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Revision as of 04:54, 25 September 2006

GameFAQs is a gaming website that has hosted FAQs and walkthroughs for gamers since November 1995. It was created by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey and is currently maintained by CJayC (the Senior Editor) and Allen "Sailor Bacon" Tyner (the Associate Editor). It has a large database of video games, and has been referred to as a site where readers "can get almost any information" regarding game strategies. The systems covered range from the 8-bit Atari platform to the systems of today. The substantial amount of FAQs, cheat codes, and reviews are all submitted by dedicated gamers trying to help others with their knowledge.

Along with the large database of FAQs, codes, reviews, and game saves, it also contains one of the largest message board communities on the web. Every game on the site has its own board to discuss the game or ask/answer questions about the game.

History

GameFAQs was started on November 5, 1995 by CJayC. At that time, it was called the Video Game FAQ Archive, and was hosted on AOL. It originally served as a clone/spin-off of a popular FTP FAQ archive. The original site had approximately 10 pages and approximately 100 FAQs.

By the end of 1996, the site had moved to its current gamefaqs.com location and received the GameFAQs name. At this time, GameFAQs listed fewer than 1000 FAQs and guides. The site was also updated on an irregular basis.

Over the next few months, the site grew in content and in design, with two different designs introduced in early 1997 to accommodate the support of tables in web browsers (or the lack thereof). Two new features were also planned that would stay with the site to the current day: the game search engine and the contributor recognition pages.

IGN affiliation

In 1997, GameFAQs partnered with Imagine Games Network (IGN). During this period of time, CJayC increased his concentration on GameFAQs, and it is assumed that this is when GameFAQs became his full-time job. Until this time, he had been working in IT. User contests were introduced during this period of time, with the first monthly contest in 1998 receiving 253 entries.

In November 1999, a number of changes occurred in quick succession. On the fifth, a search box was added to all pages, at which time the site was also celebrating its fourth birthday. On the seventh, the message boards opened in a beta testing mode, and the Poll of the Day was created at the end of the month.

By 2001, the short-lived "GameFAQs Chat" (an IRC chat server) had been launched. During May 2001, GameFAQs Chat was removed due to inherent administrative issues.

2001 to 2003

On January 9, 2001, GameFAQs ended its association with IGN. To continue generating revenue, an advertising banner was placed on the top of each page that was sold to non-profit organizations. This lasted a few months until CNET Networks became an official affiliate of GameFAQs- CNET ads were ran on the top of the page and links to news articles from GameSpot were shown on the home page.

In September 2002, the ad was moved from the header (horizontally) to the sidebar (vertically). This led to changes to the links on the side, and also led to the creation of navigational links at the top of the screen. In terms of contributions, GameFAQs continued to grow larger and larger, and CJayC, as sole operator and administrator of the site, dedicated hour of his time to ensure that GameFAQs remained up-to-date, popular, and above all, successful.

On April 1, 2002, CJayC changed GameFAQs to "GameFAX" as an April Fool's joke. The site's colors were changed to green and black to imitate those of the Xbox, with the intention of making users believe that GameFAQs was now dedicated solely to the Xbox, "the only system that matters." After clicking on any link on the main page, users were directed to the real GameFAQs page. Despite that, CJayC later reported getting hate mail from users.

CNET acquisition

On May 6, 2003, CNET Networks (the site's long-standing affiliate and sponsor) acquired GameFAQs and all of its assets. The acquisition price was $2.2 million for GameFAQs and two other websites.

On June 3, 2003, CJayC announced the news to general GameFAQs users (moderators of the boards had previously been told shortly beforehand). He clarified that the user-submitted content (FAQs, reviews, etc) remained under the ownership of the authors and was not (nor could not) be sold to CNET. CNET did however acquire GameFAQs' rights to host them on the site. He assured worried users that GameFAQs would undergo no major change in terms of administration, and said that the "GameFAQs you see today is the one you'll see tomorrow". This was true to a certain extent, as the only visible change over the next few months was a CNET footer on the bottom of every page. Other minor changes included moving the servers to California (thus changing the board's timezone to GMT-8), rolling all the board subdomains into one (previously, it was s1/s2/s3; it simply became cgi), and server upgrades.

In April and May 2004, GameFAQs underwent large visual and administrative changes. The first change was a huge visual redesign. The second major change was a "merge" of the GameFAQs and GameSpot boards to allow both communities to share the same game-specific boards (to the disdain of many GameFAQs users). To facilitate this, GameFAQs converted the board code to PHP, and GameSpot dropped its Lithium code and switched to the GameFAQs board code.

On April 11, 2006, GameFAQs changed its appearance again. A new design was implemented and the GameSpot logo was added to the GameFAQs logo on the header at the top of every page. This change was initially greeted with general disapproval by users on the message boards. In order to satisfy those who prefer the prior layout, the old board pages have been preserved for certain users. Shortly after the redesign, CJayC began using the Smarty template engine to generate many of the site's pages.

Message boards

The custom-made GameFAQs Message Boards originally came online on November 7, 1999 after months of coding by CJayC. Although the original purpose of the board system was to facilitate game discussion, a number of other board categories have been added since the boards opened. Every day, approximately 20,000 topics and 220,000 messages are posted on GameFAQs' 50,000+ individual boards. The basic structure of the GameFAQs boards serves as a basis for the forums of GameSpot, MP3.com, and TV.com.

Every game in the GameFAQs database has its own message board. With the exception of a few older systems, discussion on these boards must be kept on-topic- these boards with enforced topicality are shared with the GameSpot community. Extremely popular games may have additional boards for social discussion. Game-specific boards for some older consoles do not have topicality rules and are known as "secret" or "dead" boards. These are often claimed for social discussion. Every system also has a general board for discussing hardware and upcoming games .

GameFAQs has a number of boards made purely for the purpose of socializing ("Current Events", "Random Insanity", and "GameFAQs Contests" being the largest) , some that cater to special interests (such as The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter) , and some purely for users from a particular region (i.e. United Kingdom or Australia) . GameFAQs also has boards for official announcements, contributor discussion, suggestions, and site help .

Features

Posts made on the message boards are mostly plain text. Bold and italics tags are among the few HTML tags allowed on the boards. Avatars, images, and hyperlinks are not present on the boards.

Once registered, users can choose between various stylesheets and message display options. Users can also keep up to 60 favorite boards listed on the main boards page. GameFAQs users gain "karma" for every day they visit the boards. As their karma increases, new features become available to them, such as the ability to view their own posting history, post more messages per day, and visit high-level social boards.

Moderators

The message boards are managed by the site's administrators and moderators. The administrators are paid employees of CNET and control all aspects of the boards. Initially, the only administrator was CJayC and he therefore had full control over the site. Over time, more administrators have been appointed, though at present there are only two active administrators.

GameFAQs' moderators are volunteers selected by CJayC and are responsible for keeping order within the message board community. Due to the size of the boards, the moderators do not patrol every individual board and topic. Instead, messages that break the site's Terms of Service can be "marked" by regular users which brings the message to the attention of the moderators.

Life, the Universe, and Everything

"Life, the Universe, and Everything" (often shortened to "LUE") is one of the most well-known boards on GameFAQs. Its name is a reference to Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, and its original board number (42) continued the reference. Users on LUE refer to themselves as "LUEsers" and often attach "LUE" to other popular fads and events on the board, including the ASCII art known as "LUEshi". Since its creation, LUE has caused many problems for the administration (forum invasions, etc) and has since been made into a private board. On many occasions, CJayC has said he will never allow any new users into LUE. As of August 16, 2006, there are 17,205 accounts that can access LUE.

Spinoff websites

Due to the high popularity of the GameFAQs boards, many users have created spinoff forums based on the layout and general functioning of the GameFAQs boards. One such site is "LUElinks", a spinoff originally created for members of LUE. The original spinoff was the open source "GameFAQs Hell".

FAQs

Most of the FAQ contributions to GameFAQs are not actually lists of frequently asked questions. They usually cover various aspect of gameplay, including walkthroughs, item lists, maps, character and plot analysis, and other guidance to play video games well. All of the contributions are screened by an administrator prior to being posted on the site.

When someone contributes a guide to GameFAQs, the author retains the copyright of the material. GameFAQs agrees to only host the guide on their servers, but allows a few other affiliates to link directly to the guides (including GameSpot, Yahoo! Games, AOL, and GameFly).

Contests

User Poll Contests

• Summer 2002 - Character Battle - Link defeats Mario in the final round
• Summer 2003 - Character Battle II - Cloud Strife defeats Sephiroth in the final round
• Spring 2004 - Best. Game. Ever. - Final Fantasy VII defeats Chrono Trigger in the final round
• Summer 2004 - Character Battle III - Link defeats Cloud Strife in the final round
• Spring 2005 - Got Villains? - Sephiroth defeats Ganondorf in the final round
• Summer 2005 - Character Battle IV - Mario defeats Crono in the final round
• Summer 2005 - Tournament of Champions - Link defeats Sephiroth in the final round
• Summer 2006 - Best. Series. Ever. - The Legend of Zelda defeats Final Fantasy in the final round
• Fall 2006 - Character Battle V - Contest is currently underway.

Top 100 Games

During the 10-Year Anniversary Contest, GameFAQs users chose the 100 best games of all time. The top 10 were:

1. Final Fantasy VII - PS
2. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - N64
3. Chrono Trigger - SNES
4. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - SNES
5. Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES
6. Super Smash Bros. Melee - GC
7. GoldenEye 007 - N64
8. Metal Gear Solid - PS
9. Halo: Combat Evolved - Xbox
10. Final Fantasy III - SNES

Notes and references

• Note: This article uses posts to message boards as references. These posts are from the webmaster, and thus can be contextualized as official announcements from the site's creator, and regarded in the same light as an announcement on a corporate web site.

1. ^ "About the Site". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
2. Katchor, Ben (2006-03-06). "Think your job sucks? Try writing strategy guides". Retrieved 2006-09-19.
3. ^ Veasey, Jeff (2005-04-29). "The Great GameFAQs Q&A". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
4. ^ "Interview with Jeff Veasey" (2002-03-02). The Gaming Files. WXBH AM-1190 (Cobleskill, New York).
5. "VGFA on flex.net". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2001-07-23. Retrieved 2006-09-21.
6. "Video Game FAQ Archive". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 1996-12-23. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
7. "GameFAQs (tables)". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 1997-02-18. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
8. "GameFAQs (no tables)". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 1997-02-18. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
9. ^ Veasey, Jeff (2003-06-03). "The Future of GameFAQs". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2004-10-12. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
10. Veasey, Jeff (2006-08-15). "Ask GameFAQs: Quickies". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
11. "October 1998: "Select Fighter"". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
12. "GameFAQs home page". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 1999-11-28. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
13. Veasey, Jeff (2001-11-07). "Second Anniversary Karma Bonus". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2004-10-12. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
14. "Poll of the Day #1". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
15. "GameFAQs Community". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2001-04-01. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
16. "GameFAQs home page". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2001-05-12. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
17. "GameFAQs home page". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2001-01-18. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
18. "GameFAQs home page". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2001-04-18. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
19. "GameFAQs home page". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2002-09-22. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
20. "GameFAX". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2002-04-01. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
21. Veasey, Jeff (2006-04-01). "An important notice about the future of GameFAQs". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
22. "CNET Networks SEC Quarterly Report" (PDF). CNET Networks. 2003-08-05. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
23. "New Layout/Boards Merger". GameFAQs Archive. Archived from the original on 2004-10-09. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
24. "Gamefaqs vs Gamespot Petition". Retrieved 2006-09-20.
25. Veasey, Jeff (2006-04-28). "Survey says..." GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-09-22.
26. "GameFAQs Message Boards (gfaqs9)". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
27. Veasey, Jeff (2006-08-03). "The v9 End of Life project". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
28. Veasey, Jeff (2006-07-12). "The first major code change is live... Whew!". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-09-22.
29. Veasey, Jeff (2006-09-13). "Ask GameFAQs: How much?". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
30. ^ "Board Basics". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
31. "Rules and Standards". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
32. Veasey, Jeff (2005-08-16). "Ask GameFAQs: Errata?". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-09-21.
33. "LUElinks registration page". Archived from the original on 2005-03-11. Retrieved 2006-09-23.
34. "The Top 10 + 90 Games". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2006-07-25. Retrieved 2006-09-20.

External links

• GameFAQs
• GameFAQs Message Boards
• Secondary Boards FAQ - a FAQ with information about GameFAQs
• WikiFAQs - a Wiki dedicated to GameFAQs
• GameFAQsContests.com - info about the spring/summer/fall contests

• CNET websites
• Computer and video game websites
• 1995 establishments
• Internet forums