PESianity

Hi everyone, today I want to talk a little bit about PESianity, what it is, its history and my future plans for it. Thanks to Ray, who asked me to write this article.

When I was in London this spring, walking through a museum wearing my PES hoody, I was approached by a young boy, maybe 9 years old, who asked me: “Excuse me, sir, is this Pro Evolution Soccer?” I answered in the affirmative to which he replied: “Cool, I love that game, too!” I also told him that I worked for WENB and that he should visit that site from time to time. The admiration of his friends for his courage and that he recognized the logo, and his proud look were priceless. That is pretty much what PESianity is all about.
I was asked by a few people lately: “What is PESianity? Some kind of freaky religion?” The name may lead to this assumption, but it’s not really fitting. There is no deity, no sacred book, no saint. Neither are there any churches, nor any litanies. Unless you refer to “PES unites”, “game play is fundamental” or “PES against the world” as prayers.

For me – and that has been my understanding of it ever since – PESianity describes the community of PES fans (PESians), the love for PES that is in all of us and that unites us. We might live in different countries, or even different continents, yet we are one in our passion for the game. It is something that I have never seen or experienced with any other game. Of course, there are fan sites for nearly every game. But not ever have I seen so many fan sites in so many countries. You don’t know that, obviously, when you have your PES fan site that you visit regularly. But as soon as you raise your head and see beyond your own nose, you’ll notice that there are more out there who share your interest in the game. Far more. There are currently more than 40 websites registered in PESianity.org, and that number is growing constantly.

I never expected to gather so many PESian sites when I discussed the matter with Daniele (from pesfan.it) about two years ago. I think it was actually his idea to call it PESianity, but I cannot remember clearly. He contacted me on twitter and asked me if we wanted to create some kind of international website. A site, which featured all the articles from all the different sites in their respective language. Our aim was to provide fans a place, a portal, where they could always come to and instantly see if there was something new. But that turned out to be quite a lot of work, despite the tools we used to simplify the task. Then Daniele went to university and I was pretty much alone, struggling to update the site with the constant stream of news.

That’s why I decided to completely change the layout – and the concept – of the site: I created the wheel of PESians. It worked out pretty well in the beginning, with about 15 sites. But more and more sites asked for membership and one day it just looked horrible: icons covering other icons, jumpy movement instead of smooth gliding. At that time, PESianity hosted not only news sites, but editing sites as well.

With the new logo and the second redesign (courtesy of Sean Rainey), I returned to what I wanted the site to be in the first place: the single point of contact for PESians that want to explore the world of PES and find out if there is one site from their country, in their language. At the same time, the design should be clear and easy to navigate, for a tech-savvy as well as for a young kid or someone unfamiliar with the Internet. I believe we achieved that.

Now you may wonder if there are any rules that apply if you ask for membership. There are none. Not really. Your site has to be a PES news site that is updated regularly, and you have to grant me permission to you use your logo and your name on my site. That’s it. There are, of course, a lot more sites out there, who focus on editing and their work is marvelous. But I chose to only accept news sites (which can also have an editing section).

However – and that brings me to my last point, what I have planned for the future -, I also want those editors to come to my site. Two years ago, I wrote a very detailed option file installation manual for WENB, which I used for last years PESianity OF installation manual. It was translated into 5 languages and was free to use for everyone.

This year, we are going to go one step further: we – that’s a few members of PESian sites – want to release the manual in 10 (or even more) languages. That’s something I cannot achieve on my own, but as I mentioned above, the community is second to none, the spirit and the team work are without equal. I will create a new design, adjustable with logos for any website, and provide the base framework and the original text. The others will jump in and send me their translations. Everyone is allowed, entitled and encouraged to use these guides for their own option files, for free and without limitations. It will save you from a lot of questions.

I’m also having a few more ideas of what I could do, like T-shirts, mugs or special business cards for sites that are members of PESianity.org, but that’s nothing I can detail right now.

Thanks for reading,
Ben

If you have questions, know of a site that’s missing or want to join, feel free to contact Ben on the following accounts.
Twitter: @chaos_PES
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PESianity
Mail to: admin@pesianity.org