Princess Zelda Needs You...Again

Introduction
Most people would be very quick to agree that classics like The Odyssey  or Jane Eyre are great works of literature. In fact, even the dictionary defines literature as, "any written works, esp. those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit"  However, such definitions overlook other forms of media that are now as prevalent in our everyday lives as to become commonplace. Taking a look broadly at these emerging technologies such as

e-books, interactive fiction, films, blogs, video games, it can be argued that our once crystal clear view of literature has become cloudy and muddled. Who is to say that a film does not qualify itself as literature, or that interactive fiction is any less of merit than the "classics" of old. The National Endowment for the Arts claims that a decline in literary reading "correlates with the increased participation in...The Internet, video games, and portable digital devices"   However, Matthew Kirschenbaum of the Electronic Literature Organization brings up a different way of looking at the emergence of new media stating he considers "the screen as well as the page as a natural venue for literature and imaginative writing"

<span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-top-style:none;border-right-style:none;border-bottom-style:none;border-left-style:none;border-top-color:windowtext;border-right-color:windowtext;border-bottom-color:windowtext;border-left-color:windowtext;border-top-width:1pt;border-right-width:1pt;border-bottom-width:1pt;border-left-width:1pt;padding-top:0in;padding-right:0in;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:0in;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">If we take it as a given that these new emerging technologies can be just as stimulating as their written counterparts, the question becomes what do they contribute to us as readers. In this case, f ocusing specifically on video games is interesting because the merits of video games are a debate that has been waged for a long time now. As respected film critic Roger Ebert puts it, "Video games are an entertaining diversion at best, a mind-numbing waste of time at worst."   . However, it could be said that video games have infiltrated our everyday life at a subconscious level . Video games and literature have many elements in common, and video games can provide more than just the narrative features that some literature provides. The argument can also be made for "gamification" defined as "the use of game-play mechanics for non-game applications"  <span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;line-height:normal;"> which is why it’s interesting to examine video games throughout the ages, and the fan responses that have come to existence because of them.

Taking all this into account, I’ve decided to examine the fan communities that have sprung up around The Legend of Zelda video game series that first debuted in 1986.Since the original debut, the series has gained a large and supremely dedicated fan base that could in some cases be described as cultish. Since the dawn of internet blogs, Knowledge communities and fan sites devoted entirely to Zelda have cropped up everywhere. These sites are constantly seeking any bit of news pertaining to The Legend of Zelda that they can get their Hands on and share with other members of their knowledge community. Furthermore these sites are always discussing aspects of current games, hints and secrets of the entire storyline, and the biggest debate of all about the intended timeline in the life of Zelda. Furthermore, fans who have not yet gotten enough out of the video games have written extensive amounts of fan fiction, fan art, filmed videos, and drawn manga, all in the theme of Zelda.

Triforce Enlightenment: Knowledge Communities
The human desire to gather knowledge is nothing new. As author Stacy Schiff notes, "The encyclopedic impulse dates back more than two thousand years." Since then, this enclyopedic nature has undergone many transformations, from Encyclopedia Britannica, to Wikipedia. However, no matter the medium, the basal instinct to compile all available knowledge on certain topics was always present. The Legend of Zelda Series is of no exception. There exists hundreds of independantly run knowledge communities all based solely on The Legend of Zelda. I've chosen to focus on two in particular. Zelda Universe, and Zelda Classic. These two knowledge communities, while based on the same series, have three very different purposes.

Zelda Universe
The Legend of Zelda Universe was started in the year 2000 when Lars-Christian, the founding father of Zelda Universe and avid Zelda fan decided to expand his small personal website, and add sections about two of the Series earlier games: Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Upon doing so, Lars's website got "massive support", prompting him to make an entirely separate site devoted solely to the Legend of Zelda. After a year of work, the site Zelda Universe finally went online in Februrary of 2001 The site has since undergone at least three different layout changes, and tons of coding and desgining overhaul.

The Zelda Universe site's main purpose is to simply create a place where fans of the Series can gather and discuss, relate, and debate the video game series they treasure so dearly. The first striking part of the forums



on Zelda Universe is the "Temple Quest, the Temple Quest is "Zelda Universe's month long puzzle solving adventure contest" The prizes are not unveiled unless you win them, however the website does mention a $500 prize as one of the possible rewards. Hence the first category on the Zelda Universe forums is a section devoted to those who need help with their current progress through Temple Quest.

However, while interesting, the real bulk of the knowledge community's purpose is exposed in the forum entitled "Future Zelda". It is in this forum category that the collective intelligence of the group really shines. The Users of this forum, in addition to their own predictions and "wish lists" also spend their time scouring the internet for any sign of hints or clues as to the next Zelda game installment. For example, a thread entitled "Meyamoto adresses possibility of a new A Link to the Past 3D Successor game" Forum member Kyrie cites quotes Interview with the creator of the Zelda series Shigeru Miyamoto, by Edge magazine. Miyamoto explains " I think I'd be even more interested in creating something new based on, or starting from, A Link To The Past." In response to this Kyrie posts "I'm very happy to see some ALttP love by Miyamoto, it's one of my favourite Zelda games...and I'd welcome a spiritual successor to this epic!" This thread alone got over six hundred views, and over 20 comments that all expressed their thoughts on the topic.

Zelda Classic
Zelda Classic is a website that is a tribute to what the website creators think is the greatest video game of all time: Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda Zelda Classic is a community that has made the original Zelda game available for download and play. However, the knowledge community of zelda classic has used their forums to add their own quests into the Zelda gameplay. The forums contain topics like "Stable 2.10 in the works" and "Quest submission guideline." It is in the making of new quests where the collective knowledge of the community really shows. There are guidelines and rules governing the submission of new quests It's clear that instead of focusing on future Zelda games, the community of Zelda Classic has pooled together their knowledge and creative abilities to simply enhance what they find to be the best Zelda game of them all.

Overall these two knowledge communities both rely on the participation and strength of their members to fuel them. However, while one looks forward, the other stays in the past. It is a testament to the vast abilities of the internet that two communities based on the very same series, can be so drastically different in their purposes.

Fan Fiction: A Hidden Storywriter
The legend of Zelda Video Game series features 18 independent games all featuring their own intricate storylines. For years now, fans have remediated the Legend of Zelda series in a number of ways. The most quantifiable of which is fan fiction. There are over 17 thousand pieces of fan fiction on the Legend of Zelda. The most famous and in depth of these stories are written by Miss Maudlin, who is “a lowly undergraduate studying English and Japanese” and has written twenty-two stories for the fan fiction website. Miss Maudlin is responsible for creating the “LinkxZelda Romance Community” category on fan fiction. This category is far larger than any other legend of Zelda archive with 138 entries. Miss Maudlin herself leads the category with the most subscribed to piece of fan fiction, “A Warriors Fallibility” which details the beginnings of a love story between Link and Princess Zelda. However, there was a true leader among Zelda fan fictionists before Miss Maudlin. Only after some digging was I able to unearth Happy Masks Fanfic. Happy Mask had ten different stories on the Legend of Zelda, including different sagas and in depth character development. Unfortunately, Happy Masks fan fiction pieces were deemed to risqué for fanfiction.net and Happy Mask was asked to take them down. She now runs her own website off of angel fire, and promotes other great fan fictionists who have protested against fanfiction.net on her behalf. Like Miss Maudlin, Happy Masks stories focus greatly on the relationships between characters, and the many carnal desires not expressed in the kid-friendly video games.

Manga & Fan Art
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Another large fan fueled act of remediation in the Legend of Zelda series is the creation of Manga comics and illustrations based on the characters in the video games. Manga is “a Japanese graphic novel…characterized by highly stylized art ". These Zelda manga comics are abundant throughout the internet, the biggest distributors of which are Zelda Infinite, and Zelda Power.



<span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Zelda Infinite is a website that actually has “scanlations” which is the shorthand for scanned and translated, hardcopy manga comic books that were originally in Japanese. The author, known as Goddess Rinoa, has six different “scanlated” books available for download. All six of the books are comic book versions of the video games which were by Zelda fans and well-known manga producer Akira Himekawa. Zelda Power features 198 pages of Original Illustrations and translated manga comics. These comics are interesting because they are translated by well-known Zelda fan GlitterBerri. In an interview with GlitterBerri conducted by Zeldac.com



<span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Gl GlitterBerri revealed she is a Japanese Major who wants to eventually break into the gaming industry. Her main motivations for taking the time to translate the Manga illustrations is she wants to ensure that “little seen game resources like derivative works, fan illustrations, developer interviews, and hidden content make it to <span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">English-Speaking fans ". Accompanying these manga comics is an abundance of fan art, theotaku.com offers a place where artists may come and share their illustrations without the pretense of having to accompany it with text or a storyline. The biggest contributor of Zelda fan art is artypants1017 who has drawn 28 different illustrations. Most of these illustrations feature the relationship between Zelda and Link; however a “Dark” version of link is also often depicted as well.

Live Action Interpretations
Finally, my favorite form of fan remediation is the live action Zelda videos that have been made and posted online by die hard Zelda fans. The most notable video was made by IGN who used their superior editing and man power to create a preview for a legend of Zelda movie, which had many fans excited and enthusiastic, only to see that the premiere date was April 1 st. In essence the staff of IGN played a prank on the entire Zelda fan base community.


 * Official "Legend of Zelda" Live Action Movie Trailer 2009

Another user created live action Zelda film that is worth mentioning are those created by OrangeSpy121 OrangeSpy121 deserves mention if not for his dedication alone. He not only has multiple (failing) videos but brings Zelda into modern day life, by literally dressing up as link, and reenacting the game stories in the real world. The videos, (which he continues to make) are in 7 installments. The first video had 57,000 hits, and his second video had 77,000 hits. Following that his viewership declined, steadily up until and through his most recent video,"The Legend of Zelda Parody 7: Spirits and Shadows which recorded on 8,000 hits. One point of criticism that he was given about his first video is that he uses the background music from the game boy versions of the popular Pokémon video games in the beginning scenes, a fact which has some fans confused and annoyed.





Links and Resources
Zelda Universe

Zelda Dungeon

Wired Magazine: Interview with the Creator of Zelda

Nintendo Working on a New Zelda Game