DID I DO THAT? The Pac-Man Guitar - A Blogging Phenomenon Deconstructed

Last week, after posting the Katamari photos from the Bay to Breakers Race and reading the ensuing comments, I was marveling at the amazing speed at which certain stories take off aound the world, and it got me thinking about a particular viral blogging episode from last year, and what role I may have played in it.

So let's begin with a question:

Does anyone NOT remember reading about the Pac-Man guitar late last June?



Ah, no hands in the air. Okay, maybe a few hands. While it was popular, it was no Star Wars Kid, Numa Numa Kid, or Boom Goes The Dynamite. In any case, I'll continue...

After posting about the Pac-Man guitar on June 16 (more detail in timeline below), and suddenly seeing it posted everywhere six days later, I thought it was a strange coincidence. However, since GameFam had only been active for 2 days when I posted about it, I thought that the chances were pretty remote that the blogospheric wildfire had anything to do with lil' ol' me.

Well, turns out I was wrong. I did a little research, and what I found was that while I wasn't the first to ever write about the Pac-Man guitar (more detail near bottom of post), I've been able to trace the posts from mega-blogs like BoingBoing, Gizmodo, MAKE: Blog, Joystiq & Kotaku, viral sites like Milk and Cookies, and even MP3.com & Suicide Girls, all the way back to my little GameFam post, written on my 2nd day as a real live blogger.

To clarify, I do this not out of ego or self-aggrandizement...well, mostly not ;) , but mainly 'cuz I think it's pretty cool to have played a part in something I've only witnessed from the sidelines (or bandwagon-jumped myself) before now.

Ready? Here goes...

June 12, 2005

• My wife and I take our 2 kids to the Printer's Row Book Fair in Chicago, mainly because Justin Roberts is performing there. In addition to the Roberts performance that is actually the point of this entire post, the kids enjoy free popsicles, and we also see a Vovlo made out of Lego. A good time was had by all.
  

June 15, 2005

• I launch GameFam with my first-ever post as a blogger.
  

June 16, 2005

• I make my second-ever post on GameFam, writing about our experience at the Printers Row Book Fair, and specifically, focusing on the funky guitar that one of Justin Roberts' band members was using that day.
  

June 19, 2005

• Robin, who was (and still is) a terrific blogging sherpa/sounding board, especially pre-GameFam-launch, posts about my starting GameFam in her blog, gewgaw, including a comment about and link to my post about the Pac-Man guitar.

June 21, 2005

• Geek On Stun posts about the guitar, linking back to gewgaw

June 22, 2005 (The Big Day)

1. FFWD posts in the linklog (scroll down to June 22), linking back to Geek On Stun
2. MAKE: Blog posts at 12:31 a.m., linking back to FFWD. Commenter trivini mentions that he "saw a dude playing one of those last week at a children's concert in Chicago. (We were just passing by)." The plot thickens.
   
3. Boing Boing posts at 2:11 a.m., linking back to MAKE: Blog

So now that we've seen how the Pac-Man guitar made its way from GameFam to Boing Boing, all hell breaks loose, as the rest of the world jumps on ye olde bandwagon.

• Gizmodo posts about the guitar, linking back to Boing Boing.
• Music Thing posts about the guitar, linking back to MAKE, Boing Boing & Gizmodo
• Extra Life posts at 10:25 a.m. No link.
  
• MP3.com discussion boards post at 12:23 p.m., linking back to Boing Boing.
  
• Searchviews posts at 3:57 p.m., linking back to Boing Boing.
  
• Joystiq posts at 5:00 p.m. No link, but the writer thanks someone named matthew.
• Kotaku posts about the guitar. No link.
  
• Everything and Nothing posts about the guitar. No link.
  

You get the idea. Many many other blogs and websites posted about the Pac-Man guitar at some point on June 22. Those were but a few of the notable ones.

June 23, 2005

• Viral video site MilkandCookies posts about the guitar. The link was submitted by a gaming blogger named Hellroy.
• Loaded Pants posts about the guitar, The writer says that he read about it on the IGN boards, which I can't access, since I'm not a member.

June 24, 2005

• Attu Sees All posts about the guitar.
• Crave Online posts about the guitar.

After that, there are some more posts and links here and there, including the GamerDad message boards, and Suicide Girls, then the whole thing kind of peters out.

As I wrote early in the post, I wasn't the first to write about the Pac-Man guitar.

• On January 27, 2005, five months before my post, Brad of Brad Sucks fame posted about the guitar. The post generated 2 comments, the last of which is on February 4, 2005. Between February 4th and my post on GameFam, nary a word about the guitar.

• And waaaaaaay back on September 24, 2001, almost four years before my post, the guitar shows up in the Atari Age forums, but other than a few (7) comments the same day, nothing else happens.

Well, that's what I found out. Can anybody out there find an earlier reference to the guitar than September, 2001, or maybe a mid-June, 2005 post that beat me to the punch? Jes' lemme know if you do. In the meantime, anyone mind if I take the credit blame?

Anyone?

Beuller?

P.S. Any blogular bitterness that might be inferred (e.g. when I point out who did or didn't link to where they found the story), is completely unintentional. I had a lot of fun tracking this info down, and overall, I think the whole thing is pretty cool.