ENDERX'S PROFILE

1. Why do you play fangames?
Mostly, because I enjoyed playing the originals and am interested in seeing how someone else reinterpreted that world.

2. What is the deciding factor in whether or not you will play a particular fangame?
The same as any other game: whether or not it looks clean. Any sample with bad grammar (not a few minor misspellings or errors, but either consistent minor errors, or glaring major errors), badly-done graphics, etc.
Second to this is whether or not I enjoyed the original(s) the game is based on.

3. What would turn you away from a fangame aside from poor dialogue and/or mapping?
Badly-done graphics, OR an abrasive storyline.

4. How faithful should a fangame be to the source material? How much truly original material should the fangame have?
Depends on whether you're going for continuance, exploration, or what I'm probably misthinking as gaiden. A Continuance storyline would tell the story of what came next; an Exploration storyline would be either what happened previously, or what happened elsewhere alongside the original. Gaiden should be obvious, although whether I'm using it correctly isn't.
Examples: FFIV - The After is a continuance storyline for FFIV. If someone were to write a fangame for FFV, detailing the original battle against Enuo (the battle that lead to Exdeath's creation), that would be an Exploration storyline.

5. What would you expect from a Final Fantasy fangame? What would you not expect?
I think you're really asking what we'd hope to see, not what we'd expect. My own preference would be for a storyline that makes internal sense (some of the latter games don't seem to, from what I can tell),.
For a game in general, however, my own big thing is this: I want to see proof that Good and Evil exist. It doesn't have to be the stark divide between The Chosen Destined Hero of Legend(TM) and The Dark Fiendlord of Doom(R), but show some proof they're there. Human beings don't have to be perfect. (Aside from the Sue/Stu class, they can't be.) But they should still be human - the flaws and frailties should be matched, at least partially, by strengths and virtues. Otherwise, you've simply written a mirror sue.

6. What would make a Final Fantasy fangame feel like a worthy fangame rather than just the dream of a random fan of the series?
Overall, I'm not sure. I lost interest beyond FF6. To me, anything that manages to invoke the spirit of FF1-FF6 will have a good chance, anything that ignores, or worse, violates, that spirit won't. (Most fangames fall into that latter category.)

7. How important do you consider nostalgia to be when it comes to playing a fangame? How much does it help (or hurt) the experience?
For myself? Not particularly important; I try to judge games on their merits.

8. Would you say that being too similar to the source material is a bad thing?
Not really, although doing so in a way that warps the original is. There was one FF4 fangame once, something like 'Time and Again' if I recall correctly, that wreaked havoc on the FF4 storyline by having the characters apparently following in Cecil's footsteps.

author=Dyhalto
There would be a lot less "mean people" if the Iraqi, Afghani, nigh-Libyan, and not-quite-Pakistani occupations ended.

Really? So I suppose all those people jumping up and down, cheering, when the Twin Towers were attacked weren't really 'mean people'?

Face it. America, because of what she stands for as a nation, was their ideological enemy long before we fired a single shot at them. They'd still hate us whether we'd been there or not - there'd still have been attacks, and may be in the future as well, blocked or not - because we represent the antithesis of their own outlook.

So which part's the piano, LWG?

Why? Perhaps because even if the background radiation doesn't work, then the massive burst of released energy inherent in the bomb itself would? If these things are immune to that kind of effect (reasonable, given their nature - but unreasonable if people can actually hunt them), and there's no apparent divine barrier to their demonic activity (which would seem to be the case based on the synopsis on your main page), then humankind has no chance whatsoever.