When did you start visiting GR?

[Paul Tamburro]

I know there are a fair few GameRevolution readers who have been loyal to the site since the '90s, watching it go through various changes, rebrands, and restructures to become what it is today. I also know there are a number of you who have been introduced to the site as a result of one specific review, feature or writer, which has led to the site becoming part of your daily routine. But what signaled the beginning of your love of GR, and what has made you stick around after all these years?

Personally, I started working for one of GR's sister sites a good few years ago, and in 2013 I reached out to GR to see if I could do some freelancing for it. Anthony replied asking me to write a review of bit.Trip Fate, and then I steadily started producing more reviews for the site that a lot of readers seemed to enjoy. After working with me on GR, Anthony became Exec Editor of the site I was working for and after being given a bigger role, I no longer had the time to freelance for GR. However, over the years I continued to read the site in my spare time, until being made Exec Editor of this lovely place last September thanks to a few odd twists of fate. It's funny how things work out!

 

[Master_Craig]

I've posted this before, but I started visiting GameRevolution back in 1999, when I was eleven years old on a bloody dial up connection. Back in the day, GR was a real bad, typical site that was essentially a bunch of hyperlinks and words, no images, taking you to what you wanted to read. For me, that was cheats. GR was the place to go for all things codes, guides and cheats.

At some stage, I signed up to GR in 2006, occasionally participating on the outside of the site (commenting in articles, reviews etc.) while also writing my own user reviews, in an absolute terrible quality. I finally made the step into the forums in 2008.

I stopped coming to GR later down the track around 2010 or so. For me, my computer at the time was pretty bad and with the restructure of GR's site interface, it ran terribly on my computer, so I couldn't come to GR anymore. I made a return to GR in 2012 when I got a new computer and could actually visit the website again.

In late '13, I saw former staff member Daniel Bischoff posting a post on the forums, asking if anyone would like to review for GR. I approached Daniel and said I could try that, but I also had other skills, like drawing. Daniel connected me to Anthony, who liked my drawings and comics (as I had tried to do a web comic in the past, but failed) so they gave me a shot at "GR Strips", a weekly web comic on GR, starting in early 2014.

GR Strips was quite challenging at first. When I look back on previous comics, they look garbage to me and I cringe at their quality... but overtime, it became evident that I honestly was getting better. The art was improving as I was trying new things all the time, always experimenting.

To begin with, I was the artist, but slowly over time, I became a co-writer of the comics and eventually, I gained ownership of the comics and received complete control, as Anthony and the team had put complete trust in me. My older brother helped me write a lot of the comics as well.

In late 2016, I reluctantly resigned from my position at GR and gave up making comics. 2016 was one of the worst, most stressful years of my life and I had way too much on my plate at the time. Anthony didn't want me to go, but he was understanding, respectful and supportive of my decision.

With GR's most recent site revamp, my comics are sadly all gone... but of course, I do have them backed up on my computer, external hard drive and my own e-mail. Anthony has told me that nowadays, I can do whatever I want with the comics, so I will most likely reupload them in the future to a hopeful new site of my own creation, maybe even make a big book of it? For print and PDF? Who knows.

And well, here I am.

 

[NegFactor]

I don't have any glorious story behind my visitation. I really like the ability to discuss issues at large without worry of censoring and when I was reading about reliable sites post-GamerGate, this was one that came up. I bookmarked it at the time along with a few others and over time, ferreted out some of them. I actually dropped this site as well when I saw a particular person's review show up on here, but that person has long since been gone. Once I came back and realized that, I decided to linger around. Seems like you can have a fairly civil discussion about anything here without people going insane and that's all I really want when it comes to gaming. People having polarizing views is not a terrible thing, as long as they can meet somewhere in the middle to at least talk about them.

Also, your dark theme is better than a lot of other bright sites.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

Uhhhhh...

1997

 

[Green_Lantern]

Um, like ‘97 or ‘98, back then it was my go to source for cheat codes. I didn’t start posting in the forums until like 2007 though.

 

[MattAY]

Whichever year it was that had the URL on the back of a red truck.

Was all about grabbing the cheats from GR!

 

[COMaestro]

I didn't even know about GR until I saw a co-worker at my former workplace looking at the site for video game news, must have been back in 2011 or 2012. I added it to my rotation of game sites and checked in with it almost daily. Eventually jumped in on the forums as well. Been around ever since.

 

[used44]

Whichever year it was that had the URL on the back of a red truck.

Was all about grabbing the cheats from GR!

Loved the red car. I also remember the page of "Tomb Raider nude codes" that was the pic of Lara on the bed and some snarky text about 'stop asking for nude codes, losers.'

 

[Jason Faulkner]

Whichever year it was that had the URL on the back of a red truck.

Was all about grabbing the cheats from GR!

 

[MattAY]

^ YES!!

Ah sweet memories!

 

[Rainemaida]

I used GR for cheats as a little kid in the late 90's and early 2000's. Fondly remember the beat-up-truck title page. I officially joined the forums in 2003 when I was in middle school and spent most of my middle/high school years on the general forums but I basically quit gaming as much and visiting GR during college and I haven't been back much since all the different UI changes and user drop-off. I still game alot now on PC and got a Switch this year. I spend most of my online time on YT/reddit and don't visit any forums anymore.

 

[MattAY]

RAIN lad! How you doin?

 

[Paul Tamburro]

I used GR for cheats as a little kid in the late 90's and early 2000's. Fondly remember the beat-up-truck title page. I officially joined the forums in 2003 when I was in middle school and spent most of my middle/high school years on the general forums but I basically quit gaming as much and visiting GR during college and I haven't been back much since all the different UI changes and user drop-off. I still game alot now on PC and got a Switch this year. I spend most of my online time on YT/reddit and don't visit any forums anymore.

Great to see an old user coming back we hope you stick around!

 

[Stove]

Sometime around the time that Playstation was released. Before that, had to get cheat codes out of magazines. Tips and Tricks! Dont cheat on games any more, though still read the walkthroughs from time to time. Sadly, IGN kind of is king in that area.

Paul, I think you're doing a great job. This site needed a breathe of air and I really enjoy all the gaming news. Before it would be a random news here and there, but now I can barely keep up. I enjoy all the coverage and visit much more often. People dont really comment on stuff unless its political. And wonder what you could do to reduce ads for the mobile site. Reviews and walk-throughs may need a little more love, but that could be coming.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

I would come here back in the late nineties but really started in college 2005ish. I found the boards and this became the place to come for everything else. There were a lot of random users but there was a huge community as well. I lurked for a rather long time. But finally started getting in the mix. It took a while but eventually I had people who responded to my posts and started to find a real bond with my fellow GRians.

I loved the random pictures that the old reviewers would put in their write ups and the snark and stand-of fish way they would opine in regards to the games they got.

 

[Dobby2244]

I joined here when I was a kid (maybe 20 years ago?).. now I come to be nosey every now and then.. it's obviously been some time since I logged in here though and I'm surprised to see the boards all moved around.. there isn't a misc section and it looks all weird now. It doesn't even seem like GR.... !?!?!?!?

 

[Paradox]

I'm surprised to see the boards all moved around.. there isn't a misc section and it looks all weird now. It doesn't even seem like GR.... !?!?!?!?

That was my thought too when I popped back in after a lengthy absence. I miss the old school black and red.

My first visit to GR had to have been back in late 96 or early 97. I was looking for any info and images from this awesome new game Nintendo was working on, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I found what I could at GR and printed out fuzzy black and white pics to show my friends at school.

Me joining the forums and making my first post (back when I was Prototype) was in March 2002. I was looking for help with a mission in Grand Theft Auto 3. I posted a new topic asking for said help, and it was promptly closed by mod Kaanchtoofan. He said to post all GTA3 questions in the GTA3 topic. I was aggravated but complied and I’ve hung around off and on ever since.

I was in my early 20s then so I was just about the oldest here, most everyone else was in their teens or younger. I watched over time as these young opinionated kids and teens grew up from posting about school and childhood drama to posting about careers and family.

I’ve been visiting GR for bout half my life, I’m sure I’ll keep popping in here and there for years to come.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

The Misc section just got renamed when we went to Forums 3.0 and the newest EiC.

Also my first post was in like 2003 and I was like 12 and everyone else was like 15 so I felt like a dumb kid and stayed away from everything like the "post pictures of yourself" threads we used to have back when the internet wasn't terrifying.

Also, for a long time my daily routine was:
Wake up 30 minutes before I had to go to school
Check the forums
Go to school
Get home
Check the forums while taking a dump
Play video games until I went to sleep
Repeat

 

[COMaestro]

The Misc section just got renamed when we went to Forums 3.0 and the newest EiC.

Also my first post was in like 2003 and I was like 12 and everyone else was like 15 so I felt like a dumb kid and stayed away from everything like the "post pictures of yourself" threads we used to have back when the internet wasn't terrifying.

Also, for a long time my daily routine was:
Wake up 30 minutes before I had to go to school
Check the forums
Go to school
Get home
Check the forums while taking a dump
Play video games until I went to sleep
Repeat

Replace "school" with "work" and nothing's changed.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

Replace "school" with "work" and nothing's changed.

I teach, so it's still school.