Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/20130703/Interview

Featured editor: JDC808

Interviewed by Torchiest

For this quarter's interview, we talk to JDC808, who recently topped 12,000 edits on the site and is the resident God of War maestro.

What drew you to Wikipedia, and what prompted you to begin editing?
There's this big music festival that's hosted in my hometown of Charleston, West Virginia; it is the state's longest running music festival, and I had taken part in it for four years (2004-7) with my high school's marching band. There wasn't an article for this festival on Wikipedia, so I thought I would make one for it. Of course, creating an article requires an account, so that's how I became an official Wikipedian. I'll admit, the article isn't great, but I was a novice editor then. From there, I began editing things related to my home, such as the high school I went to (Capital High School), as well as the college I currently attend (West Virginia State University). I even created the article for the community college that was connected to my university (Kanawha Valley Community and Technical College). I eventually ventured into editing some video game articles, including God of War, as well as Killzone and some others, and I was also very interested in PlayStation Home, though not so much anymore. My main motive for editing articles was to make the information accurate, which is still true.
You did a lot of work in 2009, then eased off before exploding back onto the scene in 2012. What got you motivated to start participating more?
From 2009 and into 2010, I was editing the God of War articles a lot, mainly because God of War Collection was coming out in November 2009 and God of War III was around the corner (March 2010), and I liked to keep that article up-to-date as much as possible. After Ghost of Sparta came out in November 2010, I eased off for a little while as at that point; I was satisfied, for the most part, with the work done to the articles. Looking back though, they were okay, but nothing like what they are now. I intermittently edited in 2011 as there wasn't a lot of news related to God of War, just a couple of things, such as God of War III receiving a BAFTA award and the Origins Collection, but nothing to bring me back completely. Then in April 2012, God of War: Ascension was announced, which brought me back with full force. Because of a quarrel with another editor, I started taking these articles and my editing more seriously and made it a goal to bring all of the God of War articles to GA (with the exception of Kratos, as it was already GA, though I still worked on it) and then to FA. In less than a year (since July 22, 2012), of the 12 God of War articles on Wikipedia, I've made 10 of them GAs with the remaining article to be determined (probably FLC), and 3 of them FAs with another at FAC (and one of those was a TFA in April). Four of the articles are featured in this newsletter. I'm also in the process of creating a list article for God of War: Ascension's DLC.
How did you become involved with the VG project?
I didn't become an official member of the VG project until August of last year. As I was editing the God of War articles, before I nominated them at GAN, I posted them at WP:VG/A/R to get other editors opinions of what rating these articles should be. There were a bunch of other articles there too, so I decided I wanted to help, but to do so (at least from what I read), I needed to be a member of the VG project, so I became a member and started assessing articles there, and according to Emmy Altava, I made WP:VG/A/R active again, and by again, Altava meant "six times over what it was at its peak". My biggest involvement with the project is of course bringing the God of War articles up to standard. I generally don't post much at the project's talk page, unless I have a question that I can't seem to find the answer to.
You do the vast majority of your editing on the God of War cluster of articles. What is it that draws you to work so hard on them?
I'm a big God of War fan. I've played and beaten all of them except Betrayal, though I watched the entire game on youtube, and I have the platinum trophy for all of them. I also own the comic series and have read the first God of War novel (I need to get the second). So being as big of a fan as I am, I want to ensure that these articles are as accurate as possible with respect to Wikipedia guidelines and policies, and because of the goal I mentioned in question #2, I want to make all of them GAs and FAs. Also, because of that goal, I'm learning even more about these games than I have from just playing them and watching all of the bonus stuff on the discs. It also seems that no one else (except for the occasional person that pops up here and there) has much interest in editing these articles, or maybe they do have interest but don't see much that they can do. Not to boast, but I don't know if these articles would be where they are now if it wasn't for me.
How did you pick your username?
This is also mentioned on my user page, but I'll say it here too. The user name comes from an account I made on King.com when I was in high school, and it's the initials of my name plus "808", which King.com generated and added to the end. I decided to just use that name here because it was simple and I didn't really have to think about it.
What do you think is your best work on Wikipedia?
I don't know which I would consider the best, so I'll just say the God of War articles collectively. If I had to choose one of the article's that I originally created, probably Characters of God of War. It's had tremendous work done to it since I first made it (and continues to be improved), and the same for the series page. Although I didn't originally create it, you can say I did because when I got there, it was just this.
What is the most difficult part of editing Wikipedia?
Initially, it was following policies. After getting past that, it was trying to work with a couple editors who were really hard to work with (there wasn't a lot we agreed on and there were issues with not discussing things to reach consensus, but me and the most recent editor that there were issues with are more or less on the same page now). Now, it's just finding sources. It's really annoying when there's some information you need and you just can't find it, or you have found it, but it turns out it's not a reliable source, even if the info is true, or it's a good review, but unreliable because of where it's from.
What advice would you give a new editor interested in working on video game articles?
Read over guidelines and policies. If an article has recent activity, don't try and make big edits to that article. Start small, ask questions on the talk page, and discuss any issues to try and reach a consensus. Unless the article is vacant (no recent activity for a good while), then you can more or less do what you want within guidelines and policies. If you have any questions that may not be able to be answered on the article's talk page, ask at the VG project's talk page.
Anything else you want to say?
For those who have helped in any way with the God of War articles (whether it be editing, reviewing, copy-editing, or whatever), thank you.