User blog:Brandon Rhea/Wikia 2014: A Recap of FAN-tactular Events

It's almost hard to believe that we're just a little over a week away from a brand new year. 2014 has been huge for Wikia communities, and fans have been busy chronicling every moment. This year alone, fans made a whopping 85 million edits across all communities, from Movies to TV to Music and more. That type of dedication and passion is what sets Wikia's fans apart from other sites, and it's one of the reasons why you helped make 2014 a bigger, crazier year here at The Social Universe for Fans, by Fans. Let's look back on some of the amazing things 2014 brought!

Wikia Fan Studio

We couldn't have been more excited to launch Wikia Fan Studio, a program where community members interact directly with Wikia Staff and partner brands from the entertainment and video gaming industries, amongst others. Fan Studio gives participants the opportunity to make an impact on fan-focused products and marketing, and have their voices heard by Wikia and major entertainment and gaming brands. Our year-end project, Year In Fandom, gave community members the opportunity to partner with video creators from Maker Studios to create videos celebrating the best fandom moments of 2014. A number of videos have already been released, chronicling moments like the, how , the , the , and more. Check them out today on Year in Fandom Wikia!

Partnerships like these provide fans with unparalleled access to exclusive content, developers, talent, and industry leaders. Some of our partnerships can be seen on communities like Shadow of Mordor, WildStar Online, Terra Battle, Civilization: Beyond Earth, and Warp 5.0 on Trek Initiative. This brand/fan collaboration has helped accelerate the momentum in those communities and give community members the ability to build even greater content. Check out what some of our Shadow of Mordor fans had to say about partnering with the creators at Warner Brothers:



Admins Hang With Wikia

While online collaboration is our bread and butter, one of our favorite things every year is the opportunity to meet and interact with community members from around the world. This year, Wikia had the privilege of hosting a number of community admins in our office, ranging as near as the United States to as far as the Netherlands. And everywhere we went&mdash;from C2E2, to San Diego Comic-Con, to New York Comic Con&mdash;we were able to meet fans from Wikia and see their love of fandom in-person, and see just how much of an impact Wikia communities have on other fans from all walks of life.

Coast-to-Coast Comic Cons

Probably the coolest in-person interactions were on a train and a food truck! The Wikia Fan Express pulled into San Diego Comic-Con carrying Shadow of Mordor fans with a brand new collaborative mapping project to show off at the convention. On the other side of the continent, the Wikia Fantasy Food Truck drove right up to New York Comic Con to serve up your top-voted fictional foods. Wikia fans also highlighted their perspective at E3 and PAX Prime this year, and we're excited to see even more of you out on the road in 2015.

And that's just a taste of what fans covered. Check out our C2E2 photos, San Diego Comic-Con photos, and New York Comic Con photos for more superfan coverage.

Maps & Apps

Wikia's new Maps feature, released in the summer, allows for easy collaboration on traditional maps and many other types of images. The Palantir app for iPads gives Shadow of Mordor players information from the wikia, synced to their gameplay. Community Apps, showcasing content from individual communities, also proved to be popular with iOS and Android users. And music fans enjoyed the Lyrically app that quickly gets you song lyrics on the go. With so many people using smartphones and tablets, we’re always working on better ways to get the content you create in front of all types of readers.

Looking Forward to 2015!

Thanks to all of you who continue to make Wikia the best destination for fans across the world. As we look forward to making even more memories in 2015, we want to know: what was your favorite memory on Wikia in 2014? Share it with us in the comments!