't
seen it, it's amazing.

[1]: [https://www.fanfiction.net/book/](https://www.fanfiction.net/book/)

~~~
StavrosK
Jeez, seven HUNDRED THOUSAND HP fanfiction stories? Wow.

By the way, I love Leanpub. You guys have made me a bit of money, good job
making Leanpub awesome!

------
andrey-p
Hey, I don't understand what the problem is. The premise is ambiguous enough
to invite creativity. You'd probably stumble upon a lot more innovation and
playfulness here than in, say, the Sherlock Holmes fanfic section, where
people would have to deal with character and setting established over
_decades_.

(Note: I'm really just speculating here. I haven't read any of the fanfic
here, and the only Sherlock Holmes fanfic I've read is Neil Gaiman's. I could
be wildly wrong.)

~~~
britta
Fanfiction writers are creative with all types of media - it's part of the
culture to go wild with experimental ideas and have fun with them, laughing
together about it. Well-established characters mean that you have more common
elements between stories, but humans find infinite stories to tell (and when
you get bored of telling normal stories, you make up "alternate universe"
stories for your favorite characters). The various kinds of Sherlock Holmes
fanfiction are usually more serious than these Minesweeper stories, but that's
more about them being based on more serious/complex material. (I have read a
lot of fanfiction.)

------
pcthrowaway
This must be like the Aristocrats for aspiring fanfic writers.

------
cmdkeen
You don't need fiction for bizarre minesweeping stories.

During the Falklands War the British needed to confirm whether the entrance to
Falkland Sound had been mined before the landings could begin. Not having any
minesweepers with the task group HMS Alacrity, a Type 21 frigate, was detailed
off to find out.

This involved sailing up and down to see if they hit anything, with all non-
essential personnel staying above the water-line. Thankfully they didn't find
any mines.

~~~
unwind
You're kind of missing the point, this is about fan fiction in the universe of
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minesweeper_%28video_game%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minesweeper_%28video_game%29).
Pretty creative.

------
protonfish
I'd rather watch the movie
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHY8NKj3RKs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHY8NKj3RKs)

------
jimmcslim
I read it as Minecraft fanfic at first and I thought, 'What the hell?' but hey
fair enough. Then I realised it was MineSWEEPER fanfic and I thought, 'WHAT
THE HELL??!?'

------
Rolpa
There's Pong fan fiction too, you know.

------
personjerry
There's no way that there are enough people this into Minesweeper to fill 87
pages with these. No way.

~~~
ChrisClark
It's a way to practice writing. Take a quick topic and see what you can make
out of it.

Just like reddit's /r/WritingPrompts.

------
crumpled
These authors seem fully aware of the absurdity. Minesweeper is more of an
exercise than an obsession.

------
TrinnyLopez
Reminds me of Creative Writing class in high school.

