ZNG

The ZNG is an organization that seeks to gather "Zelda nerds" together to act as a body and discuss all things Zelda with each other, and often other video games as well.
The ZNG came into being on Miiverse, where the members (often referred to by the moniker "ZNGers") encountered each other by various means, with some ZNGers first meeting each other as early as 2013. However, with the demise of the Mii-populated social networking service, the ZNG has now largely migrated to other platforms, primarily Discord and Twitter. MV Haven was explored as an alternative, but was shut down after a couple years of operation. The ZNG Discussions site associated with this wiki, while explored, only ever caught on for a few narrative gameplay logs, rather than casual discussions.
In addition to the ZNG being one large organization, there are also subdivisions known as Insider Gangs.
As you can tell by this wiki's contents, the ZNG is an English-speaking group; however, a few ZNGers are also multilingual.
== History ==
The first concept of the ZNG arose around the time of Nintendo's June 16, 2015 E3 presentation, which unveiled the first online co-op The Legend of Zelda title, Tri Force Heroes. Several members of what was to become the ZNG posted positive reactions on Miiverse shortly after the event. Most notably, Stagger created a . Many of his friends joined in the conversation, and it didn't take long for it to shift toward discussing the newest game in the beloved Zelda franchise.
=== Deciding on the Name ===
While discussing the multiplayer capabilities, Stagger jokingly referred to the friend group as the "Zelda Nerd Buddy Crew." Soon after, Ed™ objected to this brand on the grounds that the word "Buddy" wasn't cool enough. Ed™ called for a "manlier" term, citing "Gang" as an example. Blake was also not a fan of "ZNBC," preferring the initialism "ZNG." Nintendoer was granted the role of leader for the newly formed group due to his unmatched competency in Zelda series ang his strong gumption, which fit perfectly with the "G" in ZNG, at the time standing for "Gang." But upon returning from his vacation, Nintendoer preferred to not be in a "Gang" and suggested the likes of "Group," "Gamers," and … "Guacamole" instead. By this point the clan's acronym had been solidified as "ZNG," but the meaning of the "G" was still an amorphous blob, pulled in opposing directions by wills of the freshly-minted ZNGers. Ultimately, all were able to reach a consensus with the compromise, "We'll figure out what the 'G' stands for later." The "G" has remained not definitively laid out for an extensive period of time; instead, ZNGers just tend use whatever "G" word comes to mind when spelling out the full title (i.e. Zelda Nerd Gardeners, Zelda Nerd Grumblers, Zelda Nerd Gorons, etc.).
When a group of ZNG members expands into other series, the first letter of the name is often changed to match the series. For example, when playing Xenoblade Chronicles X together, they referred to themselves as the XNG, and so on.
=== In Miiverse's Prime ===
Play Styles were an undercover way to exchange 3DS friend codes, letting the ZNG play games like Tri Force Heroes and Metroid Prime: Federation Force together. The Zol Nesting Grounds were a lurking ground for all kinds of dark and gloomy ZNG secrets. Brandon gave us all a deluge of Out-of-Control Trivia posts. Elzonire posted nearly a million ZNG Game Facts, almost single-handedly overwhelming Miiverse's servers with Japanese–English trivia delights. The ZNG broke into song as the ZNG Chorus. And of course much more, which is partially summarized in § Timeline below.
And then …
=== The End of Miiverse and a New Beginning ===
Upon hearing the announcement of Miiverse ending in late 2017, the various members of the ZNG scrambled to plan for the preservation of the group post-Miiverse. One way some ZNGers had been sharing Switch screenshots with each other and the world at large had been by using Twitter, which is integrated into the Switch with the built-in screenshot upload feature. The ZNG started to branch from that screenshot function to using Twitter as a more significant channel for short-form communication in Miiverse's twilight days. Additionally, the forum MV Haven was started by Miiverse user KingX a few days after Miiverse's end was announced, and for a time harbored a number of ZNGers before its shutdown.
The ZNG Discord server, originally established for group voice chats while playing multiplayer games together such as Tri Force Heroes, Splatoon, Mario Kart, etc., has had a flurry of activity since it opened in 2018 and became a key place for discussions among ZNGers. Even this wiki's ZNG Discussions area had a number of ZNG posts, especially logs, hosted on it. However, with Discord's introduction of threads, a dedicated #game-logs channel was established on the ZNG Discord server and superseded Discussions' role as a hub for ZNG logs.
These post-Miiverse solutions are by no means exactly the same as Miiverse was, and yet, the spirit of the Zelda Nerd G[__] is as strong as ever, and the members of the ZNG are on track to remain united in their friendship for the foreseeable future.
=== Timeline ===
ImageSize = width:450 height:1500
PlotArea = width:400 height:1480 left:50 bottom:20
DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
Period = from:11/01/2014 till:12/20/2021
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/2015
ScaleMinor = unit:month increment:1 start:11/01/2014
PlotData=
 color:teal width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S shift:(25,0)
 # shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap
 from:11/19/2014 till:12/23/2014 shift:(,-3) text:[[Zelda Adventure Quiz]]
 from:01/31/2015 till:02/11/2015 shift:(,-3) text:[[Termina Trivia]]
 from:06/17/2015 till:06/23/2015 shift:(,-3) text:Formation of the ZNG
 from:07/29/2015 till:08/04/2015 shift:(,-4) text:The Miiverse redesign
 from:08/09/2015 till:10/18/2015 shift:(,-4) text:[[Zelda Challenge Chalice]]
 from:10/22/2015 till:12/20/2015 shift:(,8) text:[[Stagger's Fashionista Adventures with the Zelda Nerd Gang]]~and~[[Triple Bear Challenge]]
 from:01/16/2016 till:01/23/2016 shift:(,-7) text:[[List of ZNG Chat Posts|Beginning of Ed's chat dynasty]]
 from:01/26/2016 till:02/15/2016 shift:(,-6) text:"[[Twilight Princess Trivia Series]]"
 from:02/17/2016 till:02/24/2016 shift:(,-1) text:"[[Miiverse#The Wyoming Club|The Great Wyoming Club Play-Time Posting Occurrence]]" # Actually from:02/08/2016 till:02/11/2016, but moved in date to be separate from the previous event. Should be fixed if possible.
 from:06/26/2016 till:07/02/2016 shift:(,-6) text:Start of the ZNG Wiki
 from:07/08/2016 till:07/13/2016 shift:(,-1) text:Ed's 50th chat post
 from:10/25/2016 till:10/30/2016 shift:(,-4) text:Ed's 100th chat post
 from:11/12/2016 till:12/03/2016 shift:(,-4) text:[[Zelda Challenge Series]]
 from:12/06/2016 till:01/01/2017 shift:(,-4) text:[[Ocarina of Time Trivia Contest]]
 from:03/03/2017 till:03/08/2017 shift:(,-4) text:Launch of the Switch and Breath of the Wild
 from:04/01/2017 till:05/06/2017 shift:(,-3) text:[[Breath of the Wild Challenge Series]]
 from:06/08/2017 till:06/13/2017 shift:(,-4) text:Ed's 200th chat post
 from:08/27/2017 till:09/01/2017 shift:(,-9) text:Announcement of Miiverse closure
 from:09/04/2017 till:09/10/2017 shift:(,-5) text:[[ZNRPG|First demo of the ZNRPG released]]
 from:09/18/2017 till:09/25/2017 shift:(,-2) text:[[MV Haven|MV Haven opens]]
 from:09/30/2017 till:11/01/2017 shift:(,-4) text:[[Zelda Adventure Quiz 2nd Quest]]
 from:11/05/2017 till:11/10/2017 shift:(,-2) text:Miiverse closure 
 from:01/05/2018 till:01/10/2018 shift:(,-3) text:[[Twitter|The Great Twitter Top-Games-per-Console Posting Occurrence]]
 from:05/31/2018 till:06/07/2018 shift:(,-3) text:[[Discord|Start of the Discord server]]
 from:12/07/2018 till:12/14/2018 shift:(,-1) text:The ZNG battles it out in~Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
 from:06/29/2019 till:07/07/2019 shift:(,-1) text:The ZNG plays and shares each other's~courses in Super Mario Maker 2
 from:09/22/2019 till:09/29/2019 shift:(,-3) text:The start of sharing each other's streams through~a dedicated channel on the Discord
 from:03/21/2020 till:03/27/2020 shift:(,-1) text:The ZNG visits each other's islands~in Animal Crossing New Horizons
 from:04/27/2020 till:05/03/2020 shift:(,-3) text:MV Haven closes
 from:10/25/2020 till:10/30/2020 shift:(, 5) text:Weekly~[[Among Us]]~sessions begin
 from:12/17/2020 till:12/23/2020 shift:(,-3) text:Game logs channel started on the Discord server
 from:04/30/2021 till:07/13/2021 shift:(, 0) text:Gage's friend Brian creates the~ZNG Among Us comics series
 from:07/15/2021 till:07/20/2021 shift:(, 6) text:Revival of the~[[ZNRPG]] # Actually on 06/02/2021
 from:10/10/2021 till:10/15/2021 shift:(,-3) text:[[Stagger]]~returns to the Discord server
== Become a Member ==
The ZNG is a highly inclusive organization. Being friends with a current ZNGer and being a fan of the Zelda series are the only real qualifications. Some members have been unwittingly drafted into the group just for having a friendship with a certain member, while Christian joined as a complete stranger to all simply by asking permission. The ZNG has several close friends who aren't technically in the group, but have links to one or more members and can be seen appearing in various ZNG discussions, events, or logs.
If you would like to join the ZNG, group leader Nintendoer is the man to consult.
Despite the group being open to all, in some cases ZNG hopefuls have been given an "initiation exam" to prove their Zelda mettle.