This page refers to both the current Mastermind site, Xero Gaming, and the old websites XeroGaming.com and XeroGaming.net

Xero Gaming is the current incarnation and successor site of the historic Legend of Zelda.com website which has served as a Mastermind of Zelda Wiki since April of 2009. It has served in this capacity since June of 2011.

Overview

Currently, Xero Gaming serves as the new website of the community for the old Legendofzelda.com website. It is active and operates a wide range of news, blog, reviewing, and other community content. Unlike in the past, Xero Gaming embraces all gaming, including Zelda, as indicated by its status as Zelda Wiki Mastermind. The site's change was not commenced with bad intentions, but rather because the community of LoZ.com was no longer solely interested in the Legend of Zelda series.

However, two times in the past, Xero Gaming has served as a de-facto "back-up" when LegendOfZelda.com was no longer satisfactory to a large amount of web-savvy users present on the forums of LoZ.com. Xero Gaming, historically, was never dedicated to Zelda, and often strayed as far away from any Zelda-specific talk as often as possible. Hence the name, "Xero Gaming", denoting a general gaming perspective. Xero Gaming can colloquially be referred to as simply "XG" for simplicity. This usage of the site's name is not the current one.

History

As "XeroGaming.com"

The history of XG starts with the promise of LoZ.com's rebirth by Link of Hyrule in early 2003. Despite this promise, the most the users at the time got for almost a year was a teaser page promising the return, and some phpBB forums set up on Lycos.co.uk hosting. After such a long time and absolutely no visible changes, along with no announcements indicating that progress was being made, many prominent members decided enough had been enough. A domain name was purchased, called "www.xerogaming.com" and the LoZ forums on Lycos were locked up, and all visitors were prompted to visit Xero Gaming if they wished to continue participating with the same community.^[1]

Many members made this switch, and for months, this is how the community of LoZ.com existed. A main page was constructed, though not much was ever done with it. The focus was entirely on the forums, as that was all that had existed for the past year or so in regards to LoZ.com itself. However, sometime around November of 2004, Link of Hyrule reappeared, and LoZ.com was officially reborn in November of that year. With the return of LoZ.com, the single purpose for XG's existence had been extirpated, and so the site ceased to exist, and the domain was allowed to expire, eventually bought by an unrelated third party.

As "XeroGaming.net"

However, in August of 2005, then-Administrators »-LasT-ChaNcE-« and Darth X (formerly Mega Man X, an original founder of XeroGaming.com) lead a group of about thirty prominent members off of LoZ.com, and onto a reincarnated Xero Gaming, after Chance had first eliminated the forums he had just created, and leaving a small temporary forum and a letter of explanation. This was due to a situation where KingKrazyLink, also an administrator at LoZ.com's forums, as well as a "Co-Webmaster" alongside Link of Hyrule, informed Darth X, one or two other members, and Chance himself that Chance would be fired soon. This was after Chance had spent three days restoring and enhancing LoZ.com's forums that had just been severely hacked.^[2] This time the domain name was "www.xerogaming.net", as the .com address was no longer available.

XG was reborn, and instead of focusing on general gaming issues, the site at first was dedicated to talking about how corrupt LoZ.com and its staff, particularly Link of Hyrule and KingKrazyLink, were. Eventually, it became focused around text-based Role Playing Games, specifically one titled "Siege of the Nations", which at one point was being compiled into a book form for publishing, but the project never came to fruition. Another main page was constructed, but it did not garner much attention from staff or member alike. After a few weeks, Chance and Link of Hyrule had discussed the problem that lead to Chance's desertion of LoZ.com and the subsequent vandalism that he committed, and he was brought back to LoZ.com as a full-time forum Administrator in order to restore the site's forums to working order. Soon thereafter, with KingKrazyLink's departure in early 2006, Chance's attention shifted more to LoZ.com and away from XG.

Final Merge with LoZ.com

After many months of slowly petering out, along with many prominent members at XG concurrently being prominent at LoZ.com, the XG Moderator staff decided that they had had a good run, but the race was over. In August of 2006, Xero Gaming officially merged with LoZ.com, and a sort of "homecoming" celebration occured, as several of LoZ.com's oldest members returned to LoZ.com for good and full-time. The domain "www.xerogaming.net" was owned by Chance still, and instead of deleting it or letting it expire, it was renamed "www.lozmedia.com" and the server was converted to house LoZ.com's vast amounts of media content.^[3] However, at some unknown time, the www.lozmedia.com domain expired, and is now operated by parties unrelated to LoZ.com.^[4]

Return of Xero Gaming

In June of 2011, Legend of Zelda.com ceased to exist as a Zelda-only website, and became "LoZ.com" in name only and began to operate from a general gaming perspective. Sometime in July 2011, the site officially became "Xero Gaming" as the community was slowly transitioning. The site remained a Mastermind of Zelda Wiki, as well as honoring all current and valid affiliations of Legendofzelda.com. The site continues to work toward expanding its coverage and fan base.

Legacy of Xero Gaming

The truest statement that can be made from Xero Gaming in the past was that it stood up when nobody else would in the face of incurable corruption at LoZ.com. Whether it was corruption in the sense of false promises and incompetence, or it's corruption in the sense of duplicity and deceit, XG was the bulwark.

This legacy is what allowed the name "Xero Gaming" to be the proud name for the new site that would host LoZ.com's old community.

Sources