This video actually popped up out of nowhere. It wasn’t in my original list for the 10 videos I had planned this year but after coming across a Wiki image on twitter, a spark of curiosity ignited in me and I had to see this one through.
It was a difficult one to research because of the name ‘Wiki’. The term Wiki is everywhere now compared to 2005. But that said, I did manage to find some leads here and there and use wayback machine to dust off some old articles.

I’ve compiled the complete collection of Wiki assets here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZhZQDqPQhIXmBThjFaHcz9GfIY9k6AyY?usp=sharing

Watch ‘The MMORPG You Never Played’: https://youtu.be/o7vfx6R57eM
The Hyrule Journals soundtrack: https://spoti.fi/3WMNHZi

Credits:
Written and Produced by Javed Sterritt: https://twitter.com/JavedLSterritt
Wiki / Wind Waker thumbnail by Ari Vauclin: https://twitter.com/ari_vsart
Special Guest Appearance by Jirard Khalil: https://twitter.com/Completionist

Visually, I find these types of videos difficult to keep contained inside a specific set of design rules. There are so many different types of media flying around and so it’s hard to bring them all together into something consistent. Because of this, I found myself caring less about having a distinct set of design rules to follow and it ended up being a nice change of pace. That said, I still always try to create a sense of intentionality. As soon as audiences sense that I haven’t worked hard on the visuals, I find that they, in turn, don’t work hard to remain engaged.

When it came to the writing, I found the ending also a difficult one to put together. This story doesn’t have a happy ending and there’s no real moral lesson to learn and so the process of finding the ending was to just let all the pieces of the story fall naturally into place. As soon as I tried to push or pull it into a direction that I think would be personally interesting, it all became muddled. And so the ending to this one is short and simple.

SOURCES

Here are all the sources used for this video. I’ve organised them in order of appearance.

Enter The New Hero event: http://www.4gamer.net/news/history/2005.02/20050217230847detail.html
Webzen’s ‘deleted’ press release: https://web.archive.org/web/20050223182934/http://www.webzen.co.kr/press/report/read.asp?bbs_seq=167&page=
Comparison images: https://namu.wiki/w/Wiki(%EC%9B%B9%EC%A0%A0)
IGN Infringement Article: https://www.ign.com/articles/2005/02/24/nintendo-on-possible-copyright-violation
GAMESPOT infringement Article: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-warns-webzen-of-copyright-infringement/1100-6119327/
GSTAR EXPO 2005: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YJ8traZFhI&ab_channel=%EC%9E%84%EC%84%B1%EC%B2%9C
E3 2006 REPORT: https://www.4gamer.net/games/019/G001980/20060513155824/
E3 2006 review: https://www.mmorpg.com/previews/e3-2006-preview-2000114485
E3 2006 review: https://web.archive.org/web/20110106043909/https://www.qj.net/mmorpg/previews/qj-previews-project-wiki.html
Cindy Armstrong on Wiki’s Potential: https://web.archive.org/web/20060615014208/http://interviews.teamxbox.com/xbox/1584/WEBZEN-America-Cindy-Armstrong-Interview/p1/
KGDA interview with WEBZEN: http://www.kgcaschool.com/board.php?db=graduate&=&mode=view&idx=11&page=
Retreat from North American Market: https://www.engadget.com/2008-05-30-wheres-webzen.html
Letter from WEBZEN PR: https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/185004/finally-dead
’Wiki Project has terminated’: https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/245345/i-got-some-really-bad-news-guys-its-official

EXTRA SOURCES NOT FEATURED BUT HELPFUL:
MU Online 56 Million users: https://mmohuts.com/news/mu-online-celebrates-10th-anniversary-game-rewards/
Wiki fan site: https://web.archive.org/web/20060710222339/http://wiki.destinycircle.com:80/
E3 hands on: https://web.archive.org/web/20071021081812/http://joystiq.com/2006/05/10/hands-on-with-project-wiki/
WEBZEN Korean website: https://web.archive.org/web/20050223013834/http://www.webzen.co.kr:80/
WEBZEN American website: https://web.archive.org/web/20050825153641/webzengames.com/Game/Wiki/default.asp
NEOGAF forum discussing Wiki: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/project-wiki-zelda-ww-mmorpg.138075/
ZELDAUNIVERSE.NET forum discussing Wiki: https://zeldauniverse.net/forums/index.php?thread/17894-korean-mmo-resembles-legend-of-zelda-rip-off-or-not/&postID=359468&highlight=korean%2BMMO#post359468