Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/20091007/Interview

WikiProject Video Games Newsletter

Volume 2, No. 5 — 3rd Quarter, 2009

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

Featured editor: Kung Fu Man

This issue we continue our regular feature, profiling a "Featured editor". This is a chance to learn more about the various editors who contribute to the Video games project and the roles they fill.

Kung Fu Man is a long time video games editor that has been contributing to the project since 2006. He can often been found discussing project-wide issues on the project's talk page, and has helped write several featured articles, most recently on everyone's favorite Pokémon (ok, mine), MissingNo..

What drew you to Wikipedia, and what prompted you to begin editing?
Back around in early 2006 I was an anonymous IP, trying to help keep an article on "Negative edge", a feature in fighting games. Later on I decided to create my own account, and a big part of my time went into trying to "improve" the article M.U.G.E.N, though I didn't know much about policies back then. Over time just got into the hang of things and decided to stick around, working on subjects that interested me and tried to learn the ropes more and more. I love learning about my favorite things and Wikipedia gives me an outlet as I do.
How did you become involved with the project ?
If memory serves when I started working on an article I noticed someone gave it a good assessment. Back then it was still the "Computer and Video Games Project", and since I was interested in both I followed the links and found the assessment board, which at the time had a lot of articles with no assessments. So I signed up, tore through them on a daily basis and hung around since then.
One of the areas you heavily edit are fighting games and the characters therein. What are some of the challenges specific to these types of articles?
The games more often than not are the easy part: people love to review and discuss games, and for many there's development information to some extent. Characters are kinda a polar opposite: many developers don't sit down and discuss why they made the characters the way they did, and even moreso you have a hard time finding reception for them individually. I don't see that as a problem with Wikipedia though, just a case of waiting for enough reliable sources to discuss them that you can compile and write a solid article with.
What article(s) are you most proud of writing or exemplifies your best work?
Of the game articles I've worked on, Alleyway and The Final Fantasy Legend are my favorites: they're overlooked games especially in the face of later titles, but they had some serious impact on me and I poured myself into trying to write them the best I could. Of the character articles, I'm proud of all of them, but Ivy (Soulcalibur), MissingNo., Poison (Final Fight), and Rufus (Street Fighter) are what I consider my best works. All in all I'm really grateful to the other editors that contributed to them as they grew, they deserve as much credit for where they are today.
What else would you like others to know about you?
My name is actually Adrian McGowen, though I usually go by the nickname Ashley in reference to Evil Dead's protagonist, and only my girlfriend and her family ever call me Adrian. I'm really glad to be able to contribute to Wikipedia, and I'm happy to have met and worked alongside many people here and look forward to keeping it up.

Also read about our previous Featured editor: Masem