What is the Backrooms?
“If you're not careful and no-clip out of reality in wrong areas, you'll end up in the Backrooms, where it's nothing but the stink of moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, and endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in. God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you…”
This 4chan quote defines the original storyline. The Backrooms is a place of isolation, a liminal place, a point of no return. Authors call this initial realm “Level 0.” Exploring mile after mile of randomly segmented empty rooms, hallways, and stairs becomes torturous considering the maddening monotony of the journey.
Fixating only on Level 0 became maddening monotonous for both writers and readers. To break free, we added new levels, and entities, objects, and phenomena. We added tales and groups and canons.
Many feel that we are facing maddening monotony once again. Levels and entities are starting to sound formulaic. Some blame the authors. Others see inevitability.
Have we run out of ideas?
How many of us became bored and moved on?
Readership and voting seem to be on a downward trend. Is it my imagination? Because honestly, my imagination is pretty wild!
Maybe we just need to pause, take a deep breath, and discuss what comes next. Interest and enthusiasm for any subject can rise and fall. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1984) is a wonderful example of this; a new movie comes out and the stores are filled with comics, magazines, and a slew of action figures. Time passes and the toys make their way to the “clearance” aisle. More time passes and a new movie comes out and the cycle repeats.
A Backrooms movie is in the works. Adding to that, people are constantly finding “new to them” ideas to tickle their fancy. Perhaps holding tightly to original audiences is not fair to anyone.
In the meantime, we should sharpen our pencils and crayons and minds.
“This isn’t over yet!”
Your friend and colleague,
Goerman
http://backrooms-wiki.wikidot.com/goerman
