HardOCP
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- The correct title of this article is [H]ard|OCP. The substitution or omission of any < > [ ] { } is because of technical restrictions.
[H]ard|OCP (Hardware Overclockers Comparison Page) is an online magazine that offers news, reviews, and editorials that relate to computer hardware, software, modding, overclocking and cooling. The website was started in 1998 by Kyle Bennett; he remains the current owner and editor-in-chief.
Contents |
[edit] Product Reviews
[H]ardOCP is known for reviewing products and technologies. What they are famous for is their "real-world" gameplay evaluations when it comes to computer hardware reviews. [H]ardOCP does not review products based upon how many FPS it scores in synthetic benchmarks such as 3Dmark. Instead, [H]ardOCP plays through a computer game while recording the FPS. A product is rated based on how high of ingame detail it allows the user to enjoy, instead of how fast the product performs at low detail levels.
[edit] Staff
- Kyle Bennett - Owner and Operator.
- Steve Lynch - Co-operator, and Kyle's right-hand-man.
- Rich Tate - Weekend [H] News gawd and gaming forum moderator
- [H] Enthusiast Staff
- Kyle Bennett - Motherboard and CPU Managing Editor.
- Brent Justice - Video Card Managing Editor
- Casey Brewer
- Omar Hakimi
- Paul Jastrzebski
- [H] Console Staff
- Steve Lynch - Console Managing Editor
- Chad TeVelde - Game Reviewer
- Justin TeVelde - Game Reviewer
- [H] Consumer Staff
- Jason Wall - Managing Editor.
- Gary Huff
- Jennifer Mackey
- Josh Norem
- Tim Roper
- Joey Seiler
- Allen Varney
- [H]ard|Forum Staff
- Lethal - Administrator of the forums.
- MajorDomo - Administrator of the forums.
[edit] [H]ardOCP vs. Infinium Labs
On September 17, 2003, HardOCP writer Steve Lynch posted “Behind the Phantom Console”, an investigative report concerning Infinium Labs and its CEO, Tim Roberts. On February 19, 2004, lawyers from the firm Morrison & Foerster, representing Infinium Labs, sent a letter to Kyle Bennett, alleging libel and demanding a retraction. Bennett responded to these allegations by filing suit against Infinium Labs under the Declaratory Judgement Act, which allowed KB networks (the legal entity behind HardOCP) to force legal resolution of the issue. Infinium Labs later withdrew from the suit, citing legal expenses. [1] A prayer for relief was filed, releasing KB Networks from all claims of liability. [2] HardOCP reportedly incurred close to $250,000 in expenses during the course of this lawsuit.[3]
[edit] [H]ard|Forum
HardOCP maintains a forum community (based on vBulletin) called [H]ard|Forum which has over seventy thousand registered users and hosts close to four and a half million posts. [H]ard|Forum is comprised of several dozen subforums covering numerous topics related to computer hardware and software. It is also the birthplace of the General Mayhem forum community, located offsite.
Interestingly enough, the word "fanboy" is among a few words that are blocked. Presumably, this word was banned due to flaming that would happen in the video card forums as a result of fanboys.
[edit] General Mayhem
The original [H]ardForums contained an area for off-topic discussion, known as "General Mayhem." After operating a while, Kyle closed the General Mayhem subforum, and several users who disagreed with this decision were banned. In the words of Kyle, "I like to always say that Genmay was like a great big party that was as fun as it could get. It was just we had the party at my house every night and we had to clean up the house ourselves the next morning." Some forum members broke off and started their own General Mayhem website, often known as Genmay. Several years later, [H]ardOCP's General Mayhem subforum was reopened, and is now operated on a subscription-based access. The General Mayhem "entry fee" is $5 for one year, or $15 for a lifetime subscription. There is a bit of controversy surrounding the "pay for access" mentality. Many argue that the entire site should be ad-supported and all the content free. Others like it subscription-based, arguing that it gives people who support [H]ardOCP special perks. Kyle's argument is quite simple: "five dollars keeps idiots and spambots out of the forum." Although there is a bit of community resistance between [H]ardOCP and Genmay, the two websites generally co-exist quite peacefully.
In addition to an off-topic discussion forum, subscribers also get the ability to lock their own threads. The ability to change one's title is still not allowed (short of reaching the required number of posts), but Kyle is known, on occasion, to change someone's title for them. The mood Kyle is in dictates what kind of title the victim receives, and he has been known to hand out some very odd and offensive titles in the past.
In May, 2006 the Cars subforum was renamed to Cars/Motor Vehicles and made a subforum of General Mayhem.
[edit] External links
- Hard|OCP
- News - The [H]ardOCP main page, which contains all the daily updates in one location.
- Enthusiast - Contains high-end computer equipment reviews and news.
- Consumer - Contains prebuilt (OEM) system reviews and news.
- Console - Contains video game console reviews and news.
- Hard|Forum
