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The Unkindest April Fools' Day of Them All

Posted by Bob Mackey

As Nadia pointed out in her post yesterday, April Fools' Day can be rough on gamers. And, having lived through over a decade with regular Internet access, I can attest to the fact that today is a very irritating day. No one can be trusted, nothing is as it seems, and may god help you if you actually have sincere or important news to deliver. Unfortunately, tragedy does not regard calendar dates; and when something bad happens on April 1st, it can be doubly depressing when you realize it's not part of this holiday's whimsy overload.

This was doubly true seven years ago today, when The Gaming Intelligence Agency breathed its last breath.

If you weren't familiar with The Gaming Intelligence agency, it was a fantastic, fan-run operation with a level of content comparable to the mega-sites of today. But back when The GIA launched in 1998, the world was a different place: no podcasts, no blogs, no social networking, and most importantly, no easy way for a gamer to stay informed. Big sites like IGN and Gamespot existed, but if you were a fan of obscure, quirky games, your only real options were random, hard-to-find websites full of dubious information that could go down at a moment's notice. The GIA served as the answer to this problem by being a one-stop-shop for gamers of a particular persuasion. It had all of the features of your modern mega-sites, but focused on a Japanese-centered brand of "intelligent" gaming written about by journalists who were as snarky as they were thoughtful. Like 1UP, The GIA was a site based around the personalities of its writers, and fostered a fantastic community because of this--but like a whole lot of websites that managed to survive the Internet bubble burst, The GIA couldn't survive for long.

I can thank The GIA for taking my interest in games journalism, and showing me that it could be a reality. I never worked for the site (something I seriously regret), but some of my first contacts in the world of games journalism came from The Gaming Intelligence Agency. If the site had been born and lived a little later, it could have probably survived--the nature of Web 2.0 shows that smaller, but comprehensive, sites like Giant Bomb can exist. But really, The GIA belongs in a very specific time period; one where gaming was still for geeks, where we had to huddle together for warmth and Contra codes.

Gaming Intelligence Agency, we miss you.

Related Links:

People Who Get It: Alex Kierkegaard
Kudos: Play Magazine’s Scoreless Reviews
1UP and the State of Games Journalism

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+ DEL.ICIO.US

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Posted Apr 01 2009, 02:00 PM

Filed under: 1up, internet, bob mackey, games journalism, the gaming intelligence agency

Comments

Jeff Deck said:

Can't believe that was seven years ago already. I remember a dull internship in late 2000, during which covertly visiting The GIA was the highlight of each of my long and colorless days.

April 1, 2009 5:18 PM

Nadia Oxford said:

Part of me wishes the GIA closure is just the world's longest April Fool's joke that's set to end at any moment.

April 1, 2009 5:30 PM

John Constantine said:

God damn, Bob. Now I'm all sad. I will pour one out in The GIA's honor this evening.

To all GIA staff: Thank you for getting me to play Ico.

April 1, 2009 6:35 PM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.