About

GIF vs. JIF is a long-standing debate of how to pronounce the acronym for Graphics Interchange Format. Both the debate and the reputation surrounding the debate are regarded as running jokes online.

Origin

The GIF was invented in 1987 at Compuserv, and developers there noted early that the pronunciation was “Jif.” Indicating that the debate over its pronunciation has existed since the beginning of the format; In 1990, in the manual for a Compuserv graphics display program called Compushow, the developers wrote^[2]:

The GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), pronounced “JIF”, was designed by CompuServe and the official specification released in June of 1987.

Compushow originally shipped with this GIF of Bob Berry, one of the original programmers. Using the software editor GIF89, which came with Compushow, one could open this image in a way where text was displayed on top of the graphics. This text included the line, "Oh, incidentally, it’s pronounced “JIF”! This message can still be seen if a user opens this image with a text editor and views the original encoding.^[1]

Compuserv developers have also often been attributed with the song parody “Choosy developers choose GIF,” as both a way of promoting the format and informing users of the proper pronunciation. In 2013, when receiving his Webby Award Lifetime Achievement Award, the creator of the GIF, Steve Wilhite, fueled the flames of the debate by reinforcing his original claim that the word was pronounced JIF.

Opposition to the soft G pronunciation usually cites the acronym itself as the reason for using a hard G, i.e., one does not pronounce graphics with a “j” sound.

Spread

Since the debate has spread into many areas of popular online culture. In 2002, Strong Bad Email number 51 made fun of the debate; Strong Bad says that he “heard some nerds arguing about” the pronunciation (below left).^[4] In addition, it was also parodied on The Big Bang Theory. Overall, there are about 7,000 video results on YouTube dealing with the pronunciation of the word GIF.^[5]

There are several single topic blogs devoted to the debate, including the web site Howtoreallypronouncegif.com. There are also at least 15 tumblrs titled with some variation on the theme “It’s Pronounced GIF.”^[6] There are over 150 results for threads containing references to the debate on Reddit,^[7] including 22 separate threads in /r/askreddit.

The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations, adding “Whichever pronunciation you use, it should of course be the same for both the noun and the verb.”^[8] The debate has been heavily covered in the mass media, including on sites like Mashable.com, the Atlantic, and CNN. ^[2][3][9] In 2014, President Barack Obama took a side, saying that he had been educated in the debate and favored the hard G pronunciation style.^[10] On December 3rd, 2013, the debate was the basis for the Final Jeopardy question on long-running American game show Jeopardy, and all three contestants answered correctly.^[11]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Poly Bridge is a 3D physics-based construction simulator game, in which players design bridges for vehicles to traverse over a series of rivers.

History

On June 30th, 2015, Poly Bridge was released for sale on the Steam^[3] software distribution service.

Gameplay

In the game’s campaign mode, players constructing bridges across rivers using a variety of tools, which must be safely traversed by vehicles in order to progress to the next level. Additionally, players can create their own custom levels and share them on the Steam Workshop or freely construct bridges in the game’s sandbox mode.

Online Presence

On July 7th, 2015, Yogscast streamer Sips played Poly Bridge during a broadcast on Twitch (shown below). On July 10th, the /r/PolyBridge^[2] subreddit was launched for discussions about the construction game. On July 13th, a page for Poly Bridge was created on the Yogscast Wiki.^[1]

On July 9th, Redditor tupiniquinium posted a GIF of a Poly Bridge construction that collapses as soon as the vehicle reaches the end of the bridge to /r/gaming,^[5] where it received more than 5,300 votes (95% upvoted) and 730 comments in the first two weeks.

On July 18th, Redditor GryphonCH submitted a Poly Bridge animation titled “When a Civil Engineer plays Poly Bridge,”, featuring a two-level motorized bridge (shown below). Within one week, the post garnered upwards of 5,400 votes (93% upvoted) and 620 comments on /r/gaming.^[4]

On July 21st, the engineering news blog Popular Mechanics^[7] published a listicle featuring nine Poly Bridge puzzle animations. On the following day, Redditor btoxic submitted an animated GIF featuring a monster truck launching across a ravine in Poly Bridge to /r/gaming,^[8] where it gained over 5,600 votes (96% upvoted) and 690 comments in the first 24 hours (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

BAN•ZELDA is a phrase stated mostly from members of the Zelda Social when being successful while playing the Smash bros. for Wii U character, Zelda.

Origin

BAN•ZELDA was first stated by a user who goes by the name “Patch” on Nintendo’s social networking site, Miiverse. It first started after a Smash bros. for Wii U match, which Patch lost to a Zelda while playing online. He then changed his tag to “BAN•ZELDA” in frustration to losing to the character, Zelda, and suggesting she should be banned from online play.

Spread

The image was first used in a thread titled “How often do people ragequit against you?” by user Brinzy, before it was quoted in the Zelda Social where it sparked massive amusement among the userbase and the creation of this post by SBphiloz4.

The phrase has since been used as an in-joke from members of the Zelda Social on the website Smashboards, to spark hilarity with its members whenever they have success with Zelda, as Zelda has been considered to be one of the worst characters in every Smash bros. game she has appeared in.

External References

^[1]Smashboards – Brinzy’s post. Posted March 29th, 2015

^[2]Smashboards – SBphiloz4’s post. Posted on March 26th, 2015

This entry is still working in process and you can feel free to request editorship

About

The Terminator is an action science fiction film series that it starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular main antagonist T-800, The film that it shows what happen the machines take over the world in the near future, directed by the artificial intelligence Skynet^[1].

History

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Premise

The Terminator (1984)

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

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Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

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Terminator Salvation (2009)

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Terminator Genisys (2015)

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Reception

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Notable Examples

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Search Interest

External References

About

Smeel refers to an exploitable image meme featuring characters from the Hasbro franchise My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic looking at the viewer, with a large grin on their face. It is frequently used as a reaction image in a similar manner to Twiface.

Origin

The meme originates from a piece of Rainbow Dash concept art^[2] (shown below, left) drawn by MLP storyboard artist Sabrina Alberghetti, known by her online handle Sibsy.^[1] The first proper variant of the meme was a colored and vectored image of Rainbow Dash^[3] (shown below, right) based off of Sibsy’s sketches.

Spread

On February 11th, 2012,^[4]DeviantArt user PikachuX1000 created versions for the rest of the main cast using the Rainbow Dash vector as the base. The next day, a version featuring Princess Celestia was also created.^[5] The artist explained that “SMEEL” is intended to be a corruption of the word “smile”.^[3]

As of July 2015, searching for “Smeel” on DeviantArt returns 922 results,^[6] while Derpibooru returns 54 results.^[7] A DeviantArt group dedicated to Smeel images was created on May 19th, 2012, and has 94 members.^[8]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Hulk Hogan (born Terry Gene Bollea, August 11th, 1953) is an American Professional Wrestler known for his popularity in the ring. In addition to his professional wrestling career, Hogan has also had a career in reality television and product endorsement.^[1]

History

Professional Wrestling

Hulk Hogan began professional wrestling in 1977 after unsuccessfully attempting to be a musician. He joined the World Wrestling Federation (now called the WWE) in 1979, and proceeded to become one of the best wrestlers in the federation’s history. Fans of Hulk Hogan are referred to as “Hulkmaniacs.”^[2]

Hogan’s popularity as a wrestler in both wrestling and mainstream media began in the 1980s and continues today. Hogan is a 12-time world champion being a six-time WWF/E (World Heavyweight) Champion and six-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion. He is the third longest combined reigning WWF Champion of all time, and is also the longest-reigning WCW World Heavyweight Champion of all time, with a 469-day reign from 1994 to 1995. He is often referred to as the most recognizable pro-wrestler in the world and the most popular wrestler of the 1980s. He has quit and returned to wrestling four separate times, most recently returning in 2014.^[2]

Television and Acting

Hogan’s crossover popularity has led to many film roles, both starring and cameo. In 2005, Hogan and his family, including his then-wife Linda, and their children Brooke and Nick, starred in a VH1 reality television show called Hogan Knows Best. After the show, Hogan and his Linda had a public and acrimonious divorce, in which 70% of his assets went to her, and he remarried.^[2] His son Nick went to prison for a drunk-driving accident, and his daughter Brooke attempted to have a music career and her own reality television show, called Brooke Knows Best. In 2010, the documentary A&E Presents Finding Hulk Hogan premiered. The documentary followed Hogan during this down time in his life. ^[3]

Online Presence

There are thousands of YouTube clips of Hulk Hogan wrestling matches online, many posted by fans, and others posted by the official WWE YouTube page.^[4] Several have more than one million views, and many more have view counts in the hundreds of thousands. Hogan joined Twitter in 2010, and as of July 2015 he has obtained 1.35 million followers.^[5] His official Facebook page has 4.5 million likes.^[6]

Gawker Sex Tape and Lawsuit

On October 10th, 2012, the web site Gawker.com published a one minute excerpt of a 30-minute covert tape recording of Hulk Hogan having sex with a woman identified as the wife of his best friend, a Florida radio DJ called Bubba the Love Sponge.^[7] The accompanying post also featured a length description of the video by editor A.J. Daulerio. On April 24th, 2013, Hogan sued Gawker for the post, and demanded they take the tape down. The site initially refused, citing their first amendment rights as journalists in the public interest, but a judge later required them to remove it.^[8]

Hogan sued Bubba the Love Sponge for creating the tape, and they settled out of court. In addition, Hogan sued Gawker Media for $100 million dollars, and the case, Bollea vs. Gawker.com, is still in courts as of July 2015; if the court decides in Hogan’s favor, this sum of money is larger than the net worth of the Gawker empire, and could effectively end it.

Racist Comments and WWE erasure

During the litigation of the case of Bollea vs. Gawker.com, full transcripts of the sex tape recording was entered as evidence in the trial. On July 10th, 2015, Gawker CEO Nick Denton alluded to the content of these transcripts in a post about the trial, saying:

There will be a third act which we believe will center on the real story: the additional recordings held by the FBI, the information in them that is Hulk Hogan’s real secret, and irregularities in the recordings which indicate some sort of cover-up. In the way of so many news stories, the deeper you go, the more interesting it gets.^[8]

On July 24th, 2015 tabloids The National Enquirer and Radar jointly published excerpts from the transcript, which had been leaked to them by an unknown party.^[9] These transcripts included racists comments made by Hogan about a business relationship his daughter, Brooke, was having with a black man. Hogan repeatedly says that he is “a little bit racist,” and that he wishes that his daughter would date a rich basketball player, if she was going to be sleeping with the son of her black business associate.

Upon the release of the transcript, the WWE immediately terminated its relationship with Hulk Hogan, erasing his biography from their corporate web site and pulling Hulk Hogan branded merchandise from its online store.^[10] Hogan apologized for the remarks in a correspondence with People magazine:

About

“InFamous”^[1] is an action adventure video game that was created by Sucker Punch Productions (who were also responsible for the Sly Cooper series) and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. There are a total of three InFamous games. The first infamous game was released on the 26th of May, 2009. The second was released on June 7, 2011. The Third was released March 21, 2014.

Plot

The first two games focuses on Cole Macgrath. A bike messanger who had accidentally activated “The Raysphere”^[2] and it caused an explosion so big that it almost leveled the fictional “Empire City”^[3]. Most of the people caught in the explosion’s blast radius were killed, but those that survived recieved powers and mutations, and from then onwards were called “Conduits”^[4]. With his new powers, Cole along side his best friend Zeke, must fight the “Reapers”^[5], “Malitia”^[6], and other Conduits in order to maintain control of Empire City.

Gameplay

In terms of gameplay InFamous is a third person sandbox game. Where the player controls Cole Macgrath and use his electric powers in offense and defense. There is also a Karma system within the game, which means that Cole will be presented with situations that challenge his morality. He is given to either follow the good path or the bad path. Either path chosen has a level system, where the highest level will either reward or punish you. The Karma system also changes the apprearance of Cole himself. Following the good path will give his lightning powers a blue colour and change his jacket/shirt to become white once the third level of the good path has been reached. The evil path however is most popular giving Cole red lightning and changing his jacket/shirt to the colour red. The second installment of the game gives Cole a second power to rely on depending on his Karma. The good path gives him ice and lightning powers, and the evil path gives him fire and lightning powers. Through out the game opportunities for improving or down grading karma will be presented, there are also points where Cole will recieve more upgrades to his powers, which would make him even more feared in the eyes of either the inhabitants of Empire City or the Reapers/Malitia.

Reception

The game was very successful upon release. IGN^[7] scored the game 9.2/10, and Metacritic^[8] scored it a 4 out of 5. The second game was scored by more reviewers, and Gamespot^[9] scored the game 7.5/10 where as both IGN and Metacritic scores remained the same.

Guest Appearances

Cole Macgrath has made more apperances in other games than the InFamous series itself. He is in popluar titles like “Street Fighter X Tekken”^[9], “PlayStation All Star Battle”^[10], even Uncharted 2’s Multiplayer as an unlockable skin.

InFamous: Second Son

This game is another Infamous sequel, and one of the earliest games on the PlayStation 4. It’s plot revolves around Delson Rowe, a mischevious troublemaker who accidentally gains his powers after being exposed to a conduit convict on the run. His town gets attacked and taken over by Augustine, a dictator who specializes in the capture of other conduits. Delson must defeat Augustine and obtain her powers to save his tribe and family.

Search Interest

[WIP]

External Refrences

[WIP]

About
BalrogtheMaster, real name Wallid Kanaan, is a somewhat popular YouTuber, and a part of Hidden Block. A majority of his content comes from game reviews, while a small number of other videos appear often, such as the discontinued Nintendo 101 series, and his satirical .avi series.

History
Early Days
Beginning his YouTube career on April 23, 2011 with his video entitled “Balrog’s Game Room – 3DS Ports made in my Mom’s Basement”, which talked about how many bad ports of older games and console games the then recently released 3DS had, Balrog had very little success with that video.

From there, Balrog made a few videos of him playing Cat Mario and began his series known as “Nintendo 101”, which was a series that involved Balrog breaking down the history and plot of a certain game, as well as explaining it’s influences on the genre and gaming as a whole. The first episode of Nintendo 101 revolved around the history of Pokemon Red and Blue, and was posted on March 14, 2012.

From there, Balrog posted the first episode of his most well known series: Balrog’s Nintendo Game Room, otherwise known as BNGR. This show involved Balrog looking at a game and breaking it down into 4 basic parts, including:

• Fun
• Looks
• Sounds
• Length
  The first episode was a review of Mario Tennis Open, and was posted on May 22, 2012.
  

BNGR: Season 1
On September 8, 2012, Balrog posted the first true episode of BNGR, as he felt that his past work was too mediocre to be an official review series. This led him to rethink his writing style, and to go for a more comedic view on the game, while still having a general opinion and review on the game. He also introduced his mascot of sorts: The Plush Wario. Wario would mostly sit around doing nothing, as plushes do, but Balrog wrote him to be a conniving Mischief Maker, often messing with Wallid to get him to play bad games. The first episode of BNGR: Season 1 was on Final Fantasy Mystic Quest

Around this time, Balrog officially started another series, his .avi series. This series was a satirical look of some of the tropes and memes to come out of gaming. He would make these rarely, and it is his least uploaded series. The first episode of Balrog’s .avi series was uploaded on June 23, 2013, and covered reactions to the announcements of new Pokemon games

Balrog’s final new series during this era was his “Power Reviews”, which were essentially 5 minutes or less versions of his normal review show. The first episode of Power Reviews was about Fire Emblem Awakening, and was posted on February 11, 2013

During his first season, Balrog was noticed by the members of the gaming site Hidden Block, and he was asked to join them. Balrog agreed, and on March 2, 2013, Balrog became an official member of Hidden Block. It was after that, on July 16, 2013 that Balrog ended the first season on BNGR covering Little Nemo: The Dream Master, a game that he never played due to bad experiences with movie tie-in games. The season ended with Balrog finally admitting that the way he judged games was too childish, and that he needed to change…

BNGR: Season 2
Due to various schoolwork and personal issues, BNGR was put on hiatus. However, during this 6 month break, Balrog uploaded various new episodes of Nintendo 101 and Power Review. However, Balrog surprised his fans on September 12, 2013, when he began season 2 of BNGR with a review of cult classic NES hit: A Boy and his Blob

Balrog kept most everything the same, other than the fact that he changed the intro in order to seperate himself from seasons prior. During this season, very few episodes of Nintendo 101 were released, and Nintendo 101 was officially discontinued on March 21, 2014, with his final episode on the Legend of Zelda.

Balrog also continued to post episodes of his .avi series, and started a very small new series called joshfest. This series was nothing more than a highlight reel of conventions he went to, starring him and his friend Josh from Really Frickin Clever.
However, it was here that Balrog hit his biggest claim to fame, when he officially became a meme. On April 16 2014, Balrog posted a pic of a 3DS EShop $50 points card in order to talk about how bad he thought the system was. It was then that somebody used the card before he could, causing Balrog to question why he posted the picture, and why somebody was so rude as to do what they did.

This officially put Wallid in the status of “meme”, a concept which he would joke about for the rest of the season, and even jokes about to this day.
Season 2 of BNGR ended on November 3, 2014, as the amount of schoolwork he had at the time made it hard to focus on making quality videos, and he also felt that the long gaps between episodes was harming the comedy that the series held dear. In a 2 part finale, Balrog admitted that he had to start from the beginning again. The final episode of BNGR was on Game and Wario.

BGR and BGPR
On December 7, 2014, Balrog posted his review of Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS as the premiere to his new show: Balrog’s Game Room. This show was the spiritual and actual successor to his BNGR series, except he would review games from all systems. He also had a slightly different set of criteria for the reviews. He still had the Looks, Sounds, and Length, but instead of fun as the fourth category, he simplified it to just being Gameplay.

During this time, he also rebooted Power Reviews (Now just called Direct Reviews), and he started a new series known simply as “Thoughts On…”, a series in which he would give his two cents into a certain question. The first episode answered the question “Are Amiibos worth it?”, and it was posted on December 31, 2014

Along with the reboot to the channel, Balrog also made a new channel entitled “Balrog’s Gameplay Room”, more commonly known as BGPR. That channel acts as a Let’s Play Channel, and while not as popular as his main channel, BGPR has the following of most BGR fans.

The Memeworthiness
Since he posted the Eshop card on Twitter, Balrog has become a joke of sorts amongst fans and haters alike due to how many stupid faces he makes, and how meme-worthy he has become. On almost every video Balrog has created, he has had some kind of stupid face that has made it’s way into a meme, and his fans on Twitter make sure to show them all off

About

Vice Media is a media company that consists of a print magazine, television and film production studio and a network of websites, including Vice.com, Noisey and Motherboard.

History

In October 1994, Canadian residents Gavin McInnes, Suroosh Avi and Shane Smith launched the arts and culture magazine Voice of Montreal. In 1996, the name was changed to Vice. In 1996, Vice launched the website Viceland.com, which was later moved to Vice.com. In the late 1990s, Canadian entrepreneur Rcihard Szalwinski purchased the magazine and moved all operations to New York City, where it became associated with counter cultural content and political incorrectness. In 2006, the company launched the digital video website VBS.tv,^[3] featuring a variety of documentary films and series including The Vice Guide to Travel, _Heavy Metal in Baghdad and Lil Bub & Friendz.

That year, co-founder Gavin McInnes resigned from the company, citing creative differences with the other founders. In 2007, Vice launched the technology news site Motherboard,^[2] the music news site Noisey^[4] and the arts and technology site The Creators Project.^[5] In 2013, HBO premiered a 30-minute news show by Vice (shown below).

Highlights

Vice Headline Generator

In July 2015, the single serving site Vice Headline Generator^[6] was launched, which randomly creates headlines mimicking the style of articles on Vice.com (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

Work in Progress

About

Quit procrastinating. Work on your art is an image macro that often features an image of Batman pointing at the viewer. The image is often used to incite an art thread and to motivate users to start practicing on their art skills.

Origin

Spread

Search Interest

Search not available.

External References

WIP. Feel free to request editorship

About

Simulator Games Parodies refers to a series of games that parody the popular trade simulation video game genre under absurd premises. These kind of games have become a common source of videos on the Let’s play genre on Youtube . Some notable examples are the games Goat Simulator and Rock Simulator 2014.

Origin

[WIP]

Spread

[WIP]

Notable Examples

Yandere Simulator

[WIP]

Search Interest

Not available

External References

About

The Hartley Hooligans are a pair of sisters, Claire and Lola Hartley, born with microcephaly, a medical condition which is signified by a head circumference several standard deviations below the average.^[1] The sisters, both of whom have various other medical conditions such as Spastic Quadriplegia Cerebral Palsy, epilepsy and scoliosis. Due to their microcephaly have become infamous on the Internet for their physical deformities as well as what is seen as an exploitative attitude from their parents.

Internet Presence

The Hartley Hooligans blog was created in 2005 by Claire and Lola’s mother Gwen Hartley, though it remained mostly inactive until 2011; in 2012, the blog was voted #17 on a poll about the funniest parenting blogs by the website Circle of Moms.^[2][3] A Facebook page for the girls was started on February 9, 2011, the same day the first new post to the blog in several years was posted.^[4] On August 21, the first video of the girls was uploaded to Gwen Hartley’s YouTube account, though the account had existed since 2007.^[5]

In 2014, the girls rose to prominence with the video “World’s Smallest Ninja”, in which their father Scott Hartley plays with Lola as if she were a ninja to the amusement of an off-screen audience. The video has over 160,000 views as of July 2015.^[6]

Criticisms

The mother Gwen Hartley(pictured) and her husband has been accused of exploiting both her disabled children via gifts and state allowances

Personal Lives

Claire Hartley was born in 2001 and was diagnosed with microcephaly at three months old.^[7] Lola was born in 2006 and was diagnosed with the same condition while still in the womb.^[8] The sisters also have an older brother born 1998 , named Cal, who is not affected by microcephaly.^[9]

Claire

Claire was born July 25 2001 after a normal pregnancy and delivery. Upon her birth, doctors immediately knew she had microcephaly. She has been diagnosed with dwarfism , Spastic Quadriplegia Cerebral Palsy, epilepsy, scoliosis, and Cortical Visual Impairment.^[7]

Lola

Lola was born one month prematurely on April 28, 2006.^[8]

Search Interest

External References

Overview

FemCon 2015 is the name of a fake feminist-themed conference purportedly scheduled to take place in New York City in late August 2015. Following the launch of the ticket sales for the event in July, the conference was soon revealed to be a hoaxical scam orchestrated by users of 4chan.

Background

In July 2015, a page titled “FemCon” was created on the e-commerce platform Sellfy,^[1] which sold $50 tickets for an event described as a feminist-themed conference to be held in late August in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City (shown below).

Notable Developments

Hoax Discovery

On July 26th, a gallery was created on Imgur^[8] containing screenshots from a purported FemCon Tinychat room, revealing that 4chan users orchestrated the event as a hoax. That day, Twitter^[2] user @resoluteCourier^[6] tweeted screenshots from 4chan posts planning the hoax, alerting readers that the event was a scam (shown below). That day, other Twitter users posting warnings about the event with the hashtag “#FemCon2015.”^[7] Shortly after, the FemCon Twitter feed and Sellfy page were removed.

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several news sites reported about the hoax, including BuzzFeed,^[3]The Daily Dot^[4] and The Mary Sue.^[5]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

[Work in progress, very wordy however given these guys practically created FPS I think it is fair.]

About

id Software is an American video game developer best known for creating titles such as Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein. id Software’s current headquarters is located in Richardson, Texas.

History

id Software was created by four members of the computer software company Softdisk, these being: John Carmack, John Romero, Tom Hall and Adrian Carmack in Mesquite, Texas, 1991. The team originally met when developing Softdisk’s monthly video game releases. After John Carmack created a 2D side-scrolling engine which could be run efficiently on computers of the time, both Carmack and Hall created a replica of the first level of Super Mario Bros 3 pasting in Romero’s “Dangerous Dave” character as a substitute for Mario. The team after seeing the potential of this engine began to use Softdisk computers to create a full port of Super Mario Bros 3 with the idea of selling it to Nintendo which subsequently failed.

Commander Keen

After this failure, the team were contacted by Scott Miller of Apogee Software who stated his desire to publish 2D side-scroller games for the PC market using the Carmack engine. With this in mind, the team created the first game in the Commander Keen series of 2D side-scrollers which Miller subsequently published.

However due to Carmack, Romero and Co. using Softdisk computers behind the backs of their managers and subsequently being caught. The team was forced to sign a contract which meant they had to provide a new game to Softdisk every month as an independent company and hence the team formed id Software.

Wolfenstein

About a year after the creation of id Software, John Carmack after seeing an engine demo for the game Ultima: Underworld by Looking Glass Studios, he came up with the idea of improving and speeding up the engine’s ray casting rendering system to increase the low frame rate of the engine. Carmack was subsequently successful at building such an engine but at the cost of not having features such as lighting and height differences. However the engine could be run on even some of the lowest end PCs of the time making it very accessible.

After this engine was created, Romero and Co had the idea for reworking and rebooting the Muse Software stealth title Castle Wolfenstein. After attempts to make a stealth game in Carmack’s engine failed due to the game-play slowing down and the over complicated controls, the team decided to go all out in creating an action game which had simple controls and secrets which rewarded exploration.

Wolfenstein 3D subsequently achieved critical acclaim and sold over 100000 copies which was unprecedented for shareware games at the time. This cemented id’s place as one for the best first person shooter developers in the gaming sphere.

Doom

After the success of Wolfenstein 3D and while Romero and Co worked on a expansion for Wolfenstein 3D, John Carmack separated himself from the team to create a new engine with multiple improvements over the Wolf 3D engine. The new “Doom Engine” added things such as Doors, Saving, Height Difference, Textured floors and Ceilings, Lighting and many more advancements over the previous engine.

The team subsequently used this engine to initially create a game with an intricate sci-fi plot inspired by the movie Aliens, however after disagreements between Hall and Carmack, Hall left id to join 3D Realms and the plot was changed to a significantly more action based and violent game.

Doom was released in 1993 and was met with critical acclaim and single handedly popularised first-person shooter games the world over. Its combination of advanced graphics never seen in PC games before and its multiplayer match making made it into a global phenomenon. Almost 10 million copies were sold within 3 years of its release.

Quake

After the success of both Doom and its sequel Doom 2, Carmack sought to advance the technology which made Doom a household name. He subsequently sought to create a fully 3D engine using 3D polygons for characters over sprites and full 3D level design combined with an easier and more efficient multi-player client.

The idea for the game and its title came from a character created by id Software when working on Commander Keen. according to Carmack “Quake was the strongest, most dangerous person on the continent armed with thunderbolts and a Ring of Regeneration.” This idea transformed into a HP Lovecraft inspired setting where a lone soldier is sent through a gateway to battle creatures being sent to earth by an unknown entity codenamed Quake which he has been tasked with killing.

The game combined this setting with a soundtrack created by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to amplify Quake’s horror setting. The game eventually released to excellent reviews and is seen by most as being the genesis of today’s 3D video gaming scene as the Quake engine has spawned numerous other engines and games, most notably Valve’s GoldSrc engine for Half-Life.

Later Years and Zenimax Acquisition.

After the success of Quake 1 and 2 and the departure of John Romero to form Ion Storm (known for games such as the infamous Daikatana and the critically acclaimed Deus Ex). id Software continued to create more advanced game engines with sequels to its many franchises such as Quake 3: Arena, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Doom 3.

In 2009, id Software had been developing a new game with its most advanced engine to date “id Tech 5”, this game was subsequently announced as a post apocalyptic FPS called Rage. After Rage was announced, id Software was purchased by Zenimax Media (Parent company of Bethesda Softworks) with the view of id Software being another developer publishing games through Bethesda and Bethesda having access to the id Tech engines and francises.

Rage eventually released in 2011 to mixed/positive reviews, with the graphics and game-play being hailed as what id fans come to expect however the very poor performance on PCs, massive game size and poor multiplayer support caused the game to receive medium sales. After this, John Carmack, the last member of the original team still at id Software left to pursue VR with the Oculus Rift team.

Since Carmack’s departure, Bethesda Softworks have kept id Software and their franchises going with Machine Games developing and releasing a sequel/reboot to the Wolfenstein series with Wolfenstein: The New Order. The game has been critically acclaimed due to its innovative gun play, bringing the franchise back from the dead and adding characterisation and heart to a series which typically had very little of it. Meanwhile id Software has been developing a reboot to the original Doom using its new “id Tech 666” engine.

Controversies

Wolfenstein Nazi Depictions.

After the release of Wolfenstein 3D with its use of symbols of the Nazi regime and use of the Nazi party anthem as its theme, the German government refused its release to citizens of Germany due to the use of such symbols being a federal offence in Germany when applied to Toys which video games are classed as in Germany. Despite Nazis being clearly shown as the enemy of the game, Germany and Nintendo of America refused to allow the game to sell without major censoring of the offending content.

A similar outcry was brought forward by animal right groups who objected to the use of German Shepard guard dogs as enemies in the game, the fear was that such violence could cause children who play the game to harm animals in the future. In response to this, id software censored the Nintendo versions of the game while keeping the PC versions uncensored.

Doom Violence.

Due to Doom’s level of violence and use of satanic imagery due to its plot, Doom has come under considerable pressure from a number of groups and legal cases due to its perceived impact on young people and gamers.

In 1999, in the aftermath of the Columbine High School shooting, it was revealed by certain sources that both the culprits were avid video gamers with Doom being their game of choice. After fallacious details were leaked regarding one of the culprits designing a WAD map of Columbine High School and using it to prepare for the shooting, the public outcry caused Doom being discussed during a congressional hearing into the event and gave traction to a number of individuals calling for tight regulation of video games and bannings of violent games.

The Doom Violence question has since became a common focal point of discussion regarding video game violence and the crux of numerous discussions, legal hearings, studies and debates with regards to government intervention in the video game industry.

Related Memes

DopeFish

The DopeFish is a character that appeared for the first time in the video game “Commander Keen: Secret of the Oracle” in the year 1991. He became a video game industry inside joke and has many appearances in other games in the form of cameos and easter eggs.

Mein Leben!

Mein Leben! is a meme which spawned from the video game Wolfenstein 3D. When the player character encounters a Nazi SS Soldier and subsequently kills him, the soldier will shout Mein Leben as he dies (Mein Leben being the German term for “my life”). Due to comedic aspect of the phase and its overuse in the game as one of the few lines of enemy dialogue, fans started using the phase in the early days of the internet and IRC.

IDDQD

IDDQD is a cheat code used in the 1993 first person shooter game Doom, which enables a game state that prevents the player from being damaged or killed known as “god mode”. It is sometimes associated with the codes “idkfa”, which provides the player with all available weapons in the game, and “idclip”, allowing the player to pass through solid objects.

Rip and Tear / Huge Guts!

Rip and Tear / Huge Guts! is a meme which spawned from the widely panned 1996 Doom comic book where the main character Doomguy is under the influence of a berserker power up while facing a Cyberdemon leading to the popularised quote: “You are huge! That means you have huge guts! RIPANDTEAR!”. Due to the campiness of the quote and the bemused reaction from fans regarding the comic, the quote has been immortalised as the quintessential doom quote.

BFG 9000

The BFG 9000 is a fictional plasma weapon featured in the Doom and Quake series. Since making its first appearance in 1993, the weapon has spawned a number of reiterations in other games under the fan given nickname “Big Fucking Gun,” as well as a growing collection of fan-made replicas modeled after the original design.

Quake Done Quick

Quake Done Quick relates to one of the first instances of professional speed-running in video games. The Quake Done Quick team was comprised of gamers from the Quake community who created videos of them trying to beat the game in the quickest times possible using skills such as rocket jumping and bunny hopping. Due to the incredible times that the team and other speed-runners were achieving, this gave rise to the idea of speed running as a type of Electronic Sport with Quake being the gold standard game for all speed-runners. Other games such as Half-Life and Fallout have followed suit.

Search Interest

(W.I.P. need helpers!))

About

Pokemon Fan Teams is the practice of taking a character (or even real person) from outside of the Pokemon fandom and making them a trainer, then figuring out what Pokemon would be on their team; usually they are chosen based on the character’s personality, appearence, interests, skills or plot points.

A popular example being Feriowind’s Pokevengers drawings:

(W.I.P.)

Editors Note: Work in progress. This entry may contain story spoilers. View it with your own discretion.

Promotional poster for the 1988 movie My Conquest is the Sea of Stars, a prequel for the main OVA series.

About

Legend of the Galactic Heroes, often abbreviated to LOGH, is a Japanese science-fiction novel series, written by Yoshika Tanaka. Since its release in 1982, it has been adapted into multiple forms of media, ranging from the main OVA series, gaiden OVA’s, prequel movies, a real-time strategy game and a theater adaption.

Premise

Set in the late 36th century, the corrupted democratic Free Planets Alliance, and the autocratic Galactic Empire, ran by a crumbling dynasty, who have been in a never ending, 150 year war. LOGH follows the rise of the two central protagonists, Reinhard von Lohengramm, an admiral in the Galactic Empire, who joined the military in order overthrow the falling Goldenbaum Dynasty, and free his sister from her concubine status. Meanwhile, Yang Wenli is a commodore in the Free Planets Alliance who originally wanted to be a historian, but joined the military due to financial woes, and has become a renowned, but reluctant strategist. Each leader attracts other brilliant leaders, and strategists, and with this, a new war has begin to unfold.

History

Legend of the Galactic Heroes was written by Yoshiki Tanaka, and illustrated by Naoyuki Kato for the first five volumes, and later Yukihisa Kamoshita for the last five. The first volume was published in November 30, 1982, and the tenth, and final volume was released in November 15, 1987. The side stories were published in September 1, 1984, lasting up to July 31, 1989. Three manga spinoffs were later released as well: the first was Golden Wings, a prequel telling the story of Reinhard and his best friend, later confidant, Siegfried Kircheis in a shoujo way. The last two were published from 1989 to 1994, and the third in 2007, and is still ongoing. On February 6, 1988, studios Madhouse, and Artland released the first installment of the LOGH anime series, My Conquest is the Sea of Stars, a prequel that lead up to the main OVA series. In January 8, 1988, the first episode of the OVA series was released. The main OVA covered the entire, original novel series, and ended on March 17, 1997, with a total of 110 OVA episodes. Later, in 1992, the prequel movie, based on the prequel manga, Golden Wings was released, though it was to mixed reception. One year later, the film, Overture to a New War, was released as way to connect the first film, My Conquest is the Sea of Stars, and the first two episodes of the OVA in a narrative sense. The final animated installment of the series were released as two separate OVA“seasons”: A Hundred Billion Stars, A Hundred Billion Lights, and Spiral Labyrinth, with the former being released in October 21, 1998, and the latter in Dec 24, 1999, and each ending in 2000,and 2001 respectively for a total of 52 episodes. On February 12, 2014, it was announced that there is a new series in the works, though no new information has been released since.^[1]

Reception

The main OVA for Legend of the Galactic Heroes, is wide acclaimed by the anime community for it’s maturity, every character that is introduced getting developed, the grey morality, and the themes it explores. It is on many anime databases top anime lists, with it being number nine of all anime on Myanimelist^[2], the top OVA for Myanimelist’s OVA section^[3], a rating of 9.45 on AnidDb^[4], 30th on Hummingbird^[5], 53rd on Anime Planet^[6], and 14th on Anime News Network.^[7] Its many prequel movies, and gaiden OVA’s have gotten praise for expanding on every characters’ background. The movie, Golden Wings, is the most panned of the entire series, due to the uncanny character designs, and a plot that does not resemble what LOGH is known for.

Online Relevance

On July 3, 2015, Sentai Filmworks acquired the license and plan to release the OVA in America^[8], while VIZ acquired the novels series.^[9] On tumblr, the series is tagged under it’s English name^[10], Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu (Japanese title)^[11], and LOGH.^[12] On Youtube, the most popular video is a mod of Super Robot Wars, using LOGH characters instead.

Fandom

Related Memes

Are You Frustrated?

A Photoshop meme, its origin is based around a an image of character Siegfried Kircheis.

If Only Kircheis was Here

This meme is based around characters reflecting on Kircheis’s death and if he was still around, he would’ve known what to do.

External Reference

About

Somebody thought of a big mistake an edited this with it.

Origin

I don’t know actually. I just keep seeing edits everywhere with this ‘meme’.
Definitely going to need help with this entry.

Template

Notable Examples

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About

Cuckservative is a pejorative portmanteau of cuck (or cuckold) and conservative, typically used by those affiliated with far right internet culture to refer to white Anglo-Christian Republicans in positions of power who respect people of different ethnicities and lifestyles, which some ethnic nationalists and extreme conservatives see as a sign of weakness.

Origin

The exact origin of cuckservative is unknown, but its first recorded uses were in posts to the /pol/ board of 4chan, where combining the term “cuck” with different words for portmanteaus is common. The earliest known instance of use on /pol/ took place on September 26th, 2014, when a user created this post in response to another anon complaining about attending a conservative conference.^[1]

Spread

The term continued to stay mostly contained to /pol/ for 10 months, where it was used more than 309 times.^[2] On April 3rd, 2015, an anonymous user registered the twitter handle @Cuckservative^[3] and has since used the account to tweet jokes targeting mainstream conservatives for not being anti-gay or pro-white enough; its first tweet was a reference to the Memories Pizza incident, writing “I can get behind donating to pizza places so long as the money goes to upgrading the ovens. We’re likely going to need them.”

On April 11th, 2015, the subreddit /r/cuckservative was created; it currently has 59 readers and 16 total posts.^[4] In July 2015, the term came into wide use on Twitter, where use of the hashtag #cuckservative was used to refer to conservative candidates and situations over 14,000 times, mostly between July 21st and July 27th.^[5] The term was used to refer to many Republican presidential candidates and their attitude for race. In a post on the Daily Caller, writer Matt K. Lewis explained the use of the term in the following way:

So what does this have to do with conservatism or politics? By supporting immigration reform, criminal justice reform, etc., a white conservative is therefore surrendering his honor and masculinity (and it won’t be long before his women folk are compromised, as well!). A cuckservative is, therefore, a race traitor. The suggestion is that whites should only support policies that help whites. The goal is to stir up fear among whites--and to encourage more tribalism and polarization.^[6]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

not yet available

External References

About

“Magneto Was Right” is a phrase used to describe the Marvel Comics character and X-Men villain, Magneto, and how his extremist means to achieve equality for the fiction race called the mutants is the correct way, as opposed to the pacifist approach that his enemies the X-Men use.

History

The precursor to the phrase was first in the 2001 X-Men storyline “Eve of Destruction” where Magneto is believed to be killed protecting a mutant utopia called Genosha which got destroyed by sentinels, anti-mutant robots that were designed by humans, and left some recordings of his supposed last moments in which he talks about his ideals like mutant superiority. Because of this, mutants all around the world considered Magneto a martyr and in the 2003 X-Men series written by Grant Morrison a character called Quentin Quire, a rebellious kid at Xavier’s School For Gifted Mutants wore a T-shirt with the phrase “Magneto Was Right”, similar in design to that of Che Guevara T-shirts.

Many within the comic book community took to the design, and the phrase spawned fanart, people created replica T-Shirts of the original one used in the comics, fanpages and websites dedicated to it. It also sparked discussion on whether Magneto truly is correct on comic book forums and messageboards

Cyclops Was Right/Rightclops

“Cyclops Was Right” is an offshoot of Magneto Was Right. In the 2012 crossover event Avengers vs X-Men (AvX) the X-Man Cyclops argues with Captain America, causing a divide between the 2 superhero groups, Cyclops character changed and became much darker and similar to Magneto. Later in one of the tie-ins Cyclops is talking to Wolverine about how he considers himself a martyr and says that one day kids will wear a “Cyclops Was Right” T-Shirt. This caused more discussions in the comic book community, and people made fan art and T-shirts similar to Magneto Was Right. This new phrase caused people to nickname the new Cyclops as “Rightclops”.

Overview

Cecil the Lion was a 13-year-old celebrity black-maned lion who was fatally shot by Walter James Palmer, an American dentist and hunter from Bloomington, Minnesota, at the Hwange national park on July 1st, 2015.

Background

On July 1st, 2015, the treasured lion of Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park was found dead on the outskirts of the habitat, skinned and beheaded after being fatally wounded by a hunter with an arrow and rifle bullet. The news of Cecil’s gruesome death was met with public outrage in Zimbabwe and the international conservation communities overseas, as the lion was well-known for his natural flair in human interactions. In the ensuing investigation by the Zimbabwean officials, two men were charged with poaching, Theo Bronkhorst and Bushmen Safaris, the owners of the bordering properties where the lion was killed.

Notable Developments

Hunter’s Identity

On July 27th, The Telegraph published an exclusive report identifying Cecil’s killer as Walter James Palmer, an American dentist and avid hunter from Bloomington, Minnesota, citing two independent sources and a copy of Palmer’s hunting permit. According to the article, Palmer reportedly paid the local guides $55,000 (£35,000) to lure Cecil half a mile outside of the national park using bait for an opportunity to hunt him with a bow and arrow. When he failed to pin down the famous lion with the arrow, Palmer and his guides then tracked him for nearly 48 hours before locating and killing the wounded animal.

Online Reaction

On April 28th, the hashtag #CecilTheLion rose to the top of the trending topics list on Twitter in the United States; according to Topsy Analytics^[9], #CecilTheLion was mentioned over 127,000 times within the first 24 hours. In addition, many took their rage to the alleged hunter’s Yelp page for his dentistry practice^[10] by downvoting his ratings and flooding the image gallery with shock media.

Petition

In addition, a petition was launched on the White House’s We The People^[11] platform for extradition of American citizen Walter James Palmer to the criminal justice system in Zimbabwe.

Search Interest

External References