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Shining Force Central

Shining Force CentralShining Force Central is a prime fan site for everything Shining Force, a series of RPGs that is best known for its game play system. The series originally released in Japan has attracted a following, which is evident by browsing the site’s forum.

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We asked Moogie, Shining Force Central founder, a series of questions on how her site came to be.

What prompted you to start a fan site?
Well, fans of Shining Force II will know – and if you’re not a fan, why not give it a go? ;) Still a wonderful game even more than a decade since it’s release! To explain further though, there was an item I struggled to find in Shining Force II and searched the web for the answer. Of course, back then there wasn’t so much of a web to search and certainly not much about this little-known series of games. I stumbled by a site made by Fil Brown, who became a good friend to me in the early years. He helped me find the item, and I asked him about that strange unwalkable square. He didn’t know what it was, but suggested that I start my own Shining Force II site. So I did!

How long have you had your site?
“Sir” Fil suggested it to me in late April 1996, and by early May, “The Ultimate Shining Force II Guide” was born, in glorious blue and yellow, lovely Times text. Tasty! The site grew over the months and years, other sites were added and eventually they all got kinda tied together by SFC. I believe it is still the largest Shining Series fan site on the web.

How do you manage to keep content fresh?
I don’t! Hehe, seriously, I’ve been very slack in the last couple of years on account of various issues at home and a lack of free time. As I mentioned, we all grow up sometime and have less time for these things. I used to make sure I updated the site at least once a fortnight (yes, I’m a Brit, so I use that term), but I’ve really let it slip. Despite that, the forums remain as popular as ever, so I would have to say that the content is kept fresh by the users more so than me! I do try to post updates about some of the more interesting news articles, such as translation projects and the like. It’s a bit hard to keep motivated to do the other standard updates when the series is sadly dying a death in my opinion. The games aren’t what they used to be… but who knows what the future may bring?

What sort of CMS do you use?
One of my own design, which is very far from finished. I had intended to build it in order to hand the site over to another person, due to how busy my life has been. Unfortunately no one person seemed to be willing/able to take on the mammoth task of running SFC (and I can understand why, it was a lot of work back when I was more heavily involved), and again I found myself with insufficient time to continue the CMS. As it stands, I still intend to expand the CMS (I did some work on it a few months back), and set it up to allow specified forum members/staff to update areas of the site. Keyword here being “intend.” We’ll just have to see how things go.

What’s the most fulfilling aspect of running a fan site?
The community, without a doubt. There’s a real sense of satisfaction in bringing people together with a common interest. Most everyone here gets along. Sure there have been a few “forum dramas,” but what active community doesn’t have it’s ups and downs? In the long run, we try to help each other out. I’ve made some really great friends here and am glad to say I’ve actually met a few of them in real life. Other members have met up too, and established trading relationships, etc. I don’t see what else in life could be much more fulfilling than people just getting along :)

How long have you been a SmooveNET member?
I’ve been with Smoove since early 2003, so a little over 3 years now.

What prompted you to move to SmooveNET?
I previously hosted with free hosts such as Classic Gaming and Zophar, but was getting tired of the amount of adverts being put on my site, not to mention the introduction of shudder popups! I decided enough was enough, and it was time to move to a paid host. A friend of mine who knew the owners of the former SmooveNET-hosted site “Games are Fun,” suggested to me that I try SmooveNET. Unfortunately new members were not being taken at the time, but on emailing the wonderfully and helpful SmooveNET team and explaining my circumstances, I was told they might be able to ‘squeeze me in’ so to speak. It would seem SFC was rather more traffic intensive than they had imagined, and some aspects of the site had to be removed temporarily until a new server was bought in for SFC to sit on. Thanks, SmooveNET – I know the members of SFC were most grateful for your kind help during the site’s difficult days!

What do you find most valuable about SmooveNET’s service?
Well, SFC may cover a fairly niche series of games, but it had a tendency to using lots of bandwidth at unexpected times. I really like the “Smoove Advantage,” whereby bandwidth and disk space allocations can be increased at no extra cost, so long as the site continues to abide by SmooveNET’s hosting conditions. That’s given me peace of mind over the years, as I know I won’t get an unexpected bill for excess bandwidth usage, etc. The team here are so understanding, they have been truly marvelous over the years, offering invaluable support and advice, as well as continued value!

Any other comments would you like to add?
Not much else to say here, except for a huge thank you to everyone who has been involved in the site over the last decade – hosts, members, staff – everyone. Also, it just wouldn’t do for me to not post a thank you to the wonderful Takahashi brothers & Yas Taguchi at Camelot Software Planning for their continued support and kind words about SFC – and of course, for making the games in the first place. Keep on Shining, everyone! :)

Visit Shining Force Central

Posted by Chris Erice on 30 December 2006