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GameSpot

GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1996 by Pete Deemer and Vince Broady. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks, the current owner of GameSpot. GameSpot.com is currently one of the 200 highest-trafficked websites according to Alexa.

In addition to the content produced by GameSpot staff, the site also allows users to write their own reviews, blogs, and post on the site's forums. The forums are partially shared with those on GameFAQs, another website owned by CNET.

In 2004, GameSpot won "Best Gaming Website" as chosen by the viewers in Spike TV's second Video Game Award Show. Other gaming websites such as IGN, 1UP.com, and GameSpy have been its biggest rivals. The domain gamespot.com attracted at least 60 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study.

GameSpot's main page has links to the latest news, reviews, previews, and portals for the following current platforms: Wii, Nintendo DS, PC, Xbox 360, PSP, PS2, and PS3. It also includes a list of the most popular games on the site and a search engine for users to track down games of interest. GameSpot also covers the following platforms to a lesser extent: Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Xbox, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, Neo Geo Pocket Color, N-Gage, and mobile games, among others.

History

At launch, the site focused exclusively on PC games. Its sister site, VideoGameSpot.com, was launched in December 1996 to cover console games. In 1997, VideoGameSpot.com became VideoGames.com for a short period, and by 1998, the PC and console sections were united at GameSpot.com.

On October 3, 2005, GameSpot adopted a new design similar to that of TV.com, now considered a sister site to GameSpot.

International history

GameSpot UK (United Kingdom) was started in October 1997 and operated until mid-2002, offering Europe-oriented content which often differed from that of the U.S. site. During this period, GameSpot UK won the 1999 PPAi (Periodical Publishers Association interactive) award for best website, and was short listed in 2001. Following the purchase of ZDNet by CNET, GameSpot UK was merged with the main US site. On April 24, 2006, GameSpot UK was relaunched.

In a similar fashion, GameSpot AU (Australia) existed on a local scale in the late 1990s with Australian-produced reviews. It ceased in 2003. When a local version of the main CNET portal, CNET.com.au was launched in 2003, Gamespot.com.au content was folded into CNET.com.au. The site was fully re-launched mid 2006, with a specialized forum, local reviews, special features, local pricings in AUD, Australian release dates, and more local news.

GameSpot Japan (Japan) in its current form launched in 2007. It provides Japanese videogame industry news, previews, reviews, features, and videos as well as translated articles from the other GameSpot sites. It had recently added a larger video player and community forums to the site.

Notable staff

Greg Kasavin – executive editor and site director of GameSpot, who left in 2007 to become a game developer. He is now a producer for EA Los Angeles.
Jeff Gerstmann - editorial director of the site, dismissed from GameSpot on November 28, 2007 for undisclosed reasons, after which he started GiantBomb.com
Alex Navarro editor of the site, quit due to dismissal of Gerstmann. Now works with Harmonix, the developer that produces Rock Band.

Reviews and rating system

Old system		New system
Range	Description	Range	Description
1.0 – 1.9	Abysmal	1.0 – 1.5	Abysmal
2.0 – 2.9	Terrible	2.0 – 2.5	Terrible
3.0 – 3.9	Bad	3.0 – 3.5	Bad
4.0 – 4.9	Poor	4.0 – 4.5	Poor
5.0 – 5.9	Mediocre	5.0 – 5.5	Mediocre
6.0 – 6.9	Fair	6.0 – 6.5	Fair
7.0 – 7.9	Good	7.0 – 7.5	Good
8.0 – 8.9	Great	8.0 – 8.5	Great
9.0 – 9.9	Superb	9.0 – 9.5	Superb
10.0	Perfect	10.0	Prime

In January 2001, GameSpot introduced video reviews for games, which are released for all major games. Other games that the editors believe deserve special mention (for example, the very worst games) are reviewed by video as well. Video reviews mostly re-emphasize the written review text with clips of gameplay embedded.

GameSpot has a detailed guide that explains its reviewing policies, as well as answering frequently asked questions about its reviews.

When GameSpot Complete was introduced in late 2001, older reviews were restricted to Complete members; however, those reviews became available to everyone again several months later.

All games were judged on five different categories: Gameplay, Graphics, Sound, Value, and Reviewer's Tilt. Each category is assigned an integer score from one to ten, and these five integers are combined using a weighted average to arrive at an overall score. Should a game score at least 9.0, it is designated as "superb," and given "Editor's Choice" recognition. Although many games achieve this status each year, only six in GameSpot's history have ever received a perfect ten: Chrono Cross, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Soul Calibur, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PlayStation 2 version) under the original system, and Grand Theft Auto IV and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots under the new ratings system implemented in June 2007.

Seven games have achieved a near-perfect score of 9.9: NFL 2K, NFL 2K1, Perfect Dark, Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, Tekken 3 (PlayStation version), and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (Dreamcast and Playstation versions).

On the other end of the spectrum, Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing is the only game to have ever received a 1.0 ("abysmal"), the lowest score possible.

While games are rated mostly with regard to how they compare to the other games available on their specific platforms, games released simultaneously for multiple platforms are also compared between systems, which often results in differing scores being given to the same game depending on the system, usually due to the inherent strengths and weaknesses of each platform.

New system

On June 25, 2007, GameSpot began assigning scores by increments of 0.5 instead of 0.1. It also ended its practice of giving sub-scores for gameplay, graphics, sound, value, and tilt. Instead, user reviews now possess a medal system that permits the reviewer to highlight given characteristics of the game such as its artistic design, original soundtrack, or difficulty. GameSpot believes that this will create a more detailed rating system than the previous one. The first review under the new system was for Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition for the PSP. The only change in terms is the new term "Prime" for games that receive a 10.0 score, replacing "Perfect."

Then Editor-in-chief Jeff Gerstmann blogged explaining the decision but still received criticism towards this change. Despite viewers claiming to have canceled memberships and suggestions for a different increment scale (reverting back to a .1 scale, or changing to a .2 or .25 scale), the review system remains unchanged.

Game of the Year: Best and Worst

Every year, GameSpot holds the Best and Worst Game of the Year awards, which recognize achievements in the gaming industry, positive and negative (in the form of "Dubious Honors", containing categories such as "Most Disappointing Game", "Flat-Out Worst Game", "Best Game No One Played" and "Most Despicable Product Placement"). GameSpot also allows users on the site to vote for the winners of the "Readers' Choice" awards.

GameSpot's winners for Game of the Year have been so far:

1996: Diablo (PC)
1997: Total Annihilation (PC)
1998: Grim Fandango (PC) (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) received a higher rating than Grim Fandango earlier that year, but did not win the award).
1999: EverQuest (PC)
2000: The Sims (PC) and Chrono Cross (PS)
2001: Serious Sam: The First Encounter (PC) and Grand Theft Auto III (PS2)
2002: Metroid Prime (GameCube)
2003: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GameCube)
2004: World of Warcraft (PC)
2005: Resident Evil 4 (GameCube)
2006: Gears of War (Xbox 360)
2007: Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

Community

Forums

GameSpot's forums were originally run by ZDNet, and later by Lithium. GameSpot uses a semi-automated moderation system with numerous volunteer moderators. GameSpot moderators are volunteer moderators who are picked from trusted members of the community. However, due to the size and massive quantity of boards and posts on GameSpot, there is a "report" feature where a normal user can report a post to a moderator. The reporting feature saves a lot of time and makes sure a lot more content is handled correctly.

One distinct feature of the GameSpot community is the ability of GameSpot Total Access users to create their own user-created board, which can either be set to public or private. The board's creator can appoint their own moderators, and also can display HTML markup at the top of their board. Also, all users have the ability to create or join what is known as a "Union". A Union consists of a user-created board which is attached to an editorial front, as well as a homepage with news bulletins and members lists.

In addition to the message board system, GameSpot has expanded its community through the addition of features such as user blogs (formerly known as "journals") and user video blogs. Users can track other users, thus allowing them to see updates for their favorite blogs. If both users track each other, they are listed on each other's friends list.

In May 2004, the GameFAQs message boards and the GameSpot boards merged most of their game-specific boards together.

Profiles

Registered users have the privilege of having their own profile which they can make visible to only themselves, friends, or everyone through their preferences. Profiles can be useful and convenient to the user themselves and to others. In a profile a blog can be started and updated. The blog is shared with the user's TV.com, MP3.com, and MovieTome profiles. Other users can report blog posts to the moderators.

Users can keep a games list within their GameSpot profile which allows them (and others) to track games in four different categories. Users can keep track of news and updates by adding games to the "Tracked Games" list. "Collection" is used for games which the user owns. The "Wish List" is for games users want to try out or intend to buy in the future. Any game can be added to a wish list whether it has already been released or it is pending for release in the future. Users can indicate which games they are currently playing by adding them to the "Now Playing" list.

Emblems are awarded to users by completing various tasks. Some emblems show a user's status (free subscription versus paid subscription). Other emblems denote contest winners, voting participants, staff/moderators, and console aficionados.

Once one has a Gamespot profile, one can edit it, but not delete it. Asking a moderator to delete one's profile gets mixed replies since there appears to be no official posted Gamespot policy regarding the matter. Aspects of ones profile, like one's blog, can be set to "private and viewable by friends only" or "hidden to everyone." However reader reviews are always "public" unless individually deleted by the user who posted them.

Unions

Unions act as online communities within GameSpot. Each union has a blog-style front page and a message board pertaining to a specific topic. Union members post messages and topics in the board and other members of the union can respond. Each union has a level and can receive emblems for growing, being active, or posting good news topics.

Union members can also be awarded ranks within a union, currently there are three: Leader, Officer, and Recruit. Leaders are similar to Administrators of the union, and have the power to modify anything about the union; including the name, avatar and banners, and moderate topics/messages. Officers have the ability to moderate topics and messages and any other abilities the leader wishes to grant to the Officers. Recruits are no more than regular members with the ability to take part in the topic and message posting.

Controversy

Jeff Gerstmann, Editorial Director of the site, was fired on November 28, 2007. Immediately after his termination, rumors circulated proclaiming his dismissal was a result of external pressure from Eidos Interactive, the publisher of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men which Gerstmann had previously given a Fair or undesirable rating along with critique. Both Gamespot and parent company CNET stated that his dismissal was unrelated to the review, but due to corporate and legal constraints cannot reveal the reason. A month after Gerstmann's termination, freelance reviewer Frank Provo left GameSpot after eight years stating that "I believe CNET management let Jeff go for all the wrong reasons. I believe CNET intends to soften the site's tone and push for higher scores to make advertisers happy."

GameSpot staffers Alex Navarro, Jason Ocampo, Ryan Davis, Brad Shoemaker, and Vinny Caravella also left as a result of Gerstmann's termination. Davis, Shoemaker and Caravella all subsequently joined Gerstmann on his subsequent project, Giant Bomb, while Navarro became the community manager at Harmonix. Ocampo joined the IGN PC Team.

Paid subscriptions

GameSpot formerly had a paid subscription service known as "GameSpot Complete". On February 21, 2006, the paid subscription model was changed. It now maintains two paid membership services: Total Access and Plus.

Total Access is essentially a replacement of GameSpot Complete, as it is the same price of US$5.95 per month or $39.95 per year and offers the same basic benefits. The second premium service, GameSpot Plus, is a cheaper, intermediate-level service.

The main advantage of a paid subscription is that ads are removed that would otherwise appear with a free Gamespot account. It bears mentioning that some ads will still appear with a paid subscription if Gamespot sponsors a contest and that contest is then sponsored by an advertiser. For example last year Stride gum ads appears throughout the website even with a paid subscription.

The major difference between the old and new membership services is the lack of GameSpot Complete's 10 percent discount at EBGames.com. There was much discontent over this decision, and for a while, GameSpot claimed to have an unspecificed replacement in the work. No further details were ever provided.

GameCenter

GameCenter was a gaming service which allowed players to host their own customized servers, chat with their friends, and play an assortment of PC games online with players all around the world, all while tracking users' stats. As of March 6, 2006, the GameCenter subscription service has been discontinued and merged into the GameSpot Total Access service. As a result, GameSpot is discontinuing support of the GameCenter client, but will continue tournament events for Total Access members.

The most recent GameCenter has no relation to the original GameCenter, which CNET Networks ran from 1995 to 2001 as a competitor to GameSpot. Shortly after CNET Networks acquired ZDNet and GameSpot in 2000, the original GameCenter was disbanded.

Trivia Robot

Trivia Robot was a fictional character who appeared frequently in a variety of video productions on GameSpot. Speaking in a digital electric monotone, Trivia Robot rose to prominence as the character who would answer viewer mail sent in to the weekly webcast show Let's GameSpot. Trivia Robot appeared in a one-episode series entitled Time Trotters.