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| Type of site | Gaming |
|---|---|
| Owner | News Corporation |
| Created by | Several |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Free, IGN Insider |
IGN.com is a multimedia news website. Founded in September of 1996, it began as a small group of console-specific gaming sites: N64.com, SaturnWorld and PSX Power. Over the years, and through many mergers and buyouts, it has arisen as a largescale multimedia news site, consisting of specific channels for each of the major videogame consoles, PCs, movies, and more.
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. They also offer assistance to gamers in the form of Cheats & Codes, FAQs and detailed Guides. IGN.com also covers Movies, DVD, Music, Comics, Gear, Sports, Cars, Anime, Manga, Toys, 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 160 most visited websites according to Alexa, and the IGN forums have been considered to be among the most popular Internet forums . Traffic is seasonal, however, peaking in May during Electronic Entertainment Expo and during the busy October-November Fall release window, so any single traffic number is typically an annualized average. Its yearly traffic is slightly higher than its closest competitor in the videogame space: GameSpot.
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, and the acronym is no longer used. Its corporate name, Affiliation Networks, was changed to Snowball.com 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, TribalFusion and Claria Corporation. However, tracking cookies are widely regarded as being the most benign of observation mechanisms, since they can be easily removed, or blocked outright with a few clicks in browser settings.
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.
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
- Tom McNamara - 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)
- Charles Onyett - IGN Xbox, Xbox 360
- Jon Miller - IGN Xbox, Xbox 360
- Matt Casamassina - IGN GameCube, IGN Wii (C) (F)
- Mark Bozon - IGN GameCube Cube, IGN Wii, IGN DS, IGN GBA
- Craig Harris - IGN Game Boy, DS (C) (F)
- Fran Mirabella III - Chief Video Producer (C)
- Erik Harte - Video Producer
- Brennan Ieyoub - Video Producer
- Nick Scarpino - Video Producer
- Kyle Watson - Video Producer
- Mark Ryan Sallee - IGN Guides, Cheats, FAQs (C)
- Erik Brudvig - IGN Guides
- 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 FilmForce (C)
- Brian Linder - IGN FilmForce
- Jeff Otto - IGN FilmForce
- 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
- Marc Nix - Gamestats.com
- Teddy Pierson - IGN Boards Administrator, Community Manager
IGN Ratings
The five ratings categories stand in this order:
- Presentation: This category includes everything from the quality of the manual and packaging to the menu layout and game options. We also consider the overall production, licenses, and style of the game here.
- Graphics: How the game looks as well as technical issues like animation quality, texture design, and framerate.
- Sound: This category rates the quality of the sound effects and voice acting as well as the music in the game.
- Gameplay: In a nutshell, how fun and satisfying the game is to play. Usually considered the most important part of any title, this category encompasses the controls, design, and overall feel of the game.
- Lasting Appeal: This rates how much time you're likely to spend with the game before you get tired of it. This rating also reflects the depth of the game and options such as multiplayer and mini-games that keep you going after you finish the single-player experience.
- Overall: Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, Lasting Appeal & Presentation. All added together to rate the overall score (which is not an average.)
Readers Review All reader reviews and reader ratings create an aggregate score, although this number may not be indicative of the gaming community's opinion, if an insufficient number of people have voted. For example, if IGN rates Unreal Tournament 2003 an 8.9/10 while only 5 readers rate the game a 2/10, all score will be added up and form an estimate of a 3/10 or 2.9/10
IGN's 10 point scale, as described on the website:
- 10.00: Virtually flawless. No game is absolutely perfect, but 10s represent the pinnacle of gaming brilliance. It doesn't get any better than this. This is like winning the lottery on your birthday. It takes a rare and special game to earn a perfect 10 from IGN.
- 9.0 to 9.9: A fantastic achievement with only minor flaws or imperfections. If a game scores a 9.0 or better you know it's a great title with just enough imperfections to let you know they're for real. Games of this caliber are must-haves, even if you're not particularly fond of the genre.
- 8.0 to 8.9: An excellent gaming experience that misses the boat in just a few key areas. Games that score in this range still come highly recommended by IGN.
- 7.0 to 7.9: A good game that has some obvious flaws. Games scoring in the high end of this range might have some first-rate elements, whereas the lower 7s have some serious shortcomings that keep them from ever achieving classic status.
- 6.0 to 6.9: Passable, but just barely. Games in this range have more blemishes than strengths, but still might be worth a look if you're into games of its type. The other games are polite to the sixes, but they don't get invited to any of the parties. Rent this game or download the demo first before spending your hard-earned money.
- 5.0 to 5.9: Games scoring between a 5.0 and 5.9 have numerous major shortcomings. It's a cliche -- but we have to say it: only fans of the particular genre will get any enjoyment out of this one. You might get some enjoyment out of this as a rental, but you probably wouldn't want to own any game that scores in the 5s.
- 4.0 to 4.9: Any game that scores in or below this range isn't worth your attention, and if you happen to end up with one, you'll probably find yourself returning to the store for a refund. These are the games your grandmother buys for you because she thinks they're cute. Trust us, they aren't.
- 3.0 to 3.9: When you get to the terrible threes you know you have some major suckage going on. If your parents give you a 3 game for your birthday, suggest they start getting you socks instead.
- 2.0 to 2.9: Games of this caliber aren't even good enough to recycle. It's more fun to play catch with the box than it is to play the game. Maybe the cat could find some use for this one.
- 1.0 to 1.9: The absolute worst of the worst. Put it in a paper bag, set it aflame on your neighbor's porch, ring the doorbell, and run like hell. Just as it's rare to see a 10 on IGN, it's just as unusual to see a game score in the 1.0 to 1.9 range.
- 0.0 to 0.9: Okay, so we lied. 1.0 to 1.9 isn't "the absolute worst of the worst." However, we don't even consider titles that score below a 1.0 games. Think of them as sewage in a box. This range is saved for those titles that are just so incredibly bad that we question the sanity of the developer and publisher...and don't say it can't happen.
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 message popular boards, it has since expanded to forums for discussion about cars, movies, politics, photography, and various other interests.
On IGN, members have "celebrations" for personal milestones in posting, such as reaching 5,000 posts. Some even include petty milestones such as 1/10K Celebrations.
Wrestling General Board
The Wrestling General Board or The "WGB" is a wrestling board in which all kinds of wrestling related topics are discussed. Also a NCAA Basketball Tournament style Tourney is held annually its called The King Of The WGB or The "KOTWGB" and is a really big thing for the community members, The past winners of this award have been theGAME71135(2004), catatonic121(2005), and ThundaPC(2006). This board does not take kindly to new comers, or slightly off-topic posts.
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 board is particularly renowned for its high-brow wit and perceived elitism, although this is less true now than it was in the board's heyday in 2000-2003. It has now been likened to a slower version of The Vestibule. The Community Board features the highest moderators-normal users ratio, primarily because users of the IGNCB have generally been around longer than others.
Other Community Board
The Other Community Board, or the OCB, was created on August 10, 2005. Its users are comprised of both IGNCB and The Vestibule users, as well as users from the "Other" cateogry. It is a very gated community, but welcoming to users at the same time.
The Vestibule
Often shortened to "Vesti", the board is known among its users as "Teh Vesti", playing off of one of the more popular message board spelling errors.The Vestibule is by far the most popular board on IGN, a large majority of the total posts are there. However, The Vestibule is often criticized for having low quality content, due to its quick speed the forum moderators often miss all spam completely. The Vestibule currently has over 30,000,000 posts alone.
Board riots
Board riots usually consist of user(s) deliberately flooding the forum in a short amount of time with similar topics and posts. Occasionally, script riots occur on the boards, when more technologically knowledgeable users code javascripts to take advantage of the board code and attack the forums with spam.
Members of the Vestibule are particularly prone to rioting, which consists of users flooding the forum in a short amount of time with similar topics and posts. Those participating in a "riot" receive a temporary suspension of their user accounts. Those who start the "riots" are either banned for a very long time or are permanently banned.
- The most famous script riots include the original post script riots of 2002. Users accidentally clicked links to hosted scripts which automatically posted shock images under their account.
- The flood spammers of 2003 (also known as The other Spammers (ToS), a play on IGN's ToS) used log in-log out scripts to make hundreds of account post threads in a short amount of time.
- The poll hackers of summer 2004 (often considered to also have been members of 'The other Spammers') used the same form of log-in log-out script to stuff the votes.
- The last major script riot was by the steak scripters of 2005. The steak scripters used a modified version of the 2002 automatic post script. Any user who clicked on a certain TinyURL would go to a GeoCities site where the script was hosted. This turned their board icon (avatar) into a steak, posted a new topic entitled "STEAK!!" with the link to the script inside, meaning that the script spread rapidly, fooling both users and moderators. The script riot was uncontrollable and caused the Vestibule to be virtually unusable for 36 hours. This was partly due to the open source code, allowing other users to duplicate and create more offensive versions of the script.
Eventually, over 100 users were banned for deliberately contributing to the 2005 riot. To stop the flooding, IGN administrators changed it so only admins could post topics. Two of the three original scripters were permanently banned from the IGN board system; however, the main scripter remained unbanned and later took part in several other endeavours to the point where IGN threatened to take legal action.
Due to alterations to IGN's board code, it is unlikely that such script riots will occur again. Now a user has his or her own unique post-key that is automatically submitted in each post. Without the inclusion of this postkey, the post will not go through, stopping streak rioter scripts. However, each users postkey is still viewable, so scripts can be altered to reflect this change. IGN has prevented this by requiring users to log in on a secure server, preventing the log-in-log-out scripts from running. Although this caused many temporary board glitches, it has hopefully ended a long era of IGN board script riots. Minor non-script riots are still often started without warning, but mostly lead to nothing more than a few locked threads that are only witnessed by the users who were there during that hour.
It should also be noted that April 24 has become a date synonymous with mayhem on the Vestibule. In 2004, one of IGN's main administrators Tal-IGN flooded the Vestibule with 'stickies' (threads which remain at the top of the board and replace those below it) so they would fill the entire viewable pane and make all new posts appear on the second page. This resulted in the Vestibule becoming virtually unusable. Moderators added to the mayhem by unnecessarily editing threads. The steak riot of 2005 also occurred on this date, meaning that many of the userbase have come to associate it with a 'festival of rule breaking.'
Adoptions
Another large part of The Vestibule is "adoptions" – someone can buy another user an IGN Insider subscription as a gift. Adoptions are almost like WULs insofar as they are used to barter with, but these hold more value. There have been adoption contests from time to time and some people will even adopt purely because they find the user to be a good part of the community.
Criticisms
One of the main complaints from visitors of IGN.com is the high volume of ad content. While IGN removes interstitials from the main page, large advertisements are still visible to paying customers, some of them Flash-based.
Another common criticism is of the quality of IGN's game reviews. Many gamers believe that IGN tends to give preferential reviews and inflated scores to some games, especially major releases from established companies such as Nintendo, Square Enix, and Konami. However, this has never been proven and is not an accusation unique to IGN.
Trivia
- IGN retains a site for its unofficial videogame guides. While most of IGN's newer guides are for subscribers or IGN Insiders, the majority of the guides remain free.
- In 2002, IGN launched a dedicated videogame FAQs site specifically designed to host user-submitted guides, following the refusal of GameFAQs to renew its affiliate status.
- IGN purchased GameSages.com to augment its growing codes and cheats database. Jason Allen currently manages IGN Cheats. This deal caused mass unrest among members of the large bulletin board community established at GameSages, and led to rival sites X-Sages (disbanded to allow the webmaster to pursue "other projects") and TheSagesNetwork (eventually changed format to Conacopia.com, distanced from GameSages) being established. A plurality of the more distinguished characters remain active on Cody's Awesome Super Friends Forum established by noteworthy GameSages player Cody "Ace" Morrison.
- In 2004, IGN launched Gamestats.com, 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 games quality.
- 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.
- 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.
- IGN For Men: This section closed down officially on October 2, 2001 soon after the announcement that Leah was moving on. It can be found at formen.ign.com but 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.
- In 2000, Snowball.com would purchase 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.
References
- http://www.big-boards.com/
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4226170.stm
- http://web.archive.org/web/20000519215622/http://www.iwo-online.com/fed_history.shtml
