Minus World
Minus World is a community-centric forum and web-based fighting game, originally created as an offshoot of the MFGG Forums on November 15th, 2010. It was initially founded and run by Kyori until his resignation in August of 2012. The current incarnation is run by Draku and Elyk, with lead development handled by Spritanium.
History
Minus World was created as the result of several years of growing differences between two halves of the MFGG community. Those users who enjoyed developing and playing fangames, which was MFGG's original purpose, found themselves increasingly overshadowed by users who wanted a more community-centric and general discussion-based forum. Such disagreements led to a strained period in MFGG's history, rife with arguments and trolling. Administrators DJ Yoshiman and Black Squirrel decided the best solution was to divide the community into two separate forums: one focused on fangaming, the other left to find its own purpose. This division of the community came to be known as The Split.
On November 5th, 2010, the event since known as The Split took place. MFGG's userbase was ported to a new forum, titled "Minus World" after the popular Minus World glitch in Super Mario Bros.. Immediately following, MFGG was temporarily shut down for development, before reopening on November 26th, 2010. Any new Minus World users who wished to stay on MFGG were then required to re-register on the new forums.
For the first few years of its existence, Minus World struggled to find a purpose. Since its creation was essentially a polite way to give MFGG's deplorables a place to talk, it didn't come along with any inherent meaning. It was given a vague focus on indie game development in an effort to provide some direction, but since hardly any of its users actually developed games, this concept didn't make it far. In addition to the lack of focus, some members of Minus World felt burned by The Split, and retained some animosity toward the MFGG staff and users. These users, some of whom had been members of MFGG for years, felt like their presence was suddenly unwanted. This led to Minus World making an effort to distance itself from MFGG, with very few members posting regularly on both boards.
For six long years, Minus World struggled to find its footing. Plans for a main site were tossed around on several occasions - said main site was supposed to serve as a hub for user-submitted video game articles and reviews. Unfortunately, this never came to fruition, and activity sadly and consistently dwindled with most Minus World users abandoning the concept of a truly focused Minus World.
This all changed in April of 2016, when a sudden inexplicable boost in activity led to propositions of new forum features. One of the first ideas presented was "Good Sh*t", a metric designed to reward users for posting enjoyable content. The catalyst of Minus World's reinvention was a thread posted by Spritanium, suggesting the forum change its software from phpBB to MyBB 1.8 and offering his services as lead developer for the new forum. After five months of development, the new and improved Minus World officially opened on September 11th, 2016 (because it worked for Mario Maker).
The main goals behind Minus World's re-imagining were as follows:
- To create a site that is just as much of a game as it is a forum.
- To celebrate mid-2000s internet culture without enforcing too many rules.
- To modernize the classic message board structure for the modern web.
Minus World is now touted as a half-forum-half-fighting game with remarkably lax moderation, occasional beef, and a warm-hearted community of players who contribute however they're able. Through all the years of searching for a purpose, the developers of Minus World eventually decided that the community was always, and will always be what the site is truly about.