Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/20110706/Interview

WikiProject Video Games Newsletter

Volume 4, No. 2 — 2nd Quarter, 2011

Changes to Featured and Good content | News items and announcements | Feature | Featured editor

Featured editor: New Age Retro Hippie

Interviewed by (GamerPro64 and Guyinblack25)

In this issue, we interview New Age Retro Hippie, who has been editing Wikipedia for over 5 years. His achievements include Katamari Damacy (while he was known as "A Link to the Past"), Controversy over the usage of Manchester Cathedral in Resistance: Fall of Man and a plethora of video game character articles. Find out what keeps him editing and more.

1. What drew you to Wikipedia, and what prompted you to begin editing?

   At this rate, I can hardly remember; I pretty much started using it for school, and then later, started editing to improve the article Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (though the improvements were not particularly great now). At that point, it just kind of stuck.

2. How did you think of your name, New Age Retro Hippie?

   I changed my user name from A Link to the Past (obviously based on the game of the same name) to New Age Retro Hippie after playing and beating Mother 3 for the first time (which I also did extensive work on for its article). New Age Retro Hippie is an enemy from the first EarthBound, and he was always a humorous one to me. I actually changed my name on a number of services to New Age Retro Hippie as an honorarium to the series

3. What is considered your best work on Wikipedia?

   I actually have a few, but I'll try to be brief. I really like Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire, both because of how quickly I was able to create it and bring it to Good Article status, and also because it is what got me to make more Good Articles for Wikipedia. And my most recent Good Article right now, Glass Joe, I'm particularly proud of, as it is my first attempt at bringing a video game character's article to Good Article status. While it needs some clean up, I hope to bring it to Featured Article status. And finally, I would say that my best work on Wikipedia has been trying to raise awareness of the problem of too many fair use images used in articles without good cause. I recently went through a number of articles and removed probably more than 100 images that plagued them. While this might be severe, I tried to be totally neutral; a number of images were added back that, with further explanation, definitely made them better for the article. Sissy's Magical Ponycorn Adventure was a fun article to write, and I hope to bring it to GA soon. Mighty Jill Off is also one that I want to bring to GA, FA, and then TFA in May (to coincide with National Masturbation Month!). And one of my earlier accomplishments are Mother 3 and EarthBound 64, which I hope to one day bring to FA and GA, respectively.

4. You have worked on a number of articles related to "video game controversy", like Controversy over the usage of Manchester Cathedral in Resistance: Fall of Man, Pong Toss! Frat Party Games, and Corrupted Blood incident. What draws you to these articles?

   Well, the Resistance controversy article was my first article of that kind, which I took up after reading the Resistance: Fall of Man article and deciding that it had become a big enough thing that it was its own subject by then. As for the other two, Pong Toss! Frat Party Games and Corrupted Blood incident, I became intrigued with them after reading up about them, and decided that I wanted to improve them and bring some more articles of their kind to the limelight.

5. How does working on character articles differ from working on a stand alone video game article? Do you write or approach the two differently?

   Well, for me, the process of writing either article type is pretty much the same, at least in the setup. For both, I go to Google Books, Google News, and do a sitesearch on Google for the article I am writing on every site listed as a reliable source on Wikipedia Video game's RS page. Afterward, they naturally change in how they are written, as with a character article, you have to focus a lot on the in-universe content, more so than you do on a video game's article. Though recently, I've become burnt out on writing new articles for video game characters; nevertheless, I do sometimes get back into the habit when I play a game that I enjoy, such as Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. I also recently got into a buzz about writing Pokémon species articles (which I probably went overboard somewhat). Nowadays, I'm focusing on bringing what I've written to GA (especially GLaDOS, which is going to be a monumental task of completely rewriting entire sections of the article) and improving indie titles such as Bit.Trip Beat. One thing I have to say about character articles for me, though, is that I used to (and sometimes still do) write character articles to illicit a "WTF" reaction (for example, Waluigi). Eventually, it became kind of a challenge to myself to see how many I could make (without too much sacrifice of quality).

6. What is the most difficult part of editing Wikipedia?

   I'd say it's a close tie between paraphrasing and edit wars. With paraphrasing, I'm always too worried that I'm going to go too close to the original version, or I'm going to be too far off from it. I would have used to say grammar and prose, but I'm getting a little better at that. As for edit warring, it was definitely my biggest problem back when I was a lot less experienced and more prone to frustration. Even still, I sometimes get into edit wars these days that I try my best to avoid.

7. How much of a gamer are you and what type of games do you gravitate toward?

   Well, I've been interested in games as long as I can remember. One of my earliest memories was watching my Dad playing Super Mario Bros. 3, where he was fighting Wendy O. Koopa (I distinctly remember those candy-striped rings). My first game that I remember ever having played was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past; however, for the longest time, I never got further than the very beginning of the first dungeon, as I was absolutely petrified by those orbs that shot out at you. I eventually got over it, and it was my favourite game ever made until EarthBound (which has since been usurped by Mother 3). In general, I enjoy a good, meaty adventure, but I enjoy video games most if they provide a good storyline, cast of characters, atmosphere, and writing. Ones that I'm specifically fond of are the EarthBound games, Portal games, Heavy Rain (meh writing and voice acting, but great atmosphere), the Shin Megami Tensei games, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, The World Ends with You, Day of the Tentacle, and the Dragon Quest series. I'm a big fan of Takashi Tezuka (The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island), Hideki Kamiya (Ōkami, Bayonetta), Gunpei Yokoi (Metroid, the original Game Boy), Tim Schafer (Psychonauts, Sam & Max) and Shigesato Itoi (the EarthBound series). Generally, I can get into most kinds of games, with the only ones that I'm not too hot on being sports, racing, and fighting.

8. What advice would you give a new editor interested in working on video game articles?

   Well, first off, make sure that you always cite your sources, and refer to the Wikipedia Video games page for reliable sources for an idea of what is an acceptable source to use; try to avoid edit warring at all cost (and remember that gaming 3RR by planning to do only three reverts is still a violation!); and always make sure to work with other editors, as no one has gotten anywhere on Wikipedia without relying on the community!

9. Anything else you want to say?

   Sorry for being so long-winded; I just kept finding more and more things to write about, and I couldn't decide what to exclude. This was a fun interview, and I appreciate being picked for it.

Also read about our previous Featured editor: GamerPro64