Wikipedian since October 2005. My first major project was to flesh out the Icewind Dale (series) stub. After that, I collaborated on Megatokyo—in September 2006, it became the first featured article on which I'd worked. Deckiller and the incredible Ryu Kaze (stopped editing October 2006), a pair that set countless standards for video game article quality, provided an extensive copyedit. Without them, Megatokyo would never have been featured. The article saw the front page in 2009, which I had nothing to do with, but which I was proud of anyway.
Before Megatokyo passed FAC, I moonlighted on Black Isle's Torn (a page I'd created) and Halo: Combat Evolved, which respectively reached Good and Featured status in September 2006. One of my favorite Wikipedians, TKD, bailed me out on Halo with an unbelievable copyedit. The article was later selected for the front page. Some of the writing TKD and I contributed to Halo was quoted by The New York Times Magazine in November 2010; still reeling. To relieve stress from all these nominations, I started editing F.E.A.R. in September 2006. To my surprise, several people were already working on it, and I helped them take the article to A-class in October 2006. I didn't have another big project until March 2007, with System Shock. TKD wasn't available this time, so I turned to Zeality, who provided a solid, thorough copyedit. The article was featured in May 2007, and it hit the front page in September 2014. After System Shock, I took an extended break from major projects.
I returned to FAC with Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, which I'd begun to expand after a successful Collaboration of the Week drive in February 2009. TKD was back in action: his inspiring prose work helped to get Ultima Underworld featured in May 2009 and TFA'd in March 2012. Around the time it passed FAC, I started to try my hand at copyediting others' articles—tentatively. Noj r and I began collaborating on Thief: The Dark Project in June 2009. Noj's dedication to Looking Glass Studios games had previously brought System Shock 2 to GA status; and, together, we transformed Thief from a cruft-ridden mess into a high-quality GA. The collaboration tapered out before we reached FA, however.
While I was working on Thief, I found myself further involved in copyediting. This time, though, my work was a more significant factor in the articles' promotions to FA. The pages were ToeJam & Earl (by the inspiring, retired bridies) and MissingNo. (by Kung Fu Man, a long-time key figure in WikiProject Video games). Both were rewarding experiences. Afterward, I began a project entirely different from my earlier work. While researching articles, I'd always found it enormously difficult to locate reliable print sources. Influenced by a user who'd retrieved a print review of Thief from the Internet Archive, I created the Online print archive (OPA) in September 2009 to catalogue print content that had been hosted online in the past. It's tough to tell how much traffic it gets, but I do see evidence of its impact occasionally—which always makes my day. Later in 2009, I copyedited The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay for GamerPro64 and ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth for bridies, and I started on Nintendo DSi for FullMetal Falcon.
In 2010, I worked on the OPA, helped Zeality gather sources for his behemoth Anachronox and copyedited Tales of Monkey Island for S@bre (a lot of fun) and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars for FullMetal Falcon. More importantly, I decided to undertake my biggest project yet: a good or featured topic dedicated to Looking Glass Studios video games. To that end, I began to work on Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri and Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds while expanding and updating System Shock and Ultima Underworld, which by that point were looking a bit dated. I gathered source material on the talk pages of other LGS games in preparation. I was interviewed around this time for the WikiProject Video games Newsletter, which was interesting, to say the least.
By the start of 2012, I was burnt on Wikipedia and wanted out. I wrote a Reception section for Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, copyedited Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars for Khanassassin and then disappeared for about nine months. I didn't think I'd be back, but I ended up returning for a short time that November. I tweaked Ultima Underworld, copyedited Broken Sword again and heavily rewrote System Shock; but, more importantly, I started to burn through LGS articles faster than ever before. I rewrote and GAN'd Ultima Underworld II, Destruction Derby and John Madden Football '93 between November 20 and November 25. By December 19, I'd followed these up with GANs for Jane's Attack Squadron and Command & Conquer, and, with lots of help from PresN, an FLC for List of Looking Glass Studios video games. Everything passed. I don't remember what got into me during this period—but it left soon enough. I edited only six times between December 27, 2012 and February 23, 2014.
I'd left Wikipedia seemingly for good, but I still periodically checked my account. In 2014, I noticed that Terra Nova was set to be a March TFA. A certain itch to study and document Looking Glass has driven my editing almost from the beginning, and, for some reason, it came back. I planned to write Voyager—a short and interesting article—and leave again, but I realized that the LGS video games good topic was finally in reach. Only Thief II: The Metal Age, Flight Unlimited II and Flight Unlimited III stood in the way. I wrote those and the unrelated Robbing the Cradle over a few months; and the GT became a reality on June 19, over eight years after System Shock was featured. Since then, I've been "officially" retired from mainspace content generation: I now try to limit myself to reviews, occasional copyediting and archivism. That last one became key in May 2014, when WPVG archivist Mitaphane passed on to me his many (many) hundreds of magazines.
Just before the LGS video games GT passed, I realized that it could be upgraded to an FT: only three more FAs were needed, and Thief II and the second two Flight Unlimited articles were already near FA quality. I gave them all copyedits and (fudging on my rule a tiny bit) expanded and reworked them slightly. On September 20, the topic was featured—a dream on which I'd given up years before. Plus, Flight Unlimited II and Thief II were TFA'd in August and December 2014, respectively. A pretty incredible year.
I'm stuck as a WPVG fixture now that I have Mitaphane's archive, and that doesn't bother me at all. Never hesitate to ask me for a scan: I love this work, and I'll take any opportunity to hunt through my magazines. Beyond archivism, I just do what I find interesting: off-and-on reviews and copyedits; occasional WikiGnoming; general kibitzing. Thanks for reading.
For your diligence in improving Halo: Combat Evolved and striving to correct the tiniest of errors, I award you the Barnstar of Diligence! bibliomaniac15 00:44, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
For being able to cut through all of the cruft originally in Halo: Combat Evolved and having the diligence to bring the article up to FA status. — TKD::Talk 00:52, 23 September 2006 (UTC)
JimmyBlackwing, I hereby award you this barnstar on behalf of Wikipedians everywhere in recognition of your eloquent and exceptionally civil arguments on the talk pages of various articles. Your oratory in the matter of Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss and Coheed and Cambria, among others, are worthy of special praise. Keep up the good work! — Levi van Tine (t – c) 08:06, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
The Copyeditor's Barnstar
For your excellent editing of ToeJam & Earl on its way to FAC bridies (talk) 05:33, 28 September 2009 (UTC)
For finding sources I could not find (hey, I think that's pretty tough, usually), and for finding sources in general that have greatly improved Turok: Dinosaur Hunter above and beyond the FA level, this shiny of internet appreciation. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs (talk) 01:05, 2 October 2009 (UTC)
I thought I hadn't recognized you for this before (I have, a year ago) but it's worth restating. Your efforts at finding high-quality sources are what our video game articles need. Keep it up, Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 16:22, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
The Copyeditor's Barnstar
For dropping by and spending nearly a month and around 80 edits carefully copyediting Tales of Monkey Island as it progresses towards FAC. Thanks mate! -- Sabre (talk) 11:36, 23 October 2010 (UTC)
Thanks for all the work you did in making Flight Unlimited a Featured Article! Please accept this Aviation Barnstar. Your work is much appreciated. – Quadell(talk) 18:10, 21 September 2011 (UTC)
After one long year of editing, Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars finally reached FA-status! Thank you for all the hard work you put into the article and for all the advice you have given me, it is, and you are, hugely appreciated. All hail Jimmy! :) --Khanassassin☪ 20:52, 18 March 2013 (UTC)
The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
It's been a long road, but you've pulled together Good or Featured articles for every game that Looking Glass Studios ever made, with the capstone Good Topic forthcoming, preserving an important bit of video gaming history on Wikipedia and serving as an inspiration to others! --PresN 16:41, 24 April 2014 (UTC)
You put a ton of effort into reviewing Secret of Mana, helping transform it from a pretty good article into something that can be proud to wear the bronze star, and serve as an example of what early-90s video game articles should look like. Thank you so much for all your hard work reviewing! --PresN 01:34, 23 August 2014 (UTC)
The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
You deserve it! Ceasar (talk) 23:20, 25 August 2014 (UTC)
...Or another beverage of your choice, for your attention to detail and comprehensive coverage in video game articles, especially for your work on development and legacy sections, which are all too often under-covered. Al83tito (talk) 01:38, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
