Fandom, an entertainment portal and wiki hosting service, launched Creator Class, quarterly workshops for artists, and a new portfolio of original video content leveraging its acquired brands GameSpot, Metacritic, and Screen Junkies this week.
On Wednesday, the firm launched a program to teach its top contributors and admins how to improve their wiki pages. Creators may see behind-the-scenes platform videos and get content creation and marketing advice from Fandom professionals. In addition, creators will get resource guides with challenges and prompts.
Senior Social Media Coordinator Miranda Phaal will host the first quarterly session on social media marketing for creators. Later this year is the workshop.
Fandom’s next session may include streaming and video making.
The Creator Class sessions will showcase top contributors/admins’ greatest wiki pages to motivate campaign improvements.
“Memory Alpha,” a reference database created by contributors, provides “Star Trek” enthusiasts with articles about all its series, characters, and timelines. Fandom’s CBO, Michael Chiang, told TechCrunch that Memory Alpha might teach other authors.
“In this age of structured and relational data, we want to do more of it. Memory Alpha may have a Creator Class someday. If this is something you want to do on your wiki, [how] they did it and the manner that we’re assisting them on the back end,” Chiang said.
Creator Class is part of Fandom’s Stars program, which debuted last year to honor its most committed contributors with workshops, prizes, and special experiences like screenings, conventions, and other entertainment and gaming events.
The firm reported 230 Star contributors. Fandom expects 400+ Stars by 2023.
Fandom launched seven gaming and entertainment events this week. One hundred fifty a result, million monthly gamers visit Fandom.
The first two episodes were “Honest Trailers Presents,” a fresh take on Screen Junkies’ “Honest” series, and “The Kurt Locker,” where GameSpot senior producer Kurt Indovina examines gaming trends.
Screen Junkies has 6.8 million YouTube followers. Fandom bought it in 2018. Screen Junkies is adding TV theme music, celebrities, and ads to its “Honest” online series, which parodies movie and TV trailers. Fandom reports one million weekly views for the web series.
“Honest Trailers Presents” is on Screen Junkies’ YouTube and Fandom’s Video page.
On May 2, “The Kurt Locker” premiered with “Are There Too Many Remakes?” Indovina discusses how many 2023 games, including Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space, are remakes or remasters. Tuesday episodes.
“The Kurt Locker” is one of six new GameSpot programs.
- No Hud (premiered May 3): Fans learn new ways to play video games. Episodes air every Wednesday.
- Experts React (May 4): Experts comment on popular video games. Airs on Thursdays.
- Spot On (May 5): weekly news show hosted by managing editor Tamoor Hussain and senior producer Lucy James.
- How It Saved (May 7): Senior producer Dave Klein talks about the video games that saved failing franchises.
- GameSpot Insider (premiere date TBD): A quarterly limited series that goes behind the scenes into highly anticipated video games.
- Challenge Accepted (TBD): Content creators and GameSpot employees team up to compete in various gaming challenges, like beating Mario while using a Guitar Hero controller.
The new GameSpot shows will simultaneously air on its website, YouTube channel, and the Fandom platform. Meanwhile, Metacritic is launching “Metacritic Review Lab” on Fandom Entertainment’s YouTube channel, where Fandom critics and data experts analyze new movie releases, such as “Across the Spiderverse,” “Fast X,” “Indiana Jones 5” and “Little Mermaid.” Metacritic will release two or three episodes each month.
