News - GAF turns 5; History of GAF within
Posted by
Richard Brownell
at 11:20:20 PM EST on 4.1.2007.
GamesAreFun today turns five years old. That statement in itself carries a great deal of power. It is written in five seconds and read even quicker. But five years is a deceptively long time, especially for a website.
The big sites on the internet these days are blogs like
Engadget or part of the "Web 2.0" phenomenon like
Digg.com. Social networking is a requirement for anybody from ages 10 to 50. And the major search engines/portals like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN are still sitting on their thrones at the top of the pile, now leveraging the power of purchases like Flickr and YouTube.
But GamesAreFun is truly a ye olde style website. We're an enthusiast press site. We don't blog, but bring you news, reviews, interviews, features, and other goodies all written by our all-volunteer staff. That doesn't mean we don't grow with the times. We do have blogs available for our users, among the many other features our registered users get, like wish lists and game collections. We've done a podcast and video content. But what's most important is that we are not a fad; we've been here for
five years. We continue to get more popular. And we don't plan on going away.
In thinking of possible features to celebrate our fifth birthday, I thought about the many twists and turns that brought GAF to its current state. A lot of it is unknown to our users. And in our most recent staff meeting, it turns out even the current staff does not know a lot of GAF's history. So the rest of this article is The Story of GamesAreFun, from our humble beginnings to our also humble present condition. I hope you enjoy.
The Beginning: Lunar-Net.com
Back in 2001-2002, I was working at a small fan site called Lunar-Net. Though it was initially dedicated to the
Lunar game series, we decided to expand our focus to cover "niche" games, which we defined as RPGs, quirky Japanese games, etc. It was good fun, but we found our site's namesake was limiting us. So we had to come up with something new.
My boss at the time was Mickey Shannon, or GhaleonOne as he prefers to go by. Though he was one of the staff that wanted to go a different direction, he didn't want to be the one to run it. After all, he intended on re-launching Lunar-Net in its original form and to this day, it is
the #1 Lunar site ever and probably one of the most comprehensive fan sites on any topic. So I took over the efforts of launching the new "niche gaming" site.
Under Construction: GamesAreFun's Beginnings
The first step in creating GAF was coming up with a name. Even back in 2002, coming up with a good domain name that wasn't taken was difficult. But as always, the Lunar-Net staff got into endless arguments about what name would be best. I came up with a convoluted voting system that would fix the problem, but in the end we went with a name I suggested as a joke, "Games Are Fun." Nobody made websites that were describing something, and certainly not complete sentences. So there were dissenters, most famously one who will remain nameless who infamously said that "the art crowd will hate it and the site won't do well."
Getting past the name was important, and now we got into design. For this, I turned to one of my friends, Shawn Serrels, who now makes guitars for a living. We went through dozens of sites, looked at what sites were considered to be well-designed at the time, and even went through some of his design books from college. I let him have the free reign of what decisions to make (a freedom more businesses should give to their designers), and he came up with our original design, which you can see courtesy of the
wayback machine (some images are broken).
We slapped up a
coming soon page and got to work so we would launch with a lot of content.
3...2...1...Launch! ...but wait, what's this?
Lunar-Net had a tradition of doing important launches on holidays, so we picked the nearest one: April Fools Day. In hindsight, it was perhaps a bad choice because now we don't get to do jokes on our visitors, but usually people thank us for that. So midnight of March 31 comes, and I swap out the coming soon page and launch the site. Surely, this would be a momentous occasion for the small audience we had from Lunar-Net and everybody I told simply
had to see this new site of mine.
But something happened. Almost the very minute that we launched our site, TheGIA, a gaming enthusiast site serving the community for years, closed its doors...on April Fools. Are they mad? Apparently so, because it was very much true. Much of the staff had had enough (though some of them actually went on to become professional writers, and congrats to them). So our thunder was stolen a bit thanks to TheGIA.
It wasn't as simple as that though. There were rumors of dissent in the GIA staff. So obviously there would be a new GIA, right? Hey, maybe this GAF site is the new one! Sorry folks, we aren't. But for many of the GIA readers, we were an acceptable replacement. Eventually, some ex-GIA staffers formed a short-lived site called GameForms, but it couldn't approach the level of popularity that TheGIA had.
Our First E3
We launched in relatively close proximity to E3, so our news section was filled with E3 stories. Sadly, it was far too late for us to set up a trip to E3 to cover it from the show floor, but we were so fresh and new and determined to cover E3 well. And we did, probably about as well as an unexperienced staff could. Our traffic increased by a factor of 10 and we maintained it.
Victor Ireland, our biggest fan
Because we grew out of a site dedicated to the Lunar series, we had one contact in the industry, Working Designs. They liked the new site and gave us our first exclusive interview and game previews. They supported us all the way up through their closing in December 2005. Victor Ireland now has a new company called Gaijinworks. Maybe he wants to give us the scoop on his next project?
Our Real First Podcast
One of our staff members, who went by the name Dragonmaster Dan had a passion for voice work and did what we called "audio columns." Though many would define podcasts as needing RSS feeds and other fancy acronyms, I would say that those columns were our first podcast.
Wade: Our Ticket to PR Glory
Once upon a time there was a somewhat popular free gaming magazine called Silicon Magazine. Dragonmaster Dan had done some work there, and he suggested that we hire their Editor in Chief, Wade Monnig. When I eventually spoke with Wade after he quit Silicon Magazine, he was psyched to be working on a video game website. And I was psyched because of his professional experience in the industry.
In one fell swoop, we gained contacts in most of the major companies, from Sega to Ubisoft to Sony. Though we still didn't have much power with our lower traffic, it was a major turning point for GAF.
From "Niche" to Nearly Everything
Wade as well as some of the other staff members helped to push things at GAF from our "niche gaming" focus to one that was more in line with the larger video game sites out there. There were games we wanted to cover (and pretty much already were) that fell well out of the "niche" category. And thus our current focus was born.
E3 2003: We Made It!
Luke, Wade, and I all made it into downtown LA for E3 2003. We had big plans to do super awesome fantastic coverage. We had meetings with like everybody on earth. See, Wade's a great guy. He had some professional experience. The meetings he scheduled were with Square, Sony, and other important companies. But he neglected to correct my stupidity. When I was contacted by every game company on the planet, I was like "Awesome, I will totally meet with you to see your crummy games even though I've never heard of you." After I was dead tired after only one day of E3, Wade laughed and said "Yeah, you probably shouldn't have done that." Thanks, Wade. I forgive you because we went to the PlayStation Party together that year.
I was naive about other things too. This one is my least proud moment of everything I've ever done for GAF. I brought my digital camera and equipment with the full intention of getting footage of our interviews and as many games as I could and selling an E3 DVD. Did I get this footage? Somehow, I actually did. I came away with 6-7 hours of footage, some of it halfway decent. But whoops, we have a problem! First off, the credit card company we used canceled our couple hundred pre-orders. Second, I'm not a video editor. Who's going to edit all this video? So the DVD was canceled and the video locked away in the GAF vault.
Yeah, that was a sad episode in GAF history. But E3 was a lot of fun regardless and taught me a lot about how things really work in the industry.
Gradual growth
During that time, GAF was experiencing fairly steady growth. We were covering a lot of games, doing a fairly good job with news, and growing all the time. We became comfortable with this growth, perhaps too much. Over the next couple years, we may have let too many scoops slide through the cracks and missed too many opportunities. In 2004, we actually began a decline in our traffic.
E3 2004
The next E3 occurred while we were still doing well with traffic. This time it was myself, Ash, Ian, Eli, Jenn, Sam, and Wade. Some of my favorite times in GAF history were during this trip. It was most of the GAF staff together for the first and only time. Ash and I went to the Dear Friends Final Fantasy music concert. We went to all the pre-E3 press conferences. We cut down severely how many appointments we had when compared to my idiocy of the year before.
But we still had a problem. We were all still very busy and didn't necessarily have the time to get everything we wanted to write up written up quickly. And because I was one of the busiest, the leadership of the E3 and at-home staff was lacking. Once again, we learned. But also once again, we did have good coverage of the show. And we even premiered a
new design just for E3.
Legal troubles
There's really no specific date or date range for our legal troubles, but I think it's worth mentioning. So far, nobody on GAF staff has needed to step into court. But I've lost count of how many times we've been threatened with lawsuits. Let's look at a couple of the types of lawsuits we've gotten.
Most of the time, it's another press outlet threatening us with a suit. Only once has one of these been legitimate. One of my staff members posted a scan of an English magazine with the entire text of the article in place, which is a big no-no. Sorry, Ziff Davis. But my favorite of these is an email that I received from IGN. They claimed a story we had written contained "exclusive IGN Insider content." This was puzzling, since the story in question contained information and screenshots that we took from a Japanese site (I think it was Quiter, but it was quite some time ago). We sourced the site, and they had gotten them from the Japanese game company behind the game.
One of the other types of lawsuit threats we get comes from a single source: Jack Thompson. He takes issue with a number of the things we've said here on GAF. I think we've called him insane, a lunatic, and other mean words. But what he really doesn't like is when our users say that he should die. Technically, we don't approve of that sort of behavior either and we do edit out such content. But isn't it a bit much to threaten lawsuits, Jack? I think so. He disagrees, and that's why I and other staff members have gotten enough email from him that I have my own folder dedicated to good ole Jack in the "Readers" section of my email client.
Marriage
Ok, GAF didn't get married. But I did (sorry ladies). On July 3, 2004 I married my wonderfully awesome wife. While this may not seem significant to this article, it is very much so. Anybody who has gotten married knows there is a lot of life topics you think of and discuss. GAF was one of them. I was fresh out of college looking for a good job, and I had some decisions to make. One of those is that I did not want to stop doing GAF. Not then and not in the future that I could see. My wife likes games a lot (mainly of the Nintendo variety), and she enjoys the work I do for GAF. Having her support helps this site a great deal.
Anime on a Video Game Site
As part of a
new design done by Mickey Shannon, we added an anime section to GAF. This, as you all know now, was an incubation phase for our sister site, AnimeDistrict. We decided it was a success and launched AniDis in 2005. AniDis' history isn't nearly as interesting as GAF's because it's more of a hobby site that I work on during my non-existent spare time.
E3 2005
I didn't go to E3 2005. Several factors went into this decision. Yes, I wanted to stay home with my wife. But I also had the idea that if I was home, I could manage things better, something that didn't work out so well at E3 2004. I was right.
Being at home, I was able to manage the at-home crew and get something like 50 articles a day up. It was ridiculous. And we did something that was very new on the web at the time, a live blog, for the Nintendo conference. It quickly became one of the most popular articles on GAF and one of the most commented on to this day. Additionally, I coordinated the crew at E3 and we got plenty of impressions up.
User Features
One of the most important parts of GAF is the system itself. Early on in the site, we knew we wanted to make our database of games information one of the best. It's a continuous work in progress, but I think it's pretty awesome. A natural evolution of that is to give users power.
Over time, we've given users commenting, ranking games, game collections, wish lists, friends, and blogs, and there are plenty of new features on the way.
GAF Podcast
In December of 2005, we launched our podcast. Podcasts still feel new for the mainstream populace, but I remember thinking we were late in starting ours. The podcast started slow, but then experienced some growth as things went on. Unfortunately, it ended after E3 2006. It became very difficult to get staff members (myself included) together every week to do a show. But many of the readers want more podcasts. Will we ever bring it back?
We Got Hacked
In early 2006, I had an important business meeting in Florida to go to. I would be gone for a week, very busy, with spotty internet and only access to my work laptop. Almost nobody knew this information. Yet a day after I arrive in Florida, what happens? A security exploit in our forums is used to allow some script kiddies to hack the site. Unfortunately, they not only gained access to the forums, but the entire site's administration panel. They deleted articles, screwed with comments, and generally did a bunch of things only jackasses would do.
Thankfully, my staff members stepped in and fixed some of the issues and stopped the script kiddies while I was away. But I was quite upset. The forums have been gone ever since. Will they ever return?
E3 2006
Once again, I did not attend this E3. However, this one did not go as well as 2005. It started bad, as E3 didn't feel like letting us in. They rejected our credentials. This had happened before, as once they asked for a "Federal Business License," and I was hard-pressed to find something that didn't exist to get us in. That was cleared up by a manager in the firm that handled the application process then. This year did not go so well. We were outright denied. And unfortunately, it's a bitch to find the contact information of anybody to talk to on the phone. But after some good PI-style sleuthing I did get in contact with them. They seemed surprised anybody would call them about this stuff, preferring to point me to the email I was sent. But I spoke to a very nice lady there who got the staff in after some persuasion.
Massive Growth
After the year+ long decline in traffic that we had, I shaped up the staff and got things in gear once again. Throughout much of 2006, the site grew quite a lot. Our traffic peaked in December. Despite being accused of being anti-Nintendo, anti-Microsoft, and anti-Sony all at different times in our site history, it's clear people were happy with the coverage we were providing because we kept growing.
GAF TV
In October of 2006, we started our video podcast, GAF TV. These would mainly be comprised of video reviews and previews. Much like the podcast, they started off slow, but grew even more than the podcast. Our most popular, the Oblivion review, has been watched/downloaded tens of thousands of times. It takes quite a lot of work to do these and we were very focused on getting the other GAF sections (news and reviews) to a higher quality, so it was put on the backburner. Will it ever return?
Ad Contract
The last major development before we get to present day is an ad contract we recently signed. In addition to our regular ads, Media Mayhem (MM) now provides us branded advertising targeted at you readers. We and MM know your tastes, so we're trying to provide quality ads for you from major video game and movie companies, and perhaps others if it feels right. Most importantly, it's the aim of both GAF and MM to not annoy you with our ads. We can't please everybody, but our first ad campaign didn't garner a single complaint. Contrast that with Google now giving us really annoying ads with stupid sounds, and I'd say our new partner is good for all of us.
TODAY
Finally, huh? Five years is a long friggin time, so you get a long article. And there's still so much more I haven't told you. But much of that is either too boring or too behind-the-scenes to be appropriate. This is the most comprehensive article you'll ever see on GAF. If Wikipedia ever deems us to be important enough for an entry, use this article for your information first.
Today, we have one of my favorite staffs. They are talented, diverse, and fun people. And recent signs have shown not only me becoming a better manager, but them becoming better workers. With the new ad deal, the idea of the staff becoming genuine paid GAF employees is a bright future for all of us. I see a bright future for GAF, complete with the best video game coverage to be had this side of the internet.
The Future
So what does the future hold? As much as I want to tell you, I'm going to keep it a secret. Look out throughout this month for the returns of some old favorites on the site (I'll let you read into that), and some brand new features. If all goes well, this will be the biggest month GAF has ever had. And what month would be more fitting than our fifth birthday?
Has anybody actually made it to the end of this article? If so, leave a comment below. That's right, all of you. Have any questions about GAF history? Did I miss anything blatantly obvious? It's certainly possible, as I purposefully wrote this as a stream of consciousness rather than going through editing and revisions. Maybe that means it sucks, but at least it's from the heart. And GAF is for all of you, who are all a part of GAF. Happy fifth birthday, GAF. May you have many more.
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+0 karma
mikey 4.8.2007 at 08:53:23 PM
Someone below mentioned the old "Nintendo is D00M3D" articles and it got me thinking. This website might benefit from having more opinion-based articles. Not in the news mind you, but perhaps in a separate sidebar.
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joshschw 4.8.2007 at 06:27:23 PM
8,000 is cosiderably more then when i worked here, so you've been doing well i guess.
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badoor 4.8.2007 at 03:50:57 PM
congratulations!
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drumlord 4.8.2007 at 12:57:53 AM
Hits isn't an accurate measure of traffic. Our uniques vary. Recently we've been getting a little under 8,000 unique visitors a day. Our traffic peaked in December and it's growing again now. I suspect things will pick up a great deal as the site continues to grow.
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siraileron 4.7.2007 at 10:35:26 PM
Out of curiosity, how many hits a day does GAF usually get?
+1 karma
paul_gale 4.7.2007 at 12:11:41 AM
Congratulations to all of you at GAF on turning 5. I've enjoyed coming to Games Are Fun and appreciate the good work you do. Here's to you continuing to deliver the goods, day after day, for another 5 years. Once again, Happy 5th Birthday!
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drizzt 4.6.2007 at 03:45:21 PM
WOW! I did not know I'd been with you guys this long. I must have stumbled on you guys near the end of 2002. I'm glad to be a part of this growing experience with all of you. when I'm not on my wii I type more but this sucks so just keep kicking ass. And pleeeeease go back to the red next time you change the setup of the site.
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soul4ger 4.6.2007 at 02:57:40 PM
Who linked you?! WHO?! Yeah, that's right.
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bjork 4.5.2007 at 09:58:07 PM
Well, I was linked here from before this place ever officially opened, and even when I'm gone, I'm never really gone, so...
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draken 4.5.2007 at 09:53:36 PM
You bring back so many memories, bjork. Hehe. Seriously though, I really do hope that the forums open back up ;)
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bjork 4.5.2007 at 09:28:12 PM
well, this article's comments are almost toally complete... just one thing missing
no serafitia = no fun
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joshschw 4.5.2007 at 09:09:31 PM
Eli's baby is really cute.
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joshschw 4.5.2007 at 09:09:06 PM
eli's here also
well I guess not everything can be perfect.
i'm kidding of course, eli, ha ha ha. This might be cooler if I hadn't talked to you just like yesterday or whatever though.
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drumlord 4.5.2007 at 08:43:06 PM
Holy crap, it's Eli too!!
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eli 4.5.2007 at 06:53:39 PM
Go me! I got a mention. =)
But really, "go GAF!" is what I meant to say. Congrats on 5 years. Like Wade, I would have liked to have stuck around, but wives and babies tends to cut down on the free time to write about games.
....ok, ok, I admit, Final Fantasy XI had a little to do with it too. LOL
Anyway, gratz again, and here's to the next five years!
Cheers!
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bidingtime 4.5.2007 at 02:23:09 PM
I wanted to say, in retrospect the name choice was outstanding. Just reading or thinking about the name makes me happy.
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soul4ger 4.5.2007 at 01:51:59 PM
Hey, Wade, you got any games to send me? ;)
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drumlord 4.5.2007 at 10:58:52 AM
Holy crap it's Wade! I'll have to dig up an email address to contact you as I seem to only have your old GAF address on hand ;)
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wade 4.5.2007 at 01:28:40 AM
Nice ^^ Gratz on 5 years, wish I could have been more apart of it but real life bit me in the ass a few dozen times and has refused to let go. Drop me a line somehow Drum ^^
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drumlord 4.3.2007 at 10:22:18 PM
DM Dan's clarifications are all probably correct. It's tough to recall every little detail from memory :)
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tetsuo500 4.3.2007 at 08:35:38 PM
I never even visited the GIA while it was around. I didn't "have the internet" back then.
But I can visit it now via the mirror: http://rca.snm-hgkz.ch/mirrors/thegia/
Ahhh.... Even though I never went there it feels like home. All those Dreamcast, N64 and PS1 titles make me feel so warm and fuzzy.
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deeblite 4.3.2007 at 07:26:32 PM
Just commenting to say I made it all the way through, as expected.
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dragonmasterdan 4.3.2007 at 06:37:34 PM
A few interesting but not super important notes.
GAF almost had a different name. The site was VERY close to being named NicheGaming or GamingNiche but Rich was very dilligent and the GamesAreFun name stuck.
As mentioned in the article, E3 2002 was a huge boon for the site, for the first month our traffic was unimpressive but as May rolled around and E3 was being held Soul4ger did an absolutely fantastic job of updating the site with every bit of news that was worth reporting. His hard work led to GAF becoming a major source for gaming news almost overnight.
Another interesting note (well not exactly but since it's a little unclear in the explanation I thought I'd elaborate) is that Wade had quit Silicon Magazine a few weeks prior to joining GAF and actually contacted me (having worked for Silicon Magazine in the past and being staff at GAF at the time) about joining GAF. A simple phone call and a few discussions with people on AIM and GamesAreFun had just added a huge asset in terms of industry contacts.
In addition to the site turning into more of a general gaming site, the writing quality stepped up a notch or two as we weeded through a number of less than standard quality reviews and articles that had been migrated from Lunar-Net to GAF and had the original authors edit or re-write them. As a result a few were removed.
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vudu 4.3.2007 at 05:20:15 PM
This reminds me, what ever happened to those Nintendo is D00M3D articles that Sam used to write a few years ago? Someone linked me to one of those back in 2004 and that's how I first found the site.
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drakken 4.3.2007 at 02:47:41 PM
You obviously haven't been here very long, scarecrow. ;-)
-3 karma
scarecrow9 4.3.2007 at 02:27:16 PM
Why the joystick on the star, when the controller is the OVERWHELMING preference???
Bad graphic design skills.
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soul4ger 4.3.2007 at 11:48:58 AM
But I didn't get paid like terpfen does. :(
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soul4ger 4.3.2007 at 11:24:16 AM
Speaking of guerilla marketers, I think I was GAF's back then. :)
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mikey 4.3.2007 at 11:05:51 AM
Well soul4ger, after following a link to GAF that you placed in a forum back in the day, I discovered this site, and have been reading regularly ever since. Don't even remember when that was, but it must have been when GAF was still quite young.
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soul4ger 4.3.2007 at 10:48:06 AM
Who thinks the History needs more about that Soul4ger character?!
::crickets::
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jonathon 4.3.2007 at 09:26:49 AM
hmm, my comment got cut off. heres the full text.
"I don't generally comment, but because you said to, and i love this site...i will"
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jonathon 4.3.2007 at 09:24:54 AM
I don't generally comment, but because you said to, and i
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unforgivingedges 4.3.2007 at 02:33:36 AM
"MORE SNK NEWS PLEASE"
Metal Slug Anthology came out for the PS2 last week. Also, the USA SNK PLaymore office is staffed by like...2 people or something.
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rence 4.3.2007 at 02:25:57 AM
Just wanted to let you know that I've been here since the GIA closed and you opened, and you've been my #1 site for gaming news for 5 years. I've enjoyed seeing you grow, and love the "not IGN," homey feel of the site. It's welcoming and informative.
Thanks for a great 5 years, and I'm sure it'll be another great 5.
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dizzy don mega 4.3.2007 at 12:46:37 AM
First video game site I read in the morning. MORE SNK NEWS PLEASE. f*** GRAND THEFT AUTO.
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cara 4.3.2007 at 12:16:47 AM
you all have done a nice job
i only started reading gaf because of ash, (richard you might remember me)... and i still read it because i like the simple layout and writing styles.
ash's articles are downright sexy
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troid23 4.2.2007 at 10:38:58 PM
Congrats GAF...I love this site and I'll continue to support it. Keep up the great work guys. Your site kicks ass. Cheers to a bright future.
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sugoi 4.2.2007 at 10:34:07 PM
The new stuff sounds exciting! Exciting I tell you!
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d.lo 4.2.2007 at 10:28:09 PM
Good times! This site's pretty good really. Congratulations!
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aerobica 4.2.2007 at 10:21:56 PM
I like GAF because they gave me a free Hellsing DVD!
Actually, GAF is my homepage, so every time I log on to the internet... THERE IT IS! At least 5-6 times every day. I like reading the comments just as much as I like reading the articles.
If there was one thing I would ask for, it would be a "comment history". Sometimes I think I say something so damn insightful that I HAVE to see what people say! But I usually forget what articles I comment on.
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galley89 4.2.2007 at 09:25:48 PM
Oh I almost forgot please bring back the forums.
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galley89 4.2.2007 at 09:23:35 PM
I have been coming to this site for about a year and a half. It is a great site with great people. (Except bjork. :p)
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valshier 4.2.2007 at 07:59:38 PM
Good Job staying alive GAF. Your articles are generally unbiased (unlike some other Kotaku I know). I know I myself am biased toward some things (like quality) but it is nice to get the opinions in the comments section and not have to read it straight in the article if I feel like avoiding it.
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onizuka sensei 4.2.2007 at 05:29:58 PM
Take the time to read it if you love this site enough. I read it and I'm not dead.
I'm glad of the day I chanced upon this site. Along with SPong, GAF is one of my faves. Reasonably sized and focused, its great being here.
Happy 5th Birthday to ya from the u.k fans.
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drumlord 4.2.2007 at 04:56:03 PM
We currently don't do traditional bans (IP/email address) because they are ineffective against those that truly want to be an ass on your site. They use IP anonymizers, create new email addresses, etc. just to be annoying. So instead, we let them keep their account and see the site, but not be able to comment.
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ununbiundave 4.2.2007 at 04:53:56 PM
Fantastic history... I can't believe how much the site has grown in the last few years. I too remember the old design.
As for growth, have there been any thoughts to affiliate with another site?
Also... if a member were to be banned, would it just be their sn, or their IP address?
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show comment] -7 karma
WOW I'M NOT READING THAT s***.
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jesusfreakdk 4.2.2007 at 04:22:00 PM
Awesome article, Rich! Overall a good read and very informative, detailing GAF's humble beginnings. Strangely, the thing that stick out in my mind the most is the fact that you were married. I had no idea...not that I doubted for a second your ability to accomplish aforementioned action...
Ahem! Anyway, I don't remember when or how I first came here, but GAF is the only gaming site I visit on a regular basis, so that must mean something. :P I like how there are many users and comments, but not so many that we lose the intimacy and familiarity those huge websites lack. I love how I can interact with the staff and have some great discussions with regular posters.
It's been a fun 5 years, GAF. And I sure hope I can be here on its 10th anniversary. A big thanks to Rich and all the staff, current and former, for making the site as great as it is now.
Cheers!
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tenson 4.2.2007 at 04:03:19 PM
God I can't believe I've been coming to this website for five years. I actually remember reading that page posted in the "wayback machine." I can't even remember why I first came to this website. I think I was typing in GameFAQs when I saw GamesAreFun.com fill in my browser bar. It was from my brother who had been on the computer earlier (Same way I found GameForms).
But yeah I decided to follow this site because IGN was being a dick with their IGN Insider crap that you needed to view ANYTHING on their website.
So I've been here for 5 years...it's pretty odd that I only made a posting account last E3 and have actually posted like 5 times.
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rubesopg 4.2.2007 at 02:51:02 PM
I still remember seeing the pictures from GAF's first trip to E3. =) And yeah now that I think about it, hell, that was a long time ago. Good job Rich and co.
But dude, you seriously made me cry when you said you were married. I LOVE YOU RICH! NOW WE CAN'T BE TOGETHER AND PLAY GAMES IN BED NAKED! =P
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bidingtime 4.2.2007 at 12:56:51 PM
Interestive. I've only been reading GAF since around E3 2005, so it's nice to read about the three years I missed in there.
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drumlord 4.2.2007 at 10:19:11 AM
My goal was to make it too long for anybody to read. Anybody that comments is a true fan :)
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joshschw 4.2.2007 at 10:06:13 AM
how many people won't read because of the length?
Rich change the newsimage to that of a ritalin pill or something.
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citizengeek 4.2.2007 at 09:48:48 AM
TOO LONG. NOT READING IT.
Still, well done GAF!
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sgt. baker 4.2.2007 at 09:28:18 AM
Here's to five more!
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rahvii 4.2.2007 at 09:08:26 AM
Richard, you forgot to mention your loyal readers! =).
They all keep comming back even when the site is slow on news. Even the ones that are always displeased XD.
Gratz GAF!.
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drumlord 4.2.2007 at 08:50:11 AM
Josh: I didn't mention a bunch of important GAF staff. I only mentioned those that had an influence on the direction of the site, not those who did the most hard work, in which case you, Soul4ger, and others would top the list.
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mahew 4.2.2007 at 08:47:45 AM
Nice historic. Interesting and concise. I remember many of the phases from having been a reader a long time, since GAF has a better style than the big, bloated sites. So, congratulations and to many years more!
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tetsuo500 4.2.2007 at 08:47:39 AM
Yeah, yeah, happy birthday.
GAF is the forums.
Blogs? Are you seriously? You're telling me people actually bother to click that link, then read what CLOUDxLINK2000 has to say about the "best game EV4R!!" or the fact that he doesn't actually like baked beans, but eats them anyway? Then a whole lot more blogs by pretty much the same dude on the same subjects.
Games Are Fun? NO!!!!
Games Are Forums!!!!!
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kswiston 4.2.2007 at 08:11:57 AM
Although I almost never post, I have been coming here since The GIA shut down. I guess that makes it about 4 and a half years now. Even after all this time, I still visit multiple times a week (and at times daily).
Keep up the good work guys!
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thehawk 4.2.2007 at 03:52:14 AM
You know if Nekofrog's calling somebody a troll, they MUST be bad!
I actually remember one or two comments from dizzy that surprised me by not being blatant flamebait. I'm not excusing him though. He's as trollish as they get. Citizengeek's not much different.
But let's not make this about trolls. It's about how we're proud of a website for sticking to it for 5 years and doing it well. This place feels very personal because you hear from its staff regularly. I love seeing the staff leave comments under the newsposts.
I've jumped from gaming site to gaming site as each one either died or drastically declined in quality. And I stopped here. I hope GAF remains and keeps up its quality. Thanks, GAF.
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nekofrog 4.2.2007 at 03:39:39 AM
Drumlord, make history and ban Dizzy.
I will not stop hounding you about this issue until it is done. Why? Because he is a cancer upon GAF.
What has he ever done to contribute anything? Has he ever had a post that was not hidden due to a barrage of negative karma? A single one?
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mikey 4.2.2007 at 02:50:52 AM
This post kinda took me back in time. Speaking of which, this history of GAF is nearly as long as H.G. Wells' classic The Time Machine.
Forums please. I like the community here, and couldn't care less about what commentators on the gaming blogs have to say. I think it would be the first forum I post at regularly in about 6 years.
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mduo13 4.2.2007 at 02:43:33 AM
I was linked to this site a lot during the "pink ages" but didn't have any respect for it then. It seemed kind of amateurish and ugly. When you guys premiered the new layout with E3 that year (whenever that was) I suddenly gained a lot more respect. The articles also seemed better written. I started checking it more and more regularly after that.
As for upcoming things: I'm not actually looking forward to forums; I'm kind of jaded with forums right now; I don't think they create meaningful content; they just encourage people to kind of waste their time. As long as the staff is quick at finding legitimate news and posting it, there should be no need. I'm hoping that certain things happen to the existing features, though. I noticed the "media" section vanished a while back; I look forward to seeing the game database improve (such as links to articles that mention the game) and some long-awaited changes to the comment engine (such as fixing plus symbols) would be nice.
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bjork 4.2.2007 at 02:19:05 AM
If there is a GAF wiki, I'll add a lot of the small details to it. For example, I did a bunch of stuff at E3 03, but I also overloaded th server and crashed the site, which was a stroke of sheer genius on my part.
PS> forums plz, trolling is funner with photos :p
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i_like_pizza 4.2.2007 at 01:44:52 AM
The second week I started visiting this site regularly was the hack week. Coincidence? I think not! Muhahahahaha!
Happy b-day GAF!
(and just in case anyone would take that seriously, it most definitely was not me)
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joshschw 4.2.2007 at 01:39:52 AM
lol, if you have firefox you can still see the joystick. my one lasting contribution to GAF.
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square mog 4.2.2007 at 01:38:27 AM
I'll be honest here, I cried a little inside when TheGIA shut down. I remember moving here after it did; the penis joystick will be imprinted in my brain forever, lol. This'll get me some negative karma for sure, but I still believe TheGIA is (was?) a better site than GAF. However, GAF is definitely more than a suitable replacement, and is one of the few sites I try to visit daily, so I can't complain too much.
Kudos on 5 years, GAF.
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thefreak 4.2.2007 at 01:36:32 AM
Ah, GAF...It has grown since the days I was working here...
I have considered in recent months to rejoin the team, whether that may even be possible. Ever so slowly, my drive to review games has been returning to me, and soon, hopefully, I'll be able to write again with the same desire I had before I left.
I've always regretted leaving you guys, and I seriously need to make it up to you.
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joshschw 4.2.2007 at 01:31:41 AM
Wade just got back internet a few days back, so he's been postin'. you should drop by drakken, not right now since GR is kaput at the moment though.
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joshschw 4.2.2007 at 01:28:27 AM
whoops, I forgot.
BRING BACK THE FORUMS
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drakken 4.2.2007 at 01:28:07 AM
*cries*
Nice job on the history, Rich. It was neat looking back at everything this site's been through.
I notice you didn't mention me at all. I'll let that slide this time.
josh: No, I think you're OK. Does Wade still post at GR? Do you?
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joshschw 4.2.2007 at 01:25:07 AM
"One of my staff members posted a scan of an English magazine with the entire text of the article in place, which is a big no-no. Sorry Ziff Davis."
wow, I hope this wasn't me... I don't remember.
should I try and get wade in here?
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pook 4.2.2007 at 01:01:41 AM
having run a website for over 10 years now, i appreciated your history and wish you congrats on your success through thick and thin!
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heartless_king 4.2.2007 at 01:00:44 AM
I've been here since E3 03 I think. I've loved every minute of it. GAF Is my first stop for gaming news. Will always be.
Happy Birthday GAF.
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hypersonicexe 4.2.2007 at 12:53:30 AM
Stick-to-it-iveness? Chance happenings? Romance? Villainous hackers?
I SMELL A MOVIE DEAL.
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thehawk 4.2.2007 at 12:40:31 AM
Sweet. I hope this place keeps going.
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niahak 4.2.2007 at 12:32:33 AM
Huh. In that case I've been visiting at least two years ;) How 'bout that. Time flies when you're having fun.
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jayb222 4.2.2007 at 12:25:00 AM
Nice history! I made it to the end. I've been here since 2003 come to think of it.
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palafox 4.2.2007 at 12:00:27 AM
Uff... nice article, really!
But it's too long!
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drumlord 4.1.2007 at 11:58:50 PM
niahak: We didn't do an article last year, but we did one two years ago
link
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niahak 4.1.2007 at 11:55:01 PM
I liked reading the history of GAF again (I think there was a brief article a year ago). I've been visiting for at least a year and a half, and I'm looking forward to reading GAF in the future. Happy 5th GAF!
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animetayl 4.1.2007 at 11:52:01 PM
That's awesome that this site started as a Lunar fansite, since I love Lunar so much. Never knew that. I was also surprised to hear that this site was threatened with legal suits from Jack Thompson. Seems like he really cares what people think of him.
Happy Birthday, and may the site have many years of prosperity and few attempts at hacking.
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wisequark 4.1.2007 at 11:44:31 PM
5 years and you still can't get the damned site to show me as logged in without my having to hit refresh :-p
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msz 4.1.2007 at 11:27:36 PM
That was a great read. Happy 5!
To me, GAF is the new GIA... and that says a lot.
Keep up the excellent work, guys!
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