TAKE IT TO THE BOARDS
All Games Radio Forums 2007
When I started allgames.com the best place to get into a good debate about the merits of a particular game/developer/publisher was on Usenet. According to Wikipedia, “Usenet is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was established in 1980.”
According to me, Usenet was the place for the ultimate flame wars. From PC vs Console to Yankees vs. Red Sox, the “newsgroups” was the first place people would lose their shit and argue to the death with complete strangers. Online trolling was practically INVENTED on usenet. Much of what we see today on Facebook and Twitter began in groups that started with comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure or alt.politics. Google Groups gives you access to all of this. Try searching for Derek Smart and Battlecruiser 3000 for a snapshot of early flamewars/trolling.
Of course a lot of people went to usenet for the binaries. Files of all kinds could be downloaded or uploaded to usenet. If you had a good fast internet connection, you might be able to download a new pc game or movie from the various binaries groups.
While many people were getting their communication needs met on usenet, others were making lifelong friendships on BBS’ or Bulletin Boards connected via Internet Service Providers. It was on a BBS that I got my first taste of FPS gaming with the original Doom shareware and eventually Duke Nukem 3D. BBS’s were a great way to find out what was new in shareware and gaming, but was also a place to actually connect with other gamers and play over the internet. Doom and Descent were popular shareware titles early on.
Finally we got to create our own bulletin boards as developers began creating community message boards for websites. We had a big community around both the AGN and G4 forums over the years.
Today most of the conversations happen at Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. However I still belong to NEOGAF and get a lot of great info from them. I am also a member of Operationsports.com another great community with a very active message board.
So here it is, the newest version of the allgames.com forum. I’ve started a few topics, and Tigerclaw has uploaded some of the great entries from our old GTAIV contest from 2008.
Make an account, share a memory or start a flame war. Just tag your spoilers and leave the cyberbullying to twitter.
Until next time, take it to the boards. (or comment here 😬)
