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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 "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 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. Lately, it has become more social, with many topics becoming more like discussions.
  • Poll of the Day (PotD) is another social board, similar to LUE, although the topics there are not usually as bad. PotD has nothing particular in common with the Poll of the Day on the main page, and is usually used to discuss women, love, etc.
  • 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. Most are generic social boards while boards like the Australia & New Zealand board have special events like the noteworthy Battle Royale by Jerec.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 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 September 11th to discuss the War on Terrorism and related conflicts like the Middle East. However, it has quickly evolved into a massive political debate forum ranging from subjects spaning the wide perimeter of the American social and economic scene.
  • 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.

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.
  • 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"
  • 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.
  • 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) - This is a rare but extremely bad punishment one can receive on GameFAQS. When one has been KOSed, they are not allowed to reveal their identity otherwise they'll be banned with no questions asked. KOS orders peaked in the 2002-2003 period and currently, one user has a KOS order on him/her.
  • LUEsers - Describes people who go to and frequent LUE. It is pronounced the same way "loser" is, leaving some users to chuckle at the unintended pun.
  • 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.
  • 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 disobidence and defiance and punishments went from lenient to harsh. As of now, it is considered as regular ASCII and thus moderated only when disruptive (aka not in ASCII topics).
  • 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).
  • 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.
  • RIer Name given to users who frequent Random Insanity. Can be pronounced either "Are-Eye-er" or "Ryer"

Spinoff/clone boards

Many people have created their own sites based upon the GameFAQs look and feel. Most of these simply copy the GameFAQs boards; these are commonly referred to as GameFAQs spinoffs. Some go further, not only emulating GameFAQs' contribution systems as well, but adding new features and options (such as topic views and board currencies).

In 2002, Chuck "NeoGenesis" Sakoda created GameFAQs Hell, the first spinoff. His first attempt at cloning the boards was performed in ASP and MS Access database services. Yet despite being the first, it did not truly emulate or appear to look like GameFAQs. It was also exploit-ridden and had holes in it, eventually becoming unusable in its present state. After giving up on that source, he made a new version in PHP and MySQL. He released the source code under the GNU General Public License. It has been confirmed by CJayC that he had a link to GameFAQs Hell in the board help section for promotion of the source.

Later that year, hosted by Counteray, Jay and Waffles developed Mediarchive, the first real spinoff that actually looked like GameFAQs. But Counteray soon ran into problems with his father, who paid for the hosting, and had to shut down MA. But before going out, Counteray leaked the source out. This initialized a major shift in the spinoff world. Before, anybody who wanted to run a spinoff had to have a solid knowledge of PHP, MySQL, and coding. With Jay and Waffles' MA source, anybody with minimal knowledge could start up a spinoff. This in turn led to real spinoff coders hacking and exploiting leaks in MA's code to shut down spinoffs. Eventually, most spinoffs fell due to these attacks and assaults.

2002 was also marked by the startup of the three most popular spinoffs that still survive to this day, Outboards (August), whiteFyre (September), and Twisted Legacy (Late September). But 2003 was when the real spinoff age took off, with Darkside Legion, girlgamer, Junkieznat, CABLE, and many more spinoffs beginning to rise. The climax of 2003 was marked by the start-up of LUE2, a spinoff that galvanized the entire spinoff scene. It registered more users, posts, and topics in three days than most GameFAQs imitations did in a month. Its abrupt crash was just as monumental which, due to the diaspora of users searching for a new home, led to a very active and populous spinoff community. Many people call 2003 the "golden age" of spinoffs.

A large former spinoff, Darkside Legion, was a banned word ("darksidelegion") at GameFAQs after receiving a notorious reputation. Its members were said to contact unsuspecting people on AIM and persuade them to give their passwords away. It was also suspected as the place where KOS'd people would go to plan their flooding attacks on GameFAQs. Their actions led to the security measured rolled out in July 2003. Nine months later, EvilPrimate, one of the owners, finally convinced CJayC to unban the word (since DSL was gone).

Now however, the pastime is starting to slowly crumble. The majority of boards have either been shut down or hacked or both, and almost all of the remaining spinoffs have sunk in popularity. There are still some popular spinoffs, as well as a few new ones, but for the most part, the golden age has come to a close.

Anthony Parsons' The Spinoff Archive page, as well as a few message board sources, provide lists of spinoffs. There is also another user-submitted list at Aquatakat's site. Archetype Zero contains an archived spinoff board listing for historic purposes.

See also

External links

Official sites

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 Febuary 10, they opened up "Lost Facts", the latest spinoff.
  • 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 Signature List Management Project Created by XtremeGamer99, this site is to help petition creators at Site Suggestions to better mantain 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 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 mantains it.
  • SC2k4 - A site devoted to covering the GameFAQs contests
  • Something Awful article on GameFAQs
  • LUE Online, a spinoff browser based MMORPG

GameFAQs board histories

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