IGN - Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Raidenmgsfan (talk | contribs) at 02:17, 11 June 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 02:17, 11 June 2006 by Raidenmgsfan (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

You must add a |reason= parameter to this Cleanup template – replace it with {{Cleanup|October 2005|reason=<Fill reason here>}}, or remove the Cleanup template.

IGN is a part-free and part-subscription general gaming website. It was founded in 1995, starting as N64.com, SaturnWorld and PSX Power. It is controlled by 92.3% shareholder News Corporation, a company chaired by Rupert Murdoch. It was bought for $650 million on 8 September 2005.

As of June 2005, it claims 23 million unique visitors a month, with 5 million users registered through all departments of the site, including reviews, previews, walkthroughs, codes, and other media. IGN is a highly profitable business, and each single page often has at least 3 advertisements, complete with tracking cookies from both IGN and "partners" such as DoubleClick, Overture, TribalFusion and Gator. One of it's most notable parts is GameSpy, which was originally a separate company. The GameSpy suite of programs have been source of much controversy due to bundled adware and spyware.

IGN's core site -- IGN -- is comprised of a several specialty sites, each occupying a subdomain on IGN. This has given rise to such IGN sites (sometimes referred to as 'channels') such as Xbox 360, Xbox, Playstation 3 (PS3), Playstation 2, GameCube, PC Games, Playstation Portable, Game Boy, Nintendo DS, Cheats, Guides, FAQs, DVD, Music, Comics, Sports, Cars, and Babes.

IGN is ranked among the top 300 most visited websites according to Alexa, and the IGN forums have been considered to be among the most popular Internet forums.

Corporate Details

IGN runs on a combination of advertising and subscriptions. IGN Insider is IGN's premium subscription service for approximately $20 a year, although it has been known to fluctuate. Subscribers, who're also known as "Insiders" get special benefits, such as higher resolution videos, no ads, and full acess to the message boards.
IGN Entertainment was the only gaming website in the stock market, however its stock is no longer publicly traded.
IGN originally stood for Imagine Games Network, although now, it is no longer an acronym -- it means absolutely nothing.
While still known as Snowball, IGN acquired the Vault Network and its message boards in 1999.
In March 2004, IGN Entertainment and GameSpy 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 Rotten Tomatoes
In February 2005 they acquired the popular download site, 3D Gamers.
In June 2005, IGN bought male lifestyle website AskMen.com.
On September 8, 2005, it was announced that News Corporation had acquired IGN for $650 million.

Site Managers

Peer Schneider - VP Site Content
Steven Horn - Producer
Talmadge Blevins - Editorial Director, IGN Games
Chris Carle - Editorial Manager, IGN Entertainment
Aaron Boulding - Executive Editor, Special Projects
Fran Mirabella III - Chief Video Producer

Editors-in-Chief

Jeremy Dunham - Editor-in-Chief, IGN PS2, PSP, PS3
Douglass C. Perry - Editor-in-Chief, IGN Xbox, Xbox 360
Matt Casamassina - Editor-in-Chief, IGN GameCube
Dan Adams - Editor-in-Chief, IGN PC
Craig Harris - Editor-in-Chief, IGN Game Boy, DS
Spencer A. Abbott - Editor-in-Chief, IGN Music
Mark Ryan Sallee - Editor-in-Chief, IGN Cheats, Guides, FAQs ("Game Help")
Brian Zoromski - Editor-in-Chief, IGN FilmForce

IGN Message Boards

IGN is also known for its active message boards, which were created in late June 2000, which were originally for video game discussion, but now, they have deviated from just that subject, to cars, movies, politics, photography, and various other things.

Known as The Vestibule, or to members, as the Vesti. The Vestibule is a forum that is a part of IGN.com. The Vestibule was created on March 8th 2002 as a means to experience the IGN community without having to purchase "IGN Insider" - the boards were previously made completely subscription-only on February 20th 2002, much to the appal of long-time members.

The Vestibule has no set topic - anything goes as long as it falls within IGN's TOS. The discussions tend to be of a frivilous nature, but current events are largely discussed; from politics to sport, television and videogames. Viewing shock sites such as Goatse.cx, tubgirl and lemon party are almost considered a rite of passage on The Vestibule. Recently there has been a tendency towards shock videos - by far the most talked about being what is known only as "The Video", which consists soley of penis mutilation.

One of the features of the board system is WULs (watched user list), which is essentially a buddy list to keep track of your favorite users' posts. However, users of the Vestibule especially feel a need to be on as many users' lists as they can, raising their WUL count. The system is now effectively a currency of its own - people offer WULs for information and favors.

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 of course these are worth far more. You may see 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. Wingflyer and N-Finity have between them bought hundreds of subscriptions for others. 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. Examples include the Tal-IGN riot, the Armadillo riot, and the Tumbleweed riot. Participating in a riot will result in a temporary suspension of your account, a practice that moderator Lord_Auric made standard.

Due to the Vestibule's large volume of posts and users, the moderators on The Vestibule are little more than window dressing and combat The Vestibule's spamming and blatant offensiveness infrequently and ineffectively. Members of other forums on IGN and across the internet usually look upon regulars of The Vestibule as offensive, crass, spammy, and immature. Most in the Vestibule claim that other forums are too rigidly defined to doctrine and topic and prefer the freedom The Vestibule offers. As of 2005, the Vestibule has 20 million posts and is one of the fastest boards on the internet.

The IGNCB, or IGN Community Board, opened on September 11th, 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. The ratio of moderators to normal users is the highest of any board, this is because the users of the IGNCB have generally been around longer than others. According to Big-boards.com, the IGN Boards are ranked number three in terms of activity, behind Face the Jury, and Gaia Online.

Other Details

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 are actually free.
In 2002, IGN launched a dedicated videogame FAQs site specifically designed to host user-submitted guides. Stephen Ng currently manages IGN FAQs.
IGN purchased GameSages.com before to augment its growing codes and cheats database. Jason Allen currently manages IGN Cheats.
In 2004, IGN launched Gamestats.com which serves as an 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.
Largely dead since 2002, this section of the site included movie news, comic book reviews, and other associated items. It has since fallen into disuse. It still exists at scifi.ign.com, where its front page offers, among other things, the latest news on Terminator 3. Recently, IGN has created SciFiBrain.ign.com which covers some of the content of the old SciFi site.
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 Babes.IGN.com and Askmen.com that fulfill much of the function of the old IGN ForMen site. Jeff Hall currently manages IGN Babes.
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.

References

Official Sites

Categories: