The Soul of a Game

a part of The Missing Link series of articles

Article By Hylian Dan

Will video games as a medium be forever relegated to the pop cultural ghetto? Or will they establish themselves alongside such revered media as film, literature, and music? Designer Chris Hecker tackled this question in a keynote address covered by Gamasutra. As I reviewed his points, they strengthened my conviction that the game industry could learn a lot through a closer examination of Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series.

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The timeline of the Zelda series has always been a hot topic of debate. Ambiguous clues are often left in Zelda games that refer to other games in the series, and developers claim something different about the timeline every time they sit down for an interview.

That is why it is interesting to hear a theory from someone with the unique perspective of being both a game developer and a long-time Zelda theorist. The Missing Link, former webmaster of Zelda Blog, has written an article explaining his thoughts on the matter.

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Linearism Is Alive and Well

An Article by The Missing Link

Timeline “enthusiasts” (y’all know who you are!) may be looking at the title of this article with some amount of shock, disbelief, perhaps even disgust. The very thought is probably absurd to nearly all of you, and already you are probably dividing yourselves into two different camps. On one side, some may have already decided that I, in my many months of hiding, have somehow had my head stuck in the sand and haven’t heard about the confirmation of the Split Timeline. (I assure you that you are all dead wrong on that one.) And then, in the other corner of the ring, others would believe me to be some raving lunatic that is either delusional, mad, or simply desperately trying to hold onto the way things were years ago. (Mad? Me? Mad, you say? Hahaha! Hardly! You haven’t seen me get going yet!)

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Another article has been released for The Missing Link, Zelda Universe’s most in-depth article series. Former Behind the Rupees writer Mirren, currently known as Jeff on our forums, returns from a long hiatus with his first recent article. If you liked the previous articles by Hylian Dan and Pipking, you will certainly enjoy this one.

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It seems that Hylian Dan’s article has spurred some excitement – particularly among one man from the old Behind the Rupees team. For those who don’t know, Behind the Rupees was the predecessor to The Missing Link. Years ago, Zelda Universe had an elite Team of Writers who specialized in creating in-depth articles about the Zelda series.

The new Team of Writers, which consists currently of Crab Helmet, Hylian Dan, Hombre de Mundo and Holly, are doing their best to revive the old tradition.

To help them along, former Behind the Rupees writer pipking graciously sent in a guest article – his first article in quite a while. pipking was, by far, one of the most spectacular authors on the old Team of Writers. I’m proud to present his latest work, entitled The 100-Year Itch: an opinion piece that discusses technological advancement in the Zelda series, and why Spirit Tracks is on the right track for innovation in Zelda.

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