RPGamer

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RPGamer
URL	http://www.rpgamer.com/
Type of site	RPG news & information
Registration	Optional
Owner	Mikel Tidwell
Created by	Andrew Vestal (original)
Launched	April 1995 as the UnOfficial SquareSoft HomePage 1998-03-11 as 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. It provides reviews for role-playing games and maintains professional contacts with video game developers and producers. RPGamer has been quoted in various media and on game boxes.^[1]

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 weekly Q&A column. Other methods of fan interaction that they support are a message forum, IRC chat, and weekly poll.

1 History
2 Staff
3 Trivia
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

RPGamer was 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.

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 RPGs specifically and immediately expanded to cover companies other than SquareSoft.

[edit] Staff

Current Staff^[2]:

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
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
Jonathon Self - "Neist" - New Updates Editor
Katie Crandall - "boredkate" - News & Media
Lauren Loveday - "MuneTeika" - News & Media
Martin Drury - "keno" - Saving Throw Columnist
Matt Demers - "Wonderslime" - SOCK Game Master
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" - Interaction Editor/Q&A Host
Steve Ardo - "shroudie" - Fan Art Curator

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

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.^[3]