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| ==Layout 12== | | ==Layout 12== |
| Avenged and MetalMallow had been a big part of the creation of the previous 5 layouts at Zelda Dungeon, and now with both of them gone from the Zelda Dungeon staff, Mases looked elsewhere for help with the creation of a new layout. Originally Killswitch of Zelda Legacy offered to create a layout for Zelda Dungeon. However, after a few compatibility issues, the layout was scratched. Jessica, a good friend of Cartoons, offered to create a layout for the website and this version launched on the websites 5th birthday on August 19th, 2006.
| | {{Main|Zelda Dungeon:Layout 12.0|Layout 12.0}} |
| | | Layout 12.0 was released on on August 19th, 2006, the fifth birthday of the website. During this period of time, Zelda Dungeon viewership dipped to a three year low and many of the team members left the website. Unsure of the future of the website, Mases looked to merge Zelda Dungeon with other Zelda websites with the hope of forming a more thriving Zelda community. Planned mergers with the websites Zelda Compendium and Zelda Legacy fell through and the site became stagnant in late 2006, even with the release of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|Twilight Princess]]''. Another attempt at a merger with the website, legendofzelda.com, was planned and very briefly implemented, before Mases quickly pulled the plug. |
| The layout returned to a greenish color, but it took on a much duller color scheme than anything that Zelda Dungeon previously had. The layout was received with a mixed reaction from fans. Most users at the time did not overly like the layout, but much preferred it over the bright Layout 11.0.
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| Not too much happened during much of the first few months of Layout 12.0. Several new staff members were brought on board and frequent news updates and articles were written, but none of them received a positive reaction from the fans. The ideas were scrapped, and the staff members began to dwindle away. Usual content upgrades were being made at the website, and even the beginnings of a Link's Awakening Walkthrough were under way. The walkthrough however was never finished at this time, as other issues became more prevalent with the website.
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| Cartoons, the long time Webmaster of Zelda Dungeon, was beginning to take a much less active role with the website. He rarely made any news updates, and most of all his work was now being done behind the scenes. In January of 2007, Cartoons removed himself from the staff page at Zelda Dungeon and months later, Mases posted an update about his formal resignation as Webmaster of Zelda Dungeon. This left Mases, for the first time in nearly five years, as the only active staff member of Zelda Dungeon.
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| On October 31st of 2006, Mases made an update at the website, stating that it was the end of Zelda Dungeon as everybody had come to know it. Mases had been disgusted with the direction of the website over the previous few months as he watched site visitors dwindle to the worst that they had been in nearly 3 years. Even on the eve of the release of Twilight Princess, Mases at the time believed that Zelda Dungeon could not continue to exist in its current form, and Mases was beginning to look elsewhere in the community for smaller Zelda websites to potentially bring into Zelda Dungeon, or even to completely merge with.
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| In late October Mases approached the webmaster of a now closed website, Zelda Compendium. The website was fairly new, but already had a very high quality standard in content that even surpassed many of the outdated guides at Zelda Dungeon. Early plans were in place for a merger between Zelda Dungeon and Zelda Compendium, but plans never went through, as the webmaster of Zelda Compendium seemingly disappeared from the internet and his site was soon abandoned.
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| Several weeks later, the long awaited Twilight Princess was released. A dejected Mases, after the failure with Zelda Compendium, was in contact Killswitch about potentially combining into one larger website. After progress was made and some discussions took place, things fell through. After just weeks, plans of a potential merger were dead.
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| With two consecutive failed attempts at mergers, even with the release of Twilight Princess, Zelda Dungeon had truly hit rock bottom. Site visitors did receive a short jump with the release of Twilight Princess, but moral at the website was at an all time low. December of 2006 marked the first time since 2001 that a span of over three weeks occurred without an update. It wasn't until January of 2007 where Mases formally announced that the plans he had with the website had fallen through, and thus, regular updates would resume.
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| In January of 2007, Mases released a new section at the website known as 'Mas and Vic Present'. In this section of the website, Mases, and his close friend Victor, would review old NES games with a mixture of a serious and humorous tone. The videos were uploaded to Youtube, but Zelda Dungeon was the primary home of the videos. A section at the forums was created for the game reviews, and the project did end up gathering decent support. The long term effects of this included a gradual shift towards the inclusion of video based content at the website.
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| In February of 2007, Mases released what he dubbed as the 'State of the Dungeon address'. It was the first video based update where Mased spoke about the failed mergers with Zelda Compendium, Zelda Legacy, and a broad overview of what had happened in the previous few months. Mases also gave a brief idea of plans that he had for the future of the website, including a much bigger emphasis on the inclusion of more video content.
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| The update sparked interest from the Webmasters of LegendOfZelda.com. They too were looking for websites to potentially merge with and talks began just days after the update was made. The idea of having a Zelda website under the legendofzelda.com domain name was very intriguing to Mases. Plans were in place of labeling the forums of this new website as the Zelda Dungeon, while retaining the LegendOfZelda.com site name. There were also plans of bringing in the Zelda Dungeon forum members, merging the forum communities into one.
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| LoZ.com was a site primarily focused on media, news reporting, and a massive community forum. While Zelda Dungeon was focused on content and game strategy guides, making each sites weakness the other websites strength. At the original planning of the merger, the new merged site would be commenced with a brand new layout, signifying this big moment in history.
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| After just a few days of talks, the webmasters of LoZ.com wanted to get the merger done quickly, while sorting through issues in the future as they occur. Mases agreed to these terms and a site merged had commenced. The ideas of a massive launching of this new combined website fell through. There was no new layout, and the merger took place with just news posts at LegendOfZelda.com and Zelda Dungeon.
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| Just hours after this merger, thoughts were going through the mind of Mases, and he was unsure whether or not he rushed into this decision or not. After spending a few hours thinking about it and reflecting on the history of Zelda Dungeon, it hit Mases that this was a mistake on his part. Mases rushed and deleted his video update at Zelda Dungeon, deleted the three news posts at LoZ.com, and even deleted his State of the Dungeon video update. It was as if the last few hours of the website had never happened, and Mases had pulled back on his offer of a merger. Mases believed that he rushed into the merger, and that rather than it appearing as a true merger of sites, it seemed more so that Mases was just joining LoZ.com as a new Webmaster. After hearing the news, the relationship between the websites took a sour turn, and talks of the merger had died out.
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| ==Layout 13== | | ==Layout 13== |