GameFAQs

GameFAQs is a popular website that has provided FAQs, walkthroughs, images, codes, game saves, reviews, and data for video games free of charge to visitors since November 1995. It was started and is maintained by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey, and has one of the largest databases of video games available on the Internet. [1] (http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/stats/) The site covers a wide range of systems, with many obscure consoles and titles. Registration with the site allows access to message boards (which has posted over 200 million messages in over 20 million topics by over 2.5 million users) and the ability to contribute game content. Since 2003, the site is a wholly owned subsidiary of CNET Networks.

Contents

1 GameFAQs history 2 Message boards 2.1 Jargon 2.2 Spinoff websites 3 See also 4 External links 4.1 Official sites 4.2 Unofficial sites 4.3 GameFAQs board histories

GameFAQs history

GameFAQs was started on November 5 1995 by Jeff "CJayC" 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 [2] (http://web.archive.org/web/19961223185936/http://www.gamefaqs.com/), the site was still young, both in 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 seven popular systems of the time - arcade games, the Sony PlayStation, the Sega Saturn, the Nintendo 64, the 3DO, the Sega Genesis, and the SNES - 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 tables [3] (http://web.archive.org/web/19970218070909/www.gamefaqs.com/home.html), and the other was made specifically for browsers with no support of tables (or text-only) [4] (http://web.archive.org/web/19970218070917/www.gamefaqs.com/thome.html). 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 [5] (http://web.archive.org/web/19980110160229/http://gamefaqs.com/), 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 early 1999 [6] (http://web.archive.org/web/19990302070007/http://www.gamefaqs.com/index.html), 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 from blue and white to pink and red. GameFAQs was still under the flag of IGN.

In November 1999 [7] (http://web.archive.org/web/19991128113006/http://gamefaqs.com/index.html), 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 (http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/) opened as Beta and a Poll of the Day would be implemented by the end of that week.

Between December 1999 and late 2000, GameFAQs slowed down in terms of the addition of new features. The GameFAQs chat went beta on June 21, 1999 (http://web.archive.org/web/20000621102312/http://gamefaqs.com/), but did not last long due to administrative issues - it was simply too hard to control. The IRC server, however, definitely brought a rise in the site's activity, with more people visiting the domain at different times of the day. The GameFAQs chat was initially revolved around a minor number of administrator-owned channels, but eventually allowed users to create their own (such as #trivia) through a petitioning system.

2001 [8] (http://web.archive.org/web/20010118211300/http://gamefaqs.com/) 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: while full details weren't revealed and no official precise reason was given, it is believed that this was due mainly to the chat's main administrator (who went by the nickname Wroth) continuous conflicts with other popular users such was Wise Old Gamer, Vegeth and Dettronen Spy.

During the middle of 2001 came about strife and unrest between the popular Final Fantasy VII and Star Ocean: the Second Story gaming boards. At the time, the overall list of the most popular boards was determined by the amount of posts. Star Ocean: the Second Story (more commonly referred to as SO2) had multiple users posting hundreds of useless topics. Veasey interfered eventually and created what was the first Social Board on SO2 (which has since been removed). Final Fantasy VII soon had a board and other popular games had one installed as well. This also marked the start of board rankings being determined by individual server hits not posts.

In September 2002, CNET's advertising policy changed, prompting more changes to GameFAQs. The ad was moved from the top of the page (horizontally) to a vertical position in the sidebar. This also led 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 April 1, 2002, CJayC changed GameFAQs to GameFAX (www.gamefax.com)[9] (http://chris.insder.com/index.php?pg=92) as an April Fool's joke. The site's layout was changed to green and black to imitate those of the XBox. The intention was to make users believe that GameFAQs was now dedicated to only the XBox, since it is "the only system that matters." However, after clicking on any links on the main page, you were immediately directed to the real GameFAQs's page. Despite that, CJayC later reported [10] (http://chris.insder.com/image/gfhoax.gif) getting "flames, threats, and the like" over the joke.

On June 3 2003 [11] (http://chris.insder.com/index.php?pg=224), 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 worried users that GameFAQs would undergo no major change (http://chris.insder.com/index.php?pg=224) in terms of administration, and that the 'GameFAQs the users saw today would be the one they saw tomorrow'. This was true to a certain extent, as the only visible change was a discreet CNET footer. Other minor changes included moving the servers to California (thus changing the board's time to GMT -8), as well as rolling all the server names into one (previously, it was s1/s2/s3; now it became simple cgi.gamefaqs). This made users happy because the old servers were starting to lag.

In July 2003, Veasey completely overhauled GameFAQs' security in light of an alarming rise in account hackings and stealings. For log-in, he encrypted the cookies and un-checked the auto-login box. He also instituted "account lockdowns." If the private email or password was changed, an email would be sent to the last known private address (in case a hacker had taken over the account). The user could then suspend it (Level 2: User Suspended) and send an email to CJayC to to get it unsuspended. This process, however, was long and cumbersome, eventually leading to its discontinuation. However, some hacked users have recently become Level 2, which indicates that it is still possible to have your account set to Level 2 if you are hacked, likely by contacting CJayC or another admin. Security Settings were also implemented; users could lock out other login attempts from other ISPs for a set period of time. To top it off, he required everyone to read and acknowledge the changes (the next time anyone would log in, they would see the page).

In April/May 2004, GameFAQs underwent its biggest visual and administrative change yet. At the demand of CNET (and to the disdain of many GameFAQs users), it partially merged its game boards with those of GameSpot (http://www.gamespot.com) and radically changed the graphics to those seen today. The site's web pages are now styled by CSS instead of tables. GameFAQs also converted from Microsoft ASP to a PHP-powered system. However, its lack of XHTML compliance and less-than-easy CSS modification has angered both aspiring web designers (and those who want to create their own stylesheets) and average users. On December 1, a site-wide login button was introduced and a "Universal Account" (http://chris.insder.com/index.php?pg=734) system was introduced, meaning that not only GameFAQs users would have to login using an email address (rather than a username), but could also use their usernames on MP3.com or GameSpot (both of which owned by CNET).

In February/May 2005, GameFAQs took their message boards one step further towards the future of Message Boards by adding "Sticky Topics". Like phpBB boards, topics can be stickied by admins and possibly moderators. While CJayC already had this to himself for years, it was only then that he had made it so him, Sailor Bacon (another admin) and the two lead mods can sticky any topics they wish. As part of the code, topics that are stickied cannot be purged unless it has been removed and on some boards such as Message Board Help, failure to read the sticky would result in a moderation.

Today, GameFAQs is fully owned by CNET Networks. Jeff "CJayC" Veasey still maintains responsibility 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 has supplied newer (and a little faster) servers for the entire site. Although the changeover from being a one-person-administrator to being owned by a big company, as well as the transition from old to new servers and boards, was rough, GameFAQs appears to have settled into its new status. With the addition of long-time message board moderator Sailor Bacon to the administration team, GameFAQs has regained a level of stability after initial fears, criticisms and doubts.

Message boards

GameFAQs is noteworthy for its active message boards community. Because of the high volume of posts it receives each day, old messages on the boards are purged daily, keeping the total number of posts to a reasonable level. Unfortunately, many of the boards, especially ones meant for discussion of important social issues, are often overrun with trolls and people who like to "bait" the trolls.

Jargon

This is a short list of Internet slang used largely on GameFAQs.

• 313er - The term for those who frequent the UK regional board.
• Autoflagged word - Words that have been abused but still have legitimate means. In that case, the word when posted is sent to the mod queue for revision. Autoflagged words are not allowed in topic titles.
• B& / B7 - Another term used in the same way as Banninated. B& is pronounced "banned". B7 is used as a joke because 7 is the key which the character "&" appears on when shift is held.
• Banninate - Term frequently posted when a user posts a message which contains a major ToS violation that normally leads to being banned from the website. The phrase is a play on of the word "burninate" which originated from Homestar Runner with the character "Trogdor the Burninator"
• CEer - A term to describe a person who goes to CE regularly, sometimes called "CEmen".
• Evil Republicans - A popular club on the War on Terrorism board, consisting of, with very few exceptions, extremely politically conservative users. Attempts to create competing liberal and libertarian clubs have ended in failure.
• ITT (Ignore This Topic) - A term originating on the War on Terrorism board, as a response to topics perceived by users as trolling. Ironically, as any post in a topic moves it to the top of the board, posting "ITT" increases the likelihood of people reading it rather than ignoring it.
• Karma - A number representing a user's status on the message boards. Each day that a user logs in and has at least one active post earns him/her one point of Karma, and TOS violations can result in loss of Karma. Higher Karma unlocks additional board features and higher posting limits. Once a user reaches 75 Karma, he/she becomes a "Regular User" with no posting restrictions, but some boards are restricted to higher-level users.
• KOS (Kill on Sight) - Although rare, this is the worst punishment one can receive on GameFAQS. It is given to those with past violations on multiple accounts. Any new accounts of those who have been KOSed are suspended on sight by moderators, without question. KOS orders peaked in the 2002-2003 period.
• LUEicide - Term used for account suicide (intentionally violating as many rules as possible in order to be banned) by a LUEser. It was popularized on March 4 2003, when the infamous "Black LUEsday" occurred. LUEicide is an autoflagged word.
• LUEsers - Describes people who go to and frequent LUE. It is pronounced "loser", which is most likely an intentional pun.
• LUEshi - An ASCII image of Mario riding Yoshi. LUEshi quickly became one of the largest fads on GameFAQs, and posting it outside of designated ASCII topics was considered a serious TOS violation. It epitomized disobedience and defiance and punishments went from lenient to harsh. As of now, it is considered as regular ASCII and thus moderated only when disruptive (i.e. not in ASCII topics).
• Meta Mod - A now obsolete feature which allowed users with 40+ Karma to rate the fairness of moderations. It was abandoned due in large part to some users rating all moderations, no matter how obviously justified, as unfair.
• MIASU (Mark it and shut up) - Polite Message Board Help (MBH) users asked users to wait 24 hours after marking a message to complain. Less polite members bluntly told them to MIASU (Mark it and Shut Up). It grew in popularity, but is now moderated for trolling (inciting flames).
• Mod Baiting - Purposely attracting a moderator's attention, either by posting an autoflagged word (which, despite popular belief, is not automatically marked) or posting a topic implying that one is underage (i.e. Topic: I am 12 / Message: hundred years old)
• Notification - A minor moderation that results in the loss of three karma.
• Purgatory - A term used for the temporary suspension of users whose TOS violations are not quite severe enough to warrant banning.
• Purge - The regular deleting of topics that have not been posted in for a time determined by the number of posts on a board. Also used to mean "purgatory" in some cases.
• RIer - Name given to users who frequent Random Insanity. Can be pronounced either "Are-Eye-er" or "Ryer"
• Usermap - A listing of the accounts which have been used to log into the site via a certain computer IP address, which supposedly records logins from up to 30 days before the current date. (Translation - it takes 30 days from the date of a login being recorded to the login being purged from the usermap.) Specific information about usermaps (such as the specific IP addresses and the accounts on a usermap) are restricted, and considered mod-only information. The information above is one of the only things that moderators are allowed to divulge to non-moderators, along with the warning that logging into the site from a public computer (ex. computer at school, computer at an internet cafe, etc.) means that you run the risk of losing your account if another user logs in on that computer and violates the TOS, resulting in a usermap axe.
• Usermap Axe (or "Axed") - A severe administrative response to a problematic user wherein an account is banned, as are any account(s) of any user(s) whose IP has logged into the former account.
• WoTer- A frequent visitor to the War on Terrorism board. Pronunciation rhymes with "water."

Spinoff websites

Due to the high popularity of GameFAQs' forums, many users have created their own forums based on the layout and general functioning of those of GameFAQs. They are commonly referred to as spinoffs. Most contained additional features not present in GameFAQs' forums, some original and others culled from popular forum software. While many had a contribution system mimicking GameFAQs', they were generally seldom used.

The first generation of spinoffs started in 2001, when Chuck "Neo" Sakoda (a.k.a. NeoGenesis) created the first spinoff, GameFAQs Hell. His first attempts at cloning GameFAQs were with ASP and Microsoft Access, the same model used by GameFAQs at the time. He eventually rewrote his spinoff in PHP (paired with MySQL), releasing it under the GNU GPL. Jeff Veasey eventually helped promote Sakoda's efforts by placing a link to GameFAQs Hell in GameFAQs' help files. From the source code of GameFAQs Hell spawned several second-generation spinoffs such as The Outboards (http://www.theoutboards.com) and Twisted Legacy (http://tl.warpedbelief.com) that still exist to this day.

After Sakoda closed down GameFAQs Hell, the spinoff world began to evolve in what is called the second-generation of spinoffs. Dark Cobra was the first to expand upon the source code of GameFAQs Hell and create a website using it, GameFAQs Refuge. After that too failed, The Outboards was formed on August 1 2002. Bugs carried over from the original code it was based on required the site to be taken down twice within its first month. However, after being reopened in late August, it has remained the longest lasting spinoff. Other spinoffs that opened at the time included whiteFyre (administrated by ultimategamer00 and intially named "GameFAQs βeta Clone") and Twisted Legacy.

The next milestone in the history of GameFAQs spinoffs came when developers Jay and "Waffles" worked together on making a new spinoff free of the numerous bugs that plagued GameFAQs Hell. Although the outcome of their efforts initially appeared to be substantial, the rushed source, later leaked by "Counteray", was found to be filled with bloat, bugs, and other symptoms of rushed development. Jay continued working on his source code and joined with Zach "Outbreakorn" Getz to develop for his site. The resulting code eventually got an official release under the GPL, but fell victim to the common side effects of rushed development, with many quick hacks implemented to fix previous problems.

Due to the ease of setting up and running MediArchive and other sources, the spinoff world evolved into the third-generation: Numerous clone sites. Many people with little or no PHP knowledge were establishing their own MediArchive-based spinoffs on free webhosts such as lycos.co.uk. Spinoff coders such as Jay, Ant P, and others took to exploiting security holes in MediArchive code to bring down the sites. Those that survived did so by fixing security holes or writing their own original code instead of using already well-established code. This era is marked by spinoff such as gg's (girlgamer44), Junkieznat (Junkieznat), Farside Blues (Endless Nightmares), LUE2 (Tsi) and its spinoffs, and CABLE (Magican Type 0).

The fourth generation is generally considered to be from January 2004 to the present day. Some spinoffs started up, but the popularity of spinoffs has substantially declined. They have a niche audience, but few new people have entered (while many veterans have left) the scene. Most notable spinoffs started in this era include Archetype 0 (Onion), Lost Facts (Roaddhogg), and FrozenOven (Shuzo).

See also

• FAQ
• Internet troll
• GameSpot
• CNET

External links

Official sites

• GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com/)
• GameSpot (Affiliate to GameFAQs) (http://www.gamespot.com/)
• CNET (Parent Company to GameFAQs) (http://www.cnet.com/)
• GameFAQ boards (http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/)

Unofficial sites

• GameFAQs Archive (http://chris.insder.com/) WARNING! This site contains offensive material. It is maintained by Insder and Roaddhogg. 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 from 1999 to 2005. On February 10, they opened up "Lost Facts (http://lf.insder.com/boards/index.php)", the latest spinoff.
• GFBrowser (http://gfb.zeikfried.com/) A tool made by Deus Ex Raijin to make viewing GameFAQs a better experience.
• GameFAQs Chat (http://www.gamefaqschat.com/) GameFAQs IRC Network
• GameFAQs Exploits (http://www.gamefaqsexploits.com/) A site dedicated to the glitches and exploits in the GameFAQs code.
• GameFAQs Info (http://www.gamefaqsinfo.net/) Info on the site, boards, fads. Contains pictures, ASCII, topics and more.
• GameFAQs Petition Project (http://xgamer.insder.com/) Created by XtremeGamer99, this site is to help petition creators at Site Suggestions (http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/gentopic.php?board=7) to better maintain their petitions. With over 100 petitions in just under three months, this site is a definite big hit in Site Suggestions.
• GameFAQs Photo Album (http://www.knightmare6.com/index2.html)
• GameFAQs Toolbar Firefox Extension (http://gftoolbar.nm.ru/)
• GameFAQs Users Site (http://www.geocities.com/gamefaqsusers/links.html) Made by moderator Crono LV99, this is similar to the photo albums. The site is dead at this stage.
• GameFAQs Users Site II (http://archive.mbhshield.com/) A remade version of Crono LV99's GameFAQs Users Site]
• Kirby Still On Top's Secondary Boards FAQ (http://ksot.com/BoardsFAQ.html) - KSOT's Secondary Boards FAQ is recognized 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. In January 2005, KSOT turned over the site to TrueDFX, who now maintains it.
• SC2k5 (http://www.sc2k5.com/) - A site devoted to covering the GameFAQs contests
• LUE Online (http://www.lueonline.com/), a spinoff browser based MMORPG
• LUE Archive (http://www.luearchive.com/), an old but highly interesting collection of infamous and memorable moments on GameFAQs, some not found anywhere else.
• LUE2 (http://lue2.info/), a spin-off with the original LUE2 user database, owned by iGenesis.
• MBH Social (http://www.mbhshield.com/) Social boards for MBH regulars.
• The Evil Republicans (http://www.theevilrepublicans.com/), website for the aforementioned Evil Republicans
• LUELinks (http://www.luelinks.net/), a spin-off site by LlamaGuy, cataloging links ranging from porn to games and more. A frequent joke on GameFAQs is to inform users asking about LUELinks that it doesn't exist. To become a member, you must both be a LUEser and have an active account on the Life, the Universe, and Everything board on GameFAQs.
• The Outboards (http://www.theoutboards.com/), spinoff run by obo. It is one of the oldest GameFAQs spinoff still around.
• [http://getoverit.bounceme.net/get_over_it/index.php/ Three Kingdoms Social), a message board created to honor the Three Kingdoms Social in it's prime. (***OFFENSIVE***)

GameFAQs board histories

• Another Place (http://www.freewebs.com/headdopus/Welcome.html) is an un-official fansite.
• ANZLinks (http://www.anzlinks.tk) Various media files from the ANZ board. Includes a link to ANZChat, a IRC chat service featuring the veteran ANZers
• History of LUE (http://FireFusion.org/lue) - A site that has an accurate recollection of what has happened on LUE from the beginning to the ExcLUEsion.
• First Person Accounts of RI History (http://idea.yoll.net/other/rihistory/index.html). A bit like the History of LUE, but this focuses on what happened in the early days of Random Insanity, including the Gamequeen incident.
• Toaster Oven's History (http://www.freewebs.com/toven/index2.htm)
• USL's History (http://www.redmonkey7.com/usl).zh:Gamefaqs