The Japanese version of Suikoden 4 will be out in about a month. There's considerable excitement among the fans, but this is a mixed blessing for those who run informational fan sites. For one thing, the sheer amount of new info tends to send sites into confusion on what they should start with. Sites such as Suikosource that have multiple staff are relatively well off compared to this site, where I am basically the only one who would have access to the Japanese version. What to start? How to go about sharing info? It's always a difficult decision, and often ends up getting put off for months.
One critical fact is that site admins are also fans of the series, and wish to enjoy the game at their own pace. Often times, there is pressure to speed through the game to the wee hours, just so information can be shared with others as fast as possible. People who run sites mostly due it for the positive feedback they get, so the desire to rush is understandable. As a fan, however, I would prefer to play the game slowly, chewing every morsel like a new, delightful dish from an exotic land. So, if any of the cutting edge suikoden fan sites such as suikosource or suikox doesn't give you every single info about the game within a month, please understand.
I have personally only been involved in the advent of Suikoden 3. Back when Suikoden 1 was released I did not even own a PS nor was I an avid gamer (I was busy with college and girls, how I wasted my time!), I came upon Suikoden 2 by dumb luck when I was in Japan in December 1998, which totally hooked me onto the series. It only took me a year before starting to run fan sites.
When Suikoden 3 came out, I was running Suikosource, and I didn't quite know what to do with the new information deluge. I was in Japan back then on a business trip, and I remember buying that game at a store before going to a meeting. I played Suikoden 3 for the first time in a business hotel in Fujisawa (near Tokyo), and finished the game within two days--it was insanity.
How exactly would a site admin go about posting so much information? Tons of ideas cross the mind, such as making a bare-bones faq, a list of new plot info revealed, list of characters from previous series, list of items, new runes, etc. With Suikoden 3, one of the first things I did was to translate and transcribe the Luc chapter. It ended up being a task that took a whole day, and it ended up being seldom seen by anyone. The next was the skills list, which was such a complicated piece of work that suikosource wasn't able to get it up until recently--a year after I left. The skill names are still left in the original translation, instead of the official version we learned of after Suikoden 3 came out in the USA. That's some history.
A lot of grueling work was done between Kuromimi and myself with items and monster-related information. But even that took a very long time to complete. Getting information onto a site is no easy task.
However, the toughest part about posting information is that the information may become obsolete after a while. Initial impressions of games along with info can often be wrong. The best examples are the names of characters, places, items, and monsters that can be butchered in any possible way by the official translation. Going back to change all the entries after such revelation is a tough task--enough to make site admins lose interest in updating whatsoever.
So, the question is, how to reduce redundant work? Likely there is no answer to this question. A site can simply cut down on updates until all the official information is out in the open--however, that would lead to an information vacuum. On top of that, a suikoden site would probably want to take a ride on the "big kahuna" of fans who would be visiting their nearest suikoden site for game info when they get stuck. If you miss the opportunity, you'll never get the same people as repeat visitors. Any fledgling site would want to capture that deluge--but having good info to make them stay requires hard, original work.
As far as suikox.com goes, the focus would pribably be on creating a bare-bones flowchart for the game so that people have a reference when they get the game. I'll have to use an unofficial translation, but it's probably worth it, and I'm sure everyone would be happy with such a thing. *end rant*
Written by SARSadmin
July 28th, 2004
