WE. ARE. MOVING.

 Hello, this is just a quick announcement post to let anyone here know that we are planning to move the blog soon. I will keep this site up for archival purposes, but I feel like I need to move the blog to a more modern platform.

Thank you for your understanding. We will announce when the move has been finalized at a later date.

My New Podcast: The 78 Zone

Hello everyone!!!

I have been a releasing a new episode of my Podcast, The 78 Zone, through Anchor.fm every other Thursday.

The 78 Zone is a podcast (hosted by me, ConnorTheVGFan78) that focuses on a variety of topics, whether it be tech news, gaming stuff, or something else.

So far, two epsiodes of the Podcast have already been released, and I hope to release a couple more before my next college semester starts up, then go on hiatus until Winter break.

The 78 Zone can be heard on Anchor or on Spotify.

Animal Crossing x Doom: The Unlikely Fan Crossovers Between Two Extremely Different Games

Image Sources: Nintendo / Bethesda Softworks

What two gaming franchises would you have never expected to get together, seeing as how they are radically different in quite literally every way? If you guessed Animal Crossing and Doom, then you are correct. Recently, fans have been making crossover content ranging from funny memes to complex drawings. Each piece of content features the cute game series where you interact with neighbors and improve your town, crossing over with the hardcore bad-ass series in which you brutally dismember demons that look to take over your realm. Quite a very stark contrast in terms of genre and the overall mood that each series has.

Yet despite this, the unifying factor of the March 20, 2020 release date both games share has fans of both franchises embracing each other's game series. I think it's appropriate to say that there has been no other time that something like this has happened in the modern history of gaming. Simply put, we are witnessing a very interesting time leading up to the release of both titles. Let's take a look at some of the crossover content the Doom and Animal Crossing communities have produced...

Of Course, There Are the Memes

Image Source: KnowYourMeme.com

Pictures of Doom's main protagonist, Doom Slayer, have been popping up on social media, as the bad-ass demon slayer casually asks his local GameStop employee for a copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Various Animal Crossing characters have been placed in similar memes, however they're seen asking for copies of Doom Eternal instead.

It Doesn't Stop at Memes

On March 20th, no matter what you choose. Have fun! ♥ from r/Doom

The art communities of both series have been hard at work making crossover content for both games. Both the /r/AnimalCrossing and /r/Doom subreddits have been filled with crossover art, most of which featuring Doom Slayer from Doom and Isabelle from Animal Crossing. The post above (by /u/ArturOWarE on /r/Doom) is just one of may examples of how the Doom and Animal Crossing communities have embraced each other's games.

So What Does All This Mean?

Usually when two games are slated to come out on the same day, analysts would most likely keep an eye out to see which game is selling the most copies and fans would start fierce debates as to which game is the superior title. However this time around, people are excited to see that two completely different games are coincidentally scheduled to come out the same day. There's no telling if this will change as March 20 gets closer. One thing's for sure, this friendship between the two communities is a welcome one that I hope will continue well beyond the release date of both games.

The results of an 'Online Communities' survey I did for a school project

A few months ago, I did a school project for an English class at my college that went into detail about online communities and how they affected people as a whole.

Along with this project, I did a survey to help prove my points and gather information that would help me with the project. I posted a link to the survey on a good majority of my Social Media pages like Amino and Twitter to get as many people to the survey as possible. In the end, 7 people responded to the survey. Here were the results of that survey:

NOTICE: ALL RESPONSES TO THE SURVEY WERE ANONYMOUS. I DO NOT KNOW THE IDENTITIES OF THE SURVEY RESPONDENTS.

Question 1: Are you apart of an online community that focuses on a certain topic(s)?

Only one of the seven respondents of this survey said no to this question. This question was used mainly as a demographic question.

Question 2: Why do you usually join an online community?

This was a question where people had the ability to choose multiple answers. Everyone who responded to this question said that they mainly join a community to make friends. Five people said that they join an online community to find people with similar interests. Two people say that they join a community to gain new information on a topic. One person said that they join communities to share opinions on a topic.

Question 3: What platform would you most likely use?

This was another question in which multiple answers could be chosen. Five of the respondents said they would use Discord to join an online community. Three people said they would use either Twitter, Reddit, or Amino. Two people say they would use Instagram. One person said they would use Tumblr.

Question 4: How much do you like/dislike being in a community?

Respondents were given a scale from 1 to 5 to rate how much they like/dislike being in an online community. One person rated it a 1. Another person rated it a 3. Five other people rated it a 4.

The Online Community Lifecycle

In my school project and survey, I described the lifecycle of online community membership as follows:

1. Lurker: (Pretty self explanatory; Someone who doesn't contribute to the community and 'lurks')
2. Newbie: (Someone who's relatively new to contributing to the community)
3. Regular: (Someone who posts regularly in a community)
4. Leader (Someone who has reached 'celebrity status' within a community or someone who moderates a community)
5. Elder (Someone who is preparing to leave a community based on changes of interests, relationships, etc.)

Question 5: What stage of the lifecycle are you at?

Respondents were asked what stage of the lifecycle they were currently at within the community they were most active in. 3 people considered themselves Lurkers. Two people considered themselves Newbies. Two other people considered themselves Regulars.

Question 6: What stages of the lifecycle have you experienced?

Respondents were asked what stages of the lifecycle they have experienced personally. Six respondents said that they've experienced the Lurker and Regular stages. Five said that they've experienced the Newbie stage. Two have said they've experienced the Leader and Elder stages.

Question 7: Is this lifecycle accurate?

Respondents were asked if the lifecycle described was accurate to how people enter, interact, and exit a community. Only one of the seven respondents say that the lifecycle was not accurate, while the remaining six respondents said that it was accurate. People were asked to explain their answer, but all respondents declined to comment.

Question 8: Have online communities changed your commitment to IRL socialization?

Respondents were asked if a commitment to an online community has ever drastically changed how they interact with people in real life. Four people said that it didn't. Two people said that it did. One person was unsure.

Question 9: Do you agree that people can form lasting relationships online?

Respondents were asked if they agreed with the statement "Online communities can help bring people together and make long, lasting relationships." Three people said that they slightly agreed with the statement. Two people said that they strongly agree with the statement. One person was neutral about the statement. One person strongly disagreed with the statement.

Question 10: Do you agree that you must be careful with who you trust online?

Respondents were asked if they agreed with the statement "You must be very careful with who you trust in an online community." Four people slightly agreed with the statement. Two people strongly agreed with the statement. One person was neutral about the statement.

Additional Comments from Respondents

People were asked at the end of the survey to give additional comments about online communities. Only four people gave additional comments. 

One person said that "Online communities are great but there may be a downside to them, in which they could also be toxic." 

Another person said that online communities could cause damage to one's mental health, citing cyberbullying. 

The person who strongly disagreed with Question 9's statement said "Show me just one person who made a lasting friendship on the Internet. Impossible, isn't it?" 

Finally, another person said that "Online communities are great but there may be a downside to them, in which they could also be toxic."

Conclusion

The results of the survey helped me out a lot not only with my school project, but in helping me understand how other people felt about online interaction. I hope that the results of this survey can benefit others with their research or with understanding why people like/dislike online communities.

A brief update on plans for this Blog

OK, so basically I'm planning to do a post per week on this blog in order to help it be more active and to hopefully get more people reading it. I'm not sure what I'll talk about yet, but I'm pretty sure it will be stuff like gaming and tech as usual. Anyways that's it for me right now. If anyone sees this, have a lovely Friday.