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| IGN, in a nutshell, just plain sucks. | |||
| '''IGN''' is the oldest and most visited general ] ], and runs one of the most popular forums on the ]. IGN is ranked in the top 400 most visited websites according to ]. | |||
| == Introduction == | |||
| Founded in ], the part-free and part-subscription site attracts 8 million unique visitors a month and has 5 million users registered through all departments of the site, including reviews, previews, walkthroughs, codes, and other media. | |||
| IGN runs on a combination of advertising and subscriptions. '''IGN Insider''' is IGN's premium subscription service at $20/year. Insiders get benefits like the ability to disable some ads, access to Insider only forums, and can read Insider only content. | |||
| IGN Entertainment used to be the only gaming website in the stock market (Nasdaq: IGNX), however as of ] IGN's stocks are no longer publicly traded. | |||
| IGN originally stood for Imagine Games Network, until Imagine Media was acquired by Snowball Inc. Snowball is now known as just IGN Entertainment, thus the IGN acronym has no real meaning. | |||
| In March 2004 IGN Entertainment and ] Industries merged, and was briefly known for 3 months as IGN/GameSpy before formalizing their corporate name as IGN Entertainment. | |||
| In June 2004, IGN bought the popular movie review site, ]. | |||
| == Message Boards == | |||
| IGN is also known for its extremely active message boards. According to Big-boards.com, the RPG Vault Network boards is ranked #3, general IGN boards #4, and theforce.net (] special interest boards) #10. All together, the three communities have almost 200 million active posts. IGN Boards contains many forums on topics ranging from the 3 major video game systems, to cell phones, to dvds, and gear. | |||
| The IGN boards were created in late July ] as a place of videogame discussion for members of IGN.com. | |||
| ===The IGNCB=== | |||
| The '''IGNCB''', or IGN Community Board, opened on ], 2000, as the first community board on IGN. It was created for the "non-video game related content" that was beginning to appear on the video game discussion boards. | |||
| ===I-Boards=== | |||
| When IGN Insider was created, special '''Insider Boards''' where created for subscribers. These included boards for different systems, a multiplatform board, and a community board for general disccusion. | |||
| In February of ], IGN changed it so that ''all IGN forums'' required membership in its insider subscription program, including the popular IGNCB. This controversial move left a lot of loyal "regulars" unable to access the boards. The special Insider Boards were temporarily named the Asylum Boards, and later the '''I-Boards''', which is their current name. | |||
| ===The Vestibule=== | |||
| Basically a less-godlike version of the one of the ], LUE. Due to popular demand, on ]th '''The Vestibule''' was created as a means of allowing non-subscribers to use the boards. It was originally intended to be a trial board, but it was frequented by both subscribers ("Insiders") and non-subscribers ("Outsiders"), and soon became the most popular board on IGN. As of ], the Vestibule have over 10 million total posts and hundreds of daily users. They are the busiest board on IGN as well as one of the busiest boards on the ]. | |||
| The Vestibule has developed its own internet ]. IGN Vestibule members are normally in the age range of 12 to 21. Like all popular message boards, members of the Vestibule are often called elitist, conceited, stubborn, retarded and immature. Posters on other IGN forums view the vestibule as ] and immature. Many regular Vestibule posters are ] when posting on other IGN forums. However, the proliferation of debatable topics such as religion, culture, and drugs makes the Vestibule one of the most accessible of the IGN forums. | |||
| Occasionally, some malicous users try to enjoy themselves by partaking in an activity known as ]ing, either on the IGN boards or on other forums. Riots consist of users posting new topics all dealing with the same inane subject as rapidly as possible. Although few of these topics receive replies, they are all left for the moderators to clean up. | |||
| == Criticisms of IGN == | |||
| Like many popular gaming sites, IGN has its detractors. The most contentious issue is their ubiquitous ]s. IGN was one of the first sites to use ]s. Originally these ads were designed to show up after a set number of page links; currently, they now appear more often. Also, for a brief time, IGN's entire website was significantly changed to add ] and ] logos everywhere. | |||
| IGN has been criticized for displaying ads for its Insiders, who pay a yearly fee to receive added benefits. Many sites with subscriptions disable all ads for those who pay. After many complaints from Insiders, IGN gave them the option to disable the most annoying of the ads. Banner ads, including flash ads, are still shown to Insiders. | |||
| IGN defenders say that they should be given credit for developing a business model which allowed them to survive the ] crash of the late 1990s. | |||
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Revision as of 05:16, 24 January 2005
IGN, in a nutshell, just plain sucks.