Wikipedia Creator Working On Online Gaming Mag

Ars Technica reports on the intention of the Wikia group to create a wiki-based open source gaming magazine. The gaming.wikia site is intended to be a fully editable source of information for game news consumers. From the lips of Dan Lewis, VP of business development at Wikia: "The 'open-source magazines' we're unveiling today are focused largely around topics where passionate people have already started collaborating online. The launch of Tunes, Cars, Gaming and Health is a continuation of our mission to open-source the creation and development of content around every topic imaginable — so we are obviously not stopping here."

Comments

dept?

[Red Flayer]

Posted by Zonk on Friday March 16, @11:07AM
from the still-a-big-fan-of-edited-news dept.

Then you, sir, have come to the wrong place.

I keed, I keed.

Re:Pretty interesting

[drinkypoo]

Some people say you can't replace the feeling of getting a paper magazine once a month in the mail

It's true! You cannot replace the feeling of disgust that I feel when I get one of those pile of shit gaming magazines in the mail. As I read their bullshit, bogus reviews which are effectively advertisements (even the worst games getting scores that are halfway up the scale) I cannot help but reflect on the environmental cost of printing and shipping those pieces of tripe.

If I want to be lied to about the quality of games, surely it can happen without killing trees that should be allowed to instead grow up and participate in the cooling of the globe?

Those talk pages are going to fun...

[Deag]

The flame wars between fan boys could really damage something like this. Often the smaller wikis don't get policed as well so might as well get some popcorn.

Reviews

[MeanderingMind]

I think we can expect the review for Halo 3 to give it a 10, followed by a 3, then a 8, and finally a -eleventy jillion.

mag, or fansite?

[xiong.chiamiov]

I have a feeling this is going to end up being a massive, confusing replacement for WoWwiki, GuildWiki, etc.

Wikipedia creater NOT working on online gaming mag

[Rob T Firefly]

For those unfamiliar with Wikia, the work isn't actually all done by the one organization. Anyone can come up with an idea for a wiki, write up a mission statement, and submit it to Wikia. If the admins like, then you've got yourself a host for your wiki.

Wikipedia creator Jimbo Wales may have started Wikia itself, the engine behind this and the other bajillion wikia out there, but he doesn't seem to be actually working on this particular wiki.

Re:Pretty interesting

[Nasarius]

Isn't the whole point of Wikipedia to have the data available in a single source?

No. See especially "Wikipedia is not a publisher of original thought" and "Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information".

That site will make you cringe

[Mongoose]

I took a look at it the other day linked from ars and again today. It's mostly a bunch of fanboys jerking each other off, and spreading misinformation. Also everyone is modded down around -1 to -5 no matter what they say in general. I saw posts saying "you can't run Linux on PS3 / can't use Cell from hypervisor" all over the place and corrections marked down to -6. I'm using PS3 as an example, since I know that hardware best. Imagine if someone came on slashdot and started spouting out misinformation to push some agenda for their love of Microsoft. It would be better if it wasn't some horrible mix of digg and a blog. They need to setup wiki pages for some community quality control, and remove the trolling box too. I don't think a thousand fanboys telling you how they feel about the Wii controller or an uninformed or purposely misleading blog entry contributes anything.

What a peice of garbage, and a blight to wikis everywhere. I only give it 1/5, because you can't give 0/5. ;)

Re:Pretty interesting

[Red Flayer]

I currently work in magazine publishing (but am getting out). With the exception of scholarly journals, magazines are simply vehicles for advertising, and most magazines throw their advertisers a bone by promoting their products within editorial content.

As for the environmental impacts, you're right, though I suspect that the inks and coatings do more environmental harm than the pulp-for-paper harvest.

Finally...

[Sunburnt]

It's nice to have somewhere to spread my great expertise! After all, I'm a tenured professor of computer science at a private university, and have a PhD in videogameology and a degree in IP law.

-Essjay