Table of Contents
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Mask of Destiny
Mask of Destiny is a fan website and âfederationâ of Bionicle fan creators. They started as a news site,A) but ended up inexplicably assimilating many other entities.
Personal Evaluation
Iâm gonna quickly note that I donât like Mask of Destiny due to their obvious âSocial Justiceâ leanings, though Iâm not gonna get too much into specifics outside of noting that their writers express these views openly and they already demonstrated their willingness to play cop.
Putting that aside, Mask of Destiny is also very arrogant. I cannot fathom how, but theyâve somehow convinced themselves that they are the center of the Bionicle fanbase. You can see that in the two examples above, where the language really indicates that.
NowâŚto play devilâs advocate for a secondâŚthe reason they probably think theyâre the center of the Bionicle fanbase is because their little federation is composed of many of the biggest creators/projects. They even have some of those âbig boysâ as affiliates, even if they arenât directly a part of Mask of Destiny.
Though itâs notable that, for example, TTV is not affiliated with themâŚnor is BZPower. The latter is the Bionicle forum and the former is a big deal as well. And, well, theyâre affiliated with, for example, the r/Bionicle communityâŚwhich, for those not in the know, is evil.
Letâs move on from that to talk about the stuff they do that is actually good: The BioMedia Project. The BioMedia Project was initially separate from Mask of Destiny, but eventually got assimilated. Theyâre currently getting absorbed into the main site. The BMP is an archive of Bionicle content, including everything from games to promotional material to internal design documents.
Iâll briefly go over Litestone Studios and Team Kanohi. Theyâre each working on a Bionicle fan game andâŚI realized that they may be direct competitors, so itâs weird theyâre both in Mask of Destiny. Also, the former (Litestone) is definitely SocJus, though Iâm not sure about the latter. The last thing that concerns me with these fan games is possible copyright infringement, though not enough to actually, yâknow, worry.
Since I suddenly remembered this, Iâll just say it here: Mask of Destinyâs web design is pretty bad. Now, the main site is okay and some of their projects have okay designs as wellâŚlike, the BMPâs new site is probably better than their old one, but not fantastic. Some are just awful, like the Spirit Forge. How does this happen?
Oh and their âUXâB) is pretty awful. For example, to access the new BMP site, you have to go to the old BMP site first, then go to the new oneâŚinstead of just having a link to the new one somewhere on the main site. Granted, you can just type it into the URL, but still. Hereâs a suggestion for themâŚinstead of having the dumb triangle in the cornerâŚjust use a Gbar-like navigation between the projects. Look at YouTube Vorapis for inspiration if you donât know what that looks like.
Wall of History
This is what I was alluding to when I mentioned on the Bionicle article itâs probably easier to get through the story now than it was before.
Wall of History collects all Bionicle story material and then presents it chronologically from beginning to end. And it doesnât just collect the novels, but the games as well.
ThoughâŚthe guys working on it are of the same stripe as Mask of Destiny, which is perhaps unsurprising. And I know this because I was briefly in their Discord server, asking for a light mode, which they delivered on. So Iâve got mixed feelings.
I think the design of the site is okay but I also hate it because it just looks bad. The light mode that they added also justâŚdoesnât look good. Iâd redo it.
The other issue is something you may have spottedâŚthe information is presented chronologically by default. This means that novels will be spliced together to show the stuff chronologically. Though Iâm pretty sure this can be adjusted in the settings, I know this is the default configuration.
Itâs probably just âbonkle-brainâ that has corrupted their mind to think this is a good ideaâŚthough it obviously is not a good idea to splice all of this together in a chronological fashion.
Myths and Legacy
Myths and Legacy is a collection of fanfiction, basically. In my experienceâŚnot great. To be fair, I only read likeâŚ2? and I donât remember them.C) Comparatively, I think RSG has higher-quality fiction.
Also, it uses the same interface as Wall of HistoryâŚbut excludes a light mode for some reason. Itâs the same interfaceâŚwhy the Hell does it not have the light mode?
The Great Archives
âThe Great Archivesâ is something I donât understand the point of. On the surface, it looks to be a Bionicle encyclopediaâŚso itâs a direct competitor to BIONICLEsector01âŚwhich is an affiliate of Mask of Destiny. Though unlike Bs01, itâs more closed down and curated, which is a plus or minus depending on your perspective.
This encyclopedia also includes a timeline, which I think is overly detailedD) and an archive of Greg Farshteyâs online comments. That archive of comments is actually pretty useful, though I donât think the rest of it has a point.
Now, I think this is largely unnecessary because, get this, Bs01 already existsâŚso why re-invent the wheel? I havenât been able to find any reasonable justification for their existence on the website.
Further, they belong to the group of fans I disaffectionately call âGreg Worshippersâ who take Greg Farshteyâs words as gospel which isâŚcringe.
For those who created itâŚor are just reading this I guessâŚ: there isnât a Bionicle-style Eva Geeks WikiâŚso why not make that instead?
The Spirit Forge
The Spirit Forge is a sub-site of Mask of Destiny which collects instructions for ânew setsâ created by Mask of Destiny. The purpose of this is to give Bionicle fans ânew setsâ to play with considering LEGO isnât releasing any.
That saidâŚwell, let me explain my understanding. When the Spirit Forge was first introducedE) my understanding was that theyâd be releasing âwavesâ semi-regularly and each wave would include a number of new sets. On top of that, the Spirit Forge came around the same time they introduced the Tryna Initiative, which Iâll detail later, but to sum it up for nowâŚalso a promise to deliver new sets. The first wave included 11 new setsâŚbut then the second wave included two groups of clone sets.
The first wave was actually pretty cool and, dare I say it, got me excited for what was to come next. I actually want to build some of those. This first wave is great because it gives us instructions for many of the Rahi we saw, or heard about, but never got instructions for. An extra reason that I, personally, liked this wave was that we got more Rahi, which Bionicle stopped providing at some point because PLOT.
However, the second wave is where this excitement quickly diminished. The second wave is made up of two groups: Rahkshi and Matoran. NowâŚletâs remember that the first wave included 11 unique sets and now weâre given two groups of clone sets? Really?
The Matoran feel insulting in particular, because itâs not like those kinds of Matoran are difficult to make. The Rahkshi are slightly better, but we still have the issue ofâŚwell, Iâve perceived the Rahkshi to be the âSonic OCsâ of the bonkle fanbase. Take that as you will.
Well, alright, the second wave wasnât that great, but theyâve surely gotten better since, right? No. The second wave - released in 2023 - was the last wave theyâve released, for now. This kinda goes against the promise they made, right? To keep providing new sets.
Now, we should keep in consideration that these are fans doing this, essentially, for freeâŚso fair enough. Except that, unfortunately for them, they kinda promised to keep providing new sets semi-regularly and itâs obvious this promise isnât being kept. Like, if youâre gonna be all arrogant and do âTryna Initiative lolâ you should at least stick to what you promised to do.
ThoughâŚconsidering the kind of people who are running Mask of Destiny, this really isnât that surprising. TheyF) are known to be criminally lazy.
Tryna Initiative
The Tryna Initiative is basically a promise made by Mask of Destiny, their members and some of their affiliates to archive old content (which they were already doingâŚ) and create new content for Bionicle fansâŚyâknow, do what LEGO isnât doing.
Personally, I think that the second point (new content) is a pointless pursuit unless they create their own Bionicle canon to maintainâŚwhich may be a death sentence since that would make it difficult to be that âcenter of the Binoicle communityâ thing they want, but I donât care. It would make more sense to use the original canon as a foundation to build upon, rather than to keep expanding on it. Basically, treat the Bionicle stuff as a mythology to pilfer from.
Honestly, the Tryna Initiative just looks to me like Mask of Destinyâs arrogance at play. Yâknow, this âarchive and createâ thing for Bionicle fans really makes it sound like they think of themselves as the center of the universe. Like, just think about it, what makes Mask of Destiny especially special in the fanfiction department compared to the rest of the Bonkle fanbase? Is it just that they also maintain the archives, giving them more legitimacy?
Actually, itâs kinda funny that a member of the Tryna Initiative, Red Star Games, was at one point doing a better job than Mask of Destiny at this. RSG made their own canon, which they maintain through their own fiction (text, audio logs, videos)âŚand they also released table-top games set in that new continuity. Theyâre also semi-regularly updating all of those. RSG is even selling custom Bionicle parts, which seems to be particularly successful.
And, to add onto that: RSG isnât claiming or implying they are the center of the Bionicle fanbaseâŚor that their content is âgreaterâ than what the rest of that fanbase produces. ThoughâŚRed Star Games is part of the Tryna Initiative, so I guess you could make the argument that RSG is arguing that by extension.
Conclusion
In conclusionâŚMask of Destiny are just kinda jerks. Stick to the good and ignore the bad.