RPGamer
RPGamer is a media and news website dedicated to covering computer and video game RPGs. Its coverage includes North American game news, European game news, Asian game news, gaming industry news, game reviews, game previews, hands-on game impressions, gaming conventions, game merchandise, release dates, contests, and interviews.
RPGamer also has various columns dedicated to fan submitted content; these focus on game reviews, remixed music, editorials, fiction, desktop wallpapers, software skins, traditional and digital art, and a daily Q&A column. Other methods of fan interaction that they support are a message forum, IRC chat, and weekly poll.
History
RPGamer was originally founded in April 1995 by Andrew Vestal as the UnOfficial SquareSoft HomePage (UOSSHP), a fan site devoted to the games of SquareSoft. In mid-1997 it changed its name to Square.Net and had the rare distinction of being hosted on SquareSoft's own webserver for several months. Then, in late-1997, Andrew Vestal closed the site due to two reasons. The main one was a large amount of spam, but also this unwanted attention lead SquareSoft USA's management on a path that found the site was on their servers without their knowledge. SquareSoft expressed their discontent with the situation by removing all the Square.Net files from their servers.
Andrew Vestal handed the content of the site to Mikel Tidwell and helped resurrect it on March 11, 1998 as RPGamer. The New site was founded to cover role playing games specifically and immediately expanded to cover companies other than SquareSoft.
Current Staff
- Adriaan den Ouden - "omegabyte" - Point of View Curator
- Andrew Long - "Castomel" - Resource Manager
- Anna Marie Neufeld - "Paws" - Game Reviewer
- Billy Young - "madhtr" - Public Relations Manager
- Bryan Boulette - "Aethelred" - Interaction Editor/Editorialist
- Chris Privitere - "sabin1001" - Development Manager/RPGCast Host
- Cole Jones - "Ilchymis" - Editorialist
- Ed Walker - "Foxworth" - Webmaster
- Jake Miller - "Strain" - MMORPGamer Columnist
- Jeffrey Cottrell - "Jeffrey" - Forum Administrator
- Jesse Cherry - "PressA" - News & Media
- Jonathon Self - "Neist" - Previewer
- Jordan Jackson - "J_Sensei" - Senior Public Relations Associate
- Katie Crandall - "boredkate" - News & Media
- Lauren Loveday - "MuneTeika" - News & Media
- Majed Athab - "lost_keeper" - New Updates Editor
- Martin Drury - "keno" - Saving Throw Columnist
- Matt Demers - "Wonderslime" - Q&A Host
- Matthew Russo - "barieuph" - Sound Test Curator
- Michael Baker - "GaijinMonogatari" - Japandemonium Columnist
- Michael Cunningham - "Macstorm" - Editorials Curator
- Mikel Tidwell - "Firemyst" - President
- Oliver Motok - "Metaridley" - Currents Columnist
- Paul Koehler - "Amish" - Foreign Correspondent
- Ryan Mack - "Balphon" - Game Reviewer
- Sarah Williams - "sarahvait" - Editorialist
- Sean Kepper - "Gorne" - Q&A Host
- Shawn Bruckner - "o_O" - Content Manager
- Shawn Cooper - "Lusipurr" - Editorialist
- Steve Ardo - "shroudie" - Fan Art Curator
- Steven Singler - "Kirin" - News & Media
Trivia
- Past employees include Jake "Googleshng" Alley, J.R. "Thor" Antrim, Brad "The Oracle" Lohr, Alex "Dagon" Wollenschlaeger, Andrew Vestal, and Andrew Kaufmann.
- Another media and news site was founded using the remnants of Square.Net on 1998-11-22; the Gaming Intelligence Agency (GIA) was created and lead by Andrew Vestal until its closure on 2002-04-01. The staff of the GIA went on to found their own media and news site named GameForms.
- At least one representative from RPGamer has attended the E³ (Electronics Entertainment Expo) every year since 1998.
- On January 18, 2007, some trainee staff members wrote up an article announcing Shigeru Miyamoto's death from a falling turtle, and accidentally posted it. The article, written as a fake sample for the purpose of training staff, was not meant to be published and was soon removed and retracted.
External links
fi:RPGamer