Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Fearlessly Fierce



Let's be honest here, I have no talent whatsoever when it comes down to writing a simple introduction. Usually, I'll draw a blank for ten, fifteen, maybe even twenty minutes before I even have a simple grasp of what I'm going to cover in a short and informative post. Pft, yeah right. Short and informative isn't my forte. Once I've maintained a basic understanding of my topic, I have to go into explicit detail about every nook and cranny of what I'm reviewing. Or what was supposed to originally be a quick, "New store release!"

But, aside from the point. I have plenty of time to go into detail about my methods of ranting, and more so what could be explained as a massive scheme to get my point of view across. It'll take even longer when I manage to stray from my original intent, and post about how it's been months since I last posted (and for that, I do have a reason, but I'll spare you the details). No, that's only a waste of your time; just reading some incoherent mess that is a sixteen-year-old controversy junkie.

No, today I'm not going to ramble off about some lame scandal involving two well-known elites. I'm not going to even take a crack at that one user who couldn't even manage to pull off even the simplest of outfits; I'm more than done with that phase, no matter how much it might've gave me pleasure to trash someone else. What I am here to talk about however, is the final issue of Fierce.

Truthfully, I wouldn't be shocked if even a herd of people questioned, "What's Fierce?" Others might scoff and retort with a, "Only the best magazine of all time!" Regardless of whether you classify Fierce as the best, or simply one of the better magazines on Stardoll, I believe any project deserves praise. Even if it stinks. Like, badly.

Fortunately though, that wasn't the case for Fierce. Like its name suggests, the magazine certainly has a fiery edge to its stream of unique content. And for one last time, I got a taste of what it was like to be Fierce. Earlier today, the graphic designer, founder and owner of the magazine pulled a Beyonce, releasing the final issue without a sliver of a whisper breathing it's return for a final time. And after four years of still no issue, I definitely was not expecting the cover of one of my personal "pioneer" favorites to come back just like that. Much less a simple, "we're back," post gracing my eerily (somewhat) active dashboard.

Personally, I wasn't a huge fan of the cover, but I won't go further than that. Mainly for the fact along with the cover, several graphics within Fierce is far different from any other technique in the stream of what's classified as a Stardoll graphic norm. I did however, find myself eying Alice's technique, just wondering how she manages to make what would seem as somewhat simple for a mediocre-just-bordering-intermediate graphic designer. And I'm not just talking about myself, I'm talking about graphic artists across the board, might their specialty be Stardoll graphics or digital artists specializing in portraits to landscapes. The truth of the matter is that it all comes down to talent. That Alice certainly has.

It wasn't just the graphics that astounded me. Emma, the author of the vast majority of articles definitely contributed a strong portion to the magazine. Her writing is near spotless, flawless almost, except for a few errors here and there. But hey, it happens to all of us. I personally favored the, "Don't Judge a Book..." article, it definitely had a strong argument that I could feel and relate to. That's another important key aspect of any magazine; any piece of literature, really.

I don't believe entirely in reviewing the finale of any magazine, specifically because it can either make or break anyone's expectation of the beforehand mentioned brand. While I was entirely pleased with the content of Fierce, and believed thoroughly in this being a good ending point for the notorious player in the blogging industry, that may be the opposite of your reality. Another note of this being the fact a finale is ijdeed a finale; it's main purpose being able to evoke nostalgia. It reminds us to remember what was once good, and what will be forever cherished. Fierce will, and has, accomplished just that. Same goes for every other final issue, final blog post, final remembrance speech, final anything, really. We deserve to remember; not point out every flaw with the end of an era. Just remember what was good.

In short, the finale of Fierce came to show me not only the importance of remembering, but the importance of that one final curtain call. That in itself, is truly brilliant.

12 comments:

  1. IM JUST IN SHOCK THAT FIERCE IS OUT WTF YES

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To add to this, the final issue of Fierce was truly the perfect goodbye for one of (if not THE) most influential Stardoll magazines of all time. a literal huge congratulations to everyone at fierce over the years (especially alice and emma) - the nostalgia is just pouring back in!

      Delete
  2. Definitely not her best work. but it was nice to see a familiar magazine try to drop a product like beyonce. The skin shading on the illustrations throughout reminded me of a lesser Femme magazine. The skin was a bit muddy. Like kim said you do get the nostalgia from seeing all of the non-active "elite" users as models. The consistency is definitely not there (you try and stitch old graphics & new graphics together! It's not easy work to say the least).

    ReplyDelete
  3. loved it but alices graphics got a little bit worse since 2011/12

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Pinkitas are coming March 21st!!!! The Pinkitas are coming March 21st!!!! Their website and blog are premiering! Get ready Stardoll, for the next best Stardoll blog and their website!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. not to excited but your name makes me hungry since it rhymes with my fave Mexican plate, fajitas.....

      Delete
  5. Funny how most of the scathing comments end up being anonymous...

    Anyways, thanks for the review Tyler, and even if some of the comments on Fierce have been a little insensitive (not referring to your post, mainly to said anonymous comments) it's been fun to do and the closure is nice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  6. Sorry, I realise that wasn't actually Tyler's writing, sorry. Not very up to date at all. Emma pointed it out to me -_-

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for the review or just general shout out by the way! We really didn't even think that so many people were gonna notice that we published it. I guess you can say that our "Beyonce" was kinda unintentional. We felt like publishing the issue that day.. so we did ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yeah the Beyonce thing was not an intentional thing... I actually dislike that reference tbh, we just wanted the issue out there for the longstanding fans to see without the fuss that comes with a 'proper' release

    ReplyDelete