GameFAQs

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GameFAQs

The GameFAQs home page during Character Battle V in October 2006. The day's match was Kirby vs. Luigi.
URL http://www.gamefaqs.com/
Commercial? Yes
Type of site Gaming
Registration Optional (required for contributing content and posting on the message boards)
Owner CNET Networks, Inc.
Created by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey
Launched November 5, 1995

GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey and is owned by CNET Networks. The site has a large database of video game information and has been called a site where readers "can get almost any information" regarding game strategies.[1] The systems covered range from the 8-bit Atari platform to the consoles of today. The FAQs, cheat codes, reviews, game saves, and credits are submitted by volunteer gamers, and contributions are reviewed by the site's two editors, Jeff Veasey and Allen "Sailor Bacon" Tyner.

The site hosts a large and active message board community. Every game listed on the site has a board to discuss the game or answer questions about the game. The site also features a daily opinion poll and related contests.

GameFAQs is consistently cited by The Guardian as one of the top gaming sites on the Web,[2][3][4] and the site has been positively reviewed by Entertainment Weekly.[5] Additionally, GameFAQs.com is one of the 300 highest-trafficked websites according to Alexa.[6]

Contents

[edit] History

GameFAQs was started as the Video Game FAQ Archive on November 5, 1995.[7] Hosted on AOL, it originally served as a mirror of Andy Eddy's FTP FAQ archive.[8][9] The initial version of the site had approximately 10 pages and 100 FAQs.[10] In 1996, the site moved to its current domain at gamefaqs.com and changed its name to GameFAQs.[11][7] At this time, GameFAQs listed less than 1000 FAQs and guides and was updated on an irregular basis.[12]

During the following months, the site grew in content and in design; two different styles were introduced in early 1997 to accommodate the support of tables in web browsers (or the lack thereof).[13][14] Two key features of the site — the game search engine and the contributor recognition pages — were planned at this time.

[edit] IGN affiliation

In 1997, GameFAQs became an independent affiliate of the Imagine Games Network (IGN), leading to the placement of affiliate links on the home page.[15] User contests were introduced during this period; the first monthly contest, which was held in 1998, received 253 entries.[16] GameFAQs went through several design changes, including a pink color scheme,[15] before arriving at the blue-colored layout that was used until 2004.

In November 1999, several changes occurred in rapid succession.[17] On the fifth, a search box was added to every page, at which time the site was celebrating its fourth anniversary. On the seventh, the message boards opened in a beta testing mode.[18] The "Poll of the Day" was introduced at the end of the month.[19] These changes marked Veasey's increased concentration on the site, and it was around this time that GameFAQs became his full-time job.[20][21] Until this time, he had been working as a programmer.[20] On August 9, 2000, the site received one million hits in a single day for the first time.[22] By 2001, the "GameFAQs Chat" (an IRC chat server) had been launched;[23] however, it was removed in May 2001 due to administrative issues.[24][10]

[edit] 2001-2003

On January 9, 2001, GameFAQs ended its association with IGN.[25] To continue generating revenue, an advertising banner sold to non-profit organizations was placed on the top of each page. This lasted until CNET Networks became an official affiliate of GameFAQs; CNET ads ran on the top of the page and links to news articles from GameSpot were shown on the home page.[26] In September 2002, the ad was moved from the horizontal header to the vertical sidebar. This led to changes to the links on the side, as well as the creation of navigational links at the top of the screen.[27] Contributions to GameFAQs continued to increase, and Veasey, as sole operator and administrator of the site, dedicated significant portions of his time to ensure that GameFAQs remained updated and successful.

On April 1, 2002, Veasey changed GameFAQs to "GameFAX" as an April Fools' joke.[28] 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 home page. Nevertheless, Veasey reported receiving hate mail from users.[29]

[edit] CNET acquisition

On May 6, 2003, CNET Networks (the site's long-standing affiliate and sponsor) acquired GameFAQs and its assets. The amount paid for GameFAQs and two other unrelated websites was US$2.2 million.[30] On June 3, 2003, Veasey announced the merger to the users of the site.[21] He clarified that the user-submitted content (i.e. FAQs, reviews) remained under the ownership of the authors and was not (nor could be) sold to CNET; however, CNET acquired GameFAQs' rights to host them on the site. He assured users that GameFAQs would undergo no major administrative change and said, "The GameFAQs you see today is the one you'll see tomorrow."[21] This was true to a certain extent, as the only visible change over the next few months was the addition of a CNET footer to the bottom of every page. Additional minor changes included moving the site to new servers in California (thus changing the board's time zone to GMT-8) and merging the three board subdomains (s1/s2/s3) into one (cgi).

From 2004 to 2006, GameFAQs witnessed further changes. In April and May 2004, GameFAQs implemented a large visual redesign,[31] and the boards merged with the GameSpot boards to allow both communities to share the same game-specific boards (to the disdain of many GameFAQs users).[32] To facilitate this, GameFAQs converted its board code from ASP to PHP, and GameSpot dropped its Lithium code. On April 11, 2006, a new design was implemented and the GameSpot logo was added to the GameFAQs logo on the header of every page. This change was initially greeted with general disapproval by users on the message boards.[33] To satisfy those who prefer the earlier layout, the old board pages have been preserved for certain users.[34] Shortly after the redesign, Veasey began using the Smarty template engine to generate many of the site's pages.[35]

[edit] Message boards

The custom-made GameFAQs Message Boards, coded by Veasey, began operation on November 7, 1999.[36] Although the original purpose of the board system was to facilitate game discussion, other board categories have been added since the boards opened. Every day, approximately 20,000 topics and 200,000 messages are posted on GameFAQs' 50,000+ individual boards,[37] and as of November 7, 2006, there were more than 100,000 accounts actively in use.[38]

Every game listed on GameFAQs has its own message board where both novice and experienced gamers can discuss game strategies and other game-related topics.[39][40] Since the redesign of May 2004, the game boards with enforced topicality have been shared with the GameSpot community. Certain popular games may have additional boards for social discussion. Game-specific boards for certain older consoles do not have topicality rules and are often claimed for social discussion — these are referred to as "secret" or "dead" boards. Every system also has a general board for discussing hardware and upcoming games.[41]

GameFAQs has boards made purely for the purpose of socializing ("Random Insanity" and "Current Events" being the largest),[42] some that cater to special interests (such as The Lord of the Rings or pro wrestling),[43] and some purely for users from a particular region (e.g. United Kingdom, Australia/New Zealand).[44] GameFAQs also has boards for official announcements, contributor discussion, contest discussion, suggestions, and site help.[45]

[edit] 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.[46] Unlike many message boards, tags for images, hyperlinks, and underlining are not allowed, avatars are not used, signatures are limited to two lines of text, and posts cannot be edited. Additionally, the forums use a wordfilter to prevent the use of certain vulgar words.[47] Older posts are not kept indefinitely.

GameFAQs users gain one "karma" for every day they visit the boards. As karma increases, new features become available, such as the ability to post more messages per day, visit high-level social boards, and view a post history page.[46] Registered users can choose between various stylesheets and message display options.[48] Users can add favorite boards to a personalized list on the main boards page and can track specific topics (a feature added in 2006).[49][50]

[edit] Moderators

The message boards are managed by the site's administrators and moderators. Initially, Veasey was the only administrator and therefore had full control over the boards; however, more administrators have since been appointed. The two active administrators are Veasey and Tyner;[7] other CNET developers and employees have administrator accounts but do not play an active role on the site.

GameFAQs' moderators are volunteer users selected by Veasey and are responsible for keeping order within the message board community. Because of the size of the boards, the moderators do not patrol every 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.[51]

[edit] Life, the Universe, and Everything

"LUEshi", an ASCII art meme based on the box art of Super Mario World.
"LUEshi", an ASCII art meme based on the box art of Super Mario World.

"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' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, and one of its earlier board numbers (42) continued the reference. Users on LUE refer to themselves as "LUEsers" and often attach "LUE" to popular fads and events on the board, such as "LUEshi",[52][53] an ASCII artwork which depicts Mario riding Yoshi. Since its creation, LUE has caused problems for the administration (such as forum invasions) and has since been made into a private board. On many occasions, Veasey has said he will never allow new users into LUE.[9] As of August 16, 2006, there are 17,205 accounts that can access LUE.[54]

[edit] Spinoff websites

Due to the high popularity of the GameFAQs boards, many users have created spinoff forums based on the layout and general functionality of the GameFAQs boards. The first spinoff forum was the open source "GameFAQs Hell".[10] One of the largest spinoffs currently in existence is "LUElinks", a site originally created for members of LUE.[55] LUElinks has more than 10,000 registered users.[56]

[edit] FAQs

All of the guides and walkthroughs on GameFAQs are contributed by volunteers.[57] Most of the FAQs are not actually lists of frequently asked questions; instead, they cover aspects of gameplay in the same way as strategy guides, with walkthroughs, item lists, maps, and puzzle solutions. Nearly all of the FAQs hosted on the site are in plain text,[58] though GameFAQs does also accept stand-alone images, such as maps and puzzle solutions.[59] In addition to FAQs, contributors can also submit reader reviews, cheat codes, developer credits, game release data, and game saves.

When an author submits something to GameFAQs, it is screened by an administrator before being posted on the site.[60] The author retains the copyright on the submitted material,[61] and their name is added to the site's "Contributor Recognition" section. GameFAQs agrees to host the guide only on their servers but does allow other affiliates to link directly to the guides (including GameSpot, Yahoo! Games, AOL, and GameFly).[60]

GameFAQs features several ongoing contributor contests, including FAQ of the Month, Review of the Month, and numerous "FAQ Bounties", which reward contributors who submit FAQs for uncovered, high-demand games.[62] The FOTM and ROTM contests are generally picked from comprehensive, complete guides or reviews for new games. Winners are sent a gift certificate for an online retailer, or opt for a mailed gift card upon contest entry.[63][64]

In 2005, GameFAQs published two commercial strategy guides via Future Publishing: The Ultimate Xbox Strategy Guide and The Ultimate PS2 Strategy Guide.[65][66] These guides were composed of FAQs written by contributors on GameFAQs.

[edit] Contests

[edit] User poll contests

Contest Winner Runner-up
Character Battle Link Mario
Character Battle II Cloud Strife Sephiroth
Best. Game. Ever. Final Fantasy VII Chrono Trigger
Character Battle III Link Cloud Strife
Got Villains? Sephiroth Ganondorf
Character Battle IV Mario Crono
Tournament of Champions Link Sephiroth
Best. Series. Ever. The Legend of Zelda Final Fantasy
Character Battle V Samus Aran Solid Snake
Battle Royal Link Cloud Strife

Since 2002, GameFAQs has hosted annual (or biannual) tournament contests consisting of daily polls in which visitors to the site choose between two competing characters, games, or series. Registered users can submit prediction brackets, and prizes are awarded to those who score the highest. The contest polls are almost always shown in lieu of the regular Poll of the Day and have always been accompanied by an image depicting the entrants in the match. The number of votes in a contest poll typically far exceeds the amount cast in a normal Poll of the Day.[67][68]

The annual Character Battle has been the subject of two webcomics — Penny Arcade featured the Character Battle in their comic on August 23, 2002,[69] and Creative Uncut's Inside the Gamers Studio strip mentioned the Character Battle in their ninth comic.[70]

[edit] 10 Best Games Ever

During the 10-Year Anniversary Contest, GameFAQs users voted on the 10 best games of all time (and tried to predict what the top 10 would be). Final Fantasy VII was selected as the best game ever, followed by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Chrono Trigger, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Smash Bros. Melee, GoldenEye 007, Metal Gear Solid, Halo: Combat Evolved, and Final Fantasy III/VI.

[edit] Notes and references

  • Note: This article uses posts to message boards as references. These posts are from the site's creator and thus can be contextualized as official announcements and regarded in the same light as an announcement on a corporate website.
  1. ^ Kuchera, Ben (2006-03-06). Think your job sucks? Try writing strategy guides. Ars Technica. Retrieved on March 25, 2007.
  2. ^ Schofield, Jack. "Games watch" (html), The Guardian, 2000-05-11, p. 11. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved on December 27, 2006. (in English) “SPOnG, the Super Players Online Gamesbase, would like to become to games what the Internet Movie Database is to films. Since the IMDb is one of the world's best websites, that would be useful, though GameFAQs might be a better place to start.”
  3. ^ Pratchett, Rhianna. "Online: Six of the best: Games sites" (html), The Guardian, 2003-02-06, p. 8. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved on December 27, 2006. (in English)
  4. ^ Boseley, Sarah, Michael Cross, Tom Happold et al. "Life: Online: 100 most useful websites: Cream of the crop: With internet activity at an all-time high, Online asked specialist journalists to select their favourite sites from across the web" (html), The Guardian, 2004-12-16, p. 22. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved on December 27, 2006. (in English) “GameFAQs lists game player-created walkthroughs, plus links to cheats, reviews and previews”
  5. ^ Internet Capsule Review. Entertainment Weekly (2000-02-04). Retrieved on January 24, 2007.
  6. ^ Related Info for: gamefaqs.com. Alexa Internet. Retrieved on January 24, 2007.
  7. ^ a b c About the Site. GameFAQs. Retrieved on September 30, 2006.
  8. ^ Andy Eddy's archive was formerly located at ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/vi/vidgames/faqs
  9. ^ a b Veasey, Jeff (2005-04-29). The Great GameFAQs Q&A. GameFAQs. Retrieved on September 20, 2006.
  10. ^ a b c "Interview with Jeff Veasey" (2002-03-02). The Gaming Files. WXBH AM-1190 (Cobleskill, New York).
  11. ^ VGFA on flex.net. GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2001-07-23. Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
  12. ^ Video Game FAQ Archive. GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 1996-12-23. Retrieved on April 9, 2007.
  13. ^ GameFAQs (tables). GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 1997-02-18. Retrieved on September 19, 2006.
  14. ^ GameFAQs (no tables). GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 1997-02-18. Retrieved on September 19, 2006.
  15. ^ a b GameFAQs home page. GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 1998-12-12. Retrieved on October 27, 2006.
  16. ^ October 1998: Select Fighter. GameFAQs. Retrieved on September 29, 2006.
  17. ^ GameFAQs home page. GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 1999-11-28. Retrieved on September 19, 2006.
  18. ^ Veasey, Jeff (2001-11-07). Second Anniversary Karma Bonus. GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2004-10-12. Retrieved on September 19, 2006.
  19. ^ Poll of the Day #1. GameFAQs. Retrieved on September 19, 2006.
  20. ^ a b Davidson, Neil. "Stumped by a video game? Chances are Jeff Veasey can help", Canadian Press Newswire, 2003-03-05. Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
  21. ^ a b c Veasey, Jeff (2003-06-03). The Future of GameFAQs. GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2004-10-12. Retrieved on September 19, 2006.
  22. ^ GameFAQs home page. GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2000-08-15. Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
  23. ^ GameFAQs Community. GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2001-04-01. Retrieved on September 19, 2006.
  24. ^ GameFAQs home page. GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2001-05-12. Retrieved on September 19, 2006.
  25. ^ GameFAQs home page. GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2001-01-18. Retrieved on September 19, 2006.
  26. ^ GameFAQs home page. GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2001-04-18. Retrieved on September 19, 2006.
  27. ^ GameFAQs home page. GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2002-09-22. Retrieved on September 20, 2006.
  28. ^ GameFAX. GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2002-04-01. Retrieved on September 19, 2006.
  29. ^ Veasey, Jeff (2006-04-01). An important notice about the future of GameFAQs. GameFAQs. Retrieved on September 20, 2006.
  30. ^ CNET Networks SEC Quarterly Report (PDF). CNET Networks (2003-08-05). Retrieved on September 20, 2006.
  31. ^ New Layout/Boards Merger. GameFAQs Archive. Archived from the original on 2004-10-09. Retrieved on September 20, 2006.
  32. ^ Gamefaqs vs Gamespot Petition. Retrieved on September 20, 2006.
  33. ^ Veasey, Jeff (2006-04-28). Survey says.... GameFAQs. Retrieved on September 22, 2006.
  34. ^ Veasey, Jeff (2006-08-03). The v9 End of Life project. GameFAQs. Retrieved on September 20, 2006.
  35. ^ Veasey, Jeff (2006-07-12). The first major code change is live... Whew!. GameFAQs. Retrieved on September 22, 2006.
  36. ^ GameFAQs: Message Board Frequently Asked Questions. Archived from the original on 2000-05-10. Retrieved on December 21, 2006.
  37. ^ Veasey, Jeff (2006-09-13). Ask GameFAQs: How much?. GameFAQs. Retrieved on September 20, 2006.
  38. ^ Veasey, Jeff (2006-11-07). Happy Birthday to Us... and to you!. GameFAQs. Retrieved on November 17, 2006.
  39. ^ Carless, Simon (October 2004). Gaming Hacks. O'Reilly. ISBN 0-596-00714-0. 
  40. ^ Flor, Nick (July 2004). "The Architecture of the Symbol Engine in a Programmable Autonomous Business" (PDF). Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on E-Commerce Technology: 119–126, IEEE. DOI:10.1109/ICECT.2004.1319725. ISBN 0-7695-2098-7. Retrieved on 2007-01-25. 
  41. ^ System Boards. GameFAQs. Retrieved on December 30, 2006.
  42. ^ Social Boards. GameFAQs. Retrieved on December 30, 2006.
  43. ^ Special Interest Boards. GameFAQs. Retrieved on December 30, 2006.
  44. ^ Regional Boards. GameFAQs. Retrieved on December 30, 2006.
  45. ^ Site Boards. GameFAQs. Retrieved on December 30, 2006.
  46. ^ a b Board Basics. GameFAQs. Retrieved on September 20, 2006.
  47. ^ Message Board Terms of Use. GameFAQs. Retrieved on October 1, 2006.
  48. ^ GameFAQs: Manage Account (login required). GameFAQs. Retrieved on December 29, 2006.
  49. ^ Additional Features. GameFAQs. Retrieved on September 30, 2006.
  50. ^ Veasey, Jeff (2006-12-06). Topic Tracking. GameFAQs. Retrieved on January 31, 2007.
  51. ^ Rules and Standards. GameFAQs. Retrieved on September 20, 2006.
  52. ^ LUE topic with many LUEshi's. GameFAQs (2004-05-03). Archived from the original on 2004-10-12. Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
  53. ^ Poll of the Day #2333. GameFAQs. Retrieved on March 8, 2007.
  54. ^ Veasey, Jeff (2005-08-16). Ask GameFAQs: Errata?. GameFAQs. Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
  55. ^ LUElinks registration page. Archived from the original on 2005-03-11. Retrieved on September 23, 2006.
  56. ^ LUElinks - Stats. Retrieved on January 4, 2007.
  57. ^ Mary-Kate and Ashley: Winner's Circle; The Times (London); July 1, 2001; Stuart Andrews; p. Doors.2 "Guides to completing thousands of video games, compiled by gamers worldwide"
  58. ^ Composing Your Guide. GameFAQs. Retrieved on October 26, 2006.
  59. ^ Images (Maps and other graphics). GameFAQs. Retrieved on January 1, 2007.
  60. ^ a b After You've Submitted. GameFAQs. Retrieved on October 26, 2006.
  61. ^ Copyrights, Trademarks, and Plagiarism. GameFAQs. Retrieved on October 26, 2006.
  62. ^ FAQ Bounty. GameFAQs. Retrieved on March 18, 2007.
  63. ^ FAQ of the Month. GameFAQs. Retrieved on March 18, 2007.
  64. ^ Review of the Month. GameFAQs. Retrieved on March 18, 2007.
  65. ^ in Cohen, Corey (ed.): The Ultimate Xbox Strategy Guide. Retrieved on November 11, 2006. 
  66. ^ The Ultimate PS2 Strategy Guide. Retrieved on November 11, 2006. 
  67. ^ Poll of the Day #2411 (69288 votes). GameFAQs. Retrieved on December 29, 2006.
  68. ^ Poll of the Day #2425 (111582 votes). GameFAQs. Retrieved on December 29, 2006.
  69. ^ Penny Arcade comic. Penny Arcade (2002-08-23). Retrieved on December 17, 2006.
  70. ^ Inside the Gamers Studio comic. Creative Uncut (2003). Retrieved on December 17, 2006.

[edit] External links

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