Editor's Note: Artic_Slicer has been a regular with the Sphere for quite a while. While we all know she has definate ideas, her ability to grab hold of a subject and shake it out got the attention of the Sphere's staff. We welcome her offerings and submit this as her first to our community. -Aredhel-
A Gaming Community, Fansites, and an Introduction
You probably came here looking for an editorial about gaming community fansites. Yes, I indeed do have something to say about fansites and what their importance is to the gaming community, but first I believe that some sort of introduction is in order.
I am probably what some of you call an "internet junkie," as I am on pretty much every day. My most common use for the internet is browsing web forums and on these forums I use the screen name
Arctic_Slicer. I am both eccentric and idealistic, and when it comes to forum discussions, these traits often leave me "in the heat" so to speak. On the forums I frequent, one might even go so far as to say I am famous...or is that infamous? Either way, most of you probably know of me or at least have seen my name before. Of course, sometimes I do the unthinkable the unimaginable - okay not that unbelievable, but there are times when I will pretty much not touch my computer or the internet. During these times, I can usually be found camping out on my bed playing CRPGs of days gone by.
The most recent game to absorb my attention away from the internet? The Super Nintendo classic
"Final Fantasy III" aka
"Final Fantasy VI". The urge to play this wonderful little classic was most likely inspired by the recent viewings of the great flash videos on
Mortisland.com. I saw these videos and I realized that while I have played through the game a few times, I never actually finished going through the final dungeon and killing the final bosses. Yeah, I am one of those people who hates to see the end of a good story. However, there always comes a time where my desire to see the end overcomes my loathing of the end. This was one of those times and after playing a couple of hours, I finally got to the end saw the credits, the final bits of the story, etc. Of course, after all of this happened, I then had the urge to start all over again to enjoy this game once more.
After the better part of a week, and getting pretty close to the end again, I was compelled to return to that wondrous and modern place known as the internet. Of course the first thing I do is check my email accounts, delete the 100s of new messages of junkmail that accumulated over the past several days and read the few that were of some interest to me. After that, I proceeded to the various message boards I frequent, catching up on all the latest posts and replying to the ones that interest me. Eventually, I worked my way to my favorite
"Vanguard: Saga of Heroes" fansite, doing my usual thing, logged in to reply a post and had the new private message notice. Noticing it was from the fansite staff I wasted no time reading it.
I am the kind of person who has the bad habit of always assuming the worst in everything; it's not intentional, but I do it anyway. So here I was, reading this message which I was certain was sent to me because I violated some rule I didn't know about or something, because I am assuming the worst like I always do. Of course, nothing could have prepared me for what it really said. The message was really an invitation to become a writer for their website. It really surprised me because I was so not expecting it and, at first, I thought it was some kind of mistake. But after reading a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th time, I was certain it wasn't a mistake. I also noticed that the message was like 6 days old, which added a feeling of panic to my already mixed emotions about the whole thing. So of course, I did the worst thing I could do which was send a hasty reply that more or less belittled myself as to why I wouldn't make a good writer instead of why I would.
The next day I went about my life like I usually do, but while doing that I began to realize my error and later that night I knew I had to send a second reply; a reply that actually had some thought to it. This time I sent a message the said that I was indeed interested in becoming a writer for their site! I was interested because I like the site and I like what the site supports, and if by being a writer I could be of help, then why shouldn't I be a writer? At the very least, I should at least
try, as I really have nothing to lose by doing so. Besides, I will never get any better at writing for fansites if I don't somewhere.
So, I get a reply that more or less includes my first "assignment". I was asked if I could write an editorial about fansites and what they could mean to a gaming community. Sounding easy enough I went to work typing up a paper. It started out fair enough, but after a few minutes I was beginning to have trouble. After about 4 hours and only producing a 5 or 6 paragraphs, I decided that it was time for a break. I came back to it later, read over it and realized that while it wasn't bad, it wasn't great either, and I really didn't like the way it was turning out so I started anew spending another couple of hours and realizing that I was doing much better and reading through it was actually starting to look even worse than the first one.
(*editor's note: BREATH, Artic....BREATH....!!! -A-)
At this point, I decided that I really needed to change the way I was going about this. The way I was doing now simply was not going to work. I was supposed to be writing an editorial, but what I ended up writing were essays - mediocre essays that made an even worse editorial. I decided that I was thinking too much about what I was writing and instead of thinking so much, I decided that I simply need to do less thinking and more typing. This paper is shaping up much better than my previous ones and was a lot "funner" and faster to type to boot.
So, what
do fansites mean to the gaming community?
Even since the .com boom of 1993, fansites have been a part of the internet. For a gaming community and especially an MMPORPG community, fansites have become something much greater than simply a little shrine for some media figure. For a gaming community, fansites are the proverbial glue that keeps the community together and serve as a second home where they can hang out.
MMPORPGs are complex in that players all have their own character to develop in a world that is shared by all other players who inhabit that game. In such a world, players must, at some point, interact with other players. Many times this interaction is as simple as buying a piece of equipment. Another is selling, but often times, players must form groups in order to take on challenges that further their own advancement. With additions of tradeskills and quests, players will also interact with each other in order to solve their latest quest or know where to go to find that rare component they need for that item they are crafting.
It is because of such complexity that MMPORPG communities, more than others, rely on fansites. With all of their forums and databases, fansites are where many players do research about the many aspects of the game. With the help of fansites, a player like myself can read up on my current quests, find new places to hunt, review some recipes, and keep on top of the latest patches. By conversing with other players on that site, I can also give and receive advice on and help unravel the mysteries of the currently unsolved quests and puzzles.
Fansites are also an invaluable tool for the creation and maintenance of guilds. Many guilds have their own sites which they use a place for recruitment, planning guild activities, as well as maintaining other information relevant to the guild such as raid participation points. Guilds will also use the message boards of other fansites as a place to advertise their guild. Other fansites are also valuable for their information that will allow guilds to plan their next raid. For the more famous guilds, their own website might even become a popular fansite in itself. It has happened before in the past and will most likely happen again in the future.
There are also more specialized fansites built for the needs a specific sub community such as a character class. Let's say that I choose to play a ranger. With the help of a ranger fansite, I could join a community with whom I identify more and be able to converse and compare with the other rangers of the community. I could share advice on what weapons to use, where to hunt, and what skills should be trained. I could also use it as a place to see the ranger class in a new light. Someone else might have a compelling argument for why the skills and equipment he choose is better or at least viable. It could also be a great place to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the class as well as what classes you group well with. No matter what the discussion is about, I would be participating in a community with whom I identify more closely.
There are also fansites that are created long before the release of a MMPORPG. These are the fansites that many consider to be the most important of all. Created by the most interested and dedicated of fans, these sites allow for the creation and support of communities long before the existence of in-game communities is even possible. By supporting the game in the early stages they also help the developers as the fansites help garner interest for the game. By keeping up with all of the latest scraps of game information, lore, and other "secret sauce," these fansites are providing the most effective as well as the cheapest form of advertisement the developers could ever hope to have. They are even places where the developers themselves will participate in discussions, further strengthening the community.
No matter what kind of fansites it is that you support, it is important that you stay involved. Participate in discussions and share your thoughts. If it's something that has not been discussed before, try creating a thread or two yourself. If that site runs contests, then don't hesitate to enter them. Tell your friends, family, guild mates about the site and you will help to build their community. No matter if you are a daily visitor or just there during downtime of your favorite game; by participating you are showing your support for their community and the games they support.
