The Dark Age
By Steve Dixon
It has come, and it has gone. Zelda 64 was the thing that gave the breath of life to the online Zelda community, and now, it's gone. It has been beaten, it has been it has been picked apart, analized, and ran in to the ground. No cheats, no surprises, nothing left at all for people to find. It's all been done. Well, um, er, now what? Well for one thing, a lot of Zelda sites will die. Z64 was the only thing keeping most of them alive to begin with, and without it, they are gonners. Even the stronger sites are in peril. At one of my favorite sites, Zelda Pokemon Cental, the webmaster is taking resumes from people hoping to replace him. He seems to have realized what is about to happen to the Zelda community, and is bailing out now. Our own Magisuth also seemed to see this coming early. I can't disclose what I really know about whats up at EAD, and I know quite a bit, but I will say that Zelda 6 is at least 3 years away, and we won't have any screens, rumors, or other driving forces that could keep a site alive on speculation for a while. The next few years will be what I refer to as the "Dark Age" of video games. This applies not only to Zelda, but to all of the industry. Innovative games such as Zelda, FF7 and even MGS will be few and far between. There are only two "event" games on the horizon, and Nintendo dosn't have either of them. They are Sonic Adventure and FF8. Unless the N2000 ~is~ on the way, and Zelda 6 or Mario 4D ~is~ a release title, Nintendo could be doomed. In Norse legend, the world is destroyed by a wolf who swallows the sun. For Hyrule, I hear the wolf at the door. For Zelda to survive, the fan sites must survive. For the fan sites to survive, there must be soild fan base. And unless the ~fans~, not IZC staff, not NOA, but the ~fans~ are writing editorials, drawing fan art and comics, writing fan fics and the like, IZC, or any Zelda site for that matter, can't survive. If you look back at the last few months of editorials, who's been writing them? IZC staff wrote most, if not all of them. This is a good way to run the site in to the ground. Throughout the entirity of Ice's disappearance, Navie, JMK and Magisuth constantly asked for editorials and fan fics, and they didn't get too many. A lot of people, including Ice, might disagree with me on this, but I think that we need the fans to be just as regular at sending in editorials as myself and the rest of the staff.
Staff Comments:
Ice: Steve here is definately right. I've gotten a full summary of what has happened while I was away, and you fans who claim to be so supportive and pro-IZC basically gave us nothing in our time of need. The past doesn't matter now. I've learned that lesson well. What does matter is the future. Future Zelda or no future Zelda, IZC will survive. But the only way that we can grow is through your help, our loyal fans. Submit your stuff to us. Be proud of your work. Help IZC become better suited to serve you.
