Official Announcement: Sonic HQ to Affiliate with The Mushroom Kingdom

Well, here it is. The official announcement from the HQ.

Tonight at Sunday, June 20, 1999, 12:00 Midnight, we removed the Sonic HQ/TMK poll to place the final results. And thus, here they are for viewing, as you all who regularly visit our page decided upon…

Yes 149 (53%); No 131 (47%)

What Does This Mean…Answers, Questions, Etc.

First of all – let me explain the difference between an affiliation and a merger. An affiliation simply put, is nothing more than an agreement that you will help a person in need if they need it. TMK wanted to do this with us, and to show our kindness we decided to do this as well. This is NOT, however a merger. A merger would combine BOTH SITES and we have NO PLANS WHATSOEVER of EVER doing something like that. It would be a stab in the back to the dedicated Sonic fans if we were to just out of nowhere drop our whole format out of the blue. We WILL NOT DO THIS and WILL NEVER DO THIS. And with that out of the way, let me explain what this affiliation means, and get a few things out of the way:

A. First of all – The staff took no part in voting on this. This poll was solely based off the views of the people that come to this page. You all helped us to decide this over the weekend (which we have come to find out are our busiest days). We asked you to put in your comments, questions, and anything else, and we thank you that you all that cared, took the time to give usyour feedback. Good, bad, flames, whatever.

B. The merger was not just solely dropped out of the blue by Sonic HQ. This was planned by BOTH PAGES from a simple chat that started out as a small joke and blew up into a full thought. Not one lone page is trying to perpetrate anything off the other. In fact the entire idea culminated from Fishboy (our promotions and links persons) and Deezer (webmaster of TMK). Both have been VERY NICE about the whole thing. There’s been no bickering, disagreements, arguments. ANYTHING.

C. Why in hell are we doing this? I think we can answer that question best, by printing two things here. One: A letter that was printed in our Q&A. Its not all positive and fluffy either, it was one of our negative comments, but the guy brings out good points that I’m certain was on everyone’s mind as they saw that poll. Red denotes his comments. Blue denotes ours. We hope to show by our blue comments that there’s more to this than just some promotion.

What are you crazy? It would be like putting Luke Skywalker on the same team as Darth Vader!!!!!!!! I mean there is nothing beneficial that could come from it(And even if there was, come on!).

We’ve thoroughly weighed the ups and downs. You may not think we are, but we are very sure of what good AND BAD could come out of this situation. We, along with TMK, want to make this work, not based off of some stupid system wars, but the fact that we want Sonic and videogaming in particular to realise that sometimes its NOT just about a mascot, but gameplay and overall fun. And if you can’t have fun making a webpage or a playing a videogame, then why bother? :o) If people see two videogame sites where fans of both genre have ALWAYS BICKERED over who is better, then WE HOPE that people will take note, that sometimes all it takes is a little friendship. An extended hand in a simple handshake can often do much better if that hand doesnt always contain a knife. 🙂

Why do you think Sega doesn’t make a Mario game or Nintendo a Sonic game?

Maybe because they are two different companies? We know this already. But you’re looking too deeply into something that’s not there. Its nothing but promotion and contests and fun. Is there anything wrong with having fun or trying to promote a webpage? EVERYONE does it – Why can’t we? Because its Mario? Maybe. But they call BOTH a “game” for a reason. :O)

To consider what you are considering is almost as bad as doing what you are considering. Just think about the situation for a minute(Maybe it’ll help you comprehend what your about to do), There are two universes, totally separate, totally different, each wanting nothing from the other, each wondering how the people in the other universe can stand being in the other. But some maniac wants to create a wormhole to the other but can’t without the help of the other, so the other starts to seriously consider helping the first create the wormhole. Therein comes the irony!

Just so you’ll know. WE weren’t the ones that originally began this. It began while we were in a chat and we (ALONG WITH THE TMK webmaster) were playfully joking about it. But then we began to consider it and the full implications of what this could do for both pages. So this is all not some half cocked idea that HQ came up with totally out of the blue. TMK is and did do and are planning to do thier part in wanting to do this as well. We ARE NOT trying to merge the universe, but all we are doing is extending a hand of friendship. And I personally find nothing wrong with that. To tell you truth – the furthest you will even EVER SEE THIS AFFILIATION on HQ is no more than a link, and a totally separate page you will see on yahoo later. Beyond the occasional joint contest (which WON’T affect content in ANY WAY) nothing more than that will ever take place. But hey – like that’s my opinion, you voiced opinion as well. And we wouldn’t have asked for it if we didn’t want it. :O)

You’ve got one of the best Sonic sites out there and you’re just going to throw it down the drain pulling a stupid stunt like that! Do what you may, I have no say, but just remember, the Sonic fans will be disappointed, the Mario fans will be awed and humoured.

-Gandalf922@aol.com

To tell you the truth, we thought long and hard about even thinking of putting up that poll, and had no idea that we’d get as many yays and nays we did. It wouldn’t have been fair to just up and do it anyway. So we decided to let the fans of Sonic and visitors of SonicHQ to decide. The fans decided – and the majority voted yes. Results are posted here for everyone to view. The staff had NO PART in voting other than collecting data. If the majority voted yes in disappointment, then I think they showed their disappointment the wrong way. Don’t you think? However they _did_ vote yes – and I think that shows that the majority trusts us to enough that they think we know what we are doing. And I for one thank those who have that much faith in us. We haven’t disappointed before, sent no reason for us to make you think we would, and we don’t plan on disappointing now. I’ve talked to some Mario fans as well and they seem to think the same thing. And if some Mario fans are shallow enough to be humoured, then let them be humoured. We’re not out to humour anybody, just extend out a hand of friendship JUST LIKE THEY extended a hand of friendship with us.

Thank you for your opinions Gandalf. Believe it or not, we heard EVERY WORD everyone said. Yays and nays. Thank you for being one to truly voice your opinion. We appreciate that. :O)

And That’s That….

This is all. You wont hear ANY MORE from this affiliation from us until we get OUR THINGS STRAIGHT – FIRST !!!! Sonic HQ has many priorities we feel we need to to take care of before we begin our half of the promotions, as we feel we have a commitment to our viewers that needs to be taken care of. When the stuff actually begins you’ll be noted here. And all we ask is that you TRUST US. This will IN NO WAY hinder your viewing of Sonic HQ – AND THAT is a promise!!!! You won’t be flooded in waves of fat plumbers, banners, giant hoopla and pomp and circumstance. This is all about fun, and we intend to make it fun for BOTH PARTIES: Meaning both parties of the people who update, and the people who come and visit. If you have any questions, feel free to ask on our email (NOT THE GUESTBOOK please), we welcome all comments. Thank you for voting.

There you have it. What’s YOUR opinion? Tell me on the Public Scene or E-Mail me.

This post was originally posted on TSSZ News.