Zelda Dungeon:History: Difference between revisions

The site launched on August 19th, 2001 and was hosted at Yahoo Geocities. The website had a very primitive looking layout with very minimal content. The first game guide at the website was started for ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|Ocarina of Time]]''. There was a small amount of Zelda pictures and artwork, as well as some media downloads available for midi songs, which led the site to grow to receiving 25-30 hits per day.

On March 27th, 2002, Zelda Dungeon launched Layout version 2.0, and it was the first layout that was built with html coding. The layout created a consistent appearance across all pages and saw the continued expansion of content creation. The site moved away from Yahoo Geocities and was hosted by a larger Zelda website known as Zelda Odyssey. It was during this time the site also had its first volunteer staff member, and with two team members on the staff, content creation came at a quicker pace, allowing the site to grow to receiving close to 100 hits per day.

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.

Launched on May 14th, 2007, the new layout marked a new path for Zelda Dungeon, with a return of a quick links navigation system, and a two sidebar layout. Viewership at the website began to grow rapidly with a renewed focus on site and video walkthrough content. With the release of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass|Phantom Hourglass]]'' in October of 2017, the website broke viewership records that had stood for over two years. This marked the first time in website history that coverage and game guides for a brand new Zelda game were being published in close proximity to a games release.

Launched on October 21st, 2008. During this layout, Zelda Dungeon began producing live video streams, interacting with the audience on the Zelda Dungeon Forums. Live streams included recording live video podcasts, usually with other members of the Zelda community as well as team members. There were question and answer segments, as well as some live interactive games with the audience, including [[Name That Zelda Tune]] and [[Zelda Hangman]]. Spanning over 13 months, this layout lasted longer than any layout beforehand. With the upcoming release of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks|Spirit Tracks]]'', Zelda Dungeon began to hit new record viewership in late November of 2009.

Zelda Dungeon reached new heights during this layout with the lead-up to the release of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword|Skyward Sword]]''. The site returned to becoming an all-encompassing website, with daily news, editorials, and media content being added, to supplement the game walkthroughs. The period launched Zelda Dungeon into becoming one of the ''Big 3'' in the online Zelda community, alongside [[Zelda Universe]] and [[Zelda Informer]], where there was fierce website competition over content. In the middle of 2011, there was litigation between Zelda Dungeon and its web-host, over the domain name ZeldaDungeon.net, and at one point the website was planning on moving to a new domain. The parties settled and Zelda Dungeon gained full autonomy over all aspects of its site in October of 2011.