Mike Damiani
From Zelda Wiki.org
Mike Damiani, better known as TSA, is a long-standing member of The Legend of Zelda community and one of the last remaining active members from the original era of online Zelda fan sites. He is most well-known for his speedruns of The Legend of Zelda series and for his relative hardcore nature with the franchise. He is currently the content manager of the Nintendo news site "Zentendo" and previously was the owner of the Zelda fan sites "The Hylia" and "ZHQ2".
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Zelda Headquarters
Little is known about TSA's activities before he surfaced at the Zelda fan site Zelda Headquarters in the late 1990s. He first appeared on the site in the Letters column of the site in 1998. Also in 1998, TSA's work appeared on the site in the forum of user submitted editorials about The Legend of Zelda franchise. In 1999, TSA was taken onto the site as a full-time staff member to handle the music section, which primarily focused on MIDI recreations and remixes from the series.
Sometime after this, in 1999, TSA was given the task of taking over the Zelda V (Ocarina of Time) section, though it was short lived. In late 1999 Niels Hooft, the original owner of the site, retook his position from Conrad Vanderwoude and announced changes coming in 2000. A few months into 2000, the site closed its doors permanently, for unknown reasons.
Armageddon Games Network
According to his own statements, TSA freelanced through most of 2000 as a contributor to various Zelda fan sites. Finally in August 2000, TSA joined the Armageddon Games Network (AGN) community and became involved in the Zelda Classic project. According to the archives on the current forum, TSA rose as high as an administrator in the staff before his departure. He also created several custom quests for the project, as well as organized an official "Third Quest" contest.
After an apparent falling out with the staff, stemming from post count and forum management issues, he left the community in late 2002.
Zelda Headquarters 2
TSA was documented as saying he wanted to revive Zelda Headquarters and was an outspoken denouncer of the original site staff, claiming they "abandoned" the site and let it die. Despite Conrad Vanderwoude taking most of the remaining Zelda Headquarters staff to his own fan site, Hylia.com, TSA believed that the original Zelda Headquarters could be revived by himself.
After claiming to contact Niels Hooft for a year for his permission, and failing to get any response, TSA created the fan site Zelda Headquarters at the domain ZHQ2.com. According to ICAAN records, ZHQ.com went unclaimed by Niels Hooft in 2003 and was picked up by an internet domain reseller. Thus, he settled for the ZHQ2.com domain, as well as registered the domain ZeldaHeadquarters.com
Initially, the site, launched in March 2003, reused nearly all the old content in terms of artwork and other media, though the site design was completely the work of TSA. After gaining some following, Niels Hooft, as well as the staff of Hylia.com, took notice of the site and voiced their complaints. Niels denounced the site and outright accused TSA of theft on his Dutch blog. TSA confronted the accusations by claiming he tried to contact Niels for a year with no response, to which Niels claimed despite the communication issue, TSA still had no right to just use the content from the original site.
In response to all of this, TSA removed all content associated with the original site but kept the site name. From late 2003 until late 2005, the site underwent numerous redesigns and content shifts. However, the site never reached the acclaim level of the original Zelda Headquarters, and most other webmasters and colleagues, as well as the fanbase, regarded the site as an average fan site, according to numerous annual site awards and traffic records from the time.
GANNON-BANNED
Sometime in 2003, around the time TSA created Zelda Headquarters, he launched a spoof site known as GANNON-BANNED. According to his own statements, he claims the term spawns from the "GANNON" award from Camp Hyrule (no longer an active award) which was awarded to the participant with the worst spelling. Additionally, he claimed the most widespread mistake made in the community was the misspelling of Ganon's name (typically misspelled GANNON). It evolved with more mistakes or issues in the community.
Eventually, though, the term became widely used in the community, though it mostly had a negative impact. Many used the term as a flame or flame bait, and the term's use was banned on several sites, including GameFAQs. Eventually the use died down, but even now when people spell Ganon incorrectly on major message boards, the term pops up.
The Hylia
Apparently these facts had not eluded TSA himself, as in October 2005 he abandoned Zelda Headquarters altogether. He was quoted as stating that he was tired of being harassed by people about trying to rip off Zelda Headquarters, and wanted to prove he could create a Zelda fan site on his own that would rival the best.
Initially he drew minor criticism from the Hylia.com staff for the name choice, but his partner, Martin Anderson, confirmed that the name was actually prompted by their talks, though this is only hearsay and not concrete. Despite this, the site took on a direction that was more news and community oriented, abandoning traditional Zelda content for more frequent updates.
The Hylia was one of a handful of sites that sprung up in 2005 in the wake of the "blog" boom, and followed on the heels of the hugely successful Hyrule.net, another Zelda fan site that focused on media and news updates. The two sites actually would become bitter rivals, but the two sites revolutionized the Zelda fan site premise.
In 2006, The Hylia shifted from Zelda-only to expand to cover all things Nintendo. The site evolved into am ore blog oriented premise, and its popularity skyrocketed, especially after E3 2006 when the site provided numerous videos and updates about the highly anticipated Twilight Princess.
Speedruns
In 2003, TSA gained arguably his biggest notoriety by performing speedruns of the various The Legend of Zelda titles. In 2003, he set the world record for fastest completion of A Link to the Past by beating the game in under two hours. The achievement was reported all over the internet, and for the next two years TSA's name was synonymous with Zelda Speedruns.
Arguably his most famous speedrun was his 2005 achievement in Ocarina of Time, beating the game in under five hours. Due to the length of the game, and the fact it was done in one sit-through playing (single segment), the achievement was heralded as one of the most amazing feats ever.
In 2006, while working on his latest Ocarina of Time improvement, he announced his retirement from Speedrunning. He had achieved world records on the following titles at some point or another: Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening DX, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker, Four Swords Adventures and The Minish Cap. As of the end of 2007, only his The Minish Cap and The Wind Waker speedruns stand as world records, though a revised The Wind Waker run is currently underway, and The Minish Cap run, by his own admission, could be beaten easily.
TSA claimed he retired because of three primary factors. First and foremost, he was tired of being known as a Zelda Speedrunner and nothing else. He claimed years of hard work with the series as a fan were rendered moot because everyone knew him only as a speedrunner. Secondly, he claimed the act of speedrunning was killing his passion for Zelda, making the games lose their fun and appeal. Finally, sometime after his retirement announcement, he stated his lifestyle was no longer conducive to speedrunning long games, claiming that he could do his runs previously due to being in college and having a ton of spare time, but now, working a full time job, having a girlfriend and running a Nintendo news website, he had no more spare time.
Zentendo
In July 2007, at the height of its popularity, TSA launched Zentendo, an all-Nintendo news and media site. According to his own statements, TSA created this new site, despite having The Hylia covering the same material, because the gaming community in general associated the site with the Zelda franchise due to the name, and the site was labeled a blog for its layout and updating style.
Zentendo aimed to have a more professional look and feel, as opposed to a fan site or a blog. The site currently, according to analytics data from third party traffic suppliers, on the level of sites such as N-sider, Nintendo World Report and Nintendojo, though it still trails bigger sites like IGN, GameSpot, AMN and 1Up significantly, as well as blogs like GoNintendo, Kotaku, Joystiq.
In late 2007, TSA turned over The Hylia to a new owner and new content manager. According to metric traffic data, The Hylia now rivals blogs like GoNintendo and Joystiq, as it's Alexa ranking is now in the 10,000 range and poised to break 10,000 sometime in 2008. However, investigations turned up this is due to the new owner running a sub-domain anime hosting service using TheHylia.com domain, as Alexa indicates over 85% of the site's traffic and reach comes through this sub- domain. TSA no longer works for The Hylia as of August 2007.
Wii Ambassador
TSA was selected in 2006 to be a Wii Ambassador for Nintendo of America. While the program was merely a marketing tool to sell Wii to hardcore and casual fans alike, TSA used the program to gain exclusive info about Twilight Princess. He was allowed to hold a "Wii Party" in mid-September in which he played the final build of Twilight Princess, albeit only the demo areas from E3 2006 again, and also received his Wii and Twilight Princess a week in advance of the public, like most of the media.
Due to the fact TSA and his site, at the time, were not regarded as "important" enough to get an advance copy of the game and a Wii unit, many in the public claimed TSA was lying, especially with his review of Twilight Princess, which contained almost no conrete details not known to the public. However, TSA responded by saying he did not want the game spoiled for anyone, and the day the game released publicly on November 19th, 2006, he released a video of the final sequence of the game to prove he had the game in advance. The game clock showed 33 hours of playtime, which meant he had to have received the game and Wii at least sometime on Friday, November 17th, 2006, if he played non-stop.
However, in his review, he claimed it took 50 hours to beat the game, though he in actuality only took 33. This also lead to speculation he made up he had the game, though he revealed he beefed up the number because he is an "exceptional" Zelda player and average gamers would easily take 50 hours. Most gamers claimed to beat the game in the range of 40+ hours. Nintendo verified in a press release the Wii Ambassadors had their Wii units shipped to them in advance, vindicating TSA.
E3 2007
At E3 2007, TSA was on stage during the Nintendo Media Briefing to perform a live demonstration of the North American version of Phantom Hourglass. The segment lasted about three minutes, in which TSA played part of the Temple of Ice and demonstrated the use of the grappling hook. Though he did not speak, he claimed on forums he originally had dialog, but it was cut at the last moment.
TSA was under NDA for the event because he was privy to the entire media briefing content for several days before the actual event. Though he was caught leaking the fact he'd be in E3 playing Phantom Hourglass, he actually didn't leak any details relevant to the press, though he made a post on his website, Zentendo, about 20 minutes into the briefing revealing all the details to get a jump on all the livebloggers.
GameTrailers
In April of 2008, TSA was hired as an Associate Editor for GameTrailers.com, an MTV Networks company. As a result of his new position, he turned over Zentendo to his current staff to continue working on, which has carried on well in his stead (one staff member was even invited to E3 in place of TSA this year).
To date he was worked on several reviews, as well as participated in their weekly podcast Invisible Walls. His most noteworthy work so far is his major contribution to the Metal Gear Retrospective, and his name can be found in the part 6 credits. TSA wrote parts 2-6 and captured nearly all of the footage for the features.
Zelda Documentary Project
In mid-2008, TSA secured the rights to ZeldaDocumentary.com and is in talks with several sources in order to begin work on a Zelda documentary project chronicling the development history of The Legend of Zelda series to date.
Controversy
TSA's online activities over the past decade have not been without criticism and controversy. The biggest criticism brought up is the fact that he constantly was too outspoken and was a self-proclaimed "Zelda Expert". His GANNON-BANNED website and general demeanor when arguing about the franchise was often regarded as pompous and arrogant. He also apparently was "never wrong" according to his critics. Many likened his behavior to that of a dictator, though the fact this is a fan community made such claims rather superfluous. Despite these claims, however, he has earned widespread acclaim for his skills at playing the series, as well as his overall knowledge on the franchise.
Additionally, during his initial rise to fame in the Zelda community, many argued that he relied to heavily on the Zelda Headquarters name to get attention and credibility. He constantly brought up that he was a staff member of the original Zelda Headquarters, and therefore being a "legacy" of the community granted him elevated status among his peers. He was also later accused by the Hylia.com staff of ripping them off when he made The Hylia, though despite the name similarity, the sites' designs and content were drastically different, and The Hylia rose to popularity whereas Hylia did not.
TSA, during his tenure as the head of The Hylia, had a history of causing drama in the community. In the days leading up to The Hylia's radical shift in coverage, he wrote a series of articles bashing the entire Zelda community, leading to an epic fallout in which man webmasters of other sites publicly scolded him.
In 2005 and 2006, TSA pulled elaborate April Fool's pranks that caused major backlash. In 2005, TSA released a fake "trailer" at 12:01am April 1st, which was just every trailer to date merged together with a random movie soundtrack song. Though this prank did not earn too much criticism, several community members voiced their disliking of the serious nature of the prank.
However, in 2006, TSA claimed to have an exclusive interview with Eiji Aonuma that he was going to leak in advance of the date he claimed it could be published. Most anticipated it would be a poorly conceived joke, but the day before April Fool's in America (though he claims it was April 1st in the first time zone in the world), an interview was published on the site that was in every regards meant to be deceptive in nature and was believed by many to be genuine at first. So believable was the content that Nintendo of America's legal department contact TSA and notified him they were checking to see if he broke any NDAs, though TSA claimed he never signed any NDA and that was just part of the eventual joke.
Additionally, numerous NOA staff members came to the forum that day asking for TSA and requesting him to reconsider his actions. A member of Golin/Harris attempted to contact TSA to request he pull the interview, and a member of Nintendo's internal communications team also called him asking if this was a prank or not. TSA made all of this public, and also pointed out NOA's inferiority to ascertain the situation's truth by claiming he said he did the interview with Bill Trinen's help, and that NOA could have asked Bill if it was legit. Bill Trinen was apparently in Japan at the time working on Twilight Princess localization and couldn't be reached in time for comment to clarify the situation.
TSA also publicly scolded Nintendo's public relations agency, Golin/Harris, on his blog on IGN, which within the profanity-laden rant he called out Nintendo for numerous issues over the years. The entry drew attention privately in the press circle, and Nintendo of America made clear they did not approve of TSA's actions. The incident stemmed from the apparent promise of Media Briefing invites confirmed to him by Golin/Harris months in advance, and then only a few weeks before was notified this would not be the case. TSA argued other smaller fan sites got invites, and more than one, yet his site was denied them as an apparent black-balling for their April Fool's prank. TSA also claimed it was causing financial hardship on a staff member who already had travel arrangements to come out for the event. In the end, TSA and staff attended the event and E3 2006.
The most recent and perhaps longest-lasting controversy was the well documented "rivalry" between Hyrule.net (Land of the Legend) and The Hylia. The two sites were constantly belittling each other in updates, though most of the time it was The Hylia ripping the site's owner for content theft and false content. The two sites engaged in mud slinging for nearly a year, and it did not subside until Land of the Legend went off-line for an extended period of time sometime in mid-2007. TSA accused the site of stealing content such as exclusive photographs taken at press events, and not crediting his site with news reports. Land of the Legend accused TSA of making up information and lying.
This also was an issue on the popular game guide and message board site GameFAQs, especially leading up to the launch of Twilight Princess. TSA was notorious for posting "advance information" that was unverifiable, and many claimed that even if it were true info, he was doing it solely for attention.
