The old Gamespot

I decided to visit internet archive today, and take a look back at the old gamespot website layout. I found that it was way more comprehensive back in the old days. Now it's this confusing monstrosity.

2004: https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20041024084620/http://www.gamespot.com:80/

2005: https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20050826130338/http://gamespot.com

No comparison, the old wins.

I really like the comment notifier in the upper right that we have today. I miss a bunch of the old users, but having to check back to see if anyone said anything to you and find out they didn't 90% of the time was really annoying.

I've been coming to gamespot since 2000, and there were dozens of users that I remember being around then, and later on when I got into PC gaming, and left behind consoles in 2003, dozens of people in the PC Hardware Discussion, then when gamespot starting shooting itself in the foot with "Gamespot Complete", they all split to there own website called PC Enthusiast Hangout, which is still around, but only like...2 people are still there now.

It's really interesting to see how the website developed. I only joined late last year so I'm used to this layout now and I quite like it. :)

As long as IGN continues to suck we're good.

I miss the old gamespot.....My level was somewhere in the high 60's and I enjoyed seeing what my new title would be when I levelled up....and I just liked the layout better. Also, I liked the scoring for games better in the Greg Kasavin days.

They changed over Gamespot to look like every other Tom, Dick and Jane gaming website out there. They dumped a lot of cool things from the old site to this current version (which still sucks).

I frequent this site less and less. I completely avoid the home page, it looks like shit compared to the old.

I was part of maybe a half dozen Community groups (I think that's what they were called) that I would frequent; they were for poetry, short stories, computer hardware and a couple other that slip my mind. These were great - you could join a group/community about things you enjoyed (or start your own and invite others). They were places you could post things that didn't really fall into any other category on the normal forums.

I miss the badges/trophies you could get for doing certain things: like watching the E3 or participating in a "March Madness" like event for picking the best game heros/villain.

I used to spend hours and hours a week on the old layout. When it changed to the current version, it became harder to navigate and find things, the loss of so many unique features and ugly home page, I came less and less. Up to a couple years ago I used to at least visit the forums on a daily basis. Now I visit them 3-4 days a week....although I've gone a few weeks without visiting before.

Gamespot is a shadow of its former self...it's a shame.

I remember a better time.

Oh, man... has really been that long...

From an aesthetic standpoint this site looks much better....now for layout yeah some things could be fixed.

Thinking of the old gamespot, is like liking the Matrix movie again. Its old school man. Good times, and yes they were my younger years, and i luved every minute of it.

Different times. I don't think the layout the site had 12-13 years ago would fare well today.

Miss the old gamespot. I liked the leveling and the achievements such as watching a certain event (E3, etc)

I remember those days. Was just a reader then, and not a commenter, but it was my go-to on the web. But I agree with others - that design would be a disaster and reviled in this era. My biggest issue with the current setup is the auto-play and the stream-of-articles reading format.

I used to have an old account and was way more popular back in the day. Had my 10k party, won a couple OTcars. I took several years away and I forgot my login for my old account so I made this newer one. I must agree I miss the old days and the old users. I also really miss unions and all the old sigs. Gamespot is rather bland nowadays but hey, I come back here partly because of nostalgia, but it's definitely not like it used to be.

There was a greater sense of community back then, and users formed their own cliques. I don't really see much of that nowadays as everyone just seems to be aimless posters.

"Before the dark times. Before the Empire."

The old wins by a mile. The forums have been rapidly detoriating.

Yes and no. I miss some users that have moved on....don't miss others....and don't pay attention to much else on the site.

Wow! That really brings me back. I used to come here a lot back then.

Present day GameSpot is basically terrible. Forced auto-play videos, horrible UI, scroll too far on one article and you immediately switch to another article (and if it has a video, you are damned), ruined blogs forcing a lot of people to leave... Sigh, I just stick around for nostalgia's sake. Still remember the times I would watch On The Spot and watch Ryan, Jeff, Alex, Rich, Carrie and all the others joke around while playing games. And we also had great moments like this :

Allgamesdelta and Siliconera have become my main gaming websites.

Talking of old gamespot I want feedbackula back. :D

I miss the old GameSpot, too. I really liked the unions, emblems, levels, etc. I don't like how the new GameSpot seems to look a lot like GiantBomb.

Gametrailers.com underwent similar changes during its time but they were much more drastic. Blogs were completely removed from that website.

@horgen:

Considering the state of these boards I'm inclined to disagree.

Falling for the modern web design meme is how old sites die.

There was a time long ago when we had the same group of reviewers, with personality, in-depth reviews, a proper fucking scoring system, and an amazing forum. Then things changed, all the reviewers left - some went on to form Giant Bomb, others got into making games. I've never loved the new layout. I miss building my levels.

It's nice to reminisce in these threads.

@sonic_spark: That vid was hilarious!

Miss the old GS as well. The prime time was around 2010, me thinks. Wasn't active then, but still liked it. Then this place went to the dogs and no one seems to want to fix it.

Remember when OT was so crowded there would be 15-20 threads a day? Yeah.

It's designed for way lower res monitors if nothing else.

-Byshop

I felt so bad for the lack of activity I started posting here more. I was a lurker since like 2005 to 2015.

I would hope that if there were any lurkers left they would start to post now.......

I enjoyed the more intangible aspects of the old Gamespot such as leveling, likes/dislikes, unions, etc; and the actual journalism was better (but then again it's almost nonexistent now). But I think the overall layout of the new site has aged fairly well.

There were some definite hiccups along the way, though!

I tell you what, though, seeing those images really takes me back! That's about the time I joined, too!

lol Nintendogs!

Man, you must have seen some action, then!

Anyone else here remember some dude, forgot his name, (I think it had something to do with "jury") that was a ban dodger, got 12k+ of posts before he got found out and re-banned? Man, OT blew up right about then. Good times.

Man, I miss the old GameSpot. I don't even really know why I'm still here.

Nostalgia aside and not commenting on content, just layout, the old one is atrocious. I guess it has a bloated puke of colors charm but I prefer the cleaner look of today.

Ah, 2004, when GTA San Andreas was life. That game was #1 for the longest friggin time on this site.

Hey...I remember you from the old days. Like, really old days.

Your post count was at 70k-ish back then too :P

Looks just like i remember it!

I almost wish they'd let the site die. If they've lost the fire to run this site there's no point keeping it up just to be a clone of the many bland sites out there

Yes, old layout is much better(and the site was better back then as well).

I preferred the old formats, the layout, the level system, etc. Currently, it just seems like they are trying to phase the forums out.

takes me back :'-)

Wow! Having web design as a hobby myself, I have to say the 2004 one brings me back. LOOK at all that clutter crammed together!!! Now its clean, streamlined, and visually pleasing. Modern web design is so amazing HTML 5 opened up many new exciting possibilities.

I miss the old GameSpot site.

Yeah, those were the days. I started posting here when I was 13 (nearly 26 now). It just isn't what it used to be, I haven't posted regularly for at least 5 years. I guess part of it is probably getting older.

I miss User Created Boards

I still vastly prefer the old layout...

Haha yeah I looked at that recently.

I actually like the new layout, but it's lacking a few features that I liked from the old site. I would bet they did a whole site redesign on a more modern framework and it took a lot of effort to just get it to this point.

Now it's probably hard to justify adding those features back because there's not enough traffic.