January 08, 2009

EGM Shut down, 1UP Sold

Ziff Davis has sold 1UP, shut down EGM. This is partially historical since EGM has been running since 1989, where Benj Edwards has a piece on it. 1UP has fired many staff members and got taken over by UGO, reportedly 1UP will be the same, but this was taken apart. We'll see what the fallout of this is, but no doubt Ziff Davis will disappear from videogames media and 1UP will continue in some fashion for at least a while.

Posted by AndrewArmstrong at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

The RePlay Files: A Trip To The 1986 JAMMA Arcade Game Show, Part 1

GameSetWatch is hosting some part of the old RePlay trade magazine, called The RePlay Files: A Trip To The 1986 JAMMA Arcade Game Show, Part 1. Very interesting stuff from the year I was born (eeek!). I'll post the next part when it appears.

Posted by AndrewArmstrong at 08:23 AM | Comments (0)

Archiveteam

Jason Scott, from his previous points on AOL Hometime going down, has setup Team Archive, with Team Archive is GO, currently in wiki form. This hopefully will be a good resource for preservationists needing to find historical data on now-closed websites, and I hope it goes well for them :)

Posted by AndrewArmstrong at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)

More on Threshold Wikipedia Article

I might as well note it is deleted. From a comment on the entry Scott Jenning's own article Wikicrap, we have:

In case anyone is interested, they deleted the entry. There were 17 votes for DELETE, 22 votes for KEEP, with Wikipedia admins on both sides. The supposed rules for an “Article for Deletion” discussion were completely ignored. The AfD was closed after 3 days when the rule is 5 minimum. An article is only supposed to be deleted if there is a CONSENSUS FOR DELETE. With more people on the KEEP side, it is absurd to argue there was consensus to delete.

Furthermore, the “closing admin” substituted his own pure opinion and completely ignored everything discussed on the page, the input of experts, etc.

Basically, Wikipedia is run by a bunch of hard core lifers willing to break any and all rules and policies of Wikipedia to get their way and protect their buddies.

If you look at the stats of recent admins and people trying to become admins, almost everything they do is negative. You will see stats like “1370 deletions, 27 pages rescued or created.” Basically, the only way to “move up” on Wikipedia is to destroy, since that is so much easier than improving or creating things.

The only upside is that the word has really gotten out about how crooked Wikipedia’s operations are becoming.

-Michael
Muckbeast - Game Design and Online Worlds

There is also a new post by Raph on the notability and sources issues relating to MUD's on wikipedia, called Wikipedia, muds, and where the sources are.

Posted by AndrewArmstrong at 08:03 AM | Comments (0)

January 06, 2009

Losing the Threshold MUD Wikipedia Entry

Richard Bartle examines the Threshold MUD Wikipedia article, recently put up for deletion. Raph picks up on this and also has some lively comment discussion.

Now for a little personal addition of my own:

Of course, there are a long list of problems with the videogame sections of Wikipedia, among them the Biographies (and a very simple lack of them at least), the notability and citation sources requirements, and the internal political issues in the groups editing the site. Not an easy problem to solve, for general historical research certainly it seems as if Wikipedia is falling slowly down if it does delete entries like this.

I'll see if I can get the Digital Game Canon site up for 2009, and see if Mobygames aims to add more detailed text fields/content, or if the Digital Game Canon website can support it in some way, for all those games which simply don't have a massive dedicated Wakia wiki, or a site of their own.

Posted by AndrewArmstrong at 07:14 AM | Comments (0)