Nextempire is not the first cult!

Afghanbashi / El Afghano

In hugi19, a guy called Harry Sonford alias Dr. Ken Lanceback (weird name for a demoscener!) introduced to us a demogroup called Nextempire. He said that some things about it were strange, like the power of their leader Kozmik whom they all followed so obediently that that even changed their handle to please him and so on. So he asked the question, if his demogroup might even be... a cult. More precise: The first cult of the demoscene.

I disagree with this opinion! Nextempire is not the first cult of the demoscene. And no, the Yanta manta nanta santa sect that my pal Abu Gaza founded is not the first scenish cult, either! The first cult of the demoscene was something else. I will tell you its name: the Utopians.

Maybe you find it unprofessional by me to finally tell the truth, that the Utopians are (or let's better say were) a cult? You are in a way right. Professional journalists don't say "whee, those guys are a cult", they rather say "are those guys a cult??". But I'm not a professional journalist! And not a scene journalist either! Strangle me if you want, but I admit that I don't even believe in the so called Prophet of Scene Journalism! I believe only in the prophet of our one and only, if you want to know it. That's someone the Utopians didn't believe in, they were of the wrong belief, you see. Therefore they cannot be a sect, for a sect is defined as a splinter group of an official religious denomination. If they are a religious organization, they are a cult, and that this is true (or was true as long as they existed) I will prove you now:

In hugi12, where they introduced themselves the first time, they wrote: "PS. One last thing, for all you worried people out there, WE ARE NOT A WEIRD SUICIDE CULT! :)" I talked about it intensely with my colleague Maestro Monteverdi before writing this article. He, the philosophic and linguistic expert, agreed that this was just a lame phrase to conceal the true face of The Utopians. Perhaps they are not a weird suicide cult, but they are a cult in any case, otherwise they wouldn't have written that! What else should they be than a cult? Well, themselves they call an "organization". That it is a religious organization is proved by the fact that they have seven common commandments which resemble the fucking ten commandments the suckers in America and Europe who believe in that lame-ass Popeye religion stick to:

1. Keep the demoscene alive.
2. Make the demoscene a place for genuine friendship.
3. Make demos works of art. Not simply 'showing off computers and coders'.
4. Create a tolerant demoscene.
5. Recruit fresh demosceners.
6. Protect it against becoming the 'getting into the games-industry'-scene.
7. Encourage progress, while preserving the oldskool-style.

A cult must also have a leader, and this leader was Zippy. He could decide all on him alone who was allowed to release a propaganda demo of The Utopians! Okay, he said he and a selected bunch of people would do it, but you see, these people were selected, selected by him, so they had to say yes to his ideas! He also decided who got in the cult and who should do what in it - as you could read in updated versions of the cult's propaganda text in hugi13 he even formed separate divisions and assigned people to them all himself.

And what was the aim of all of that? World domination! Of the whole demoscene! To gather people from all groups (that's why he wrote they could stay in their groups) and convert them to his crazy ideas so that at the right point in time they could make a revolution and destroy the scene! Because, does "make the demoscene a place for genuine friendship" mean anything but destroying all competition? What does he mean with "make demos works of art, not simply 'showing off computers and coders'", if not making demos a medium of propaganda to get even more people attracted to his cult? "Protect the demoscene against the 'getting into the games-industry'-scene" - so he wants his followers to stay with him in the lame-ass scene all the time and never venture out into the professional world to eat some money to earn bread and survive?

It was a cult, a real cult, a bad cult! And it was really dangerous, believe me - they infiltrated the Hugi and demojournal staffs as well as the elite of the Norwegian and Slovene demoscenes, and many other people around the world adhered to them too! Their first plan was to "take over The Gathering 1999" (source: demojournal#1)! What would they have done to the organizers then? Throw them into a lake??

Democracy was an unknown word to them! When Psychic Symphony criticized Zippy's DSSK in hugi13, Zippy's reply in the same issue showed that he nearly wanted to throw him out!

I'm just happy the cult was organised in such a lame way and that the adherents managed to turn back to a better although still not the right belief that it broke up in the end.

Beware of cults, guys!!

afghanbashi^el afghano

Ed.: Remember, all articles published in Hugi reflect only their respective author's opinion, which doesn't have to correlate with the opinion of the Hugi staff. We tend to disagree with the opinion Afghanbashi expressed here. The Utopians were not a cult. If anything, they were a sect, the official denomination being the demoscene - to repeat one of the oldest clichés among sceners, that the demoscene is a religion. ;) (Adok)