What was your origin story for how you joined GameSpot?

My account is fast approaching the 20 year anniversary, time to recollect 😮

I started going to GameSpot back when it was videogames.com At the time, the internet was new, yada yada.. one could only wonder where to find a website about video games LOL. Back then, I used to go to GameRevolution as well, they’re still around. Well anyway, I officially created my account in 2003... username was inspired by Metal Gear Solid (was supposed to be SolidGamer) but GameSpot chopped it off and added the _basic tag. At that time, they had paid and free accounts. The paid accounts got fancy colors and didn’t have the _basic tag and I guess you got exclusive content, I forget. This guy @Yama made one of my sigs, back then he made a ton for people... I’m pretty sure he was the one haha.

I was originally an OT guy. Back then it was awesome, great community and the forums were a bit lenient. They were using the Lithium forums back then. There was a user called @RyanTheGod.. we were all convinced he was a 12 year old masquerading as a man 🤣 He would do this thing where he would post something ridiculous, but then delete it. There were also an English user who went by @Egonga who was really funny. So many users I still remember and are still on my friends list. I used to do an interview segment called Solid’s Hot Seat (ripped off ESPN lol) and would interview a forum user every week or so as a way for people to get to know each other. I also created a Union before they were actual features of the website. And someone created a rival Union, it was funny.

I remember Systems Wars being pretty nuts back then. You didn’t go there unless you wanted to get flamed (also, there was an obsession with Llamas for some reason). GameSpot started to crackdown on users and the SW regulars started calling it NaziSpot. A bunch of people created a System Wars website to get away from it. Looks like it’s still up? During the 2008 360 / PS3 wars, I got banned! GS got so strict they rewarded people for flagging you, which resulted in people getting unfairly flagged. At that point I left the forums!

Fast forward 2013.. the Vita came around LOL I saw people trashing it and that compelled me to defend it 😆 I also found out that my account was unbanned. That was back when the forums were still not bad actually. Then they decided to kill the site with a total revamp. It wasn’t quite the same since then. Still had some good users but slowly every year it’s been dying off since. But still here with the few dedicated few ☺️ I guess I’ll be here until GS pulls the plug haha.

How about you, OT? What was your origin story for how you joined GameSpot?

Dang 20 years?

Can't remember honestly. Probably just came over from Gametrailers.

Honestly I couldn’t tell you because I don’t remember. It’s been almost 20 years since I’ve joined, which is crazy if you think about it.

Gamespot (and especially the off-topic forums) was the place where I found so much general conversation going on; it was almost like the front page of Reddit. This was before the days of Facebook public posts and Reddit. So I signed up because I wanted to join the huge community that talked about anything.

I created my account in 2004 to download demos and mods for games. That used to be a thing you could do here.

I needed help with homework.

I think I started checking out the website when I first started high school, decided to make an account maybe a year later.

Started participating in the forums around 2004-2005, SW was a freaking warzone back then lol.

I came in 2005. I was captivated by the forums, the reviews and the cheat codes that Gamespot provided (not sure if they still list cheat codes for certain games). I wasn't coming to the site every day until 2006; around the time when E3 was shown. It was fun to go to System Wars to discuss video games because it was something I was passionate about. They even had a leveling feature, in which you gained "experience points" from watching videos, viewing gameplay pictures and reading reviews. I wish they would bring that back.

More recently, Gamespot simply hasn't been the same since Jeff Gerstmann got fired. Now I don't trust Gamespot at all (for reviews). Easy Allies are the video game journalists that I trust the most. No other site/magazine comes close, in my view. I'm not sure why I keep coming back to Gamespot in light of all the things I dislike about it. It's a habit.

It’s been about 19 years since I created my account here. Just found this site while looking around for video game news, reviews, and what not. Visited the site for some time prior to making my account. Mainly stuck to General Games Discussion until a bunch of stuff happened that ended up turning it into mostly a ghost town. System Wars was more active and more topics on various games and stuff seemed to hit there quicker so I just ended up being there more often.

I used to have an account back in 2004 or 05 and joined the horror union. Was really great time in that union but people in that union started to get banned and I also was focusing on studies and life so it kinda natural to separate.

Forgot this site password and forgot the password for the email I randomly created for this site so I created a new profile. I created this profile because of the whole controversy surrounding GTAV, TLoU, Bioshock Infinite reviews and the whole drama when Zelda ALBW won over the mentioned titles.

What I missed the most about old gamespot is honestly the badges. I used to collect those shit and participated in many GS events like the E3 week. Editors used to come by my blogposts too Kevin VanOrd used to be very interactive with posters. He also likes to review JRPG so he became my fav reviewer here.

Oh also integration with GameFaqs. Gamespot game forum used to be really active due to that.

I thought, "uninspiredcop is too happy without me. I better create a new account and make him a little more miserable again."

Gametrailers shut down. jump from that place to here.

My origin story? I was a dumb kid back then.

Lol. I remember you, well your username I mean lol.

Was just starting out my tech journey. First heard of Download.com, which then led me to CNET.com, which then led me to CNET's gaming-specific website, Gamecenter.com. Gamecenter then got shut down, and the URL redirected me to Gamespot.

I found out about Gamespot from my brother who would use it for gaming-related news. I created my account in 2011 to post in the Skyrim dedicated board back when games had their own forums/boards. After a while I started lurking in OT before becoming an active member.

I just joined, looking for a cleaner outlet other than Reddit, but these forums are......kind of dead. Seems like it has alot of intolerance and trolling has poisoned it as well, but I see a few posters who seem nice and open to actual intellegent conversations too. I'll give it a another month or two.

Improve my writing skills... maybe it's helped a little. Ultimately I joined because I wanted to discuss gaming because I don't have many friends that are into the games I play.

I also have been coming here since it was videogames.com for dem cheat codes but yeah, I eventually created an account to keep track of how many games I had played. Right now, I have 600+ rated games.

I eventually started commenting and posting as well, some of my earliest comments and posts being pretty cringe, like I was excited for RPG games coming to the Wii for some reason. We all probably know how that turned out.

I don't know. I think I was in college, drunk, and just said "**** it" and signed up.

Literally the only forum I've done that for. I'm not even on Reddit.

I don't remember. Probably looking for a gamer girl to be my gamer girlfriend.

Hmm I joined gamespot on Oct 16, 2003

I have another account that I stopped using cause I disliked the name.

I joined looking for guides and cheats. I used to post tips/cheats on sites back then. I had some on gamewinners that dated back to the year 2000-2001. I came here looking for some of those since gamespot was merged with gamefaqs back then. I happened to stay because of the forum board layout that covered many different different type of console and game genres. I really liked the older look of gamespot as well.

I liked that we had badges in our profile and a leveling system, this totally got me hooked when I did stay and actually try to see the features outside of the forums. I miss JodyR, when she came she made sure to get the community more involved with the site. She promoted user Blogs and there were times when a good well written blog would get posted to the front of the site as a editorial. I strived to improve my grammar skills for that and I actually made it on that several times, something I still feel proud of to this day. I wish it was back, I wish a lot of things were.

@kitty: I forgot all about JodyR. Now I remember.

similar. arrived back when it was videogames.com. lurked for a while just to giggle at the lunatics over in sw. ( as always, tchbo ). after a bit finally said fuckit and created an acct in 05.

way more active and felt way more like the wild west back then.

time to burn the place down and start new?

I made a GameSpot account just so I could post in the game-specific forums that were then shared with GameFAQs. At the time there was sort of a feud between GameSpot and GameFAQ users on those boards. I remember being ridiculed by some GF users for being a GS member. Pretty silly now thinking back to it.

I eventually started browsing the GameSpot forums and started watching the video reviews and the On The Spot show and became hooked. I would be on GameSpot daily browsing the forums and watching the video content. The community was bustling back then and it's sad to see that the community is mostly gone now, but nothing lasts forever. This is one of maybe two forums that I still continue to browse.

I remember this place as videogames.com for cheat codes back in middle school like 1997. I believe I had an account though before but decided to join the site in 2005 since it's the only site that looked cool with reviews and such.

@pcgamerlaszlo: its a small community and members got too comfortable to leave. SW is where most of discussion happens.

I’ve been getting my reviews from gamespot since the early 90s. But I didn’t participate in the forums.

Friend recommended it for gaming news.

I saw they had a retro gaming forum now, I wanted to talk about the neat stuff for display and storage with other retro gaming enthusiasts. Turns out most of the forums are dead as a doornail and retro gaming is Uber dead. But I signed a 1000 post minimum contract with the Terminator to get unbanned when the automated spam filter banned me five minutes after I made the account.