The Future World
The setting: I get online Monday afternoon, check the sports pages to see if anything's going on, then think to myself: "I ought to go over to Sm.net and see if my article's up yet. I haven't written one in years, and I miss occasionally seeing my name on the front page in blue." I scroll past the little welcome message and WHOAAA there's this picture of Ness and a link to a commercial and to the forums and next thing I know it's official that Mother 1+2 are coming in a few months and Mother 3 is on the way. Talk about a news item. For those of us here at least. One day the site is chugging along as usual, the next we're suddenly staring at something as big (or possibly bigger) than the initial birth of the site itself. I figure that by now every person who ever has or will write an article is putting their thoughts, reactions, nonsensical phrases of ecstasy, etc., into an email and inundating PappyCat with articles. So, I thought I'd throw a word or two in while I could.
(By the way, in case any of you actually enjoyed Earthboundology [and for that matter, even if you didn't], I'll have another one of those in soon too, as soon as I think of something. I figured this would be something worth writing on, though, so here's my random gobbledygook about THE NEWS).
As reidman said, this event will likely galvanize and transform the site as nothing has since Earthbound.net's birth. When the site was born, it was dedicated to a relatively unknown game that a few people loved and wanted to make a web site about. This time around, it will likely be a major release for the GameBoy Advance, and could potentially bring more new people in a few months than the sum total of all the people that have come and gone since the beginning. In other words, this is gonna be big.
It is important that, despite all the other wonderful things that Starmen.net has evolved to include, we remember the core mission (or at least, what should be the core mission) of the site: to provide information about Mother 1, 2, and 3. This means that in addition to making sure the various contests, forums, and other sections are kept up, their must be a refocused effort to make sure that any new player of the game can find as much information as he wants about the games here. From simple walkthroughs to complex analyses of the psychology of the Orange Kid, information about the games themselves must be the central part of the site. All of the other sections are important, but they must be satellites to the games.
What does this mean outside the flowery language above? It means that this site must prove capable of providing that information.
I recently finished playing Final Fantasy X, as well as doing some working on building up my characters to be at least slightly competitive in the monster arena. While the basic strategy guide helped when I was stuck during certain parts of the game, the truly valuable information was all of the tables, charts, strategies, etc., regarding other aspects of the game, such as item hunting, equipment customization, and monster capturing. Gamefaqs.com was instrumental in providing what they refer to as in-depth FAQs regarding specific topics, in addition to the many general walkthroughs.
While I know both Mothers combined (that sounds a bit weird) are not nearly as complex as Final Fantasy X, the principle applies nonetheless: the most important thing to someone who is just learning about a game is information, whether it be to help get through a critical part of the game, or just to guide one on a sidequest for a powerful item. Thus, one goal of the site in the coming days, weeks, and months should be to insure that as much information about the game is readily and easily accessible for the deluge of visitors we no doubt will soon receive. We have numerous experts on the game, and numerous capable writers capable of combining talents and putting together superb FAQs, complete with other media that can be obtained and/or provided by our many technical and artistic wizards. If everyone contributes their talents, this site can be not just the premier Earthbound site in the world, but one of the very best video game related sites.
A great, wonderful future lies ahead for Starmen.net. The dreams and hopes of years have finally paid off. What remains to be done now is to prepare for that future. This presents an opportunity for Starmen.net to fully realize its purpose: to be the best site about the Mother series. To that end, I challenge everyone here to do what they can, however big or small that might be, to contribute to this cause. Write an article (it's really not that hard, just look at who's churning one out right now!), write an FAQ, create a picture walkthrough, donate money, help a new person, anything you can do. Working together, we can seize this chance to take the already great Starmen.net and turn it into something far more wonderful than we ever thought possible.
The setting: I get online Monday afternoon, check the sports pages to see if anything's going on, then think to myself: "I ought to go over to Sm.net and see if my article's up yet. I haven't written one in years, and I miss occasionally seeing my name on the front page in blue." I scroll past the little welcome message and WHOAAA there's this picture of Ness and a link to a commercial and to the forums and next thing I know it's official that Mother 1+2 are coming in a few months and Mother 3 is on the way. Talk about a news item. For those of us here at least. One day the site is chugging along as usual, the next we're suddenly staring at something as big (or possibly bigger) than the initial birth of the site itself. I figure that by now every person who ever has or will write an article is putting their thoughts, reactions, nonsensical phrases of ecstasy, etc., into an email and inundating PappyCat with articles. So, I thought I'd throw a word or two in while I could.
(By the way, in case any of you actually enjoyed Earthboundology [and for that matter, even if you didn't], I'll have another one of those in soon too, as soon as I think of something. I figured this would be something worth writing on, though, so here's my random gobbledygook about THE NEWS).
As reidman said, this event will likely galvanize and transform the site as nothing has since Earthbound.net's birth. When the site was born, it was dedicated to a relatively unknown game that a few people loved and wanted to make a web site about. This time around, it will likely be a major release for the GameBoy Advance, and could potentially bring more new people in a few months than the sum total of all the people that have come and gone since the beginning. In other words, this is gonna be big.
It is important that, despite all the other wonderful things that Starmen.net has evolved to include, we remember the core mission (or at least, what should be the core mission) of the site: to provide information about Mother 1, 2, and 3. This means that in addition to making sure the various contests, forums, and other sections are kept up, their must be a refocused effort to make sure that any new player of the game can find as much information as he wants about the games here. From simple walkthroughs to complex analyses of the psychology of the Orange Kid, information about the games themselves must be the central part of the site. All of the other sections are important, but they must be satellites to the games.
What does this mean outside the flowery language above? It means that this site must prove capable of providing that information.
I recently finished playing Final Fantasy X, as well as doing some working on building up my characters to be at least slightly competitive in the monster arena. While the basic strategy guide helped when I was stuck during certain parts of the game, the truly valuable information was all of the tables, charts, strategies, etc., regarding other aspects of the game, such as item hunting, equipment customization, and monster capturing. Gamefaqs.com was instrumental in providing what they refer to as in-depth FAQs regarding specific topics, in addition to the many general walkthroughs.
While I know both Mothers combined (that sounds a bit weird) are not nearly as complex as Final Fantasy X, the principle applies nonetheless: the most important thing to someone who is just learning about a game is information, whether it be to help get through a critical part of the game, or just to guide one on a sidequest for a powerful item. Thus, one goal of the site in the coming days, weeks, and months should be to insure that as much information about the game is readily and easily accessible for the deluge of visitors we no doubt will soon receive. We have numerous experts on the game, and numerous capable writers capable of combining talents and putting together superb FAQs, complete with other media that can be obtained and/or provided by our many technical and artistic wizards. If everyone contributes their talents, this site can be not just the premier Earthbound site in the world, but one of the very best video game related sites.
A great, wonderful future lies ahead for Starmen.net. The dreams and hopes of years have finally paid off. What remains to be done now is to prepare for that future. This presents an opportunity for Starmen.net to fully realize its purpose: to be the best site about the Mother series. To that end, I challenge everyone here to do what they can, however big or small that might be, to contribute to this cause. Write an article (it's really not that hard, just look at who's churning one out right now!), write an FAQ, create a picture walkthrough, donate money, help a new person, anything you can do. Working together, we can seize this chance to take the already great Starmen.net and turn it into something far more wonderful than we ever thought possible.
