Gameplanet
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| Gameplanet (NZ) Limited | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Company |
| Founded | 2002 |
| Founder | Simon Barton, Simon Garner |
| Headquarters | Albany, Auckland |
| Industry | Web based |
| Products | Gameplanet.co.nz GPForums.co.nz GPDownloads.co.nz |
| Website | www.gameplanet.co.nz |
Formed in 2000 and registered as a company in 2002, Gameplanet is one of New Zealand's premier gaming and internet communities. Gameplanet comprises a main website offering reviews/previews of the latest games for both console and PC, servers for a variety of popular internet games such as Counter-Strike and Call of Duty.
Gameplanet's sister operation, GP Store, is owned and operated by Virtual Stores (NZ) Ltd, and used to include a physical store in Mt Eden, Auckland. This store closed in August 2007, making GP Store exclusively online-based.
The Gameplanet web site has won numerous awards, including the NetGuide People's Choice Awards for best games-related site in 2006 and 2007 [1][2][3].
Contents |
[edit] Gameplanet Forums
Located at www.gpforums.co.nz.
Gameplanet Forums is made up of a large number of discussion forums spanning a number of topics. While the main focus of the forums is on gaming, Open Discussion (formerly Off Topic) is a popular place for gamers and non-gamers alike. Open Discussion has a number of sub-forums including Cars, Bikes & Motorsport and Current Events, Politics and Philosophy.
Many of the Open Discussion members are known for being relatively personal and intimate with many members knowing or having "meat" (Gameplanet term for a GP Meet - named for the traditional barbecue) each other in real life. There have been numerous GP Meats across New Zealand.
[edit] Members of notable mention
- Jason Molloy a.k.a."Sgt Molloy" - Was jailed for hate crimes involving an Auckland mosque.
- Karl Burnett - A member of GP Forums who played Nick Harrison in Shortland Street, a New Zealand Soap Opera.
- David Farrier - TV3/Nightline Journalist
- Dean Kent - A member of GP Forums who has represented New Zealand at both Olympic and Commonwealth Games (under the online alias of deanospeedo)
[edit] Gameplanet in the media
[edit] Name suppression
A user started a thread encouraging users to guess who the celebrities involved in a Cocaine and Ectasy scandal were. Soon, members were posting the names of any celebrity they could think of- some of them, as it turns out, were right. This attracted media attention, as this was breaching name suppression on the said celebrities.[4][5]
On the advice of a lawyer, a user famously said "It's just like talking around a water cooler at the office". This quote was later used by the Dominion Post in a story on the drug scandal and also on TV3 on the current affairs programme Campbell Live, which showed footage of the forums' frontpage as an introductor segment of the show.
Also in early 2005, A quote from a user was read out on NZ Talkback Radio after an All Black beat up his wife. The line was, "yeah, and who knows how lippy that woman was.", which was wittily derived from the NZ film, Once Were Warriors.
[edit] Gameplanet Store Targeted
On March 6, 2007, TV3's reality TV show Target aired a survey they conducted which involved an underage actor attempting to purchase an R18 game in various games shops in the Auckland region. Although one of the staff at Gameplanet was willing to sell an R18 game to a 16 year old, they did ask for an age verification ID with a 13 year old. Gameplanet was not the only store to be caught out, as a high percentage of other game specialist stores were also caught out in the sting.
