GameFAQs

File:Flaccid and erect human penis.jpg

GameFAQs' main page in September, 2004

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 it has one of the largest databases of video games available on the Internet. [1] The systems and games range from the retro to the cutting edge, with many obscure consoles and titles. Registration allows access to the extremely active message board community (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.

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], 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], and the other was made specifically for browsers with no support of tables (or text-only) [4]. 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], 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], 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], 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 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, 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] 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 June 3 2003 [9], 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 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 unhappy because the servers were starting to lag.

In July 2003, Veasey completely overhauled GameFAQs' security in light of an alarming rise in account hackings and stealings. It was alleged that troahbarton (a KOS user) attempted to hack one of the servers, quickening the security changes. 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 seems to state 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 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" 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 board 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.

• Another Place (AP) is a GameFAQs Social Board created when LUE's user level requirement went up to 30. AP is definitely not a part of LUE anymore, and has somewhat of a tightly-knit community. There are many social topics around and is known by its inhabitants as "Your GameFAQs home for polygamy and wit." Some of AP's residents have made their first names known to the board and ask to be addressed by them. AP also has its own, semi-official website containing a set of guidelines, quotes, and a member list, or APe list.
• Current Events (CE) is the oldest social board on GameFAQs. It is usually the second most popular social board on GameFAQs. It is frequented by many of the moderators, and even CJayC from time to time.
• Life, the Universe, and Everything (LUE) is the most popular GameFAQs social board with usually well over 50,000 posts at any time, quite a remarkable number given the frequent purging of old posts. The name was derived from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. It was originally created to provide a place to discuss such things as religion and existence. Discussion today is often sex-related and has been for years. The board has recently spawned several spinoffs such as LUElinks.
  • LUE is also home to many fads, including the infamous LUEshi (an ASCII image of Mario riding Yoshi created by the user Patamon. Posting it was grounds for suspension, but it is now legal in designated ASCII topics.), and the phrase "y helo thar", which was said on a live broadcast of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The phrase 'Y helo thar' originated in a flash video called "The Attention Whore", which mocks the reactions of male posters to the appearance of women on message boards.
  • Though the board used to be open to all members with 30 Karma, it was raised to 75 Karma following the "Scum Wars" around November 2002. A 150 Karma requirement was implemented after the RevoLUEtion on May 7 2003, and soon after the board was removed from all board listings. To get to it, one has to manually type in the URL and/or add it to one's favorite board list.
  • On November 15 2003, following a massive LiveJournal invasion by LUE, CJayC "sterilized" LUE by forbidding any user with a user ID greater than 888113 (ironic because pressing Alt+888113 gives the character "1") from ever reaching LUE. The last person to ever get into LUE, Lunarhawk99, was hailed as "The One" and regarded as a celebrity, although this perceived status was lost soon after he gained access. However, while it did last, many LUEsers followed him around, posting in his threads, often with words of praise, most particularly: "OMG, he is teh one!11!" Soon after, from January 4 to January 15, CJayC ran a sign-up for LUE; people that haven't signed up aren't allowed to visit the board. This was done to prevent any new members from visiting and to permanently remove banned users. In exchange, LUE was granted slightly more leeway when it comes to controversial topics.
  • The LUE Trinity (sometimes referred to as the "Unholy Trinity") is the term for the three most commonly posted shock sites on GameFAQs - Goatse, Tubgirl, and the Harlequin Fetus. "Goatse" and "Tubgirl" are autoflagged words, and it is now a major offense to provide links to the sites.
• Random Insanity (RI) was originally created to shunt the less-serious users off of CE. It quickly became host to text-based roleplaying and "social topics" where people could come in and talk about nothing in particular. One of the most popular of these is Pikadeth's Playhouse, which spawned many imitators. Originally RI was slightly hostile towards CE (the origin of "board invasion" being a ToS violation), with the RICE wars being remembered by the "old RIers". RI also has a history of being competitive with LUE; in the early days, users would perform "raids" on LUE in the PM hours. Before the RI Refugee Crisis it usually had twice the number of posts on CE and LUE combined. However, after the incident most of them migrated to LUE.
  • RI had many dramas and traditions of its own, including roleplaying, which started on the board and later moved to the board Role-Playing/Fan-Fiction. Gaw's Laws, a set of rules for roleplaying popularly used at the site, originated at RI. Today, roleplaying is somewhat of a niche, with social topics and one-liners dominating instead. RI has often had problems accepting new users, with resistance coming from "veterans" -- users who, while not necessarily there for very long, tried to establish standards on the "randomly insane" board. One event that still resonates with even the newest users is the Gamequeen incident.
• The beta boards were created when the message boards of GameFAQs and GameSpot were merged and GameFAQs was switched to PHP from ASP. They include three boards: GameFaqs Forums Beta Discussion, GameFaqs Forums Beta Bug Reports, and GS-GFQs Sharing Test Board. Although they are no longer needed, they have not been removed and some people still post on them.

• Toaster Oven originally a legendary board that could only be visited by knowing it's URL. However, this is perhaps more legend than fact, and the existence of "Toaster Oven" before April Fools day (see paragraphs bellow), is unconfirmed. Before that April Fools day however, "Toaster Oven" was a legend on social boards, and many search parties were organized to find it. "Toaster is now a board filled with random posts, a place for those who cannot acess LUE. "Toster Oven" is a secret board that can only be visited if one knows its URL.

• The Couch, The Hallway, The Porch, and The Forum are "forum" message boards for general chitchat, with The Couch being the largest among them.

• Long-Timers, Veterans, Legends, The Elite, Iconia, Idolatry, and Temple of the Ancients are user-level specific boards. Long-Timers is for user-level 30, Veterans is for level 31, Legends is for level 32, The Elite is for level 33, Iconia is for level 34, Idolatry is for level 35, and Temple of the Ancients is for level 36 users. Sadly, traffic among the level 33+ boards is lacking, partially due to lack of members meeting the requirements, partially because the boards do not allow any discussion that cannot be found elsewhere.

• Game Design and Programming is a board where people can discuss programming concepts and code. The veterans at this board usually look down on "Game Makers", especially the illegal English version of RPG Maker, focusing instead on making the games using OpenGL and SDL. There are even a couple of professional video game programmers who hang out at this board.

• Message Board Announcements is where administrators post general notices and warnings for the entire community. Originally an open board (only admins can start topics but anyone may reply), it was filled with first posts and other junk. In early 2005, it was changed so that only administrators may post there.

• Message Board Help is the unofficial complaint forum of the boards. If a user feels something is wrong with the moderation system or staff, or possibly a board error, it is usually reported here. It is also used to ask questions about board features. This board was named Questions and Suggestions until the Karma system was introduced. After that, all suggestions and petitions have gone to Site Suggestions. MBH is still often used as complaints forum despite recently added ground rules to discourage this. New users that ask questions readily available in the ToS are sometimes ridiculed by the users that frequent the board. This board is not meant as board to report violations. Instead, users are requested to go to the dead board, "Snack Attack" which is an unofficial Message Detail 2.

• Poll of the Day (PotD) is another social board, similar to LUE, although the topics there are not usually as vulgar or bizarre. Topicality was eliminated from the board in the summer of 2002 and the poll is seldom discussed now. Topic content is generally completely random, and polls are fairly scarce. Contrary to what the previous definition said, women and love are not too common things to be discussed.

• Review Contributors is the board for all the review writers to talk about common interests. This board has been split to better categorize the discussions on it. It is now composed out of three boards: General, Help and Critiques, and Social.

• Regional boards are boards where gamers can chat to people in their own region as well as the world. The top three most active boards based on the number of posts and topics is the UK,the Australia and New Zealand board and the Brazil board. The UK and ANZ board have expanded off-site such as a mailing list for the UK board, tournemants and role playing on the ANZ board as well as their own chat channel (See external links).

• Special Boards are hard to find because one has to type their board numbers (found in parentheses) manually in the address bar. The boards are: Spatula (622), Board 250 (250), Brilliant (-1), Spork (542), Eggbeater (486), Semprini (709), Jenny (8675309), Pie (314159265), Rnd() (123456789), Nine (9), Lame (20040401), Toaster Oven (909090909), and Angela (8535937). In all of these boards one can usually find topics that are used for karma raising by many users, even though such topics are no longer necessary. Toaster Oven in particular had been rumored to exist for years, and was finally created by CJayC along with Rnd(), Nine, and Lame as the April Fool's Joke for 2004. Angela was created along with Jenny several years ago, but very few knew about it until late in 2004.

• Special Social Boards (also called Series Boards) are very much like the Special Boards, in that they are de-linked from the social board list. On these boards, discussions related to an individual video game series can be discussed at great length. As these are social boards, topicality is often not enforced. Special Social Boards are Capcom vs SNK (504), Digimon (510), Mario (556), MegaMan (527), Metroid (578), Pokemon (534), Resident Evil (551), Sonic (569), Three Kingdoms (570), WWE (546), Yu-Gi-Oh (557) and Zelda (548). It should be noted that there is one more Special Social Board, Harvest Moon (2000089), that is not on the Special Social Board list due to a board numbering error. Also noteworthy, the Zelda Social Board (also called ZSB), an enemy of LUE, is part of the Special Social Boards.

• Site Suggestions is the official petitioning board, though very few ever pass. Usually passed petitions are a new special interest or social board, though very occasionally a new feature might be added. A new option "sticky topic" is avalible, which allows topics with great importance to be allows at the begining of the boards topic list. Current petitions that might pass or have potential are the History, Technology/Science and Comedy Central board.

• Special Interest Boards are boards that, while not related to specific games (and in most cases, not related to gaming at all), are proof that petitions on Site Suggestions do occasionally pass. Special Interest boards include Anime, Music, Graphics, Television, Web Design, Pro Wrestling, RPGs (including paper and Square Enix), Sports, Movies, Web Cartoons and Design, Card Games, Martial Arts, Books, Classic Gaming, Paranormal & Conspiracy, Next Generation Gaming discussion, Adult Swim, and Poetry. Even popular things like The Simpsons, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Pokémon, Star Wars, Dragon Ball, and James Bond have their own boards.

• Summer Contest is the board where people talk about the Summer Character Contest, a huge event at GameFAQs, where the Poll of the Day is replaced by a video game character tournament. Previous winners were Link from The Legend of Zelda, Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII, and Link again in 2004. This board has evolved since 2002 for the most part independently from the other boards mentioned. One well-known event on these boards has happened 2 years in a row, directly after Crono's loss to Mario in both tournaments, each by around 100 votes. Mass account suicides, flaming/trolling, and even accusations of CJayC cheating ensued for days after both times. This board is also known for the constant flame wars between certain groups of users, and the word "fanboy" is horribly overused. During the Spring of 2004, the board name changed to represent the Spring Best Game Ever contest (which was eventually won by Final Fantasy VII), but it is normally under its Summer Contest moniker. Board 8, as it is called, has become a social board. Only during the Summer Contest does it really revert (somewhat) back to its attended purpose.

• War on Terrorism was created soon after the September 11th Attacks to discuss the War on Terrorism and related conflicts like the Middle East. However, it has quickly evolved into a massive debate forum with subjects spanning the wide perimeter of the American social and economic scene. Due to its intended subject matter, however, it has become a lightning rod for trolls, a problem exacerbated by its status as a social board. Currently, topics consist of a mixture of domestic USA issues and social topics.

• 810-820 Boards were created a few days after April Fool's Day. Originally, CJayC posted on the Icon board (1000 karma requirement) on April Fools Day about making private boards for the first few icons that signed up. Many thought it an April Fool's joke until these boards were actually created. The few people that received these boards also are allowed to name them. So far, the ones that have been named are: 810 (Mostly Harmless), 813 (Unnatural Selection), 814 (The Upper Room), 816 (#showarr), 818 (KGB), 819 (CE Reloaded), and 820 (Hacked). In order to access these boards, the founders must send an invite.

• Secret Boards are game boards where off-topic posting is allowed. This is generally because the systems the games belong to have become so antiquated and obsolete that very little genuine discussion would otherwise take place on them. Many GameFAQsers have adopted some of these boards for their own use. The systems whose game boards are secret boards are found in the KSOT FAQ. The accepted capital of the secret boards is Zamzara, which also houses the weekly Top 50 Secret Boards list. The largest secret boards at this time include Bushido, Moon Cradle, and Captain Goodnight.

Jargon

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

• 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 on Homestarrunner.com 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 almost completely (but not entirely) of extremely politically conservative users.
• 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 and currently, one user has a KOS order on him/her. Some famous KOS_Users are TRC, rancid milk, BigRedMachine, shoooter, LAF, PregnantPickle, EXE, iamhiddensomewhere, Zappy, Magus Machine, Game555 and Gavirulax.
• 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 the same way "loser" is, quite 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 - An obsolete feature which allowed users with 40+ Karma to rate the "fairness" of moderations.
• 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 using an autoflagged word to catch a mod's attention.
• 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 and Twisted Legacy 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 1st, 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 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 released 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: Many clone sites. Many people with little or no PHP knowledge were starting up their own MediArchive-based spinoffs on free webhosts such as lycos.co.uk. Spinoff coders such as Jay, Ant P, and others exploited 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 from January 2004 to now. Some spinoffs started up, but the popularity of spinoffs has substantially declined. They have a niche audience, but few new people have come. Most notable spinoffs started in this era include Archetype 0 (Onion), Lost Facts (Roaddhogg), and FrozenOven (Shuzo). In addition, the popular branch of LUE, known as LUELinks, has gained momentum as a database of interesting links that can be rated by its members in addition to its forums.

See also

• FAQ
• Internet troll
• GameSpot
• CNET

External links

Official sites

• GameFAQs
• GameSpot (Affiliate to GameFAQs)
• CNET (Parent Company to GameFAQs)
• GameFAQ boards

Unofficial sites

• GameFAQs Archive 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", the latest spinoff.
• GameFaqsASCII, a whiteFyre spinoff that has little to do with ASCII.
• GFBrowser A tool made by Deus Ex Raijin to make viewing GameFAQs a better experience.
• GameFAQs Chat GameFAQs IRC Network
• GameFAQs Exploits A site dedicated to the glitches and exploits in the GameFAQs code.
• GameFAQs Info Info on the site, boards, fads. Contains pictures, ASCII, topics and more.
• GameFAQs Petition Project Created by XtremeGamer99, this site is to help petition creators at Site Suggestions 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
• GameFAQs Toolbar Firefox Extension
• GameFAQs Users Site Made by moderator Crono Lvl 99, this is similar to the photo albums. The site is dead at this stage.
• Kirby Still On Top's Secondary Boards FAQ - 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.
• SC2k4 - A site devoted to covering the GameFAQs contests
• Something Awful article on [or ridiculing, basically] GameFAQs
• LUE Online, a spinoff browser based MMORPG
• LUE Archive, an old but highly interesting collection of infamous and memorable moments on GameFAQs, some not found anywhere else.
• LUELinks, 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.
• LUE2, a spin-off with the original LUE2 user database, owned by iGenesis.
• MBH Social Social boards for MBH regulars.
• The Evil Republicans, website for the aforementioned Evil Republicans

GameFAQs board histories

• Another Place is an un-official fansite.
• ANZLinks Various media files from the ANZ board. Includes a link to ANZChat, a IRC chat service featuring the veteran ANZers
• History of 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. 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
• USL's History.