Community Interview: Sonic HQ Founder, Zifei

For many of us in the Sonic the Hedgehog online community, 'Zifei' needs no introduction. Not only is he the founder of Sonic HQ, arguably one of the earliest and longest-running Sonic sites on the web, but he has also gone to establish other community sites such as SonicNEXT and animation resource Pathea.com. So he's a pretty big deal! We'd butt kiss, but it's not our style... *runs*

TSS: I'm here with Zifei for an exclusive Sonic Stadium interview. Tell us why you're famous in the Sonic Internet community.

Zifei: Well, I create what is now the largest Sonic the Hedgehog fan site on the internet in Sonic HQ. A lot of other very talented people helped along the way though. Sonic HQ was truly a staffed page instead of an individual page. I just came up with the concept.

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TSS: What year did you create the site, and when did you decide you wanted to create a website?

Zifei: Well, I had Zifei's Sonic Page running in late 1996 because my friend had a Simpsons website up and was bragging about it a bit too much. It got rather popular by the standards of that time. So, since I had to do more and more things for it and have less and less time as I progressed through the education system, I decided one day in 1998 (I think it was April 11th) that I'll just get all the people hanging around the web forum of HQ and have them staff a bigger Sonic page.

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TSS: So why didn't you stay with the Sonic HQ afterwards? Also, how long have you been a Sonic fan?

Zifei: I think it was a loss of interest on my part. I was getting into computer animation, special effects, as well as animation direction. So I became a big fan of Studio Ghibli and Pixar. And Archie Comics ruining Sonic didn't help much. I have been a Sonic fan since 1990. You could say I'm still a fan, just not as big as back then. *smiles*

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TSS: Do you still enjoy the video games as you did back in the Genesis days?

Zifei: Oh yes. I've had a change of taste though. Now I like RPGs a lot more than platformers. Besides, since Sega's not making their own console anymore, it's hard to decide which platform to get. I have a PS2 and GBA right now, but it looks like I have to get an XBOX and GC for me to enjoy all the Sega hits.

As for Sonic games, I thought Sonic Adventure was excellent, but SA2 was disappointing, in that the graphical leap was not as much as I'd expected and the slow game play characters in Knuckles and Rouge ruined the style.

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TSS: Do you ever think about or thought about creating a website again?

Zifei: Actually, I have created many successful websites after I left Sonic HQ. I made SonicNEXT, which was just a Sonic news page. After that I made a e-commerce site called Eridus.com, which was a deals/coupon site. And finally last year I made Ohmu.net, which was a Studio Ghibli fan site. They were all successful in that they all hit their target visit counts or were profitable. Still, since they're not staff pages, they all died when I quit them.

Next up I'm making a site called Pathea.com - this will be a very long term effort, it'll include my art portfolio, character designs, and news/info about the latest in animation (3D, 2D, whatever I like) in general.

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TSS: What ever happened to SonicNEXT anyways? Why did you decide to stop working on that?

Zifei: I handed the project over to J. Lazor (who's also the head of HQ now). It was mostly due to lack of time and interest. I was doing some serious art projects at the time that required my full attention. The site died when the server provider died.

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TSS: Will you ever decide to come back to the Sonic community and create another site or is that it for you?

Zifei: Oh, I did a fan comic called 'Invasion Mobius' before I left, and I left it unfinished (actually, it's only about a few pages in). But ever since then, I've been getting emails almost every week from people wanting it to be continued. Since that time, I'd say I've probably received over 200 emails about this. So, this summer I decided to make a remake of that fan comic. It'll be Sonic HQ's summer special.

I can't say much about it other than it'll probably be the best Sonic fan comic ever. The writing talents are superb, and I'm doing the directing and artwork. Other than that, maybe I'll do a Sonic movie in 10 years if I ever make it big in the animation industry. And SEGA allows it.

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TSS: Onto the Sonic Adventure 3 rumors. Are these rumors you've been getting tipped off on true or are they just a bunch of rumors to be forgotten?

Zifei: I'm not really sure if it's true or not actually, it was mentioned during a group AIM chat between several graphic artists from several game companies about what they saw at E3. Someone I don't know mentioned it along with a blurb about Virtua Fighter Quest being made up of VF Kids. The VF Kids news has since been confirmed.

As for SA3's news, it was posted later by someone on Fatbabies.com, I'm not sure if it's the same person or not. So make what you will of that.

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TSS: Also, what are your thoughts on the mysterious new Sonic game that Sega announced lately and what it should be like?

Zifei: They probably got it from Fatbabies. I wouldn't go beyond calling it as just a rumor. A Sonic game is being made, yes. It will probably end up being Sonic Adventure 3. Sonic Team is basically done with Phantasy Star Online Ep 1/2 for GC and XBOX... so what they're working on is anybody's guess.

I think the new Sonic game will probably be like Sonic Adventure 1, in that it'll have more Sonic levels and less exploration. Of course, the graphics of the game will be mind-blowing. Since Sega probably won't release the game until after Zelda comes out, it'll be a while, probably next Feb or March.

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TSS: Thanks a lot for your thoughts and explanations, its been fun Zifei, thanks again! Remember to visit Sonic HQ in the summer for his fan comic, it'll be worth it I'm sure.

Zifei: Thank you.