Banjo-Kazooie Forums

 

On October 1^st, the official Banjo-Kazooie forums opened to an influx of crazed Banjo fans wanting to share their theories and opinions about everything from Stop ‘N’ Swop to Kazooie’s gender (she’s a she). 

8 months have past and over 5000 members have joined, creating 30,000 threads filled with over 50,000 posts.  

This ‘history’ can be considered homage to the community that has grown from nothing into the creative hub for all Banjo fans and creators.

Thanks to everyone that has played a role in moulding this community into what it is today, and to any new faces that are reading this; welcome to our little corner of the internet and hopefully you will be contributing to this history before no time. 

Well, without further ado, check out the Brief (possibly a lie) History of Nuts & Bolts – Forum Edition.

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Community Game Nights – Details about Nuts & Bolts multiplayer game nights 

The Showroom Thread – A collection of some of the best images and vehicles that have been posted in the online Showroom 

Contest Organisers Group (COG) – Over elaborate contest organising at it’s finest 

Forum Ranks (New & Original) – A not so subtle idea to make fun of the community 

The Challenge Challenge – Details about a quickly forgotten contest 

Vehicle Collection Threads – Personal creation threads containing awesome contraptions and a whole lot of begging  

Miscellaneous Threads – Other awe-inspiring threads that need your attention 

They think it’s All Over – The end, basically.

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Since Nuts & Bolts release in November, we have held a few community game nights where everyone has been invited to show off their vehicles, trade blueprints, and generally embarrass themselves in various multiplayer matches. 

Banjo-related prizes have been given out to randomly selected forum members, which have ranged from Banjo-Kazooie XBLA codes to Banjo mugs and posters.  

Each following community night have been more successful than the last, culminating with a gargantuan gathering last time out that saw a bumper number of games being played. 

However it’s not all smiles and laughter, well not for me anyway. I don’t understand why, but I’m forever singled out for ‘special’ treatment, by which I mean bullied. You can always tell where I am as I’m usually the player that is either stuck in a Banj-ail or being attacked by a certain shaky limbed fellow.  

Enough about my trauma – you can read about all the various game nights in the following threads: 

1^st Community Game Night – Lacking in focus and original post comedy

2^nd Community Game Night – in association with GameFocus.ca

3^rd Community Game Night – L.O.G.’s Lost Challenges 

Here are a couple images from the 3^rd game night courtesy of RawkHawk2010:

     

Expect more community nights in the coming months...

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The Showroom thread is, in my opinion, the best showcase of the truly endless possibilities of the vehicle editor in Nuts & Bolts. Created on release day, the Showroom thread has gone on to house over 1,300 posts, which reveal countless (I’m not counting each individual image) creative images pasted from the main sites Showroom feature.     

It’s difficult to describe the quality of images uploaded, so here is a collage of some of the standout content created by the community: 

What is shown here is literally the tip of the iceberg (well not exactly literally). It is well worth spending some time checking out the vehicles, creations, and Banjo’s many expressions, to see exactly what is possible in Nuts & Bolts.

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C.O.G. (Contest Organiser Group, see what they did there?) came about after the founder, Snakebite360, single handily organised some outstanding vehicle building contests that everyone really loved. After having an influx of follow Banjo-ites wanting to create their own contests, C.O.G. was formed to help keep track of everything that was happening. 

With support from Rare (namely me in the form of prizes) and dedication from Snakebite360 and Wobbly Leg Man, C.O.G. contests became synonymous with these forums and helped produce some of most creative vehicles seen in the game. 

You can learn about all things C.O.G. on their message board thread, which also serves as a way to keep up to date with whatever contests are currently running. 

Correct at the time of writing this, here is a cheeky little collage of all the winners so far:

Snakebite 360’s Tank Contest – Winner: Pauliep14 (Pre-COG)

Snakebite 360’s Spaceship Contest – Winner: CheeseJam (Pre-COG)

Snakebite 360’s Pirate Ship Contest – Winner: Oldranos (1/3)

Abuawwad’s Star Fox Contest – Winner: The Hell Raider (11/3)

Wobbly Leg Man’s Pokémon Contest – Winner: DancesWithH0gs (23/3)

The Hell Raider’s Batman Contest – Winner: The Hell Raider (29/3)

Lama 0’s Castle Contest – Winner: Oldranos (05/4)

CoolFang’s Logo Contest – Winner: DancesWithH0gs (12/4)

Tais3n’s Carnival Ride Contest – Winner: BroPrincess (19/4)

WhiteFerrett’s Some Assembly Required Contest – Winner: Iron Tyrant (27/4)

Crimson10Blade’s Zelda Contest – Winner: Demented Dan (4/5)

Wobbly Leg Man’s Super Mario Contest – Winner: RawkHawk2010 (9/5)

Crab Wizard Sci-fi Contest – Winner: Oldranos (17/5)

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In order to Banjo-ify the forum post ranks (the number that shows how many times someone has posted); a number of custom rank images were created which can be conveniently seen below:

  1 – 49 posts

  50 – 99 posts

  100 – 199 posts

  200 – 499 posts

  500 – 699 posts

  700 and beyond

 A few custom ranks were also handed out to users who did something that particularly stood out:

       

After a change in how the website was managed, new custom forum ranks could no longer be created and we needed a new solution to recognise users.

A couple of threads were created to discuss ideas and designs, with the final result being the new forum achievement rank design that can be seen below:

You can check all the new ranks – and make suggestions – in the Forum Achievement Rank thread. You can also expect new ranks added sporadically over the coming months (basically whenever I feel slightly funny, which as we all know, is not very often).

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The Challenge Challenge was a now deceased (the contest is no more, this is an ex-contest) contest idea that involved community members attempting to achieve the highest leader board position on two carefully selected challenges from Nuts & Bolts. Unfortunately, the Challenge Challenge never really challenged to be successful and very quickly died an unchallenging death soon after conception. 

Even though it was loved by many (well at least a few), it is unlikely to surface again without a groundswell of community support that is unlikely due to the apathetic behaviour towards to this fledgling contest.

Before I get emotional, here are all the threads the Challenge Challenge spawned before fading away...

Challenge Challenge (17^th – 24^th December) – Winners: Utia Guy & Ajmiles

Challenge Challenge (12^th – 19^th January) – Winners: Ajmiles & LJmufc08

Challenge Challenge (19^th – 26^th January) – Winners: TGB Loki & Shimrod65

And the forum ranks that were given out:

      

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A great source of inspiration, and blueprints, these are some of the best personal vehicle collection threads in the community: 

BroPrincess’s collection – Everything from simple bikes and tanks to mechs and AA Guns

Abuawwad’s Game world replicas – A unique collection with support from a few other users

Hiro TDK’s collection – Gyroscopes, crossbows, and space shuttles help make up this collection 

Wyvern Smasher’s Collection – Particularly awesome Halo Scrab found here

The Hell Raider’s Collection – All his threads grouped together into one awesome mega-collection

Oldranos’s Collection – Nearly 40 creations posted here

DancesWithH0gs’s Collection – Contest winning designs and a whole of host of others available

Wobbly Leg Man’s Collection – Included simply for his descriptions, and the Unown Alphabet

Lolzomghardcore’s Collection – The original blueprint sharer, and still one of the best around

SyKhotic V2’s Collection – Many awesome designs, especially a guitar hero and pokeball replica

Wert AC’s Halo Collection – Every vehicle a certain Spartan could ever want

A few examples:

 

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Since the forums opened, a number of awesome threads have been created that focus on something slightly different from the usual vehicle collection or contest threads. Below is a small selection of threads that have been popular since their creation: 

Got some vehicle ideas? – Abuawwad’s attempts to create contraptions based on suggested real vehicles.

Gamertag Thread – Post your gamertag; play with the community - pretty self-explanatory.

Beyond the Impossible – Think an idea’s impossible? probably not...

Tais3n’s Blueprint Shop – Trade blueprints for points, worked pretty well

Cr3am Sodah’s Montage Thread – You can check out the final montage video here.

The Daily Log – News updates about the community.

Banjo Science – Ingenious idea to weigh items in Nuts & Bolts – more interesting than it sounds.

Banjo-Kazooie Trivia Thread – Probably the geekiest thread on the forum...

The Rip off Thread – Vehicles that fit into other games; not sure about this one, seems popular though

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Phew, there you have it; a comprehensive (I told you it wasn’t brief) history of all that makes the Banjo-Kazooie.com forum community what it is today. 

Thanks to everyone that has contributed to forums over the last few months, and who knows what the future might bring (I’m predicting gun-wielding dogs and drone invasions). 

Keep creating, keep having fun, keep sharing blueprints, and keep me in a job. 

Well, that’s my cue to make like a tree... and get out of here. 

Brother Mike

                                                                                                     

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Wow I never realised how awesome and great this forum was until now!

IM GOING DOWN IN HISTORY!

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youtube.co.uk/denslat1
not a chav...never will be....

nicely compiled

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Brother Mike FTW...really awesome work! Why is it always so good to read about the great things people have done in your friendly online community...haha

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Keep 'Em Coming

Brother Mike:

Phew, there you have it; a comprehensive (I told you it wasn’t brief) history of all that makes the Banjo-Kazooie.com forum community what it is today. 

Thanks to everyone that has contributed to forums over the last few months, and who knows what the future might bring (I’m predicting gun-wielding dogs and drone invasions). 

Keep creating, keep having fun, keep sharing blueprints, and keep me in a job. 

Well, that’s my cue to make like a tree... and get out of here. 

Brother Mike

                                                                                                     

It was great and now im intrested hmm... Fourie...

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Current Leader Of Negazooie (the clan)
I'd like to thank and welcome all my new members ;)