Partners: The Indie League

 

Part of my July 2018 Blog Event: Partners

I was originally planning another union here but I was requested to go on Skype the other date of course, simply to recover an audio track from 2014. I had seen the Skype notifications and I seemed to never suspect that the chat was active but upon review. It had died in January 2016, albeit a month after I suspected.

 I was aware of the Indie league since 2012 but I wasn't a member until 2014; as a English - Japanese translator and even then my set of priorities were highly limited of course. Looking back on the team management it was absolutely chaotic. There was clear sides upon entry. The administration forces as well were absolutely corrupt and had no overall sustaining power and worked off of empty promises for a majority of the time.

There was frequent fighting in the official Skype group, I'd come to learn all my worst indie team experiences would be on Skype. The Indie league was no exception of course as they would frequently fight and express a sense of supremacy and multiple administration users would huddle users in the back in order to rally loyalists to their side and when there was an election for the new administration. It was often corrupt. 

I do recall that 5 of the members was the limit to the administration power. 3 of them would be elected while 2 of them were chairmen. I do remember in fall 2014 something had changed the last remaining chairman had removed 2 of the members in the league. This action was met with hostility immediately and he replaced them with the runners up of the last 3 month election. With 5 members once more. There was a positive change to be.

The new administration heavily focused on working on profit once more as during my time there before as I entered in February it was a mad house for financial theft and instability. The new administration like all good things, didn't last very long. They focused on financial rebooting and had an official constitution to follow by that wasn't acknowledged according to the older users since 2013. Making them seem far more stable and for a time getting a decent payment in the Indie league was ideal.

Considering the Indie leagues main focus aside from getting indies united and to diversify their taste in media. One strong attribute of course was that indies need money, certain developers had the money to of course pay other creators, some indies desired teams and of course they would team up. Others would need a template of game design, others would require programing aid, and in multiple cases they simply needed translation and or reviews. Which was one of the successful grounds. Although the indie league had its problems overall Fall 2014 - January 2015 was the best time within the league. 

In this era I would meet a group I would on occasion speak with as we named ourselves "The Hispanics" and would be our overall dire band name. Focusing more on Latina Jazz which I approved of.  This was also my introduction into being internationally aware of how wide and desperate the indie scene is. With others begging for others to see their content, people dragging down others for their art-style , it was overall a reality check and would result in several changes I couldn't begin to even fathom.

2015 onward is when the league became corrupt and where I chose the wrong side to be in touch with. While there was still many whom were able to make the profits they needed we now had an official website on Wix and would do an event each month... This event was to only promote members of the administration and 4 of the 5 were absolutely overjoyed with their characters being on display every month. They also reinforced a rather degrading sense of identity of course. 

As many know during the summer of 2015, I was busy in another country but I would when I had time view in on the Skype server. Which was turning into a war zone of itself. I lacked the information but I had overwhelming suspicion that the main admin ( who for the longest time the new league members grew to despise ) was turning against the entire league for his own good. Making the two sides. The side I was on was the Pro-League side, those who upheld the constitution of the Indie League, the right to independent creation and the identity of all creators. While the side I should have been on was the Radical Reformists. That side represented the change in the league internally and too only have experienced developers at the helm of control over those who had unfinished projects.

The unfinished projects was one of the many issues in the Indie League, in 2015 was the launch of the Writers Summer event and it was the most complicated writers event I had seen to date. At this time the head had released  "The James Wars" which I didn't read until I had withdrew from the league but from what I could gather was the indie crossover that was originally meant for all the creators in the league but the administration rejected this offer so it was made from those in the James Universa. I was brought in too combat the head by writing and releasing my Manga, Tender Fear. Which wasn't as compelling as the big title was enough to earn I the spot for best writer in July, unlike in May and June. 

In July the head had withdrawn from the Indie League when he withdrew from the Indie League he had terminated the "I.L.C.A" ( Indie League Copyright Agreement ) leaving I and several other creators no longer dependent on the I.L payment policy which was written as long as that copyright is in effect all of content was defended. It wasn't until he withdrew taking a lot of the money that the I.L made. This was due to him actually running the I.L completely as exposed in October 2015. The administration had no idea how to manage income and or sufficiently split their payments correctly making the overall personal banking system of the league universally untrustworthy. 

The administration had terminated creator loans and creator programs, it also banned all mentioning to the former administration. The website was terminated, the advertisers were banned from the Skype group and many wanted to know why the I.L was failing. I was eventually added into the administration due to my knowledge of economics. 

From August - October 2015. I had denounced all connections with the I.L and dedicated my loyalty over to the the man who had terminated the copyright that while doomed all the indies involved and crippled their sense of happiness with other indies. Also had the power to tell them all that they would fail.

In secret and in depth review of the discussion. The new I.L administration didn't think the termination of the copyright agreement was actually going to harm them. More of the legal minded users seen that without the agreement the Indie League had no ground to sit on besides being a donation center. Which was nothing any user wanted to deal with. Most of them would argue and demand to make another copyright but no one in the administration understood anything about copyright and as they revised the original agreement they removed the key elements that made it trust worthy.

My content was heavily ruined by the copyright agreement and I have lost a total of 57 scripts and 6 officially written manga's as the copyright agreement was under it. Along with the site as well. All the creators whom once made a profit off of the site and the organization behind it all was absolutely at a loss for words.

Not a single leader in the I.L had back ups of the projects they had created making them question what was their purpose and I questioned this as well as I believed supporting the administration was perfect as the branded the opposing side as corrupt and evil, yet it seems to be in the reverse. 

Pros:

The diversity was astonishing and I enjoyed ever single moment of it. Meeting indies from the United States, Canada, Poland, Germany, France, and the U.K was well. It impressed I even further to know that South Korean and South Africans were also present in the community.

The line between indie creators was breathe taking, too this day I've never been in a community were indie creators of all types Game Devs, Film, Manga, and animation teams were on equal grounds on the terrain without someone feeling like they were getting trampled. 

They had invented a public link for a balance of course, think of it as Patreon except or members of the league and every member who put in a donation was repaid back often delayed but a payment nonetheless. It had a public budget that anyone can see of course.

Cons:

The level of racism was almost humiliating the administration would constantly dish out racist remarks on a bi-daily accord. Their homophobia was as well a strong level. There was 5 administrators and 2 of them were on the wing daily over this and it was becoming a problem completely. 

They lacked organization and the members who had it, were following the right character and were rewarded with hatred for that. 

It was revealed in November that they were stealing money from the donations bracket, it wasn't until they referred the original member who made the link that once it was terminated they had nothing else to say and had to "rebuild the budget" unfortunately.

They were too optimistic at everyone's success, those who were successful were treated with disrespect and not with a sense of dignity. 

Reflection:

I was loyal to the wrong side and was placed into a position where it was not fair to accumulate information correctly I believed following the many instead of the warnings ahead was wise. When I swapped back to my friend he had shown I that he had back ups of *all* the content released from the Indie League from 2013 towards his termination. Which is rewarding and reassured I that he was a character of worth.

The other members, I do not run into often any longer and those whom I did run into was the Hispanics whom I still discuss with often but they like I do not think of the past deeply as it's unfair for us. We have to worry of the future and move on from there in order to better achieve our own goal. I do regret aligning with fools of course but a lesson was learned from doing so.