Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/20130109/Interview

WikiProject Video Games Newsletter

Volume 5, No. 4 — 4th Quarter, 2012

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

Featured editor: Khanassassin

Interviewed by (GamerPro64)

After a year without it, the Newsletter brings back the "Featured editor" segment. And our first interviewee is Khanassassin.

Throughout the past year, Khanassassin has been getting articles made by Revolution Software up to Good Article status. Such articles include the Broken Sword franchise, Lure of the Temptress, and the Virtual Theatre game engine the company uses. Today we are going to ask him why he works on them.

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

   Well, I discovered Wikipedia quite a long time ago, and, I'll be honest, it was my only source for schoolwork. But what prompted me to begin editing? - After visiting the Eminem entry, I noticed that there was a little green plus sign on top. Clicking on it sent me to WP:GA. Of course, I was intriqued, and that's how I discovered what GAs and FAs are. My reaction was: "Yo, I could do some of this stuff, and people would read it, I mean, that's pretty cool."

2. How did you become involved with the VG project?

   Simply put, I edited video game articles, saw the WikiProject Video games template at the talk pages, added my self to the list of members, and here I am today. What a great story. I know it's a bit too detailed, but it'll do.

3. How did you pick your username?

   Broken Sword. Yes, you could say I'm obsessed. Having a hard time choosing a username, it hit me: "Hey, Khan's the main bad dude in the first Broken Sword game, he's an assassin, so why not join these two words into one, and make it Khanassassin!?"

4. Why Broken Sword? For that matter, why games from Revolution Software?

   I discovered Broken Sword a few years ago, after playing a demo of Broken Sword: The Angel of Death that I got from a gaming magazine called Joker. I loved it, so I bought the full game. I loved it even more. And, that's how I "fell in love" with Revolution games. It's funny how The Angel of Death is considered by fans to be the worst of the series. So, after beginning my Wikipedia editing, I noticed that the Broken Sword/Revolution articles were in really, really bad shape, so I told myself "Now lets get a little bronze star for each of these suckers." Of course, I have yet to get one of those stars for a video game article. But I'm close. In fact, Broken Sword's currently at FAC for the fifth time, and I'm sure it'll "win" this time! :)

5. What is considered your best work on Wikipedia?

   My very first article, which I started working on as an IP editor, you guessed it, Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars. Compare these two versions: before i made any edit, and the current version (oh, and I created the director's cut entry, of course). D'you see what I mean? Of course, I didn't all of it myself, there's a huge list of editors who helped me (little shout-out to JimmyBlackwing, the dude who's edits before becoming inactive were mostly just helping me out during my early days; well, he's active again since November, so... Hurray! :D). I'm quite proud of The Goat Puzzle too. I mean, a GA of a video game puzzle with an evil goat in it, that's pretty fricking awesome, right? Outside of the video game area, however, all the work I've done on the Ed, Edd n Eddy (my first FA and FL!) articles. That show was the best. Still is.

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

   Paraphrasing. I always fear that my version of text is to close to the original one. In fact, I'm not really that good in this field, and I'm no Mr. Copy-Editor of the Decade, so I often seek help from other editors who are experienced in this field. FACs can also be quite frustrating, especially when you see the first two votes are "Oppose". I go crazy over that stuff: "Oh yeah, what if I resolve the issues, huh, HUH!?", and just start harassing that keyboard, and I'm done after few a minutes: "How you like it now huh? Issue-free article, baby!" I despise edit wars too, especially when it's over claims which are obviously not true.

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

   Due to my Broken Sword obsession-like case, I've really been enjoying some adventures lately. But, I gravitate towards games that fall in to this genre: "Liked-by-Khanassassin game". So, no, I don't really have favorite types, I just go with the flow. However, I won't say I'm a super-fan of FPS games, though they can be enjoyable. I never played many sports games, except a skying game called Freak Out: Extreme Freeride, and some old FIFA games. My favorite childhood game would have to be Lego Racers, and I still love it! I'm even working on it for GA class (the sequel was OK-to-mediocore). Discworld II is an adventure I loved as a kid and I recently replayed it. I loved many of the Need for Speed games. Stargunner, Revolution's Beneath a Steel Sky of course, 90s adventures. But as the question was what type of games, not what games I gravitate toward, I'll simply say this: good ones.

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

   Make sure you use reliable sources, but don't copy-paste them, avoid edit wars, and work with other editors, that's the best way to learn the ways of the Wiki. Oh, and if you ever play Broken Sword, beware the Goat, he's an evil little fella!

9. Anything else you want to say?

   I'd like to thank GamerPro for this wonderful interview, and everyone here at Wikipedia. I'm really glad to be able to be part of a wonderful project like this and work with such great editors. Despite my struggles with paraphrasing, copy-editing, FACs and a couple of minor edit wars, I've truly enjoyed all the time I've spent here on Wikipedia, with you, my beloved co-editors. I know my speech was quite emotional, but don't ge... wait, GamerPro, is that a tear I see in your eye? It's OK, just let it out buddy. OK, this is incredibly awkward. I'll just... stop. OK, looking past my incredibly strange and unfunny sense of humour, I really do look forward to my WikiFuture working with you dudes and dudettes. :)