Matt5327

Hello everyone,

After ten weeks of world building, the Bionicle Story Group has built a working premise and a solid base from which we can begin generating content. In the weeks to come, we will start work on the next phase of our project, which will be to write, in detail, the narrative of the story.

Coming along this far would not have been possible without the dedication of the group's members, volunteers who have dedicated a great portion of their own time to the project, as with it a willingness to work together to create the best story possible - even if it sometimes meant sacrificing an idea that they were attached too. We are very proud of our work thus far, and look forward to sharing it with the Bionicle community when it is ready.

I agree entirely. I look forward to seeing your story, should you decide to publicize it! 

So, I notice you've stopped gathering individuals for this now. However, if you would like some more people at a point in time, or spaces open up, I'd love to get in on this!

If we should decide to expand in the future, we'll be sure to keep you in mind!

I've actually already written up my own story based off of the first wave of G2 before I knew what it was going to be about. It's based off of some elements from G1 as well. I've also already wrote most of the story into comic scripts as well though I never illustrated them (aside form 2 test pages). If you guys are curious I can send you the story. 

 

~Soran

Seems to me like you have some good ideas! Just so that there's no confusion, our plan isn't to continue G2 where Bionicle left off. Of course that doesn't mean we can't use your ideas (if you approve - we would, of course, attribute them to you). 

I have my own Bionicle project and its own 'proto-canon' (as much has been laid down but much more is still in concept and not set in stone), called A Rude Awakening. I founded and direct it, but I have a lot of help from Toa Imrukii. Toa Vanson has been kind enough to write some music as well. Various other individuals have been of help as well, and I graciously thank them (I am sorry Ghidora for temporarily abandoning our vorox story).  Much of our lore is to flesh out the history of Spherus Magna (which felt hastily slapped together) while using our alterations and expansions to continue from where G1 left off. Our goal is to use this lore to make a video game overhaul modification for either the games Crusader Kings II or Europe Universalis IV. The two games are similar enough to lay out translatable ideas.  

  I started this in early 2015, though the ideas for it gradually developed since 2010.

 

Now for the reason why i share this. Work is slow yes, but I think that is good thing. You want to do enough work to keep your interest, but not too much so as to burn out your interest permanently. Obviously, I go through phases of varying interest, and that is natural. A way to keep interest is to think about it a lot.  Another key thing, as others have pointed out, is to have a small team. I work closely with Imrukii, and we sometimes butt heads over design and lore concepts, as well as having misunderstandings about those things, but because it is mainly the two of us these things can be easily resolved. I can't imagine how much confusion and bickering there would be if there were 20 of us!

Thank you for your advice. We have actually just stopped recruiting for that exact reason. We recognize the possibility for growth in the future, but only if things are compartmentalized (with each compartment being small) and growth is gradual. 

Nostalgia is a powerful beast, so 2001. I've always preferred the more technical sets, which 2001 wins with the Rahi. It was also the year of MNOG, which pretty much defined Bionicle and its universe for me.

Fans should not be able to dictate what's Canon and what's not, and there's a reason why. Sure you could probably handle it better but that doesn't mean that you can. How is your continuation story any better than mine?

 

I hate the idea of fans being able to dictate the entire story, so that when you want to make YOUR version of Bionicle continuation it "won't be canon" and the fans do not know how to handle a bionicle continuation. Just let bionicle rest in peace, and continue the story in your OWN way.

I have to agree with you on this. I have my own ideas for future stories, but the thought of a group of fans creating a "canon story" could go against anything I could ever do.

 

For example I want to someday make a few Okoto-Metru MOCs as I have called them, with Technic remote controlled vehicles for the six Toa in new G2 forms (that's my idea to do someday). But what if this story group takes a different direction, dare I say for example a G2 take on the Ignition saga? Will my fanon have to compete against the fanon/canon from another group?

 

If a story group is made, let's please treat it as fanon. If it is considered canon it will conflict with other fan ideas in the community.

I'd join up with this, but this is only one of three different Bionicle story projects I've seen sprout up since Bionicle ended, and I think this is kind of a knee jerk reaction.

 

This of course won't be canon because it can't, but I'm still interested to see anything people come out with if things do get there, but I won't be a part of this. I started working on my own Bionicle G1 continuation project with a friend from high school and we made some awesome progress but college is starting now and things stopped, and I'd like to save our story structure to pick up some other time rather than share it and dilute it with conflicting ideas.

 

Still, fan activity is always awesome, and I hope to see cool things from this fanon you're all brewing up!

 

EDIT: I'm actually surprised you've set an age limit, and one at 15 for that matter. May I inquire as to why you've decided so? Just curious lol.

There are two other fan groups besides this of which I am aware, and both are seeking to continue G2. This is unlikely to be the route we take (in fact, every member of our group so far has been against it).

As for the age limit - we use conferencing as one of our communication methods, as it can be far more efficient than text in certain contexts. Unlike text, however, it is not easy for members to consider every word they say beforehand, which could turn into a major problem with younger participants. We figured that someone with at least some high school would likely be of sufficient maturity for this not to cause any problems.

I suggest- two groups- one with a large user base designed for general bouncing around of story ideas, that can support multiple projects being developed at the same time to account for creative differences, and a second, smaller group of people that you handpicked to help with your specific project. If the big group spawns some dedicated fan projects, they can later make their own small groups for them.

 

I've seen that kind of setup used before, and it can work quite well that way. 

That's actually kind of what I was thinking - the key is to make sure that those involved all okay that. I don't want to make executive decisions when there is no real reason why I should be executive.

Now, I'm going to chip in here, and while I don't want to be a spoil sport, I feel this needs to be said.

 

I'm a professional writer. Writing is how I make a living, it is what puts bread on the table. I like doing it, have been told I'm good at it, and do it in my free time. I'm also passionate about Bionicle, am enthusiastic about it and want to see both G1 and G2 get continued in some shape or form, while still hoping for a G3.

 

So why am I not running head over heels to join this effort? Simple - such initiatives have cropped up countless times whenever something popular ended, and they never work.

 

You can put a bunch of passionate and enthusiastic fans into a room, tell them to come up with a "canon", leave and come back to a neatly planned and well executed story. You'll likely come back to a battlefield where half of the people are writing their own things alone because they know better, a quarter of the people just sitting around because they've given up on arguing and the remained literally throwing their own faeces at one another.

 

Obviously you'll have a few people who are diligent, cooperative, creative and passionate who contribute to the initiative. But for every such person, you'll have 10 who argue that their idea is better, 10 who will whine that their idea is overlooked even if it is poor, 10 who will disagree not because they dislike the idea but because they don't like the face of the person suggesting it and 10 people who were like "yeah let's do this!" in this thread but don't actually intend to do anything when the time comes.

 

Fan projects are cool and all, but they only ever go so far. Successful fan endeavors which bear their fruit are the extremely rare exception, not the rule. People just don't stay on board if they don't get paid. Even those who genuinely move the project forward might hit a financial crisis, might become parents, might lose interest... 

 

Fan projects that succeed all have a few things in common: the people working on it know one another face-to-face and have been friends for decades, have developed their project before revealing it to the wider fandom, have professional experience in their fields and succeed in motivating the larger fandom to donate money for their efforts.

 

No one is going to pay for a bunch of fans scattered across the globe to write up a canon Bionicle continuation over Slack. Sure, everyone reading this might think "I don't care if I don't get paid, I'll do it anyway". You might even be serious about it. For about a month. Then you'll be like "I'll do it tomorrow, I'm busy" or "I have to walk the dog" or "I feel like playing video games right now". 

 

I'm not saying this is an entirely lost cause, but in the form you propose, it is guaranteed to crash and burn.

 

Limit the "team" to a maximum of 5 members, but it would be smart to keep it lower. Try and contact people from the G2 story team - all you need is some guy affiliated with them to send you an email amounting to "yeah, whatever, it can be canon". Screenshot that and turn it into the marketing of this initiative. Remain dedicated, churn out content frequently. Spend hours on this. Whenever you write something, re-read it and re-write it because - and I'm saying this as a writer - the first thing you write will never ever be good. No matter your experience, the first draft is never good. Send it through to all of the other members, have them edit and proof-read it. Always release content with a nice, hand-made illustration to go with. Do this for about 6 months - provided you survive that long - and release some massive, expansive publication that blows everything else out of the water, and then start asking for donations, and continue. At this point maybe maybe your boat is sturdy enough to support a team of 6-7 people.

 

If you are not dedicated enough and ready to do what I outlined, I suggest you give up now.

 

I hate being the naysayer, and usually I'm the first to charge headfirst into something I'm interested in even if it is doomed to fail, but this time experience is on my side. Your heart is in the right place, but unless you want to get burned and learn from your own mistake, I suggest you either rethink this or abandon it.

 

I'm sorry.

 

You're being honest and courteous, so no need to be apologetic! I definitely understand your concern - I myself have also been in a number of projects that were doomed to fail from the beginning. There are two main aspects about this that I'm hoping will make it different:

1 - scale - Oftentimes projects shoot for the moon, but don't even include a rocket scientist. Whatever content is created in this group will be chosen by the content creators, and only according to their current skill levels and ability to commit time to the project.

2 - organization - Online groups are very difficult to manage, and oftentimes fall prey to "everyone just do everything you can! It'll work out!" and of course, it doesn't. The only reason this has no organizational structure at this time is because it needs to be developed by the team - but this is already a priority issue that we're discussing. By breaking things into smaller chunks and smaller dedicated teams, things can get done.

It very well may be that this will die - I am no fortune teller. But with the experience that I've had both with groups online and in real life, I am confident about our chances.

I would really love to be part of this!

I need more details and updates, please

What sort of details are you looking for? Some things, such as the kind of content we will create will be decided by the group only after it's formed, in order to ensure that our goals are not so lofty that they might not be accomplished. 

As for joining, those who've checked out Slack so far generally seem to like it so it seems like we'll be sticking with that. I'd have to send you an email invite, so if you're okay with that just PM the email address you'd like to use. If you're uncomfortable using an email address that might identify you, you can also make a throwaway gmail or something (but you'd have to remember the throwaway in order to use Slack).

I'd like to help out. I know a thing or two about designing concept arts for landscapes and characters, so I may be able to offer that talent to the group. 

 

Problem is, I'm having some trouble joining the Slack group. It says that I already need to have my email accepted with the group itself before I can participate. 

That's the one problem with slack - you need to receive an email invite from the person who created the group (me). I can do that if you PM the email address you'd prefer to be linked with slack - though I can understand why you and others might be hesitant to share that with a random stranger over the internet. If that ends up being case, then we can probably figure out an alternative medium that would suit the group better better.

 

There were multiple attempts to this when G1 ended. It didn't work then, it certainly wont work now.

 

Why do you think past attempts didn't work out? Were they too ambitious? If so, how? Did they lack the technology to effectively collaborate? If so, what was the technology lacking? This important in determining whether or not this is comparable. 

 

No one could agree on anything, there were too many cooks in the kitchen, people were unreliable, and in some cases management was poor and inefficient.

 

That sounds like a path for what to do differently, then: keep the group size reasonable, seek ways to encourage work, and implement a management strategy.

Nobody can label anything not approved by LEGO as absolutely canon, but perhaps we can give them a reasonable - perhaps wonderful - continuation to make up for the gap. Yes, I'm in on this... And perhaps, I can get about 20 people to help...

 

That sounds awesome! What is your opinion on using Slack as a means to organize and communicate? Now that people have begun to show interest, I feel like finding an effective medium for collaboration is the next step.

There were multiple attempts to this when G1 ended. It didn't work then, it certainly wont work now.

Why do you think past attempts didn't work out? Were they too ambitious? If so, how? Did they lack the technology to effectively collaborate? If so, what was the technology lacking? This important in determining whether or not this is comparable. 

It won't work.

People are going to be upset that THEIR ideas aren't being used, and that THEIR storylines are better than yours anyway!

Plus it leaves some feeling left out.

I've generally found that, so long as communication is clear, people tend to be more cooperative than otherwise. I know that, if this happens, most of the ideas I have probably won't be popular and will likely be left in the dust. My goal, however, isn't to get others to see and like my ideas - it's to help provide content that others will enjoy, even if that content originates from others. It could be that I'm naïve, but I'm inclined to think that I'm not unique in this.

It's true that not everyone would be happy with the finished result, but there's really nothing wrong with that. Some people absolutely love G2, and others hate it. But we're all fans of Bionicle, otherwise we wouldn't be here. 

Also, you've been here six years, and only twenty posts? Come on, man!

I don't have much to say most of the time.

Very cool! Good on you to do research, as well; too often people go in not entirely knowing what they're getting into (I'm definitely guilty of this) and get discouraged as a result.

I do want to provide caution to you and anybody else interested not to assume any direct path, however; there will likely be a multitude of ideas of not only how to go forward, but on where to begin as well. We might start where Bionicle left off, start from 2001, or both! Or maybe something else! The trick is getting people together first.

What are your thoughts using Slack? The best way I can describe it is IRC on steroids (saved messages/conversations, file sharing, video conferencing, etc.). I have found it to be a very useful collaboration tool myself, but could also see why people on the internet would be hesitant (giving out emails to strangers and all).

EDIT: We're using Slack to organize and communicate. Anyone interested will need to PM me their email address in order for me to get them in. This can be a throwaway if that makes you more comfortable, but keep in mind that you'll be using that whenever you log in. Once you've received your invite, you can join at bioniclestory.slack.com. 

We've also added an age limit - currently 15 - for entry.

EDIT2: We've now reached capacity for the time being, and are no longer excepting people. We may reconsider in the future. 

_______________________________________________________________________

Ever since G2's cancelation, I've noticed that several fans have displayed interest in continuing Bionicle in our own way. Some of this has been relatively small scale: "We will continue without them. Get your MOCs and storyboards ready." - this is just one comment I've seen among many, encouraging fans to continue what we have always loved doing. I've also come across more ambitious suggestions, such as the creation of a group to finish LEGO's G2 story.

The thing is, there are a ton of really creative people within our fandom. The most common that we see come in the form of MOCs, but we've also seen people create 3D printable masks, small games, a matron language, and some really beautiful artwork (I'm a big fan of IRON6DUCK's "Mata Nui Sights" series myself).

This is only the tip of the iceberg pertaining to what Bionicle fans have made, but I think you can see what I'm getting at here. We have a lot of really great content, but all of it exists in its own little corner. Many of us limit our creations to our own head-canons, many of which might take place in a universe entirely distinct from those created by LEGO.

What I'm proposing is that we bring together a group of fans to build an unofficial Bionicle "canon" until such a time that Lego decides to pick it up again. The function of this group would be twofold: to organize the existing official content into our new canon, and to direct the creation of new content in order to continue the story. This could be small scale (i.e., just mocs and short stories), large scale (3-d printable sets, comics, novels) or somewhere in-between, depending on what the members involved are able/have time to do.

 

The ideal goal is that the canon is "what would actually happen", although of course as it's fiction there's always a level of arbitrariness in that (but that goes for ALL fiction  ). 

I suppose that could have been how they did it, but we can't know that. As a writer myself I find that the story as originally developed tends to feel far more real; it doesn't feel like you're developing it but actually discovering it. Once something is discovered it can't just be arbitrarily changed. Of course just because I and the other writers I know do it this way doesn't mean Greg and the team did, so it's a fair argument to make. In my opinion, however, I have found that stories that stick to the original bible tend to be far more coherent. Take Myst: despite changing hands several times, the original story bible was always followed as canon, despite only the devs having access. Now look at Assassin's Creed: the original bible was pretty much replaced after ACII/Brotherhood, which ended up causing a lot of problems.

Now for me, when I get lost in a fantastic universe (be it from a book, tv show, or toy line like Bionicle), I think of it as real. I know it isn't, of course, but that's what suspension of disbelief is all about: getting lost (more about suspension of disbelief later). And if this universe is real, then it exists independently of LEGO; they're just telling the story of this universe. Now, they have direct access to it - meaning we who seek to understand this universe must get all of our information from them - but that doesn't mean they have control. So that's why I tend to think of the story bible as canon, even if I can't put my hands on it. I can't get lost in a fictional universe if it refuses to act like a universe.

Basically, remember not to confuse "I" (you) with "everybody". That's actually, if you think about it, the same mistake people were making when they said your headcanon was "wrong." In both cases, people naturally assume (understandably, but as it happens, inaccurately, and that's a good thing!) that how they feel is a good guide for how others feel; that their tastes are good predictors of others' tastes, when it isn't always so.

 

 

Basically, remember not to confuse "I" (you) with "everybody". That's actually, if you think about it, the same mistake people were making when they said your headcanon was "wrong." In both cases, people naturally assume (understandably, but as it happens, inaccurately, and that's a good thing!) that how they feel is a good guide for how others feel; that their tastes are good predictors of others' tastes, when it isn't always so.

This is a very valid point. I can only speak to myself, and those who I spoke with. But I can say that I, my friends, and those I was chatting with online back then certainly weren't asking much about the mechanical nature of the beings on Mata Nui. Since it was never addressed as a mystery, but merely accepted in-universe, it became accepted by us (again "us" being limited to those I had contact with). And in my mind, that's completely logical - sure that doesn't happen in the real world, but neither does Hogwarts (and I don't remember "why is there magic" being addressed in Harry Potter). Crowds burst out into song in musicals, but nobody thinks that's strange. And that's what suspension of disbelief is. Not everything needs an explanation. And in my mind, the existence of mata nui, makuta et al certainly didn't either. 

 

 

 Definitely not for the giant robot -- that was almost universally liked, and the Makuta takeover. Mata Nui dying too. And Turaga were Toa, Takua becomes a Toa, etc.

Certainly not for the giant robot. But then that was kind of the big reveal from the beginning, wasn't it? That was completely consistent with the story bible, we know that much. Makuta taking over and Mata Nui dying weren't so much revelations of mysteries as plot points. Turaga being from Toa, and Takua becoming a Toa also came much earlier, when we can assume the bible was followed much more closely.

 

 

Okay? See, this is the kind of thing where taste will be a poor guide for you. To you, it appears to feel obvious that this would be bad, because you look inside, and your tastes tell you that. To me, it sounds like a twist I could have liked had it been done, and I know I can't judge that fairly because it isn't what was done and I'm already accustomed to what was done. But it sounds like the Goa'uld, and they worked great as major villains over a long time on Stargate. If that had been done instead, people with different tastes would like it too. Who knows? It's just never that simple, you know?

The Goa'uld were cool. But such a change would complete delegitimize the evil that came before.

 

 

Again, you're wording this like it was an objective judgement, but apparently just looking to your own personal tastes as the guide for that.

I'm trying not to, but I'm doing a poor job. I do want to say that I found the Order to be a bit of a deus ex machina, though.

 

 

The reason you don't know the answer to that question is your decision to think that no fiction is very important.

More poor wording on my part. I wasn't trying to say that fiction wasn't important; rather, I was trying to say that no specific fiction is so important that an alternative version must be decried as heresy.

 

 

Totally agree.

Basically, everything you said was awesome and is my line of thinking exactly. But unlike me, you said it very well.

 

 

All of this comes back to taste, of course, but it kind of sounds like you missed that it was intentionally a mystery story -- that means the mysteries were meant to be solved (in general), and things would continue to be introduced that fans didn't understand at first.

My mysticism I am referring to the mythos of the universe. Mata Nui was a spirit, Makuta a spirit, Akamai, Wairuha, etc. There were temples in each koro, and a great temple at the island's center. Point being, a lot of these were non-issues. Nobody asked who Mata Nui or Makuta was, because knew. Of course, we didn't know what they looked like, but it wasn't exactly a pressing issue. Just a "that'd be nice to know." And we got that with Makuta during the Mask of Light saga, so, neat. 

However, the "big reveals" that came later were unintriguing and really just upset the revelations that came beforehand. Not in a "guess what, you thought Makuta was dead, surprise!" sort of way, but in a "Guess what, you thought we the established universe was the real one, but it's not!" sort of way. It could be that they just failed to present it well, but that sort of presentation leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The biggest example I can think of was that Makuta wasn't a name, but a species, his real name is Teridax, and he's only special because he has the Kraahkan on his face. Oh, and he's not Mata Nui's brother. So basically we took a villain, the main villain of the the universe, and made him into a nobody. It'd be kind of be the equivalent of the Master in Doctor Who turning out to be a human-affecting parasite with a vendetta against Time Lords (not the best argument, perhaps, but my original one was a religious one and I figured it best not to use that). 

There was, of course, real mystery. And I agree that it was to be solved (though for the fans, as it really wasn't something that was pursued in-universe). Like the "ancient civilization" on mata nui (which was changed to be metru-nui, which is fine IMO though I think the original idea had more promise). Who placed the masks on the island? The rooms beneath Kina Nui? Why did the Bohrok exist in the first place? These were the big questions, and they were answered with a big fat "because the order of Mata Nui put them there, because it was a part of the big plan." Oh, how revealing.

So I get what you're saying, but it would seem that the story team did a very poor job at following up on their own foreshadowing. 

 

 

That's exactly the point.   We don't know that (or we didn't at the time), so it was an adventure to discover the details over time and see how it all fit together (or most of it  )! It wasn't something in our heads where nothing would really surprise us. It was exploring somebody else's vision. 

What I mean by "we don't have the story bible" is that we don't have it now. The reason why I said above "it would seem that..." was for that reason. I don't actually know how closely they followed the bible's original plan, or how much ended up being "hey guys, let's do this instead!" None of us do. If we think of the story bible as the canon, and what the story team created as an interpretation of it, then we can't really say we know the most correct version. We can have faith that the story team kept to it closely, but we really can't judge that accurately for ourselves. And so we start with the assumption that the earliest stuff was definitely more true, as it was created around the same time, and diverge from there. What I reject in my head-canon is mostly a consequence of later things contradicting earlier things (or at least my interpretation of them; doubtlessly we each had our own). What I create is largely a consequences of rebuilding bridges that were originally destroyed by contradictions so as to tie together otherwise non-contradicting things.

But this is my head-canon, and I will present it as such, rather than "the real truth," which I will contend doesn't really exist, anyway.

 

 

Well, that goes without saying. What I'm trying to understand is why the community has put so much emphasis on canon...

This is the real issue. There is an "official" canon, yes. And I love that people follow it, and their own head-canons, and then I have my head-canon so we can all discuss how things fit together and why we think the way we do. These differing ideas don't split the community, as some here would suggest, but hold it together. If we all agreed what was "correct" we wouldn't be having this thought-provoking discussion, would we? Instead we'd just be sharing the occasional moc or fanfiction, which really don't matter because they're not canon anyway. That doesn't breed discourse or facilitate discussion: disagreement does.

And yet, there is a significant portion of the community does not only adhere to the main canon (again, not a huge issue in my eyes), but are downright hostile to other interpretations or head-canons. On more than one occasion I've experienced this hostility directly for saying a statement as simple as "I felt the later years were particularly lackluster and inconsistent with the early ones, so I've kind of created on own head-canon diverging from the official." (example - I don't have the post in front of me and it wasn't made on bzpower.) It's fine that someone challenge me on that, and even try to convince me that the later years actually make the first years more relevant and exciting. But instead I get a "You're wrong, because LEGO controls what's real. There's nothing else worth discussing, and you're just humiliating yourself by thinking otherwise." 

So back to OP's question - Why is there such an emphasis on the official canon among the BIONICLE community? What's so important about it that it's wrong to imagine anything else? I don't know, because I don't think any fiction is that important. But this line of thinking is present and quite common.

I definitely agree with you, though my headcanon is probably vastly different. I was enamored by the mysticism in the early Bionicle Universe, and the blatant disregard for it that came later made BIONICLE feel like a completely unrelated story. 

I was a bit upset about the nuva at first, for the reasons you mentioned (Gali's mask still bothers me), but it didn't take me long to accept them as pretty cool. The metru era is actually when I started to feel uncomfortable; the idea of there being other toa wasn't too upsetting (even though it made Takua's transformation seem far less significant), but the idea that all of the Tohunga lived on a completely different island, underground (yet with suns? I never really got that), in a completely different world. The change was just too radical for me. Don't get me wrong, as a stand alone story it was fantastic... but it was too different. The visorak is where I drew the line. From thereon out I basically reject everything. 

I get that a lot of this came from a "story bible," but we don't have access to that bible. We don't know what they changed, added, or anything else. And frankly, it doesn't matter that much. It's a toy line. The entire point was that we used our imagination; the story was always just a guide. 

I want something open world. There are currently too many linear games in my opinion. Ideally this would be a BIONICLE game on Mata Nui (online multiplayer), with the players being matoran. Do tasks for your village, trade, play Kohlii, hunt/fight rahi... You get the picture. But mostly, explore. Build the island to be stunning, with natural and mysterious wonders hidden throughout. Forgotten temples, perhaps. 

I get that's a pretty massive vision. I'm not suggesting something Skyrim size, but I'd actually like to sit back and relax on the beaches of Ta-Wahi for a change.

2006 started a weird downward spiral into a weird sort of "grittiness" where it felt like the writers were making fun of how bionicle began, almost; Toa would comment that they "aren't like other toa" as they bring down mountains and beat people up mercilessly because the less you care about the consequences of senseless violence the cooler you are apparently. that was one of many, many problems that started in the 2005-2007 time frame.

Another excellent point. Despite the depth in plot, early Bionicle was very black and white when it came to good and evil. That's not to say that a tragic hero or moral shades of grey have no value - in fact, they are important aspects in many of my favorite media. However, sometimes the simpler approach was the better, and Bionicle was a perfect slate for that. The good guys always won, in the end, and they were the epitome of what the good guys should be. Same with the big bad. And in Bionicle, that was the proper approach in my honest opinion.

I won't say it was terrible later on, but I certainly liked the early stuff a lot more (in my private head-canon I do reject most of the later stuff ). The comics may have been weak as far as character development and plot intricacies, but upon examination of the entire media I would say the story was far more real. There was mystery and intrigue, as well as a very unique approach to cosmology rather lacking in fictions. Although I could never identify with toa (and really who could? They were running around saving others with elemental powers), the protagonists of the era, I could identify quite strongly with the Tohunga. Simple individuals trying to get through a struggle far larger than themselves in a universe beyond their comprehension. 

In short, the Bionicle Universe in 2001 was complete. Not in the sense that all was known - quite on purpose most was not - but in the sense that there was an intimate understanding of all levels of the reality. We didn't just know some of the Tohunga. We knew how they lived: the sports they played, the jobs they had, their cultures... We didn't just have an island, but we had knowledge of all the little places that seemed to matter less significant in the large scheme of thing - Tren Krom Redoubt, for instance. We even knew the history of these places, how Ta-Koro extended beyond the shadow of Mangai all the way to the beach, but was driven back by the Rahi.

All this depth and complexity was dropped. The mysticism was thrown out to make room for the brotherhood of makuta, the order of mata nui, etc. A Great Spirit was replaced by a giant robot. 

I also prefered the sets. Certainly I'm happier with more joints, but they were Technic sets. They actually did things. You could try to punch off Tahu's mask with a Tarakava, or a bohrok's head. As a kid, this offered a lot more as far as playability.

Take the time you need. This is going to be perfect!

Recently I've been trying to transcribe the MNOG theme by ear. It's a slow work in progress, but I'll let you know if I get anywhere.

The forums are back up, and Chapter 2 survived!

I hope this didn't mess anything up for the project. Keep being awesome!

EDIT: Oh, and since my suggestion was lost: I think a Boxor minigame should function much like the nui-rama minigame from the first MNOG. The only mechanical differences I can think of are two attacks instead of one (for each arm of the Boxor) and a forward key allowing the player to choose to move forward when they wish (despite animation being the same, it adds a feeling of control - could also allow for certain diversions such as "stop to break this vine in your way, hustling through it could cause damage").

Haven't been this excited for a while. I'm kind of anxious to get back to my project now... Kudos, I look forward to more!

It may seem odd, but I've found the restrictions on newer members somewhat frustrating. I understand, of course, that it is meant to prevent spam (and does so rather well I'd imagine), but... as someone who just likes to make the occasional post it can be quite a nuisance to wait for your post to show up, or not be able to PM people (I have had a good reason before). It's not going away any time soon, because it's the best solution to what is a problem on many forums. Just a wee bit annoying, that's all.

Looks really cool! I don't have time to play version 2 through right now, but I definitely will soon. By the way, is it MAC inclusive?