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I know PHP enough now that I could program a Gamefaqs.com type site.
It would take a while because well, that's a lot of database calling but one reason Gamefaqs.com is so big is because it's never had any real competition....
Which is great for it as a resource but that also means they get all the idiots. Their boards are horrific to say the least.
If they start charging, someone will replace them.
What ads?
http://www.proxomitron.info/
Gamefaqs game info/faq/review/etc pages = same type of system I have on TNL for headlines. :cool:
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There also the ones responsible for voting for Episode 1 and 2.Quote:
Originally Posted by pixelassassin
If I want info on some obscure game, I sure as hell don't look here. Gamefaqs is a great resource for that alone. I was just reading up on Evangelion 2, which sounds amazing, but a translated version (ie one I could play well) seems doubtful.
Download.com is still free. Why would they charge for GameFAQs?
they won't because A) The content supplied is not their own property, it's the property of their members and B) Most people that visit that site will not want to pay to have something they were getting for free.
CJayC has mentioned that bandwidth is bad, but because the site has like 1 or 2 images to call up that it's not as bad as you'd think. I personally don't mind popups on a site like Gamefaqs which supplies information I think is valuable. IGN is a news site first, and a news site should not have pop-ups over their content. That and I don't think that their content is good enough to be payed for. (kind of like what Penny Arcade said about EA's online system.)
I think, though, that it just comes down to the members of Gamefaqs being too young to be able to pay. Look at the IGN and Gamespy announcement. They get 22 million unique visitors a MONTH and only have 124,000 or so members on insider? That's a terrible ratio. That's still like 6 - 8 million a year if everybody pays the 60 bucks a year or whatnot, but it's still a terrible ratio.
I don't even know what i'm talking about anymore...
How many unique visitors does GameFaqs have? If they charged $1 a year, they could EASILY get at least 124,000 people to pay that, and it would at least take a chunk out of their hosting costs. $1 a year is close enough to $0 a year that most people wouldn't flinch at paying it, and it would at least be some help financially.
Except for the fact that people have to actually do something to pay $1 a year, and that something usually involves a credit card. While to pay nothing means to do nothing.Quote:
Originally Posted by shidoshi
That, and there's no way that if they were going to charge that they'd make it so cheap.