2005–2009
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Wikipedian since October 2005. My first major project was to flesh out the Icewind Dale (series) stub. After that, I collaborated on Megatokyo—in September 2006, it became the first featured article on which I'd worked. Deckiller and the incredible Ryu Kaze (stopped editing October 2006), a pair that set countless standards for video game article quality, provided an extensive copyedit. Without them, Megatokyo would never have been featured. The article saw the front page in 2009, which I had nothing to do with, but which I was proud of anyway.
Before Megatokyo passed FAC, I moonlighted on Black Isle's Torn (a page I'd created) and Halo: Combat Evolved, which respectively reached Good and Featured status in September 2006. One of my favorite Wikipedians, TKD, bailed me out on Halo with an unbelievable copyedit. The article was later selected for the front page. Some of the writing TKD and I contributed to Halo was quoted by The New York Times Magazine in November 2010; still reeling. To relieve stress from all these nominations, I started editing F.E.A.R. in September 2006. To my surprise, several people were already working on it, and I helped them take the article to A-class in October 2006. I didn't have another big project until March 2007, with System Shock. TKD wasn't available this time, so I turned to Zeality, who provided a solid, thorough copyedit. The article was featured in May 2007, and it hit the front page in September 2014. After System Shock, I took an extended break from major projects.
I returned to FAC with Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, which I'd begun to expand after a successful Collaboration of the Week drive in February 2009. TKD was back in action: his inspiring prose work helped to get Ultima Underworld featured in May 2009 and TFA'd in March 2012. Around the time it passed FAC, I started to try my hand at copyediting others' articles—tentatively. Noj r and I began collaborating on Thief: The Dark Project in June 2009. Noj's dedication to Looking Glass Studios games had previously brought System Shock 2 to GA status; and, together, we transformed Thief from a cruft-ridden mess into a high-quality GA. The collaboration tapered out before we reached FA, however.
While I was working on Thief, I found myself further involved in copyediting. This time, though, my work was a more significant factor in the articles' promotions to FA. The pages were ToeJam & Earl (by the inspiring, retired bridies) and MissingNo. (by Kung Fu Man, a long-time key figure in WikiProject Video games). Both were rewarding experiences. Afterward, I began a project entirely different from my earlier work. While researching articles, I'd always found it enormously difficult to locate reliable print sources. Influenced by a user who'd retrieved a print review of Thief from the Internet Archive, I created the Online print archive (OPA) in September 2009 to catalogue print content that had been hosted online in the past. It's tough to tell how much traffic it gets, but I do see evidence of its impact occasionally—which always makes my day. Later in 2009, I copyedited The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay for GamerPro64 and ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth for bridies, and I started on Nintendo DSi for FullMetal Falcon.
2010–2014
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In 2010, I worked on the OPA, helped Zeality gather sources for his behemoth Anachronox and copyedited Tales of Monkey Island for S@bre (a lot of fun) and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars for FullMetal Falcon. More importantly, I decided to undertake my biggest project yet: a good or featured topic dedicated to Looking Glass Studios video games. To that end, I began to work on Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri and Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds while expanding and updating System Shock and Ultima Underworld, which by that point were looking a bit dated. I gathered source material on the talk pages of other LGS games in preparation. I was interviewed around this time for the WikiProject Video games Newsletter, which was interesting, to say the least.
For me, 2011 was a busy year. I continued to copyedit: I worked on Flow, Cloud and Thatgamecompany for PresN's amazing Thatgamecompany FT; on The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the inimitable David Fuchs; on rhythm game for bridies; and on Resident Evil 2 with Prime Blue, an excellent editor who disappeared before the year's end. In between copyediting, I collaborated variously with Guyinblack25, S@bre and others on the GAs Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, The Secret of Monkey Island and P.N.03. Terra Nova passed FAC; I took British Open Championship Golf through GAN. The 2011 contribution of which I'm proudest is Flight Unlimited (TFA June 2015), though: I wrote it solo and, after an extensive prose review from Prime Blue, it had a successful FAC in September. It was the first flight simulator ever to hit FA, and a truly insane amount of work. Unfortunately, after I found out in August that the (already large) LGS video games topic would be several articles bigger than I'd anticipated, my momentum was drained.
By the start of 2012, I was burnt on Wikipedia and wanted out. I wrote a Reception section for Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, copyedited Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars for Khanassassin and then disappeared for about nine months. I didn't think I'd be back, but I ended up returning for a short time that November. I tweaked Ultima Underworld, copyedited Broken Sword again and heavily rewrote System Shock; but, more importantly, I started to burn through LGS articles faster than ever before. I rewrote and GAN'd Ultima Underworld II, Destruction Derby and John Madden Football '93 between November 20 and November 25. By December 19, I'd followed these up with GANs for Jane's Attack Squadron and Command & Conquer, and, with lots of help from PresN, an FLC for List of Looking Glass Studios video games. Everything passed. I don't remember what got into me during this period—but it left soon enough. I edited only six times between December 27, 2012 and February 23, 2014.
I'd left Wikipedia seemingly for good, but I still periodically checked my account. In 2014, I noticed that Terra Nova was set to be a March TFA. A certain itch to study and document Looking Glass has driven my editing almost from the beginning, and, for some reason, it came back. I planned to write Voyager—a short and interesting article—and leave again, but I realized that the LGS video games good topic was finally in reach. Only Thief II: The Metal Age, Flight Unlimited II and Flight Unlimited III stood in the way. I wrote those and the unrelated Robbing the Cradle over a few months; and the GT became a reality on June 19, over eight years after System Shock was featured. Since then, I've been "officially" retired from mainspace content generation: I now try to limit myself to reviews, occasional copyediting and archivism. That last one became key in May 2014, when WPVG archivist Mitaphane passed on to me his many (many) hundreds of magazines.
Just before the LGS video games GT passed, I realized that it could be upgraded to an FT: only three more FAs were needed, and Thief II and the second two Flight Unlimited articles were already near FA quality. I gave them all copyedits and (fudging on my rule a tiny bit) expanded and reworked them slightly. On September 20, the topic was featured—a dream on which I'd given up years before. Plus, Flight Unlimited II and Thief II were TFA'd in August and December 2014, respectively. A pretty incredible year.
Right now
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I'm stuck as a WPVG fixture now that I have Mitaphane's archive, and that doesn't bother me at all. Never hesitate to ask me for a scan: I love this work, and I'll take any opportunity to hunt through my magazines. Beyond archivism, I just do what I find interesting: off-and-on reviews and copyedits; occasional WikiGnoming; general kibitzing. Thanks for reading.
