Forum Story - 3rd Edition - Fursan al-Aqsa - Staff Admin 1 Year - MPGH Memeologist

[DragonyCat]

Fursan al-Aqsa – Knights of al-Aqsa Mosque

Fursan al-Aqsa – Knights of al-Aqsa Mosque, is an upcoming FPS game. The game is made by a solo developer, Nidal Nijm, or udkultimate as he goes by on MPGH. Back in November 2019, he made a post in MPGH’s General section, describing his game. The post that now has close to 7000 views and over 130 replies details Nijm’s background and inspirations for the game. He describes the response from the MPGH community as a positive experience:

“Yes, MPGH is one of the most friendly communities I ever had the pleasure to join. People were very positive and supportive for me, only good and positive comments and feedback. I was not fired with racist comments accusing me of terrorist propaganda, like in other forums. And believe me, whenever you are working as a solo game dev, any word of support means too much for us; it helps us to keep motivated.”

An element that differentiates Fursan al-Aqsa from other FPS games is that it features a Muslim protagonist. Growing up, Nijm played many video games but always wondered about how games portrayed Muslims. He later discovered that Arabs and Muslims are commonly portrayed as being terrorists. Nijm wanted to create a game that featured Muslims and Arabs as the good guys. As it turns out, having a Muslim protagonist made some people hesitant to support the game:

“The biggest problem is the media, especially gaming portals, sites, and gaming journalists. I realized many journalists simply refused even to take a look at my game … I think many people, whenever they see an Arab Character wearing the headscarf and shouting out, "Allah Akbar" (which means God is Great), they automatically, inside their subconscious, link this image to 'terrorism'.” says Nijm about getting media coverage for his game.

But this hasn’t stopped Nijm from developing his game. “What I realized, is that players, in general, are very open-minded, and many, many people told me they were tired of playing as the 'USA Super Hero Saver of the World," and wanted to try something different.' says Nijm. He plans to release the game in January of 2021, initially on itch.io and later on Steam. He also plans to release console versions as a commercial 'homebrew' (allows you to distribute games onto older platforms without the need for an official distributor) since it is no longer possible to release PS3 or Xbox 360 games.

A demo version of the game is already available for download. Nijm encourages the MPGH community to try it out and provide feedback. He also offers his thanks to the community:

“I would like to say "Jazakom Allah Khayr," which means God gives you all the best. I thank you so much for being very supportive of me.”

Find out more about the game:
Official website: https://www.fursanaqs*****m/
IndieDB: https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan...al-aqsa-mosque
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UdkUltimate
MPGH Forum Thread: https://www.mpgh.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1479522

Written by: Gnavling
Date: 2020-10-27

Staff Administrator for 1 Year

Flengo's journey started on May 11th, 2010. After almost two and a half years later, on November 16th, 2012, Flengo became a Contributor. This tag was awarded to users who shared many useful tools and/or hacks with the community. A little over a month later, Flengo was promoted to Combat Arms Minion. His chief responsibility was to ensure uploaded files were safe and help the section grow as a community. Due to his outstanding work in this role and being the best overall out of all the other minions, in only a couple months (April 2013), he became Minion+. Moreover, on May 29th of the same year, he decided to donate some of that sweet hard-earned money to become a Premium user. He must've donated A LOT of money because 3 months later, he became a Global Moderator, which is one of the most vital positions on MPGH. He basically had to moderate every section of the forum, investigate possible ban evaders, and a lot more. Despite having this much work already, Flengo decided to become a Middleman on April 14th, 2014. Approximately a year later, on April 4th, 2015, Flengo decided to join the Publicist team, which does a wide variety of tasks to promote MPGH.

After 9 years of being in multiple positions, on October 13th, 2019, Flengo became a Staff Administrator. Fast forward a year, and he is now celebrating his milestone. As a Staff Administrator, you oversee staff applications, promotions, demotions, combined with various administrative tasks.

If you haven’t already, congratulate him here.

Written by: DragonyCat
Date: 2020-10-13

MPGH Memeologist

Essentially, the word 'Memeologist' is derived from the words “meme” and “logy” (a branch of learning; a study of a particular subject). In these less appealing, less exciting days, this is exactly what MPGH needs. Whoever is chosen will be tasked to bring the most high-quality memes to MPGH.

On October 26, 2020, Staff Administrator Flengo posted and asked people to post their best MPGH memes and explain why they should join this position of making memes.

If you are interested in becoming a Memeologist, head over to Flengo’s post to apply.

Good luck with creating!

Written by: DragonyCat
Date: 2020-10-29