GameFAQs Top 10 Lists Shutting Down
Nov. 28th, 2023 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freshfeelingI recently learned that, as of some point shortly before November 21, 2023, GameFAQs once-loved Top 10 Lists feature was being phased out. This feature was launched on October 26, 2005, in honour of GameFAQs' 10th anniversary. It started with a very meagre feature set, being strictly text-based until roughly 2009 when it started supporting things like images and a form of markdown. There was kind of a bell curve to the quality, in general, scaling up while the lists became popular and as the feature gained features, and then starting to scale down in probably roughly 2015 as GameFAQs started dying its slow death. 91210user doesn't help things.
It's a bit of an aside, but as for the question of "Is GameFAQs dying?": In my opinion, yes, or at least mostly. Its forums are too old compared to so many modern forms of internet media and this site just isn't the way most of the masses consume their gaming-related content anymore. Its usership can easily be measured and has dropped off considerably. Hopefully its already-posted resources can stand the test of time, though. There are also still forums I really like on GameFAQs, too, and nothing seems to be superceding them... so I hope those can exist a good while longer.
I'll somewhat miss the Top 10 List feature. Between 2009 and 2012 I posted six of these lists and I've generally engaged with the Top 10 List board and community a fair bit, participating in ideation, feedback and general discussion a lot over a period of years (mostly 2010 through 2016). However, I admit it's time for it to wind down.
Since this feature's days are numbered and I'm not sure what extent my contributions will be available longer term, I've cross-posted them into this blog, backdated (such that they are now the earliest entries on this site). They are as follows:
Although they aren't mine to crosspost here, I'll also mention that I contributed to The Top 10 Games Of 2011, As Chosen By Top 10 List Writers (where my pick was Pokemon Black and White Version), The Top 10 Games Of 2013, As Chosen By Top 10 List Writers (where my pick was Path of Exile), and I was mentioned by DDJ in The Top 10 GameFAQs Top Ten Lists, Part 3 for my accessibility list.
It's a bit of an aside, but as for the question of "Is GameFAQs dying?": In my opinion, yes, or at least mostly. Its forums are too old compared to so many modern forms of internet media and this site just isn't the way most of the masses consume their gaming-related content anymore. Its usership can easily be measured and has dropped off considerably. Hopefully its already-posted resources can stand the test of time, though. There are also still forums I really like on GameFAQs, too, and nothing seems to be superceding them... so I hope those can exist a good while longer.
I'll somewhat miss the Top 10 List feature. Between 2009 and 2012 I posted six of these lists and I've generally engaged with the Top 10 List board and community a fair bit, participating in ideation, feedback and general discussion a lot over a period of years (mostly 2010 through 2016). However, I admit it's time for it to wind down.
Since this feature's days are numbered and I'm not sure what extent my contributions will be available longer term, I've cross-posted them into this blog, backdated (such that they are now the earliest entries on this site). They are as follows:
- The Top 10 Games In Which You Explore An Enormous House
- The Top 10 Good Games That Start Very Slowly
- The Top 10 Excaliburs
- The Top 10 Masamunes
- The Top 10 Ragnaroks
- The Top 10 Things That Can Help To Make Games More Accessible
Although they aren't mine to crosspost here, I'll also mention that I contributed to The Top 10 Games Of 2011, As Chosen By Top 10 List Writers (where my pick was Pokemon Black and White Version), The Top 10 Games Of 2013, As Chosen By Top 10 List Writers (where my pick was Path of Exile), and I was mentioned by DDJ in The Top 10 GameFAQs Top Ten Lists, Part 3 for my accessibility list.
