Interviewed by Thibbs

This issue we interview Sergecross73, the last (at least for now) in the WikiProject Video Games Newsletter's series of interviews on admin members of WP:VG. It is the Newsletter's belief that Sergecross73 has evaded our interview radar for so long due to his editing patterns which suggest nomadic traversal through the project. More commonly making improvements to the unglamorous back end of the project than to the flashy highlights of the project, you can find Sergecross73 participating across a wide variety of VG-related discussion pages. Let's see what he has to say for himself.

1. You joined in 2008 and your edit count really started to shoot up in 2010. What drew you to Wikipedia, and what prompted you to begin editing?

   I recall in the years prior to joining, I always found it very interesting to read up on video game and music articles from my childhood. I found it fascinating to read up on "behind the scenes" type information, which I had largely been unaware of due to not having the internet back then. A few things inspired me to start actual editing:

   • When reading up on things, I started to find more and more semi-obscure topics where I knew more than what was covered in the articles.
   • I noticed that Wikipedia article are almost always the first hit when you a Google search. Combining that with the fact that I was the only one updating these more obscure articles made it seem like what I was doing really mattered.
   • When I first understood the concept of how a watchlist worked, I initially planned on using it more as a method of learning new information on things I liked. For instance, I figured by keeping an eye on the watchlist, I could learn the release date of an upcoming video game. However, incidentally, keeping an eye on this made so I noticed a lot of erroneous information was being added instead, which basically is how I started working on cleaning up vandalism.

   Back during that period, I was working a job where things were much slower from December to May. This extra time lead to my signing up for an account in Dec 2008, and then really getting into the next time I entered my slow season (Dec 2009). Sergecross73 msg me 16:05, 29 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2. What is the significance of your username? How did you select it?

   Serge is the main character from my favorite video game, Chrono Cross. Its funny, a few years ago at my WP:RFA, someone asked if my name came from the game Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005 video game), which has a character named "Sergeant Cross". The resemblance to that is completely coincidence, I've never even played that game, though now I do wonder if others have thought the same thing. The 73 is just a number I chose long ago as a child to differentiate myself. Kids used to argue over what numbers they'd get for sports teams or games. Everyone would argue over numbers like "4" or "23" or whatever. I just chose "73" because it was so random it was never a conflict of whether or not it could be my number. Sergecross73 msg me 17:43, 26 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

3. How did you become involved with WikiProject Video Games?

   I wanted to say "ever since the beginning", but in reviewing my edits to answer Q1 above, I recognized that I hardly edited any video game articles in 2008 and 2009, and didn't appear to start actually interacting with WP:VG until closer to 2011. In 2011, with the release of the 3DS, the first 8th generation video game system, there were many discussions on whether or not the current "generation" set up was the best way to organize video games history. Since this affected the 3DS article, which I actively maintained, I got deep into those discussions. I learned a lot about policy and Wikipedia's approach to video game articles.

   From that introduction, I started posing questions to the WikiProject, and over time, I eventually began fielding more questions than asking them. Funny story, while I was essentially part of it from 2011, I don't think I added my name to the list until almost 2013, because in the early days I misunderstood how things worked - I had thought that, if I were to formally become part of it, I'd be obligated to all the tasks that were constantly being requested (WP:GARs, those "bounty" articles/tasks, etc). I also feared it would present a bias at WP:AFD discussions. ("Of course Serge wants to keep the video game article - he's part of WP:VG!") I eventually learned neither were true, obviously. Sergecross73 msg me 16:33, 29 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

4. How much of a gamer are you and what type of games do you gravitate toward?

   My favorite three areas are JRPGs, Nintendo games, and Sega (largely Sonic the Hedgehog) games. I usually flock to whatever system can provide me with the greatest number of those types of games, thought I greatly prefer either handheld/portable system or second screen systems. I love playing video games, and do frequently, but I'm not the type to just lock myself away in the basement and play for 5 hours all by myself. I'm always having people over, or visiting family/friends, so I hate being tied to a TV. But yeah, the games vary, one minute, I'm playing some ultra-complex Final Fantasy Tactics clone, the next minute, I'm playing Wii Sports Resort. Most people in my life are very casual gamers, so I play some of the more casual stuff to have something to play with them. I think that has actually help influence my writing here a lot; my experience explaining games to non/casual gamers in real life coincides well with Wikipedia's goal of writing articles for general audiences who don't have any prior knowledge. Sergecross73 msg me 17:00, 29 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

5. On your talk page you've described your editing style as "meandering" with an emphasis on "semi-obscure" topics. You've also noted that you tend to work on articles from the back end rather than the front - bringing articles from below the minimum expectancy to a tolerable state rather than bringing middling articles to the vaunted GA and FA classes. Does this style reflect your personality and interests, is it more of a practical solution to fit your real-world time demands, or are you guided by philosophical underpinnings relating to Wikipedia's perception by the outside world?

   Its a few things. First and foremost, as I always tell people, you need to do what you enjoy, or there's no point, because this is an entirely voluntary hobby. There are some things I maintain just out of responsibility of constant recurring issues (Nickelback, List of video game emulators, etc.) but in general, most of the article's I create or substantially write/improve are either things I like, or things I'm looking forward to. I don't usually mess around with the GA/FA stuff because, honestly, and no offense, but I think its all a bit of navel gazing - I don't think the rest of the world notices much. I'm not against it, anything that gets article's in better shape is a good thing. I just don't believe majority of the readers notice the difference between a real GA and my B-class rewrites. (Heck, I've talked to people who didn't even realize we have usernames or notability standards for article subjects. I think we get so involve we forget how little much of the public knows about editing.) I say "meandering" because I commonly write about something extensively, and then just abruptly stop because I feel more interested in editing something else. I say "semi-obscure" because that describes a lot of my tastes, but also because I do like to focus on things that wouldn't get much attention otherwise. There's always going to be 10+ editors putting tons of work into Pink Floyd or Grand Theft Auto 5, so I don't feel like I'm doing much when I work on them. Instead, I rather enjoy working on things like Lo-Pro or Earthworm Jim PSP, where they never would have existed, or existed beyond a stub, without my efforts. Sergecross73 msg me 17:58, 14 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

6. Some of your most prolific editing in the realm of mainstream titles has been in relation to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Why Sonic?

   I've loved the Sonic series of video games since I was younger in the 1990's. I also see myself as coming from a unique, neutral viewpoint. There's a large portion of the fanbase who unconditionally love and obsess of the game's and their "story". There's another large part of the fanbase that is never happy, and hates/criticizes just about everything about it. I find myself in the middle; I enjoy the game's personally, but can admit that many are not well built games in the traditional sense either. So I feel I strike a balance there. On that, note, I think my biggest contribution is just that I've made many of them coherent and readable. So many of these fans write in extremely excessive melodramatic detail (Sonic turned to the sky. He saw Tails fly away. He shed a tear. He waved. He waved back. The two shared a glance. Sonic walked home. The credits rolled.) or absolutely no context. Like this or this. Many of them I completely rewrote and restructured as encyclopedic articles rather the rambling's of crazed fans, and got to around B-class. I've seen a few be turned to GA's rather effortlessly to others too, so that's good. Sergecross73 msg me 18:38, 12 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

7. What would you say exemplifies your best work on Wikipedia?

   In the video game realm, I think it would have to be Earthworm Jim (PSP). Prior to my efforts, the article had deleted, redirected, or about a sentence long whenever it did exist. However, I did some research, and put together a pretty good, well-sourced 10KB article on it. I think I like it the most because I feel it clears up a bunch of misconceptions on the game. Upon researching it, there were a ton messageboard/youtube/non-RS commentary on the game that it was just a remake of the the original Earthworm Jim game. However, I dug up 5-6 detailed reliable sources that detailed the game a ton, showing that they were only remaking a level or two, and the rest would be entirely new. I personally learned a lot while making it, and I feel like its now the most complete source of information on it available on the internet. Sergecross73 msg me 20:50, 29 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

8. In which areas of Wikipedia have you involved yourself beyond WikiProject Video Games? Have you ever tried combining these interests?

   The only other area I consistently work in is in rock music/albums, and while I like video game music, it seems like its usually its pretty hard to find sources to write articles about game soundtracks. (And when I think of one that does have enough source/content, I find it's already pretty well written. Sergecross73 msg me 18:53, 12 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

9. Within WP:VG's projectspace you've been a presence in discussions at Manual-of-Style-esque areas like the Reliable Source page and Article Guidelines. Has this been mainly in relation to articles you were currently involved with or has it been for more academic reasons? You've also spent a good deal of time involved in AfD. How would you describe your AfD philosophy? Do you tend to lean toward inclusionism, deletionsim, or neither? What have you found to be the most difficult aspect of AfD discussions? Any thoughts on the (at times) conflicting considerations of encyclopedia quality and retention of inexperienced editors?

   In regards to AFD - I think if you looked the stats up, I !vote delete more often than keep, but I think that's just because of the logistics of it; it can take a lot more time and effort to dredge up 5 sources to prove a keep is necessary, while it can take all of 2 seconds to know Super Mario Galaxy 5 is a complete hoax. So, I wouldn't call myself a deletionist or inclusionist. I just like looking at a nomination, and seeing who made the mistake - the article creator, or the nominator. I don't like it when people misuse the website for their own personal gain, but I also don't like it when nominators making lazy/rash decisions either.

   With source/MOS debates, sometimes its to solve an issue I'm involved with, while other times, its just that I'm tired of seeing disputes break out at pages I watch, and want to help them solve their problem. Sergecross73 msg me 15:23, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

10. What advice would you give a new editor interested in working on video game articles?

    My advice is always start off slow. I see a lot of new editors who try to jump right in and make radical and/or controversial changes in very active articles, and then get discouraged when their work was undone because it fundamentally was unacceptable work due to based premises like not following WP:V or WP:GNG. I recommend going to a low-profile, low-traffic article and working on that first, like I did. That way, if you make mistakes, they're not as big of a deal, and are less likely to lead to morale-crushing heated debates. Sergecross73 msg me

11. You became the one of this project's few administrator-members back in November 2012. How has becoming an administrator affected your activities within the project? Do you have any interesting admin stories you could share with us? Any words of advice for editors thinking about becoming an admin?

    Advice to editors who want to be an Admin - just make you're you're ready/prepared. RFA was one of the most nerve-racking things I've had to do. I don't know what I would have done had I failed. I can't imagine how bad it would have felt to have a community collectively say "We don't approve of the way you volunteer your time here for years at a time here." Sergecross73 msg me 16:28, 23 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

12. You have more than once come into conflict with some of WP:VG's more active content contributors who for some reason seem to have great difficulties adhering to WP:CIVIL. Recently (in 3rd quarter 2014) at least two of these editors received indefinite blocks or topic bans effectively putting an end to their work. Neither action was issued by you. Can you share your thoughts regarding the perception that civility is under-enforced and how an administrator like you weighs the costs and benefits of handing out difficult blocks like this?

    I don't want to say too much, because if I reference anything too particular, that would be unfair to the respective people. I will say this: All CIVIL requires is for you to be nice to others. That's it. I have a hard time having sympathy who get in trouble over this, because it's so easy to just be nice to people. (Heck, much of the time, being nice helps in disputes more than being angry/mean/offensive anyways.) Sergecross73 msg me 15:12, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

13. What is the most difficult part of editing Wikipedia?

    I think the hardest part is being limited by what sources are available, especially with topics from the 1990s. There's articles I'd like to rewrite (Tiny Toon Adventures: ACME All-Stars) or create (Serge (Chrono Cross),) but I just can't because I can't find enough sources. I think its pretty likely they exist, I just can't access them. All you can do is keep an eye out for sources, and/or work on other things in the meantime, I suppose. Sergecross73 msg me 16:12, 16 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

14. What are your plans for the future? Are there any projects which you are thinking about starting?

    I've recently gotten involved in deleting articles tagged for speedy deletion. Its rather interesting to see the things people thought should be an article. Other than that, my main goal is to just keep active, since it would be easy to become swamped up in the business of real life and have my editing fizzle out. Many have a hard time sticking around with major life changes - starting college, entering the real world, getting a new job, getting married, having children, etc. I personally have made it through most of these, and I'm still here, but I've seen many people lose interest themselves. So my main goal is to just keep up my activity. Sergecross73 msg me 16:41, 14 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

15. Anything else you want to say?

    Well, here's my words of wisdom in discussing topics on Wikipedia (and probably the internet in general.) Something that many do not understand, is that conciseness is more important than length. I've come across so many people who go on these long-winded rants when they get in arguments, and then they're flabbergasted that no one takes the time to participate or hear them out. Its because they aren't concise, and then they lose the interest of the readers. We all have to remember that really, no one is obligated to listen to anything that anyone says around here - everyone's a volunteer. There's no "positional power" here - we're not bosses/parents/teachers that have actual power over anyone. If Salvidrim!'s boss in real life asks him to read a long page of writing, he has to do it, or he's insubordinate, and there'd be repercussions. If I go and post a huge rant on ANI, and Salv gets bored reading half way through and doesn't bother to read it or comment, there's no repercussion for him. Its that sort of concept. So you need to do your best to keep the interest of the reader. This is why I always try keep it short, do a lot of short bullet points or creative formatting, etc. (And yes, I realize the irony of saying this after I wrote out all of those long answers. If you read all of this despite me not following my own advice, I do thank you for your time.) Sergecross73 msg me 17:04, 14 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]