Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/20200405/Interview

Featured editor: Zxcvbnm

Interviewed by GamerPro64

This issue we interview Zxcvbnm.

What is the significance of your username and how did you select it?
It's literally just the lowest row of the keyboard. It has no special significance to me, and while I don't remember why I chose it, it was probably just a prank. It's always funny when people assume my name is gibberish until they actually... type it out... On a more philosophical note, you could say it symbolizes the sheer arbitrariness of the QWERTY keyboard.
How did you become involved with the VG project?
When I joined Wikipedia I was already a pretty big gamer. I first got involved because I wanted to add video game minutia - there was no Wikia then and criteria were pretty lax. Later on I got into more "traditional" editing. It's more like I was always doing things that aligned with the VG project so I had no reason not to get involved.
How much of a gamer are you and toward what type of games do you tend to gravitate?
I was and still am a fairly hardcore gamer. I play everything from AAA to indie. It's hard to say if I have a favorite genre, the only thing in common is that I often gravitate more towards Japanese style titles. Turn based strategy/RPGs, third person action games, etc. I get quite a bit more hyped for Japanese games, but still love plenty of Western ones.
Despite having been an editor since 2004, you have had on hiatus for a few years. What made you come back to editing?
What made me lose interest was WikiMarkup and how tedious it was. It made having to cite sources a total drag, causing me to leave the site when citations started to be required. The introduction of the Visual Editor was a pretty big change in how I percieved the site, and really brought me back in to start editing again. I use it almost all the time.
Which article(s) are you most proud of writing or do you believe exemplifies your best work?
Definitely Tharsis (video game) which recently became the first Good Article I've made. It's a good feeling (no pun intended) to have created an article from nothing and managed to get it to GA status.
What are your plans for the immediate future? Are there any projects with which you are currently involved or which you are thinking about starting?
I am hoping to increase the amount of Good Articles that I create in the future, aiming for more quality than quantity like I had been doing before. I'm not sure I'm ready to critique articles yet, though...
What is the most difficult part of editing Wikipedia?
The tedium of repetitive tasks like filling out infoboxes or other data. I prefer to write prose instead.
What advice would you give a new editor interested in working on video game articles?
Make sure the sources you are using are listed as reliable in WP:VG/S. A common problem is people citing minor, unreliable gaming sites to justify the existence of an article. Sometimes notability can be very unfair when it comes to good games not being recognized by the sources, but just because it deserves to be notable doesn't mean it is. Also, if you find citing sources annoying, use the Visual Editor.
Anything else you want to say?
I like to not commit to too much at any given time since I just edit Wikipedia as a hobby. But it keeps pulling me back in :)

To follow comments, add the page to your watchlist. If your comment has not appeared here, you can try purging the cache.

No comments yet. Yours could be the first!

+ Add a comment