IN THE BEGINNING there was N-man. The "N" used to stand for "Nintendo" because I liked Nintendo. It was late 2004 when I first discovered Blogger. I thought it would be cool to have my thoughts on video games published to the internet and I created a blog called "GameWeb." This was actually the second iteration of GameWeb, with the first being a newsletter I created in Microsoft Publisher and handed out to my friends at school. Blogger was a hell of a lot easier. Eventually my friends joined me and GameWeb started to grow. In the days of GameWeb, my fellow posters included Doegab, Battsman (The One Known as to be Reckoned With, or "Reckoned" for short), and Kromebear30 (a.k.a. RaiderBear).
I BEGAN TO BRANCH OUT because I wanted to write about more than just game news. I created a second blog for reviews only and called it "GameWeb: Viewpoint". But there was also "Total Randomity" my 'everything else' blog. Randomity eventually went into disrepair because I was lazy, but I later revived it under the name "Shups and Croids." This was mainly a blog for crazy original stories and other silly stuff. In between, I opened up numerous other blogs for various things and whatnot, including my own Dragonball fan series, Dragonball Unlimited. I've always said that I would revive it if there was enough fan interest (read: any) so if you happen to read it and like it, then it might just make a comeback.
INSTALLATION 04 came about because I realized it was stupid to have two separate blogs. So I merged Shups and Croids with GameWeb and Installation 04 was born. For those of you who don't realize where that comes from, it's a reference to the ringworld where the first Halo takes place, Installation 04. Anyway, at this point I really began to crack down. The day before GameWeb's third anniversary was the day I04 launched. Readers were greeted with this message:
This is the end. Well, sort of. It's been a grand journey my friends, but now it's time to say goodbye. Gameweb is closing its doors (that means Viewpoint as well) and, for that matter, so is Shups and Croids.The two blogs will be incorporated into one: Installation 04- effective immediately. And so Installation 04 is born! It will have the same wit and humor as Shups, plus gaming reviews and, occasionally, news. It will be less news focused and more opinionated because, lets face it, you could just as easily get your gaming news elsewhere. So sit back down and relax because Gameweb isn't going anywhere any time soon- it's just evolving. So I ask you to please enjoy Installation 04 as much as I've enjoyed working on it! It's been fun guys! Thanks for everything! GameWeb would have been three years old tomorrow.That was the day I defined my style in the blogosphere. I began posting as often as I could and the site really began to take off. Between 12/21/07 and today, Installation 04 somehow managed to gain over 144,000 hits at the time of this writing with no advertising or publicity. During the Installation 04 era, it was mainly myself and Doegab writing content. During 2009, MonkeyLord joined the team to occasionally contribute and KromeBear made a triumphant return. We were riding as high as we could under the circumstances.
N-MAN FINALLY EVOLVED into Fuzunga. Yup, I went by N-man until May 26th of '09. At that point it was pretty ridiculous to keep doing so, as I went by Fuzunga on literally every website I was a member of as well as Xbox Live and various other things. But long before my name evolved, my writing evolved. I realized how stupid it would be to report on every little piece of news that came along. So I decided that our articles would be 100% opinionated and original. If we mention a news story, that's because it's a megaton. But it wasn't just about games any more. I finally adopted the subtitle, "Games. Media. Stuff" for Installation 04 because that's really what we were all about. We covered just about everything relating to anything interesting interesting to us in our own crazy way.
THE PLAYERS REPUBLIC finally launched on May 29, 2011. It was "top secret, top awesome stuff" that Raiderbear and I had been working on for a while. Almost a year in the making, to be precise. Yet another farewell was posted, but this time, it was intended to be final.
This, the 780th post, will be this blog's last. For you see, we moved on, grown up, and transformed into something new. The Players Republic. If you somehow frequent this blog, or just now stumbled across it, please redirect yourself there.
See you on the other side.
/Fuzunga
For a time, The Players Republic was basically Installation 04-2 (how appropriate) with the same kind of content posted sporadically, but with a fancier look and organization. This went on until about late August of 2011, when everything started to explode. As it turns out, that explosion was both figurative and literal. Raiderbear and I brought some more people on board and began to expand. We developed rules to abide by and started to apply for business licenses. Unfortunately, disputes and egos got in the way and the ship began to sank just as we had achieved almost 20,00 views in six weeks time. Raiderbear and I parted ways. The Players Republic, though in Raiderbear's hands now, quickly died as he moved on to other things.
TWINFINITE was born when most of the staff followed me to the creation of a new site. This was intended by me to be The Players Republic pt. 2, but I began to feel an immense amount of pressure and it just so happened that things weren't fun any more. The other founders pressed for rapid expansion which quickly lead to a team of as many as 16. When it came time to apply for business licenses and assigning real jobs, I realized I didn't want to get myself into a position where I couldn't adequately fullfil my duties. I wanted to step down and simply become a writer for the site, but someone convinced me that was a bad idea for some reason. Essentially I was duped into taking a different position I didn't want until I couldn't take it any more and just plain quit as the site veered farther away from my original vision. That same someone was totally pissed for no reason and now hates my guts. Good riddance, I say. Who wants to be friends with a person like that? I don't harbor any resentment towards the site itself, however, and I recommend you check it out because a lot of (mostly) great people are involved.
THINGS CAME FULL CIRCLE because I quickly realized the whole time that I had been trying to create something I already had. So I started Installation 04 back up! Raiderbear even expressed interest in returning as a contributor. Again, the situation is quite appropriate. The Official Fuzunga Blog, which will serve as the base of operations for my creative works. And so, I am now very content. Installation 04 will keep on and hopefully be around in some form for another 7 (!) years to come.
TWINFINITE was born when most of the staff followed me to the creation of a new site. This was intended by me to be The Players Republic pt. 2, but I began to feel an immense amount of pressure and it just so happened that things weren't fun any more. The other founders pressed for rapid expansion which quickly lead to a team of as many as 16. When it came time to apply for business licenses and assigning real jobs, I realized I didn't want to get myself into a position where I couldn't adequately fullfil my duties. I wanted to step down and simply become a writer for the site, but someone convinced me that was a bad idea for some reason. Essentially I was duped into taking a different position I didn't want until I couldn't take it any more and just plain quit as the site veered farther away from my original vision. That same someone was totally pissed for no reason and now hates my guts. Good riddance, I say. Who wants to be friends with a person like that? I don't harbor any resentment towards the site itself, however, and I recommend you check it out because a lot of (mostly) great people are involved.
THINGS CAME FULL CIRCLE because I quickly realized the whole time that I had been trying to create something I already had. So I started Installation 04 back up! Raiderbear even expressed interest in returning as a contributor. Again, the situation is quite appropriate. The Official Fuzunga Blog, which will serve as the base of operations for my creative works. And so, I am now very content. Installation 04 will keep on and hopefully be around in some form for another 7 (!) years to come.
