Note: Work in progress, Researching, Request Editorship
About
GameFAQs is a video gaming website that specialized in archiving walkthroughs, guides, and codes for thousands of video games, which are provided by users of the site. The site also houses various message board forums, for which users can discuss a wide range of topics and interests outside of gaming.
History
[researching]
The site was first launched by programmer Jeff Veasey, also known by his online alias “CJayC,” on November 5th,1995, as a way to categorized guides, and FAQs within one location. Under its first name “Video Game FAQs Archive,” the site was originally hosted on America Online web-space, before registering the domain “gamefaqs.com” on September 11th, 1996, and relaunching later that year under the new name GameFAQs.[1]
Features
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The site allows registered users to volunteer in writing walkthroughs and guides for any video game listed in the site. Users can also help out in providing codes, box art, screenshots, videos, developer critics, and as well as publishing game reviews. Members can also use feature called “GameFAQs Answers”, similar to that of Yahoo! Answers, allowing users to ask and answer questions about a specific game.
Message Boards
The most notable addition of the site are the site’s message board, with one board for each video game listed in the site, which are often used to discuss said game. Separate boards has also been set up for users in the site, which range from topics and interests like anime, music and wrestling, to specific regional boards, for users from other parts of the world.
LUE Board
The LUE (Life, Universe, and Everything) board is often considered as one of the most recognized, and notorious, boards on the site. With the name being in reference a quote from Douglas Adams’ science fiction book The Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy, the board was created sometime during 2001 as was to discuss religious and philosophical topics. As time passed, the board began to steer out of its original direction, with topics ranging from immature to offensive. Eventually, the board would be closed off to newer users, and since May 2012, it has been reported that the site has over 13,000 accounts that still have access to the original board.[2]
Traffic
As of May 2013, the GameFAQs is ranked as 404 in United States and 854 globally on Alexa[4], a ranking of 539 and as well as an estimate of 2.3 million monthly visits on Quantcast[5], and a compete[6] ranking of 888.
Highlights
Hot Skitty on Wailord Action
Hot Skitty on Wailord Action, often abbreviated “HSOWA,” is a catchphrase referring to the bizarre breeding pattern of the two creatures from the Nintendo video game series Pokémon. The phrase was first coined by GameFAQs member Endgame in a thread on the Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire board sometime after the North American release of the game during 2005. The phrase has since became popular with fans, with a series of fan creations pairing the two Pokémon.
Suddenly X! Thousands of Them!
“Suddenly X! Thousands of Them!” is a phrasal template that is often used in storytelling to introduce a group in a abrupt manner. It began being popularized online when the phrase “Ninja! Thousands of Them” was widely used on the Random Insanity board of the site.[3] It is often used in online discussion as a way to express a sudden arrival of a group, and it also been used in a series of image macros featuring a large abundance of a certain group or object.
Search Interest
Search Queries for “GameFAQs” saw it’s peak of interest during the end of 2006, but interest began dwindling during mid 2009, and it has been dropping ever since.