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Old 11-12-2006, 07:28 PM
DarkenZero24 United_States DarkenZero24 is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Texas
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Re: ATTN: A message, from across the Void!

On the subject of differing philosophies between communities, I would like to take this opportunity to share my take on this.

I have traveled through various Zelda forums, and seen first-hand the ways and customs of each. And the differences stem mostly from the way people participate, and from the format of discussion taken. From what I've seen, LA is perhaps the most individualistic and diverse community, with most people having their own theory and personal take on the timeline. Though they do discuss universal issues, I've noticed much of the debating centers upon everyone defending their timeline, and posting evidence to show why their theory is valid in the face of all others. Though this method makes for unique discussions, it is hardly ideal when it comes to searching out the truth, impossible as it may be to reach it. It is akin to a competition, if you will. Thus, in my view, finding the best theory in LA is like finding the strongest man through a free-for-all brawl, in which the last man standing is the strongest. In this way, the best theory is the one that is best-defended, even if, to us, there are as-of-yet irreparable holes in it.

ZU stands at the opposite end of the sepctrum in methodology. Here, people are far more united under a well-documented theory, enforced by the Wise Men. As a result, most discussion here centers upon universal concepts, seeing as there's little reason to debate things like single vs. double, and other controversial subjects. However, this amounts to what I believe is a very simple set of discussions that try not to stray too far from what is considered established truth. This makes for cleaner and eaiser debate, but also less variety and individual takes on concepts.

If I had to choose the ideal philosophy, I would say it would be something akin to how we did things back at GameFAQs. Evil Tribe jokes and double timeline bias aside, I found the philosophy at GameFAQs to be a nice balance between LA and ZU. Everyone had their own take on the timeline, but despite us being mostly united under the belief of a double timeline, many of us disagreed on its implementation and the details behind it. As a result, most of us worked together to find the real answer, to determine whether or not our beliefs were correct, or if another idea was perhaps better. We had the variety of LA and the team effort of ZU, in a nutshell. I admit at first we were not very inviting of non-double timeline ideas, but in the end, we became more acceptant, something that is readily apparent in the newest timeline FAQ at GameFAQs from my buddy TE9. Too bad discussion went the way of the dodo back there...

These are my personal views. Take them as you will.
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