Rename. (alt titles crowner 11/27/11): From Clones To Genre

I know I made Genre Popularizer to split off the bad examples of Genre Launch, but the misuse is rampant. The trope is when a bunch of Follow the Leader works stop being just clones of a popular work and instead become a full genre. Instead most of the wicks (and examples before being moved) were confusing it for a genre maker, genre codifier, Genre Popularizer, Trope Maker, and Trope Codifier.

Wicks:

• Accept: Confused for genre influence.
• Action Comics: Confused for genre maker (and some would argue it's incorrect).
• Albedo Erma Felna EDF: Confused for maker.
• All Quiet On The Western Front: Confused for maker.
• Film.Alone In The Dark: Confused for maker (the source series)
• Alone In The Dark: Confused for maker.
• FanFic.AMV Hell: Confused for maker.
• A New Hope: Confused for maker.
• Animutation: Maker
• Beatmania: Maker
• Bemani: Maker/codifier.
• Bewitched: That's more like a genre influencer.
• Big Star: Maker or codifier.
• Black Metal: Could be either the namer, the maker, or the codifier, but doesn't look like this trope.
• Broke NCYDE: Maker.
• Carmageddon: That's not even a genre. It's just confusing a Trope Maker.
• Carmilla: Confusion for trope maker.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Grammar is off, but it looks like confusion for the genre maker.
• Champions: Confused not only this for the maker, but also confused a point system with a genre.
• Collectible Card Game: Confused for popularizer.
• Come For The X Stay For The Y: Maker
• Computer Wars: Maker, and confused business in a region for a genre.
• Conan The Barbarian: No context, but as far as I know, Conan wasn't the point when a bunch of followers turned into a genre.
• Costume Porn: Maker
• Dead Unicorn Trope: Maker
• Music.Death: No context.
• Desktop Tower Defense: If you cause the following, you aren't this trope.
• Diner Dash: "the first pioneer" is this trope.
• Dominion: If the clones are named after you, you're not this trope.
• Don Pachi: Popularizer

That's just around 30, but the misuse is almost unanimous, with the only exceptions being possible exceptions.

This should have another name, as "Launch" implies starting it, not the changing into a genre.

...What?

Anyway, how about From Ripoffs To Genre as a name?

edited 30th Apr '11 4:07:01 AM by Laukku

Okay, that was poorly phrased. I meant the misuse looked like 100%, depending on if the ones I was uncertain about were correct or not.

Oh yeah, I think a couple wicks misused this for Ur-Example as well.

Now since the misuse is at or just below 100%, would it be okay to skip the single prop crowner, as it's clear the name is horribly misunderstood? It doesn't even have that many inbounds, in case someone wanted to bring that up.

Bump. I still get misuses even on the very page.

edited 18th May '11 11:41:03 AM by DragonQuestZ

This trope seems pretty broken. It's an invitation for people to discuss what they think are the "turning points" in genres. Maybe we can agree that Doom was the Genre Launcher for FPS, or was it Wolfenstein 3 D? Maybe we can agree that Sailor Moon launched magical girl warrior shows, or was it Cutie Honey? Maybe Half Life was a "turning point" in FPS, or was it just a good game that influenced lots of others? Maybe the maligned Harem Genre was launched by Love Hina in '98, or Tenchi Muyo in '92, or Urusei Yatsura in '78.

Basically, this trope is a subjective version of Genre Popularizer.

You're still getting it wrong. The popularizer is NOT what this trope is. It's that you get almost nothing but copycats from the popularizer, until they copycats turn into a full genre.

From what I can tell, if I understand this right, this trope is about things that set the groundwork down for what lead to the genre itself.

No, it's about the games that are clearly a full genre instead of just being clones.

Ok, I am lost now....

What's the difference between this Genre Launch and the Ur-Example of a specific genre? None as far as I can see.

What's the difference with the trope called Genre Popularizer and Trope Codifier of a genre? None as far as I can see.

As far as I am aware, this trope meant the work that popularized the genre. What made a kind of work so popular it eventually became a genre of its own. Now I don't get what its talking about.

edited 7th Oct '11 5:53:31 PM by NerdAtComputer

The description makes it clear it's talking about the point when people stop talking about Doom clones and start talking about first-person shooters. The examples all list various games that were regarded as defining the moment(eg, Goldeneye and Half Life are listed for FPS).

Did you even read the description? You clearly didn't, as you are defining this as something the description explicitly states it's not.

THAT is why we need a rename, since so many think it's about launching a genre, not morphing a bunch of clones into a genre.

It's not just a rename, the description itself is confusing too. The whole group of tropes is a mess.

• Genre Maker doesn't actually exist.
• Genre Popularizer is for a work that boosts a genre into the mainstream (which may overlap with Genre Maker)
• Genre Launch is the point where a genre becomes defined as a genre, rather than just stealing the Genre Maker's gimmick (but it's different from Genre Popularizer).
• Genre-Killer is a work that drives a genre out of the mainstream eye
• Genre Relaunch is a work that repopularizes a genre after a Genre-Killer

That's sort of a mess. Why don't we make it analogous to the trope life cycle articles? Genre Maker, Genre Codifier, Genre-Killer (compare Trope Breaker), Genre Relaunch (compare Cyclic Trope).

Um, this trope also can follow from the popularizer.

DQZ: So what you're saying is this. Let's take Love Hina. Before it, there weren't really many harem series so far as I know. Love Hina had some clones, and then eventually those clones spun into the harem genre we know today. Is this what you are saying the trope is?

Yeah, that's a good example of this.

So considering the misuse, what would be a better name for this?

Does this apply only to genres? It reminds me of what happened with Shana popularizing the loli tsundere character until they were no longer just clones of her. Same for Rei from NGE.

That aside, there's the dreadfully dull options like From Clones to Genre.

That's an intriguing notion of expanding it to other forms of copycatting. And what about No Longer Just A Bunch Of Clones?

That works if we're expanding it from merely genres. That might be a good idea since I think you would have difficulty pinning down a Genre Launch.

Wouldn't that be Trope Codifier?

Hm. Looks like it. Well, that opens up two more possibilities. One, merge the two. Two, rename this trope to Genre Codifier to match Trope Codifier.

No, because the clones are often based on the codifier as well.

Still getting misuse.

Need this resolved, so I made a crowner.