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GameFAQs is a popular website about video games that has helped gamers through "FAQs" and "walkthroughs" for games since November 1995. It was started and is maintained by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey. It has the second largest database of video games on the Internet, behind IGN. . The systems and games range from the 8-bit Atari days to the Next-Gen consoles of today. The site supplies FAQs, guides, images, codes, game saves, reviews, and game data free of charge to anyone who visits the site. Registration allows access to the extremely active message board community (which has posted over 180 million messages in over 17 million topics by over 1.5 million users) and the ability to contribute.

GameFAQs History

GameFAQs was started on 5 November 1995 by Jeff Veasey. At that time it was called the "Video Game FAQs Archive", and was hosted on AOL. It originally served as a clone/spin-off of a popular FTP FAQ Archive.

By December 1996, the site was still young, which both the appearance and lack of content demonstrated. The site contained less than 1000 FAQs and guides, combined over all systems. The site focused primarily on the 7 popular systems of the time - arcade games, the Sony PlayStation, the Sega Saturn, the Nintendo 64, the 3DO, the Sega Genesis, and the Super NES - although other systems were also listed. The site was very basic to every degree of the word, and was not updated on a regular basis.

By early 1997, GameFAQs had a new design. In fact, it had two different designs. One was customized for Web browsers that supported frames, and the other was made specifically for browsers with no support of frames. Despite these changes, the color scheme consisted of only white, black and blue, and looked somewhat amateurish. The content, however, was beginning to grow. By April, the site had 1301 files and codes for over 800 games. New features were introduced by Veasey that would shape GameFAQs' future - such as user requests for information; a search engine; recognition for contributors; and more.

By late 1997, GameFAQs had moved off of the AOL servers and was partnered with Imagine Games Network (IGN). During this period of time, Jeff Veasey was working on GameFAQs more than ever before. It is assumed that this is when GameFAQs became his full-time job. Until this time, he had been working in either the radio field (unconfirmed report) or with computer/web programming (evidence taken from a later radio interview). GameFAQs had made it through two years and a new aspect of the site began; user contests. There were only two winners of the GameFAQs Second Birthday Contest out of 1000 entries, but it was a start.

Throughout 1998, Veasey continued to work on the site and post new user-submitted FAQs and codes. In late 1998, the site received another design overhaul. Still operating as an affiliate of IGN, GameFAQs added links to other Snowball partners to its menu bar, and had a number of aesthetic changes applied to it. The actual content of the site hadn't changed much, but Veasey always kept the users informed about the latest events and news. There were frequent updates to the site, even if they weren't always contribution-related. This continued for some time.

In late 1999, GameFAQs had yet another new layout. The sidebar and tables on the homepage which showed the top games were added. The color scheme was also changed, still remaining predominantly blue and white, but these shades weren't exactly the same as before. GameFAQs was still under the flag of IGN.

In November 1999, several things happened very quickly. On the fifth, a Quick 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 as Beta and a Poll of the Day would be implemented by the end of that week. Now, the site was beginning to change from a FAQ archive to one of the best gaming help sites on the Internet.

Between December 1999 and late 2000, GameFAQs slowed down in terms of the addition of new features. The GameFAQs chat went Beta, but did not last long due to administrative issues - it was simply too hard to control.

2001 was the next year of major change for GameFAQs. Firstly, Veasey decided to dissociate the site with IGN. To continue generating revenue, a banner was placed on the top of each page that was sold to non-profit organizations. This changed by May 2001, when CNET Networks became an official affiliate of GameFAQs. In this month, the Chat feature was completely shut down due to the issues mentioned previously.

In September 2002, another change was made to GameFAQs because of adjustment of advertising policy at CNET. The ad was moved from the top of the page (horizontally) to a vertical position in the sidebar. This also led the way to the navigation of systems at the top of the screen. Changes were consequently made to the links on the side, namely minimizing them and creating subsections in "index" pages. In terms of contributions, GameFAQs continued to grow larger and larger, and Veasey - who was still the sole operator and administrator of the site - dedicated hours upon hours of his time to ensure that GameFAQs remained up-to-date, popular, and above all, successful.

On June 3 2003, Veasey announced to general GameFAQs users (moderators of the boards had previously been alerted) that its long-standing affiliate and sponsor, CNET, had acquired the site and all of its assets (minus user-submitted guides/FAQs, due to obvious legal issues). He assured the worried public that GameFAQs would undergo no major change in terms of administration, and that the 'GameFAQs the users saw today would be the one they saw tomorrow'. This seemed true to a certain extent, as the only change viewable by general users was a discreet CNET footer.

However, in April/May 2004, GameFAQs underwent its biggest visual and administration change yet. At the demand of CNET, it partially merged its game boards with those of GameSpot, and radically changed the graphics to those of which we see today. The site's webpages have a table-less layout that is styled by a CSS. GameFAQs also converted from Microsoft ASP to a PHP-powered system. However, its lack of XHTML compliance and easy editability angers both aspiring web designers and average users alike. On December 1, a site-wide login button was introduced and a "Universal Account" system was introduced, which meant that GameFAQs users could also use their usernames on MP3.com or GameSpot, which are also owned by CNET.

Today, GameFAQs is fully owned by CNET Networks. Jeff "CJayC" Veasey is responsible for working on the main site - e-mails, codes, FAQs, reviews, saves, game data, coding, and updating the homepage. CNET has hired Bethany Massimilla to administrate the GameFAQs message boards and lead the moderators. CNET also supplied new (and somewhat faster) servers for the entire site. Although the changeover between the site being run by one man to the site being owned by a company and split into two sections was rough (technical errors, downtime, lost e-mails, and other problems), GameFAQs appears to have settled into its new status; and with the addition of long-time message board user Sailor Bacon to the administration team has regained a level of stability after initial fears, critics and doubts.

GameFAQs Culture

GameFAQs is noteworthy for its active message board community. As a result, messages on the boards are purged every day, keeping the total number of posts to reasonable levels.Here is a rundown on the most well-known and the least well known GameFaqs Boards (Note: Karma is a representation of a user's status. One, and only one, karma can be gained per day if the user logs in.)

GameFAQs Spinoff/Clone Boards

Many people have created their own sites based upon the GameFAQs look and feel. Most of these simply copy the GameFAQs boards; these are commonly referred to as GameFAQs spinoffs. Some go further, emulating GameFAQs' contribution systems as well.

The first spinoff was called GameFAQs Hell, created by Chuck "NeoGenesis" Sakoda in 2002. His first attempt at cloning the boards was performed in ASP and MS Access database services. After giving up on that, he made a new version in PHP and MySQL. He released the source code under the GNU General Public License. It has been confirmed by CJayC that he had a link to GameFAQs Hell in the board help section for promotion of the source.

Since the GameFAQs Hell time, there have been dozens of other spinoffs opened up, and more sources appeared, including:

• GameFAQs Hell-based
  • GameFAQs Hell - GameFAQs Hell was the first spinoff, the one that started it all. Originally it was thought that only 3 or 4 releases of the code still existed; since then many more have surfaced. The boards were originally writen in ASP but were never finished and then were abandoned and rewritten in PHP, and were run on a server owned by the boards' creator, Chuck Sakoda. The server (rhn.skwerl.net) contained several source code downloads up until some time in Spring 2004, but later all of the content was deleted.
  • GameFAQsInfo - GameFAQsInfo is one of the newest GameFAQs spinoffs. The original site was started up in April 2004 and hosted by Angelfire. However, the site's owner, Easter Eggs, declared the Angelfire as a "bad host" and in May of the same year moved to a .net domain. The site basically exists to give information on the happenings at GameFAQs although most of the users that register there just use the boards (which are flooded with racism and other offensive material).
  • Mediarchive - Mediarchive was one of the most featureful and popular spinoffs of all time. It contained a contribution system similar to GameFAQs'. The source code was leaked toward the end of its days. The creator, Jay, claims that he would have released it two days later if it weren't leaked by Counteray, the guy who paid for and hosted Mediarchive. The leak of Mediarchive led to many more spinoffs popping up and others adding more features and fixes to MA code.
  • Outboards - The oldest spinoff remaining in existence, founded in August 2002. It currently uses a heavily modified version of Mediarchive by Jay and Outbreakorn. Over time, it has been the subject of controversy due to staff-encouraged 'invasions' of other spinoffs as well as controversial discussion content.
  • Special Ops - The owner of Special Ops, Anthony "Ant P" Parsons, started hacking at GameFAQs Hell in April 2003 to make it more GameFAQs-like and remove severe exploits and bugs in the original GameFAQs Hell. It contains several major new features and is XHTML-compliant, The site design is noticeably biased against Internet Explorer users, with its extensive use of modern web standards such as CSS 2/3 and transparent PNG images.
  • Twisted Legacy - Twisted Legacy is the third oldest spin-off still in existence, created in late September 2002 as a refuge for GameFAQs "The Couch" members. It has flourished since then, with many source improvements, made formerly by Aquatakat and now by Insder. While the source still has some bugs in it, it has been drastically changed since its Outboards 2 (GFH-Based) beginnings.
  • whiteFyre - whiteFyre is the second oldest spinoff in existence, started in September 2002 by ultimategamer00. It is the first spinoff to truly have the appearance of the actual GameFAQs boards, as much of the GameFAQs HTML was directly copied. The source code was leaked following a break-in using code exploits on August 8 2003 (a similar attack was made exactly one year later), and ultimateGamer's official release followed six months later in February 2004.

• Original Source - This is a list of spinoffs not based off of GameFAQs Hell (most are closed-source, thus derivatives of them are few, if any)
  • Archetype Zero - A very feature-rich spinoff that contains several features from Special Ops, whiteFyre, and some unique to Archetype Zero. It was started in January 2004 and became open source in July 2004. The boards closed down at the end of September 2004.
  • Eugenic GameFAQs Clone - Written by the creator of Archetype Zero, this was intended to be as complete a clone of the new PHP GameFAQs as possible, except using valid XHTML and CSS code. The creator had a conversation with CJayC about it and was given the possibility of having it advertised in the help files as GFH was (see above), but since then work has been discontinued. There are downloads available from the author, as well as on a few other sites below.
  • Flying Turkey - A spinoff that is very user-friendly. It has a lot of options that normal users can do and even more through the shop and higher levels. Flying Turkey is a spinoff with an origin of The Couch made by Magus.
  • GameFAQs Clone X - The first working spinoff written in ASP, although not the first attempt (see section intro). GFCX was the closest to a true GameFAQs spinoff there is, until GameFAQs itself changed from ASP to PHP. The original set of boards were hacked because the owner left the database path in the released source code, and the passwords were unencrypted. The source is available for download at various sites.
  • GameFAQs Clone 2 - A board with an original ASP source that uses the new GameFAQs layout.
  • LUElinks - A private site with boards created by LlamaGuy, only for members of LUE. The interface is similar to that of GameFAQs, but several features are added, most notably the abilities to vote on links and receive tokens for adding good links. There is a running joke among LUELinkers that whenever someone asks for the URL for the board, they all claim that the site does not exist.
  • LUE2 - First GameFAQs spinoff to use the new GameFAQs layout. Originally created by Tsietisin in November 2003 on the day of SteriLUEzation (see site history), for three days it was the largest GameFAQs spinoff to ever exist. After Tsietisin resigned, programmer Mark Lin revived and took over the community in January 2004. After two hackings and numerous shutdowns due to bandwidth overconsumption on the outdated and inefficient Mediarchive software, a new and efficient source code was developed by August 2004 while the original user and post databases were retained.
  • Metaboards - A source code made by U.X.O (also known as Fish and radfox). The purpose was to create a new and "properly coded" version of GameFAQs Hell. It was very active in development for the first three months, however it hasn't received much attention since February 2004, and at version 0.4 has been considered abandoned. All versions of the source have been preserved, some of which still exist on the site's FTP.
  • Radiance - This is an original spinoff with layout similar to Aquatakat's boards. The source is currently moving from MySQL to SQLite under the name of Radiance Revolution.
  • Slate Boards - An original spinoff that uses one PHP file. The source code is stable with no known exploits, but the administration system is lacking compared to others.
  • The Flux Network - The first active spin-off to be based on an OOP design, ns1987 made it because he was tired of the whiteFyre source. Based on GameFAQs Hell Lite, by Ant P.
  • Thunderboards - An almost completely original spinoff still relatively new and the first released spinoff to use SQLite. The owner, lancelott, is more concerned with code perfection than adding more features, so the source is very secure and stable though a bit bare.
  • Turkeybot - The owner of Turkeybot, Tonglebeak, wanted to make "the best spinoff there ever was", with more features and better speed than others. It contains customizable CSS themes like most other spinoffs, added account security, many other features, and claims to never have been hacked.

Anthony Parsons keeps a small archive of free sources for download. A much more complete source collection (though without descriptions) is available at lancelott's directory. There is a list of sources and reviews to accompany them at Slate Boards, however this list is censored to show only negative opinions of other spinoffs. There is also another user-submitted list at Aquatakat's site. The former site of Archetype Zero contains an archived spinoff board listing for historic purposes. None of these sites are entirely up-to-date, due to the rate at which new boards appear and others disappear.

A large former spinoff, Darkside Legion, was a banned word ("darksidelegion") at GameFAQs after receiving a notorious reputation, because its members were said to contact unsuspecting people and persuade them to give his or her password away. Many Mediarchive-based spinoffs have been hacked by spinoff coders. There has been long-standing tension between Outboards and whiteFyre, the two longest-running spinoffs.

See also

• FAQ
• Internet troll
• GameSpot
• CNET

External links

Official sites

• GameFAQs
• GameSpot (Sister Site to GameFAQs)
• CNET (Parent Company to GameFAQs)

Unofficial sites

• SCk24 - A site devoted to covering the GameFAQs contests
• GameFAQs Users SiteMade by moderator Crono Lvl 99, this is abit like the photo albums. The site is dead at this stage.
• Kirby Still On Top's Secondary Boards FAQ - KSOT's Secondary Boards FAQ is recognised by many users as a comprehensive guide to the features and works of the GameFAQs message boards, answering questions and giving factual information that cannot be already found in the Help Files.
• GameFAQs Photo Album
• GameFAQs Archive - The GFA is a collection of saved humourous, interesting, and noteworthy topics and messages posted originally on the GameFAQs message boards themselves throughout their illustrious history between the years 1999 and 2004. The Archive was coded and designed by Roaddhogg, originally to serve as a follow-up to ColdFusion's "Nostalgia Project", which became defunct in late 2002. The GameFAQs Archive currently stores in excess of 1,000 pages and has over 300,000 hits. User submissions are encouraged.

GameFAQs board histories

• History of LUE
• Quantum Dreams History
• First Person Accounts of RI History
• Toaster Oven's History
• USL's History

• Video game websites
• Internet forums