~THE FLUFFY-FIWWY WAR~
(Redirected from the Hasbio-Genecco War)
It has been suggested that this article be merged into [History of Fluffy Ponies](https://www.reddit.com/r/fluffycommunity/comments/jygejs/the_history_of_fluffies_part_1_before_the_booru/gdqyk23/?context=3). (Discuss) Proposed since April 2035.
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At the height of the worldwide popularity of the fluffy pony biotoy, the biotoy producers Hasbio and Genecco engaged in mutually-targeted marketing campaigns for the direct competition between each companyâs product lines, especially their flagship biotoy lines, the Fluffies and Fiwwies. These campaigns were heightened by the development of various tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) that both companies developed as accompaniments to their biotoys, hence sparking the alternative title of these competitive marketing campaigns as the RPG war towards its end. Beginning in the late 2000s and into the 2010s, the intensity of these campaigns led to them, and the competition in general, being known as the Fluffy-Fiwwy Wars.
Predecessors for the early fluffy pony were first released by Hasbio in 2008 to lukewarm reception [citation needed]. Nonetheless, the advent of biotoys led to the development of similar competing products from other biotoy subsidiaries and startups at the time, one of which included Genecco. Genecco had been developing the Fiwwy toyline with input from an ex-Hasbio employee[citation needed], which have led some to speculate that Genecco had conducted trade secret theft[citation needed]. Early lawsuits ladled by Hasbio against Genecco indicated that gene sequencing for many of Geneccoâs equine biotoy products heavily matched sequences from Hasbioâs Fluffy Pony line. It this has been speculated that fluffy ponies would be able to interbeed with fiwwies due to the similarity of these gene sequences. As such, later Fluffy pony and Fiwwy lines have had separate gene sequences to prevent this from occurring.[1]
Following their initial lawsuit from Hasbio, based on the overall similarity of the products [2], Genecco embarked on a campaign to distinguish themselves from Hasbioâs Fluffy Pony marketing. Hasbio Fluffies, while based off characters from MLF:PiM, had been marketed to the target demographic of child to pre-teen females as the opportunity to own a pet or miniature and realistic version of a character from the show. However, Hasbio had made no qualms that the Fluffies were nothing like their show counterparts, speaking in the open-source language of Fluffspeak with the idea that the biotoys would be at the same comprehension level as their child owners and would slowly develop their vocabularies until their eventual expiration. In contrast, Genecco wanted to push the fantasy angle of their Fiwwy line. In an interview [3], the founders of Genecco described the elaborate world that would serve as the basis of Fiwwy Fantasia, where the Fiwwies of different races and kinds came to a school to learn magic, and later, partake in adventures. Thus, and following the release of their main Fiwwy line of biotoys, Genecco announced the development of Fiwwy Fantasia.
Fiwwy Fantasia was a media franchise that was to intended spread across more than one medium, including animation, biotoys and, most interestingly of all, a role-playing game. The game would utilize elaborate sets, accessories and rulebooks, and would allow the child to re-enact scenes from the show, or make their own adventures, utilizing the Fiwwies. Despite speaking in Fluffspeak, the Fiwwies were marketed as being replicas of their show versions, to the extent that their behaviours and ideals would 100% fall in line with the show variant. The idea that Genecco was that children were not only supposed to buy the biotoys, but also the Fiwwy Fantasia game and sets, and have their Fiwwies play with these sets. The concept, when it was first revealed at France Biotech 2013, so captivated the audience that Fiwwy Fantasia won the award for best show.[4]
However, the development of Fiwwy Fantasia was marred heavily by delays. Disagreements between Genecco and its initial distributor, Simbio, led to a falling out between the two, and subsequent legal problems. In addition, Hasbio, suspected trade secret theft of its genetic sequencing, continuously harassed Genecco with their own set of legal claims. And over time, Geneccoâs main collaborator on the game, Blood Dragon, departed. For over a decade, despite its early promise, Fiwwy Fantasia had been stuck in developmental hell.
Nonetheless, the appeal of Fiwwy Fantasia as a role-playing game, and with Fiwwies being advertised as show-accurate biotoys that placed an emphasis on show authenticity over simplistic behaviour led Hasbio to embark on their own RPG initiatives to counter Fiwwy Fantasia. Being a subsidiary of Hasbro, which also owns Wizards of the Coast LLC, Hasbio collaborated with Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) to create campaign modules and expansions packs that were Fluffy-friendly. The idea was that a D&D game could be run entirely with fluffies, as long as one human, a child, was the dungeon master. To accommodate the learning handicaps of the fluffy pony, WotC developed a complex system of colour coding that Fluffies could understand and implement in battle. Ina ddition, more intelligent breeds like the Marcusmaximus and Squeakyfriend, with a better understanding of numeric, had specific AD&D module that allowed the use of a fluffy-friendly dice.[5] This campaign went live in 2014, not long after the announcement of Fiwwy Fantasia. However, and with Geneccoâs subsequent financial troubles, Hasbioâs RPG campaign was short-live, as their target demographic was simply not interest in tabletop RPGs (although the campaign saw a spike of consumers from the young male demographic)
Despite this, both Hasbio and Genecco embarked on aggressive marketing in the continents of Europe and Asia, where Fiwwy biotoys were being distributed along with Fluffies. In Italy, Fiwwies had developed a reputation for being an overall better product than the Fluffy, as they were better behaved, and more interested in adventure and imagination over the fairly selfish and greedy antics of their Fluffy counterparts. In retaliation, Hasbio, and drawing upon the ongoing legal battles, aggressively targeted Fiwwies as a poorer versions of the Fluffy, made from âweakerâ materials. One of the challengers that Hasbio did was the âFluffy challengeâ, where an owner, presented with two boxes, would say âI wuv youâ, and they would hear the responsive âI wuv you too!â from both boxes. The challenge had been rigged with the idea that the audience would pick the Fluffy for its âsweeter voiceâ over the inauthentic Fiwwy. This characteristic of Fiwwy as a âfakeâ Fluffy had founds its way even amongst the biotoys themselves. Rumour has it [citation needed], that Hasbio had included a code in later generations of Fluffies that would predispose them to seeing Fiwwies as âfakeâ Fluffies, or Fakies. Documented footage of violence between had suggested that Fiwwies had also started to see some of the newer generation of Fluffies asâmunstahsâ, or in some cases, as âgremwin munstahs.â[6]
Eventually, Fiwwy Fantasia was released in January 2019. The game release, hot on the heels of the end of MLF:PiM, and with Hasbio still developing the next line of Fluffy Ponies, meant that Fiwwy was able to find a niche market that had an interest in latching on to a new show while waiting for the next release of Fluffy Ponies. In addition, the game, despite the development hell it had been in, proved incredibly popular in the countries of Italy, Germany and China. Unlike D&D, which relied on a pre-existing and fairly complex system, the âgame âof Fiwwy Fantasia was a like more complex version of make-believe but with simpler rules that even a kindergartener could understand. This resurgence of Fiwwy Fantasia led Hasbio to revisit their original D&D cross-campaign, and market a new line of RPG-friendly biotoys to counter Fiwwyâs. The stage was set for what Forbes [7] described as the RPG war, where, in December 2019, Fiwwy Fantasia was to compete head-on with Hasbioâs D&D Fluffies.
But, alas, the war was short-lived. Just two months later, in February 2020, the outbreak of coronavirus worldwide heavily affected the worlds economy due to nationwide lockdowns. This had affected sales of a lot of products, especially biotoys, which have a short shelf-life and had to sold before a certain date, or risk culling. The outbreak of coronavirus led to a massive culling of both Fiwwies and Fluffies, as there was too much stock, for a complete lack of buyers. It should be noted that, at one point, a volume of both Fluffies and Fiwwies that was pending a cull was found to have mysteriously disappeared, causing some to suspect theft[citation needed]. And so ended the RPG war.
References
[1][2][3][4] Genecco Fluffies, aka "Fiwwies:
[5] Fluffies Playing D&D & Gamer Fluffies
[6] âGremwin Munstahsâ
[7][REDACTED]