Rauru’s Return: What's your educational background?
Max Nichols (lord-of-shadow): I am currently a senior in high school. I’ve got all the usual High School classes. I’m going to stretch the meaning of educational background here a bit though, just to make this more interesting. When I was younger, I used to go to these computer camps every year. I’d spend a week at some college campus during the summer with a bunch of other kids, where we’d learn some programming and other computer skills. HTML, Visual Basic, and C++ were the things we covered, as far as I remember. We also spent a lot of time playing games.

Last year I spent two weeks at Digipen. Anyone who’s been reading Nintendo Power will have heard of it. It’s a college that focuses entirely on programming and graphic design… for video games. I thought about going there myself, so I took a summer programming camp/course type thing. Learned more C++ there, and basically just had a great time. Almost won a Mario Kart tournament too. Digipen is sponsored by Nintendo of America, and it’s just a few blocks away from the corporate headquarters of NOA, so I got to visit them as well.

In terms of my future education… I was thinking about Digipen, but it’s focus is too much on programming and the technical aspects of game development. The grunt work, in other words. Obviously I’ll start small, when I enter the gaming industry, but I have more chance of rising to a position of creative influence if I focus on something else. So I applied to Champlain College in Vermont, which has a great video game design course that focuses on things like writing… which is what I want to do myself. Sounds like a waste of time at first, but if you’re interested, you should look into it.

RR: What made you first join the Zelda Community?
Max Nichols: Love for Zelda. What else? Hahah.

I think I was eleven or twelve… I loved the Zelda games, and then I got an issue of Nintendo Power which had the first screenshots of “Zelda Gaiden” – better known as Majora’s Mask, these days. I went online to look it up, and eventually found my way to Zelda Headquarters, the first of the great Zelda fansites. I loved it. I loved it’s midi collection, it’s fanfiction, it’s fanart, it’s info on future Zelda games, it’s cute little pieces of art, everything about it. I devoured everything there. I especially enjoyed the Singleton sisters’ fanfiction, I think. Enough to search out the next chapters at other sites.

I started spreading, bookmarking every Zelda site I could find, and following the links and affiliate buttons from site to site until I was acquainted with pretty much every single Zelda site. I even had my own little term for it… “link surfing,” I called it. I was a regular visitor at numerous Zelda sites, large and small. The ones that I remember the most vividly were ZHQ, Ice’s Zelda Central, Belgarath’s Zelda Chateau, Zeldagames.com, Hyrule: The Land of Zelda, and The Golden Land/Zlda.com… but there were a bunch more that I no longer remember as well. Ever since, I’ve been keeping up with all the major Zelda sites as they rise and fall. I was especially attached to that first generation or two of Zelda sites, though. When ZHQ died, I checked the url every single day for almost six months, hoping for an update, or a revival, or something. I had no concept of forums or chat rooms or the interactive side of the community though.

A year or two after I found ZHQ, I joined my first forum, at Nintendojo.com. I hung around there for awhile, and eventually someone there linked me to GamerCrossFire – where people from HtLoZ and Hyrule.com.ar hung out after their old communities had died. From there, I was linked to Ganon’s Tower, the first Zelda forum I ever joined. I stuck around there for awhile, becoming a moderator, getting to know a bunch of people, including several webmasters and future webmasters. I met TSA – Mike – of ZHQ2 fame, Dan of Ganon’s Tower, Fred of Zelda Planet, Attrox of The Great Deku Tree. I joined pretty much every Zelda forum that was advertised there, so I began spreading through the Zelda communities just like I had begun to spread through the Zelda sites a couple years before.

Today, I’m acquainted with almost every single webmaster out there, and am or have been established at numerous sites and forums. I’ve moderated forums at Ganon’s Tower, Great Deku Tree, ZHQ2, Realms of Hyrule, and, of course, Zelda Legends and Zelda Universe. My stuff has appeared at numerous websites, including most of the ones above plus a bunch more, even Rauru’s Return. And even at sites where I never moderated and never helped out, I’ve made great friends… a good example would be History of Hyrule and Independent Zelda… though both are sadly gone now.

I’ve stayed in the Zelda community all this time because it allows me to socialize with those who share my passion for the Zelda series. I have also made many wonderful friends over the years, whom I would never think of leaving.

Rauru’s Return: Why did you never create your own Zelda Website? Afterall, you've worked on loads of them now for a long time.
Max Nichols: Oh, but I did! Haven’t you ever heard of Woodfall? Hah! Of course not. That’s because it sucked.

Making a website is very hard work. You have to come up with good content. You have to create a layout. You need to establish your own unique identity, or else disappear into the miasma of the crappy cookie-cutter Zelda sites. You need to figure out hosting, and you need to figure out what sort of system you’re going to use to organize everything. You need to learn all the technical stuff.

Most importantly, you need to build a community from the ground up, and advertise, all that jazz. I can’t speak for other webmasters, but every update I do I do for my readers and my community. I love seeing people’s reactions to what I put up. Every word of praise, every bit of appreciation and recognition of my contributions to the Zelda fandom is enough to keep me working. I would not be nearly as happy with this whole webmastering thing if I didn’t have the comment system, or my forums, or my enormous pile of emails to let me know my stuff is being read and seen.

But when you’re just starting out, you don’t have any of that stuff. In short, I don’t have any of the reinforcement I’d need to get me to keep going.

I’ve tried several – four, five maybe – times to start my own website, but it’s always ended in failure or me neglecting it. The lack of an appreciative community played a large part, though all the other things I mentioned were also factors. I haven’t tried in a couple years, though. I’d imagine that I could be more successful now, but…

No. It’s easier to join an already existing community and add to it. Making one from scratch is not my cup of tea. And now I webmaster Zelda Legends; starting a new website would be pretty pointless, heh.

Rauru’s Return: What do you think of all of the 'politics' that is going on in the Zelda world at the moment, with the likes of Ice's site coming back alive and Hyrule.com.ar? There are many people who are getting into rows over this.
Max Nichols: I’ve never understood it. People fight, they slight each other, they lie and cheat… or so the stories go. Myself, I am almost always acquainted with people on both sides. In fact, I usually consider myself friends with people on both sides. The vast majority of it is a foolish waste of time, and people making mountains out of mole hills. I try to stay out of it all, as should most of us. It does not help the community to go up in arms over every little slight or grudge, especially ones that are seven years old. Any webmaster worth their salt will keep their own sites out of these travesties. If they must speak up, do it privately. There’s nothing worse then members of the community who use their sites to wage their wars. Guess what? Most of your readers don’t give a damn. And when they do, all you’re doing is fomenting distrust among member of our Zelda community.

I’ve seen it happen numerous times by now, and I have never seen it end well, except for in the rare circumstances where those involved rein themselves in and admit their mistakes.

As for me personally, it’s always people I know who are squabbling with each other, and me caught in the middle trying to juggle things without losing a friend… or two. I despise it.

Rauru’s Return: In your opinion, what's the most important part of a Zelda game?
Max Nichols: That’s like asking someone to name their favorite child. Only I had nothing to do with making the Zelda games. And, uh, that’s an easy one. So no, I suppose it’s nothing like asking someone to name their favorite kid.

There are many things that make Zelda what it is, and if you miss one, you miss them all. The items, the characters, the land, the gameplay… miss in even one of them, and the game will suffer greatly for it. Look at the Oracles and the Minish Cap: by all appearances, they are Zelda, but they don’t feel like Zelda games to me. But if I were to pick the single most important aspect of the Zelda series – and the most fragile and easily lost – it would be the atmosphere of adventure and exploration. Zelda games have this special quality, something that no other game series has ever displayed to me. Some nameless feeling, of exploration and wonder. No game has ever felt more like an adventure to me. I could go on for pages – and have – but I’ll leave my more detailed explanations to the articles I’ve written on the subject.

Rauru’s Return: What first made you interested in Zelda?
I was seven years old, being diagnosed with diabetes. I had to stay in the hospital for three days, three long, boring days in which I pretty much just spent a lot of time doing nothing while they conducted tests and whatnot. They had a children’s area, filled with toys and stuff for kids staying in the hospital to do… including some video games. I had nothing else to do, so I grabbed a Gameboy – one of those old grey brick ones – from their collection of stuff and started playing games. I think I played all the ones they had, but the one I stuck to the most was Link’s Awakening.

I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know how to play. I think I loaded someone else’s file near the end of the game, because I have vague memories of being able to shoot laser beams out of my sword or something. I also thought Link’s name was “Zelda,” heh.

I got out of the hospital and forgot about the game, for the most part. Then, that Christmas, my grandparents got me a Gameboy and two games: Mario Land 2, and Link’s Awakening. I gravitated towards Mario Land 2 first, simply because it was simple and easy for a little kid to pick up.

In Link’s Awakening, you start a new game in Marin and Tarin’s house. You have to talk to Tarin and get your shield before you can leave the house… but I was too young and stupid to even figure out that much. I eventually needed my dad’s help to figure out how to get out of the house. And then I couldn’t figure out how to get my sword, so I got bored with the game. Didn’t play it again until a few months later, when a friend’s big brother helped me find my sword. After that I jumped right into the game, and the Zelda series, and the rest is history.

Rauru’s Return: You're known for being a great article writer for the Back to the Rupees team for Zelda Universe. What makes you write articles over, say, speedrunning?
Max Nichols: As any economist would tell you, stick to your strengths. You’ll be more successful that way.

I’m a big gamer. I own hundreds of games, I’ve played games from every genre imaginable, I’ve forgotten more useless industry trivia then most people will know in a lifetime, and I hope to make a career in that industry… but when it comes to actually playing the games, I’m nothing special. I’ve played enough to be good at gaming (and I managed to bear Ninja Gaiden, heh), to be sure, but not… amazing. I look at people like Mike (TSA), or those people who win worldwide FPS tournaments and whatnot… I could never do that. The sheer amount of time they spend just playing the same stuff over and over again, analyzing it, dissecting it, memorizing the best routes and moves and everything… I could never do that. Even if I had the time, I wouldn’t want to do that. When you look at one aspect of a game – in this place, it’s gameplay – so long and hard, you begin to lose your view of the rest of it. It seems to me that all these “professional” gamers are missing out on most of what gaming is about, when they dissect games so much with no regard to things like atmosphere or simply enjoying the game.

Plus, I’m just not good enough to do it, heh.

But writing articles… now there is something I can do. I spend an inordinate amount of time musing about random crap and relating it to the Zelda games, and I’m good at articulating myself, so I turn all this thought into articles for one site or another.

Plus, there is nothing more satisfying then seeing people’s minds start moving in new directions simply because they’re reading things I’ve said. A lot of what I write about is stuff that never occurs to people who don’t waste their time thinking about it constantly, but as soon as they read my stuff, they’ll start thinking about things that they normally wouldn’t. I broaden peoples’ views of what makes Zelda Zelda, or what goes into the games, or possibilities for growth in the series, and I love doing it.

Rauru’s Return: ZeldaBlog is a great site for people to 'get together.' What made you support the site?
This relates back to your question about the politics of the community, and most of the same thoughts apply here.

One reason is that I like The Missing Link, the guy who’s running it, a lot. I’ve spent a lot of time talking with him, and I even joined his site staff once… but only for a couple days, and then I realized that I didn’t have the time to dedicate to it. In fact, I’m good friends with most of the people involved with it.

But equally important is the fact that I like it’s goals and purpose. Granted, who knows how well it’s working or whether it’s working – especially since TSA’s portion of the community seems to be staying away from it - but the mere fact that there is a group of people who share my views on inter-site relations is enough to make me want to be involved. I haven’t had time to put anything worthwhile on the site myself, which greatly annoys me. I don’t have time for half the things I want to do, these days. Nevertheless, despite my lack of active involvement, I whole-heartedly support ZeldaBlog.

Rauru’s Return: If you could make Nintendo do one thing for Zelda, what would it be and why?
Oh man. That’s a tough one. I honestly have no idea. Ask me what I want them to do with the series and I could rant for days, but ask me to narrow it down to one thing…

The most important thing is that the Zelda feeling needs to be preserved, and at the same time the series needs to continue to evolve in unexpected ways, to prevent boredom. How would they do that? Well… in order to figure that out, you need to take a good hard look at what makes Zelda Zelda. From there, you need to figure out what needs to be preserved, and either preserve it or make it better. Next, you need to figure out where the games can be changed without altering any of the underlying Zelda qualities.

So the most important thing is the atmosphere of adventure. That should not only be preserved, but expanded on and upgraded. The world needs to breath, feel alive. It needs inhabitants, it needs vastness, it needs a variety of monsters and areas, it needs secret caves and little quirks, it needs fantastic views and interesting little things scattered here and there. It needs to foster a sense of exploration.

As for areas where changes can be made… they are too numerous to count, as long as you have enough imagination to think of them. Which I don’t always do, I will admit. That’s the sort of thing you need to sleep on.

I will say, I would like more characters in Zelda games though. Characters that are important throughout the game, rather then just in one area or part. Link’s Awakening had Marin – the best character the games have ever seen. Ocarina of Time had Shiek, whom we all loved, I’m sure. OoA had Ralph. Do you see the pattern here? These are all charcters that play a part throughout the game, rather then just during a piece of it here and there, and they are invariably loved. We need more characters like that.

Oh, and there is one thing I would dearly like Nintendo to do: nip this milking of the Zelda franchise in the bud. Stop allowing Link to appear in games like Soul Calibur 2. Don’t farm the franchise out to Capcom. Stop making useless filler like Four Swords Adventures and this upcoming Tingle RPG. Most of these things are fun, but ultimately demeaning to the Zelda franchise.

Rauru’s Return: What would your best advice be to a new person within the Zelda Community today?
Max Nichols: That would depend on what they want to get out of the community. Do they want to be a successful staff of a large site? Do they want to write articles or fanfiction? Do they just want to have fun? Run a forum? Write walkthroughs? Make wallpapers?

My suggestion is to just use common sense. Follow the rules at your communities. It’s not as hard as you might believe – I’ve never once been banned, or even given a strike, at any forum I’ve gone to, not even when I was twelve. Social skills are just as important as any of your other skills if you want to be successful, so don’t make an ass out of yourself. Do you think I’ve gotten where I am because I’m good at writing or churning out content? That played a part, sure, but equally important is the fact that people know me, like me, and trust me… and that can only be achieved through getting to know each other. If you want to work for a site, establish yourself at their forums, earn people’s respect, participate in discussions, get to know some people. It’ll work every time.

It’ll take a lot of work, most likely. I started young and spent years doing this stuff, and it’s only during the past couple years that I’ve really started to do anything.

Of course, if all you want to do is have fun, it’ll be easier. Just explore the sites and the forums, let yourself go along with whatever you find enjoyable, in whatever company you find enjoyable. Though I’d still suggest following rules and not making an ass of yourself, heh. I’ve done that a few times, and I always feel like such a… well, an a**h*** afterwards. It’s not a good feeling.

Rauru’s Return: Zelda Legends is a huge site, what's your proudest moment in working on the site?
Max Nichols: Oh, I don’t know. I was first proud to be on the site at all, and now I’m proud to run it. I’m proud every time I post some news or article or new content and see people’s positive reactions. There is no one occurrence I can point to and say “There. That is my proudest moment.” Rather, the experience as a whole, of working on this site and serving the Zelda community, is what makes me proud.

Rauru’s Return: Where do you hope to be in two years time with Zelda and life in general?
Max Nichols: Two years is not very long. They should spend at least that much time between every Zelda game. In two years, I hope to be eagerly anticipating the launch of the next Zelda game, not having had a new one since Twilight Princess. I sincerely hope that I won’t have had a million farmed out mini-games, multiplayer games, and Capcom developed games to keep fans happy, because this is one fan that is not kept happy by them.

Oh, and I hope to be writing articles about how amazing Twilight Princess is… Who knows, though?

As for my life in general, I very much hope that I’m a sophomore in college, during my second year of Champlain’s video game design major, with a profitable job on the side. I like to think I’ll still be running Zelda Legends, too. Finally, I very much hope to still be with my girlfriend Jenny. It may not sound too ambitious, but it’s realistic. Besides, if I achieve all my dreams at the age of twenty, what will I do with the next sixty years of my life? Hahah.

It’s been a pleasure doing this interview, and I hope you’ve all enjoyed it.