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| ===The Vestibule=== | ===The Vestibule=== | ||
| Often shortened to "Vesti", this board was originally created on ], ], as a trial board for new users. Since then, over 2,000,000 threads and 30,000,000 replies have been posted on The Vestibule, making it by far the busiest board on IGN. No longer used as a trial board, it is now the main community board of the IGN Boards. Any topic may be discussed on it, so long as threads and replies abide by IGN's board rules. However, The Vestibule is often criticized for having low quality content, and due to its quick speed, the forum moderators often miss threads that are against the terms of service (TOS) or have been causing harassment. However new moderators have been recently appointed to punish posters for violation of TOS regulations or even posting on The Vestibule at all. More in depth information about The Vestibule can be found at . | Often shortened to "Vesti", this board was originally created on ], ], as a trial board for new users. Since then, over 2,000,000 threads and 30,000,000 replies have been posted on The Vestibule, making it by far the busiest board on IGN. No longer used as a trial board, it is now the main community board of the IGN Boards. Any topic may be discussed on it, so long as threads and replies abide by IGN's board rules. However, The Vestibule is often criticized for having low quality content, and due to its quick speed, the forum moderators often miss threads that are against the terms of service (TOS) or have been causing harassment. However new moderators have been recently appointed to punish posters for violation of TOS regulations or even posting on The Vestibule at all. More in depth information about The Vestibule can be found at . Some of the threads on the Vestibule are very interesting to read, people come up with creative ideas and things to do. | ||
| ===Wrestling=== | ===Wrestling=== | ||
Revision as of 06:37, 30 November 2006
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| File:IgnLogo.png | |
| File:Ignmain.png | |
| Type of site | Gaming & Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Owner | News Corporation |
| Created by | Imagine Media |
| URL | http://www.ign.com/ |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Free, IGN Insider, Founder's Club |
IGN is a multimedia news and reviews website that focuses heavily on video games. It should not be confused with IGN Entertainment; IGN's corporate parent company, which owns and controls separate sites such as GameSpy, Rotten Tomatoes and AskMen.
Founded in September of 1996 as Imagine Games Network, IGN began as three individual websites within Imagine Publishing (now Future Publishing): N64.com, PSXPower, Saturnworld. The growth of these websites enabled Imagine to expand the network in April 1997, hiring additional staff and birthing the now-defunct advertising-focused affiliate program. In 1998, the network consolidated the individual sites as system "channels" under the IGN brand. Next-Generation and Ultra Game Players Online were not part of this consolidation; UGPO dissolved with the cancellation of the magazine, and Next-Generation eventually became Daily Radar.
IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites, each occupying a subdomain on IGN. These sites, commonly known as "channels", cover three generations of video gaming: PC Games, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy, Wireless, N-Gage, PlayStation, N64, Dreamcast, and Macintosh. Also provided are Cheats & Codes, FAQs and detailed game guides. In addition, IGN has channels for Movies, DVD, Music, Comics, Gear, Sports, Cars, Babes, Sci-Fi Brain, Horror Brain, and TV. Each channel consists of various subsections, such as Game/Movie Profiles, Product Lists, Previews, Reviews, Features, News, Mailbag, Editor's Choice, Release Dates, as well as links to the aforementioned Cheats, FAQs and Guides.
As of June 2005, IGN claimed 23 million unique visitors a month, with 5 million registered users through all departments of the site. IGN is ranked among the top 200 most-visited websites according to Alexa, and the IGN forums are among the most active Internet forums.
Corporate details
IGN originally stood for Imagine Games Network. However, IGN spun off from Imagine Media on February 1, 1999, to form an independent, online-only business. At one time, Peer Schneider, VP of Publishing, said it stood for Internet Generation Network. Its corporate name, Affiliation Networks, was changed to Snowball.com and became a public company soon after the break from Imagine Media.
IGN runs on a combination of advertising and subscriptions. IGN Insider is IGN's premium subscription service for approximately $US 20 a year, although it has been known to fluctuate. Subscribers, who are also known as "Insiders", get special benefits, such as higher resolution videos and full access to the message boards.
IGN relies mostly on advertising to generate income. Each page on the network has at least one ad, typically a "banner" or the smaller "billboard." There are also interstils between some pages. IGN also uses tracking cookies from both itself and partners such as DoubleClick, Overture, Tribal Fusion and Claria Corporation.
IGN has substantially grown due to the various mergers and buyouts it has conducted. While still known as Snowball, IGN acquired the Vault Network and its message boards in 1999. In March 2004, IGN Entertainment acquired GameSpy Industries. For three months it was called IGN/GameSpy before formalizing their corporate name as IGN Entertainment. In June, IGN bought the popular movie review site Rotten Tomatoes. For a short time, IGN Entertainment was the only major independent gaming website in the stock market (IGNX). However, its stock is no longer publicly traded.
In February 2005, they acquired the popular download site, 3D Gamers. IGN announced on March 4, 2004 that they had completed the acquisition of GameSpy. In June, they acquired AskMen.com.
On September 8, 2005, News Corporation announced that it had bought 92.3% of total stock of the company for US$650 million, giving it a controlling stake in IGN. It is now a division of Fox Interactive Media (FIM), which includes MySpace.com, foxnews.com, and several other properties owned by News Corp. FIM is not to be confused with "Fox Interactive," which is the (functionally discontinued) video game publishing branch of 20th Century Fox.
In legal affairs: in May 2006, IGN filed a motion to shut down former employee Ashkan Karbasfrooshan's company, WatchMojo.com. The judge sided with Karbasfrooshan; the case is ongoing.
Site editors
- Notes:
- (M) stands for an Editorial Manager
- (C) stands for an Editor-in-Chief
- (F) stands for an IGN Founder
- Peer Schneider - Vice President Site Content (M) (F)
- Steven Horn - Publisher, Entertainment and Lifestyle (M) (F)
- Talmadge Blevins - Editorial Director, Games (M) (F)
- Chris Carle - Editorial Manager, Entertainment (M)
- Dan Adams - IGN PC (C)
- Steve Butts - IGN PC
- Charles Onyett - IGN PC
- Jeremy Dunham - IGN PS2, PS3, PSP (C)
- Chris Roper - IGN PS2, PS3, PSP
- Juan Castro - IGN PS2, PS3, PSP
- Jeff Haynes - IGN PS2, PS3, PSP
- Douglass C. Perry - IGN Xbox, Xbox 360 (C) (F)
- Jon Miller - IGN Xbox, Xbox 360
- Erik Brudvig - IGN Xbox, Xbox 360
- Matt Casamassina - IGN Wii, Cube (C) (F)
- Mark Bozon - IGN Wii, Cube, DS, GBA
- Craig Harris - IGN DS, Game Boy (C) (F)
- Fran Mirabella III - Chief Video Producer (C)
- Erik Harte - Video Producer
- Brennan Ieyoub - Lead Video Producer
- Ty Root - Video Producer
- Nick Scarpino - Video Producer
- Kyle Watson - Video Producer
- Mark Ryan Sallee - IGN Guides, Cheats, FAQs (C)
- Jason Allen -IGN Cheats
- Levi Buchanan - IGN Wireless (C)
- David Adams - News and Features Editor
- Kathleen Sanders - News and Features Editor
- Daemon Hatfield - News and Features Editor
- Brian Zoromski - IGN TV (C)
- Brian Linder - IGN Movies
- Eric Moro - IGN Movies
- "Stax" - IGN Movies
- Todd Gilchrist - IGN DVD (C)
- Spencer A. Abbott - IGN Music (C)
- Hilary Goldstein - IGN Comics (C)
- Jon Robinson - IGN Sports (C)
- Justin Kaehler - IGN Cars
- David Clayman - IGN Insider (C)
- Craig Beridon - IGN Insider
- Anoop Gantayat - IGN Japan
- Aaron Boulding - Not Host of IGN Weekly
- Jessica Chobot - IGN Weekly
- Marc Nix - Games Database Manager
- Meghan Sullivan - Database Team
- Teddy Pierson - IGN Boards Administrator (M)
- Gerry Block - IGN Gear
- Thomas Byrnes - IGN Korea
Message boards
IGN is also known for its active message boards. They were created in late June 2000 and originally intended for video game discussion. However, like many other popular message boards, it has since expanded to forums for discussion about cars, movies, politics, photography, and various other interests. There are several clones of the boards system, some successful in their own right. Some examples can be found at the bottom of the page.
Insider Community Board
The Insider Community Board, often shortened to ICB, opened shortly after the opening of IGN's premium Insider site. During its heyday, the ICB was a thriving community spurring a hundred or more topics per day. It dwindled somewhat in popularity following the enforcement of forum rules requiring content be kept at a "PG-13" level.
IGN Community Board
The IGN Community Board, often shortened to IGNCB, opened on September 11, 2000, for "non-video game related content" that was beginning to appear on the video game discussion boards. The Community Board used to feature the highest moderators-normal users ratio, primarily because users of the IGNCB have generally been around longer than others, but today the IGNCB no longer has a pulse.
The Vestibule
Often shortened to "Vesti", this board was originally created on March 8, 2002, as a trial board for new users. Since then, over 2,000,000 threads and 30,000,000 replies have been posted on The Vestibule, making it by far the busiest board on IGN. No longer used as a trial board, it is now the main community board of the IGN Boards. Any topic may be discussed on it, so long as threads and replies abide by IGN's board rules. However, The Vestibule is often criticized for having low quality content, and due to its quick speed, the forum moderators often miss threads that are against the terms of service (TOS) or have been causing harassment. However new moderators have been recently appointed to punish posters for violation of TOS regulations or even posting on The Vestibule at all. More in depth information about The Vestibule can be found at The Vesti Wiki. Some of the threads on the Vestibule are very interesting to read, people come up with creative ideas and things to do.
Wrestling
Although IGN stopped its wrestling coverage, the wrestling forums remained popular. The main wrestling boards are the Wrestling General Board, a subscriber-only board, and its free video game board for the SmackDown! game series. IGN still regularly features interviews with various wrestlers from both TNA and WWE.
Sports
IGN is also known for its active sports boards, mainly the Basketball and Football board. Although the sports video games are technically sports-related, they are not grouped in with the sports boards, but rather with the gaming boards. The sports included in the sports board section of IGN include: rugby, basketball, baseball, bowling, boxing, Canadian Football League, college baseball, college basketball, college football, extreme sports, fantasy sports, football, golf, hockey, martial arts, NASCAR, soccer, tennis, and paintball.
MU
An MU (Member Update) is a weekly post found on some boards at IGN that track the participating members' post count, post count increase, WUL count, WUL increase, the weekly top spammers, and other such details.
Other sections
- On May 30, 2006, IGN Dreamcast was restarted however none of the Dreamcast updates were posted on main IGN and the articles and Retroviews written were "Fan-boyish" rather than IGN standards.
- In 2002, IGN launched a dedicated videogame FAQs site specifically designed to host user-submitted guides. This was launched following the cancellation of affiliation with GameFAQs.
- In 2004, IGN launched GameStats, which serves as a more unbiased rating network, as it takes in every corporately owned game rating site, and averages it all into one score to give a general idea of the quality of a game.
- In 2005, IGN launched their comics site. It is devoted to not just the staple Marvel and DC titles, but also manga, graphic novels, statues, and toys.
- In 2006, IGN launched their television site. It provides interviews with various television celebrities in addition to a TV schedule, TV trivia, and TV news. Akin IGN FilmForce, IGN's TV section has a variety of exclusive clips from upcoming television shows.
- In 2006 IGN launched regional versions of the site based in the UK and Australia, which both share the same information as the American site but with added content authored from editors within each respective region. When visiting IGN.com from either the UK or Australia, the site automatically redirects you to your localised version using geolocation software. Each version of the site has a modified logo with the UK, Australian or American flags beneath the IGN symbol.
- In 2000, Snowball.com purchased an E-federation called the Internet Wrestling Organization (IWO) . Since Snowball owned both IWO and IGN, IWO would go on to become IGN's first official E-Fed, even doing a column on the website.
- IGN For Men: This section closed down officially on October 2, 2001. It is no longer updated. IGN has sites such as IGN Babes and AskMen.com that fulfill much of the function of the old IGN ForMen site.
- IGN Wrestling met its end in early 2002, when many of the staff departed. Interviews with professional wrestling personalities and coverage of wrestling games has been folded into IGN Sports, currently headed by Jon Robinson.
- IGN Sci-Fi: Largely dead since 2002, this section of the site included movie news, comic book reviews, anime coverage, and other associated items. It has since been discontinued. The site, SciFI.ign.com now redirects to the recently created SciFiBrain.ign.com which covers some of the content of the old SciFi site.
Notes and references
- "Forum Rankings". Big-Boards.com.
- "Insider Inbox". 2003-02-28. Retrieved 2006-11-04.
- "News Corp buys internet firm IGN". BBC News. 2005-09-08. Retrieved 2006-11-04.
- "Get the FAQs". IGN. 2002-07-09.
- "GameFAQs homepage". 2001-01-09. Archived from the original on 2001-01-18.
- "Internet Wrestling Organization". Archived from the original on 2000-05-19.
