Starmen.Net

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Starmen.Net
URL	http://www.starmen.net
Commercial?	No
Type of site	Gaming
Registration	Required for posting on the forums
Owner	Reid Young
Created by	Reid Young
Launched	1998

Starmen.Net is an EarthBound fan site focused on the Mother video game series. Staff members and users are actively involved in campaigns and petitions, which have been promoted and covered by video game websites and magazines.

1 History
2 Petitions and campaigns
3 Reception and criticism
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Starmen.Net began as the personal website of Reid Young ("reidman"). His site was started in 1998, three years after the United States release of EarthBound. The site began to grow when Clyde Mandelin ("Tomato") contacted Reid, then 16, about expanding his site. With the help of Edward A. Vazquez ("Buzz Buzz"), the site became EarthBound.Net.^[1]

EarthBound.Net added a forum, and also began to cover Super Smash Bros., because Ness, the main character of EarthBound, appears in it. As the site grew, reidman and Tomato brought on a staff of volunteers to create content and maintain the site. In 2001, there was a dispute over the domain name, in which Buzz Buzz claimed that reidman and Tomato had turned Earthbound.Net into their own "personal glorification site" and seized the domain name to build his own site. The previous EarthBound.Net was remodeled and reestablished as Starmen.Net.^[1]

[edit] Petitions and campaigns

Starmen.Net is known for holding petitions and campaigns surrounding the Mother series. Users and staff members held an EarthBound 64 petition in 2000. The petition aimed to "spread word across the internet (and the US) of the petition", "accept signatures until the flow slows down", "reach ~10,000 unique signatures", "send copies of the printed petition to Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Japan", and to "get Earthbound 64 released in the [United] States". The petition was promoted by websites such as FOX-owned IGN and magazines such as Tips & Tricks.^[2]^[3] The group's efforts were acknowledged by EarthBound creator Shigesato Itoi.^[4]^[5] Staff members and users held a petition in 2002 for Mother 3 to be created. This was promoted on the front page of IGN's GameCube section.^[6]^[5] Shigeru Miyamoto acknowledged the petition in Official Nintendo Magazine U.K., where he said it made him consider the fans as "really solid".^[7] When Mother 3 was announced, the group later changed their petition asking for an English translation of the game. Users circulated flyers and sent phone calls (which is now its own, always going event) and fan art to Nintendo in support of the petition; this act was covered by websites such as Kotaku and Siliconera.^[8]^[9]

[edit] Reception and criticism

The staff members and users have been called "EarthBound maniacs" by Electronic Gaming Monthly, which has repeatedly referenced the website for further information of the series.^[10]^[11]^[12] WebBound, a quarterly publication that lists what they consider to be the "best websites", listed Starmen.Net in their video game fan site section.^[13] Luke Plunkett of Kotaku praised their "good-old-fashioned activism", but said that he "can't see it having any effect".^[8]