Rant: The Internet is a Crazy Machine, Zelda Wii Rumors

Normally I don’t like to post so many “article” type features in rapid succession, but frankly I was just really inspired to rant this morning after browsing for some Zelda related stuff to bring to you on this lovely June 5th morn. Many of you have realized by now we like to bring you multiple updates a day that are decently spaced out to give you something to do and read about throughout your day. That being said, I came to a big realization today mostly in part because of the Zelda Wii Rumors: The internet is extremely fickle, and no one does their research.

I never understood why people choose to come to Zelda Informer for news both officially, rumor wise, and for fan material really until that point sunk in. Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely pleased that we have so many readers and so many fans that trust in us, but I finally understand why. Despite being a fan entity that works for zero profit and is entirely all volunteer, we strive to actually do the research into our postings.

In the latest round of Zelda Wii rumors, we mentioned that we had not yet been able to confirm if the rumors actually existed on 2ch. Sure they sounded plausible and many of them may be true, but we never actually claimed that they were really from where the email said they were. As a later commenter pointed out, and our own translation team dug, it turned out that the latest batch of rumors are not even present on 2ch. In fact, all mentions of the rumors on 2ch from the last round actually refer back to Zelda Informer, which means we are the source of the all too magical rumor train.

I pointed out in the comments that the rumors are not from 2ch, but people are willing to believe anything just because they want it to be true. The rumors of course spread like wild fire, appearing on several major gaming sites and forums all staking to the validity of the rumors based purely on the “sterling reputation” of 2ch with game leaks. The fact remains that while 2ch has gotten several leaks correct to a T, they have also been more often then not wrong.

Part of this perceived perception of 2ch is admittedly our own fault. We are the ones that pointed out all the things they have gotten right and continue to get right in order to build a strong case for our initial New Zelda Wii Rumors release back in January. This is a common thing in news reporting where you try to gather as much facts as possible to build your case. What I failed to mention was that they have also been wrong many times as well. It’s almost like saying “because IGN predicted x amount of things right, it makes their predictions more valid even though 80% of the time they are wrong”. Oh internet, how silly you can be.

All of this comes full circle though with the major reasons people like Zelda Informer so much. When we post about other sites articles, we take the time to actually read them. We break them down and sometimes add our own commentary. When posting news, we always try to related it to previous postings, or do the research into “why you should care”. A recent example would be the Ocarina of Time E3 Link statue we posted about last week. Most may have just posted the auction and talked about how odd Link looked, but we actually discovered where the statue came from, how limited it really is, looked to see if there were any more in the series, and compared it to what we may get in the future. Some reason, a lot of sites just don’t want to take the time to do this. I guess we like to be more informative. After all, we have our own standards we want to live up to with the Informer name.

I could go into a long list of sites claiming validity of our rumors because of 2ch and easily deface many of them for false advertisement. Some are claiming them as “facts”, while others didn’t even realize our own admittance they are indeed not on 2ch. Still, that doesn’t stop anyone from repeatedly saying it. Whats even more funny is the staff mockup of an item concept we did actually started getting spread around as a “leaked screen shot”, even though we admitted directly below the image that it was a fake mock up.

So what is the point is saying all this? I guess it was just a personal realization of what makes us so special. Why you trust us above others, and really it brings a wide smile to my face. I hope we can continue to bring you quality, well researched, news posts and articles for many more years and as always, remember that rumor related posts are really for nothing other than to create discussion. After all, they are rumors for a reason.

With that, I hand the news reporting for the day over the rest of the staff. My sister just graduated high school on Thursday so I have a graduation party to attend. Have an excellent Saturday, and I’ll be back to regular posting later tonight.