By Asif A. Sattar
October 29th 2023

Summary (Click to expand.)

I chose Serenes Forest Forums due to my general outside knowledge of the subject of discussion mainly on the forum, but with little to no interaction or understanding regarding the overall Serenes Forest community. I believed the knowledge I held on the franchise provided me the opportunity to explore a somewhat “insular” gaming community, or rather a gaming community that is quite difficult to join without prior experience or knowledge of the game/games being discussed. Think of it like chess (funnily enough, Fire Emblem more or less works like a chess game); without knowledge on at least a few openings and chess culture, a researcher would have a really difficult time actually understanding what a chess community is talking about. I wanted to bring this community dynamic to a paper while also meeting the requirements, and Serenes Forest Forums provided the perfect opportunity to do so. The most interesting (and maybe disconcerting) discovery I made was uncovering the over 11,000 word forum post from 2011, of which I found from another over 11,000 word post in 2022 made as a retrospective. I’ve seen stuff like this in gaming communities before, but usually for people attempting to create stories, lore or pieces of writing based on the franchise they enjoy. This individual created these two posts solely to discuss a game that they disliked and to share it to the forum community, which is nothing short of impressive. I utilized the 2023 CESA Games White Paper from Japan to aggregate actual sales data for Fire Emblem to provide context on the franchise. I also utilized an article published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication titled “How Do Online Game Communities Retain Gamers? Social Presence and Social Capital Perspectives” to better understand how online gaming communities function. These sources took some time to find, but gave me the opportunity to better my source-finding skills. I started with a desire to better understand the surrounding context of Serenes Forest Forums, being the game franchise itself and online communities as a whole. These sources will helped me deepen my understanding of the subject material, successfully accomplishing the following CLO goal: “Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects”.

You can find links to the relevant sources below.

https://www.cesa.or.jp/survey/book/hakusho/detail001_2023.html

https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/20/6/601/406758

Often, the name of “Serenes Forest Forums” would pop up into conversation, often with older players of the franchise referencing the forum in endearment and respect.

Like many children raised in the information era, I quickly found myself enthralled with the world of Nintendo games and its franchises. I found particular interest in the popular gaming property “Fire Emblem”, an isometric turn-based strategy game developed by Intelligent Systems and a main published franchise in the Nintendo line-up. Later into adulthood, I found myself engaging more with the online Fire Emblem community, easily finding myself on the Fire Emblem subreddit, the Fire Emblem discord, while following several so-called “FETubers” (Fire Emblem focused Youtubers). Often, the name of “Serenes Forest Forums” would pop up into conversation, often with older players of the franchise referencing the forum in endearment and respect. This was particularly true when users began comparing communication platforms they’ve used, holding Serenes Forest Forums as a superior experience over other platforms, or even the very platform that they were currently using. However, few spoke about still using the platform for things other than for the corresponding “Serenes Forest Wiki” (a popular fan-created wiki detailing information about the Fire Emblem franchise and its games). I opted to better understand what Serenes Forest Forums was through a few days of social observation, with the research geared towards trying to understand its particular appeal and why it has fallen out of favor for continued use. This field observation hopes to provide insight on the underlying social dynamics that exist within Serenes Forest Forums and to extract what makes it unique as an online community

The Fire Emblem IP started in 1990 on the Nintendo Entertainment System. According to the Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association, the franchise has sold approximately 20.71 million units across 21 products and nine total hardware platforms as of “March 31, 2023”. [4] It has additionally achieved 17.80 million downloads on mobile platforms through the associated mobile game “Fire Emblem Heroes” released in 2017. The games in the franchise are often highly complex and technical, leading often to debate and arguments between the community and individual players regarding optimal-play. Another primary aspect of the community is a distinct age gap. As the franchise has existed for over 30 years, there is a huge array of older and newer players. How “new” a player is often plays into how their opinions are viewed and at times disregarded. This has often played into conversations on more popular communities such as on the Subreddit, Discord and the 4Chan board, with newer players and their opinions often disregarded. Further, if your opinion itself is considered a “new-player” opinion, it is often also lumped in as an opinion not to be paid attention to. With this context on the franchise and its player attitude, we can now begin our observation of the Serenes Forest community.

“Please use proper grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation when posting. The only exception is if English is not your first language, in which case we understand, and encourage you to ask others if you are having difficulties communicating something.”

Serenes Forest Guidelines.

Serenes Forest Forums is split into various tabs. Topics are separated between categories such as “Popular Now”, “General Forums” and “Fire Emblem Forums”, with topics organizing the specific forum posts of the user base. Users are provided to follow a code of conduct with a chain of moderators and staff to enforce rules. Rules include being respectful of others (in regards to race, sexual orientation, etc.) but notably also includes a requirement to use proper grammar, capitalization and punctuation when posting. This sort of rule is relatively rare in online communities, particularly in gaming oriented ones. While performing research on Serenes Forest Forums, additional research was also done on competitive communication platforms and forums for the Fire Emblem fan-base via Reddit, Discord and 4Chan. All three of these competitors do not have a rule regulating grammar use and punctuation. 

“I didn’t think I was a failure.”

Original Alear, September 30th 2022.

User posts can vary widely depending on what topic is being viewed. One example in the General Forums category (dedicated to non-Fire Emblem conversations between users while also following the grammar rules) is “So what were the early to mid 2000’s like?”. Although some responses can be a few sentences, a few notable posts are several paragraphs. For example, user “Hrothgar777” replied to the 139 word post about the early to mid 2000’s with a 1,022 word response. Posts are often respectful and kind to others, although a common trend of self deprecation persists throughout the General Forums topics. One user writes “I didn’t think I was a failure”, with other examples of similar self deprecation and open depressive attitudes persisting. Many posts can often spark lengthy debates between users, notably worse in the Fire Emblem forum topic. Interestingly, a category called Fire Emblem Debates is listed under the “Graveyard” topic, archiving old forums that have been deprecated and are no longer commentable. In this category, two users would be assigned one of two playable “units” from one of the many games in the Fire Emblem franchise. The users would then be required to formally compete against each other to have the best (or most compelling) argument that their character was superior. These arguments would be notable for their length and depth, with the last competition seemingly taking place in July 2019. This energy and culture of debate exists throughout the forum, with many posts often being deliberately written to begin a debate or discussion (somewhat similar to the setup debate seen in the Fire Emblem Debates forum). One example includes “Worst Fire Emblem Game”, a Fire Emblem Forums category post from 2013 that sparked a lot of discussion and debate. Conversations regardless seem respectful (or at least, moderated; we may never see the worst of these conversations and debates as Serenes Forest Forums has its own moderation team) and earnest. The number of detail oriented, lengthy responses provide evidence for a sincerity in attitude that is not necessarily seen in other forums, and was certainly not seen to the same degree on competitor platforms (debates would also often occur on these platforms but were not nearly to the same detail as on the Serenes Forest Forums). Many infamous examples of this detail going too far exist almost as insular jokes in the community, with one post titled “QUINTESSENCE? DONT UNDERSTAND” by General Banzai going over 11,000 words in 2011, in which he explains his particular dislike for a game in the franchise. For context, this is nearly enough words to make up an average Undergraduate senior thesis; the International Studies program at the City College of New York requires “35-50 pages” [2] on average for their senior essay. With proper formatting, the post makes up almost 21 pages. Interestingly, this same user returned in 2022 to post a reply to their original post named “QUINTESSENCE? 2: Understanding Quintessence”, which is of a similar length. There exists a level of detail and sincerity in discussion on Serenes Forest Forums that is completely unseen in its competition. This might be why some users prefer to use the forums.

This group of active users, however, is particularly low. Only a small handful of users are online with accounts at any one time, and conversation, although pleasant, is scattered and is continued between hours or even days. The vast majority of users opt to remain unregistered or logged out. In an observation on October 25th at 9:16 PM, there were 1,429 users online on the forum. Out of that group, only 14 are registered with an actual user account, with having a user account being a requirement to post on the forum. Even if we take all 1,429 users as active members of the community, Serenes Forest Forums pales in comparison to other competition. The Fire Emblem subreddit at the same time, for instance, has “608” [1] registered users online at one time (with no stat denoting the number of unregistered users). The Fire Emblem Discord had 4,132 members online and live discussions occurring in multiple channels. This may be a result of quality of life features on these newer platforms. Users will often already have an account on Discord and Reddit and will have access to the ability to immediately find the community they’re looking for. In contrast, Serenes Forest Forums must specifically be looked for as it is an independent group, also requiring a specific account as opposed to an overall account covering a huge collection of forums and servers.

Online communication and interaction is a main facet of the gaming ecosphere. As long as these franchises continue to exist, individuals will want to “communicate with each other in communication media.” [3] Referenced in an article within the Journal of Computer-mediated Communication, users will seek four dimensions of social presence: “(1) a sense of community, (2) mutual attention and support, (3) open communication, and (4) affective connectedness.” [3] Serenes Forest Forums might be ideally preferred as a platform for some users due to how open and detailed communication is, providing like-minded users who want to have lengthy discussions about a franchise that they enjoy. In this same way, users who don’t necessarily have the time to have these discussions, have no interest in such discussions, or don’t have the tact to approach these discussions with respect, may not enjoy Serenes Forest Forums or may even be intimidated by its community culture. Serenes Forest Forums acts as an ideal for many, but its lack of ease of access blocks many users from starting or continuing use of the platform. Only time will tell whether the community culture of Serenes Forest will continue to interest users enough to keep it alive.

References

The City College of New York. (2023, February 7). International Studies Courses & Requirements. https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/agis/about

Dive into anything. Reddit. (n.d.). https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/

Tseng, F.-C., Huang, H.-C., & Teng, C.-I. (2015). How do online game communities retain gamers? social presence and social capital perspectives. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 20(6), 601–614. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12141Video Games: Overall Shipment Scale (domestic + overseas). (2023). 2023 CESA Games White Paper, 50–54. https://doi.org/978-4-902346-47-3