DOES ANYONE REMEMBER GAMINGW? (REMEMBERING GAMINGW)

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Hey folks, so, I made this thread, a few months ago, asking if anyone remembered GamingGroundZero because the domain expired and I wanted to scourge up whatever information I could from those who still remembered it - (Thanks btw, to everyone who contributed. <3)

This time, I'd like to focus, on remembering Gamingw.net. - Now you're probably wondering "why Gamingw.net? it's still around, it's just called Saltw.net."

This is true! Saltw.net is still very much around, but that was ten years ago and unfortunately, it's not the same Gamingw.net that we all knew back then and I think, it's just one of those things, that we can never really go back to now, even if we tried.

So that's why I sort of want to talk about it. Like, in someways, not a lot has changed and yet so much has changed!:

Like, I remember people using GameMaker and Rpgmaker2003. I remember people using Rpgmaker2003 in a lot of interesting and creative ways. I remember there being a really creative, music, art and film forum. I remember that a lot of the members that are here today, (some who are even running RMN now,) originally came from Gamingworld: Kentona, Liberty, Nessiah, Tau, BlindMind, Nightblade, Ocean's Dream, Hima, PepsiOtaku, Kaempfer, Mateui, UPRC, Aten, Kazesui, Carius, Neok, J-Man, SkieFortress etc.

… But there's also a lot that I don't remember and that's kind of why I wanted to make this thread.

I was hoping someone could fill in the blanks for me about GamingW. Maybe, give us an outline or a timeline, so to speak of the rise and fall of GamingW from those who are more familiar with it and were there from the very beginning. What exactly happened 10 years ago from today and maybe explain why it no longer, is, what it once was:
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Like, I remember joining in 2007. I wasn't very much involved with the community. But I did contribute to RPG's "ALEX IS: A Two day collaborate game." I remember Steel's death, I remember it was a huge thing and I remember how everything sort of started to wind down after that, as everyone from the Game&Demo thread slowly migrated to RMN.

…And that's it, I don't really remember anything else. …What I do sort of remember though, is BlindMind's game Beloved Rapture and how unfair it was to be in the middle of that all: I remember GamingW hating Rpgmaker vehemently.

I remember there was a lot of anger and animosity towards members on Game&Demo, over how we were all sharing the same forum, but each time someone posted in a game thread they didn't like, their game would get pushed down by another rpgmaker game - but this was one of the many things that eventually lead to RMN's creation and what made it so appealing: The idea of having your very own game page, that would give you more than enough space to display your game.
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So yeah, please share your thoughts/memories of GamingW. It's been ten years, so any information is good information. The more info the better! <3


EDIT: Also, if you guys know of any games that you feel are worth mentioning that came from GamingW, make sure to mention them! - Like Barkley Shut up and Jam: Gaiden, the Alex Collaboration Games by RPG, certain Chain Games. etc.)

EDIT2:Some GamingW Games(Thanks Erave!)
Some More GamingW Games(Thanks SBWolf!)


GamingW Games:(list 'em)
-The Way
-Demon Legacy
-Whack a Food
-A Blurred Line
-Barkley Shut up and Jam: Gaiden
-RPG's Alex Chain Games
-GamingW Chain Games
-Dark Priest's Santa's Sled Racing.(does anyone still have this?) (found)
-MonoPolo (need)
-Grave Spirit
-Legend of the Philosopher's Stone (2007?)
GamingW had a history wiki at one point. Where I remember editing a couple of articles. Personally I was most active first in the writing forum, then in the roleplaying forum and also for a brief bit in GWRadio (I had my own weekly GWradio show and I also did a show during the Eurovision when Lordi won, which was a bit fun)

I remember there were member numbers and I was like the 20th-somthing person to register (though this was after a forum reset so basically the first 100 were people who had been there previously). But still I know that occasionally someone would just go "wtf, how is your number lower than *prominent member*?" and it is petty but I always like when such things happen...

I was part of the anti-rpgmaker crowd. Something that is still there a little bit, though not as much. Mostly in my passive aggressive approach to people talking about a battle system and I go on some general rant about cool battle systems and then the other person has to specify "in rpgmaker" and I go "ooooh" like I hadn't known they were talking about rpgmaker all along.

Now the way I remember it is that there was this GW group who liked the absurd and that's basically what clashed with the RPGmaker crowd. Since a lot of rpgmaker people want to make traditional jrpgs, because that's what they love and that's what the maker is there for. But there were people who were inspired by certain parts of the internet (you know the one with all the memes and bad spelling and all that stuff as art). And there was a clear clash between Hero's Journey Crysals and these guys. I'm pretty sure it was called Targ (I don't know where it came from because I wasn't in those groups, but it seemed a bit like Fnord to me). I was never really part of that group. I mean I love a bit of absurdism every now and then but on the whole I'm a fairly straightforward person.

Eventually those guys just took over and left all the people who wanted to make RPGs to go to RMN. Some of those guys still make great things though. thecatamites was on this site for a while and have also gotten wider recognition. And leafo created itch.io. So really it was just us amateurs and hobbyists who went to RMN.

I mean I could probably nostalgia all day long over GW. I went to the GW #fin meetup and met DeePee (Darkpriest) and Dhalamar and probably DS and rami, though I can't actually remember if they were there or not. It's been so long :)
I came to GW in its twilight years. GW was my first forum. I liked the easy going nature of the site overall - the silliness and ribbing and nonsense polls and topics. I never understood targ. I was as surprised as any that my game Heroic Heroes of Heroism: Hero's Quest got popular over there. I spent most of my time in the Game & Demo area, as I went to GW for RM2k/3.

After the extremely jeuvenile display towards Legion (aka Max McGee as ppl on RMN might know how) where mocked him and someone took a picture of their monitor with Iron Gaia (iirc) screenshots on them with white sticky fluid sprayed on the screen in globs (presumably shampoo). I grew tired of the increasing antics of the GW core and followed Legion and otokonoko to his new site Ghostlight Games. And I also joined Indie Gaming Portal and a few others. And then the unfortunate "merger" of GL and LooseCannon Gaming and a few others into Township Games lead to their demise. I bounced around a bit on smaller forums like Kobras Realm and RMRK and still visited GW occassionally (my game was still popular remember). This was all in 2006-2007.

Craze sent me a PM on GW one day back in June 2007 to come check out RMN, a new forum that WIP and holbert and ankylo had started. And one thing lead to another and yada yada yada and now I own RMN.
I lurked on GamingW forever. I essentially followed the forum when I found out the site was down/frozen (2004-2005?) in which was basically the RMN at the time having game pages/screenshots and dls. I would browse the game demo topics just looking for games to find, but also I would catch wind of the Legion drama and moderators being jokers. I think there was kind of a gap where I stopped with rpgmaker altogether (probably WoW) But I started resuming again witnessing the demise of rpgmaker. I briefly remember lurking on RMN when it was just WIP and Holb and some dude making his own rpg engine that holb would debate against its merits. At some point rpgmaker stuff just started to slow down and I decided to join RMN as an actual posting member in around 2007? Probably the same time as kentona. Though GW was still somewhat active even around 2009.

I remember there being a huge hubbub about GamingWorld 5 or 6 or something, and there being some frontloaded blog site posting games and music interviews and other non nerdy shit. Didn't seem to do anything for the community in the long run though. A lot of people seemed to want the main game site again but the admins either weren't interested or it was just too much work I guess. RMN is tangentially related to that as I think WIP wanted to beat them to the punch in that regard and eventually convert everyone to glorious ika.

I remember RPGadvocate translating rm2k3 . A lot of people were "porting" their projects over from 2k to 2k3 and there being a brief period where there was just no good 2k3 games almost as if there was a console launch period. I remember RPGadvocates game that just made no fucking sense wording wise.

I remember the shut up and jam gaiden rm2k3 version being released, and then the game maker version much later. It was really popular outside of GW and being posted on game sites, don't think I saw that ever happened with a game there.

I also remember vaguely there was some committee that was going to appoint the best games ever as sort of a misaos of all time, except the panel of judges would be made up of people with refined taste. I think BadLuck was running the charge? It was obviously drama filled on what constitutes as good tastes and some people thinking the whole thing over oscars + rpgmaker being stupid.

There was definitely a huge golden age somewhere in the 2005 era where rm2k3 games were turning really good looking and tilesets based on SNES games being pushed to the limits. I mean we joke about the 3 tile rule now but there was a very competitive spirit back then about maps. RTP was generally being phased out at this point and custom graphics were encouraged. There were several mapping contests with specific tilsets chosen and whatnot. I remember Teo (Sunset Over Imdahl) would school the shit out of those. I think RMN tried to bring something like those back but it never came really.

In general I also liked looking for game demo topics started by noobs full of RTP and amatuer mistakes and people complaining about them like they shit on their doorstep before locking the topic.

I remember a lot of people having phoenix wright gif avatars.

These memories are probably out of order. I don't have any other specific moments beyond that other than a blur of avatars yelling at each other over rpgmaker. I just wasn't actively participating at the time and had no idea what was going on in irc.
Yellow Magic
Could I BE any more Chandler Bing from Friends (TM)?
3154
Ctrl + F "Coaster Craft Gold"

I am disappoint

Oh yeah, and Steel's death still gets to me. I'm now older than he was when he died, and that thought's pretty humbling.
I just remember Drule having some good plans for GW, but he worked very very slowly ... Then they somehow screwed him out of his admin position and some troll(s) took over the site and named it "SaltW" which marked its ultimate final death (it was quite dead before, but I guess this was the ultimate nail in the coffin).
Yes, I do. I joined in summer of 2001. So many great memories from that place. The first Chain Game (I got to make a chapter!). The Easy Mac Game Community game I made. The day I became a mod of the Music Forum (15 year old Tyler was ecstatic!) Meeting so many life long friends, many who I went on to make games with or still talk to. 4/5 members of Something Classic came from people I met when I was at GW. It really was a creative hub for teenagers wanting to make their own games, even if the overall quality was pretty low. Some notable exceptions from that era though, The Way, Demon Legacy, Whack a Food, A Blurred Line, etc... I remember Dark Priest's Santa's Sled Racing. He figured out new ways to use the program, which inspired me to try and take rm2k to its max potential.

Random memories:
Steel (RIP)
Targ
Mr Y
The E Squad
Making the Cut
Chain Games
"u r 13"
I USE QS INSTEQD OF QS
Current Mood: Just ate a pinecone

and fucking Porcupine Tree EVERYWHERE

Dudesoft
always a dudesoft, never a soft dude.
6309
I have fond memories of Gamingw.net; and those are purely from our irl get togethers. The GW meets were amazingly fun. Everyone had a blast. We got together, drank, played laser tag, miniputt, and of course video games. It was a hoot.
But then it became salty, and it never felt the same again. I still keep in touch with some of them.

Recently I tried working with a few of them on a game as a concept artist, and the whole thing ended up being this money-making scam meta joke on the indie game world. I just, can't. Too salty there. Too salty.
author=Darken
monopolo hype

Oh yeah, I remember THAT alright. What a shit-show.

You know, it’s funny, because looking back on the whole Monopolo debacle today, a huge reason why the game is even remotely remembered and even talked about is because of the whole hype situation. If the game just stayed mostly silent and if I barely showcased anything about at all then I don’t think it would have had the same type of legacy that it would have right now, good or bad. It’s kind of a weird situation, but that’s how I think about it now. I learned a lot from that whole experience, and I’m not bitter anymore about what happened all those years ago, as the original game really wasn’t all that great to begin with (well, besides technical-wise), and I think people were just trying to help me improve it and stop me from being such a drama queen.

Other than that, Gaming World really wasn’t all that bad of a place. It had some great people there that are still even part of this community today. Hell, it’s amazing to even see people like Kentona and Liberty from humble beginnings now eventually becoming the heads of RMN now. And I still remember users like Strangeluv, GZ and RPG who were probably my biggest supporters of my game back then. I still miss some of these people, of course, but some of them do like to drop a line here once and a while, and that’s always good.

It’s a darn shame what happened to Gaming World at the end of the day, but I’ll never forget all the memories that I had there.

Oh, and who could forget all of those fogot icons that they used to have back then. Man, I miss those.
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
I remember how people could change their usernames on a whim and make everything really confusing. Best one was gold4bagels (in answer to silver4donuts).
Oh yeah fogot.

Are you resistins me?
Does anyone care to GamingW came to its undoing? I jump onto SaltW from time to time but I never got the reason of its downfall. I was a member back from 2005 I think? Maybe even earlier. I'm really curious about what happened. It's a shame GamingW was insane I had some really fun times lurking there as a teen
author=UltimateNickname
I was a member back from 2005 I think? Maybe even earlier. I'm really curious about what happened. It's a shame GamingW was insane I had some really fun times lurking there as a teen

That's what I'm trying to figure out. <3

Like, Erave mentioned he joined GamingW in the summer of 2001 right? So you can go to webarchive.org and take a look how gamingw.net looked back in May 2001:

http://web.archive.org/web/20010515235519/http://www.gamingw.net:80/main/default.asp

But that's it. There's only so much information, one person can actually get from webarchive.org - It doesn't say what sort of games they were hosting, what the community was like back then, or what notable games were held in high regard during that time.

So, I'm hoping someone here, could fill in the blanks.

Like, Darken mentioned, 2005 was arguably the golden era of GamingW, right? - but it doesn't explain what made Gamingw begin to loath rpgmaker by 2007.

Like, was there a change in administration? Did someone leave Gamingworld.net and give the reins to site to someone else?(...was it the Iron Gaia Incident?)

Like, there are actually some old threads, here, on RMN that already tackle this mystery/issue surrounding Gamingw, while it was still fresh in everyone's minds.

Like this one: https://rpgmaker.net/forums/topics/1022/?post=14373#post14373

And (especially) this one: https://rpgmaker.net/forums/topics/1012/?post=14107#post14107

But these happened around 2008, which was afterwards, so this shift to loathing rpgmaker games, is still very much a mystery. I'm hoping someone could tell us what actually happened.

Also, UPRC (or is it Drule? - I'm not sure who I'm thinking of…) but I heard someone, still involved with GamingW, during the saltworld years, had plans to revive the site - I'm hoping someone could eventually tell us what happened to that.

...Cause, I really loved GamingWorld! During 2007 - (I have this bookmarked somewhere) - in the art forums, there was a dude who was going to art college, who would upload his 3 hour facial plane studies onto GamingW's art forums - and these were really cool to look at, cause not only did it show, how much hard work and effort paid off towards honing your craft - but how truly varied GamingW was, as a community:

No matter what forum you went into on GamingW, there was always someone who was particularly good at something.

EDIT: I'll see if I can scratch up some more info.
Someone left GamingW and handed the reins to Steel. And they were one of those who wanted GamingW to be less RPG Maker focused and more indie game focused. I think part of that crowd hates RPG Maker. It failed. And then I heard he died of Cancer.

It was Drule who took over. Due to server costs, he had to delete a part of the forum and nobody backed it up, so it lost most of the stuff. I think the Salt World was like an inside joke in a specific part of the forum and became the new name because we can't keep the domain name. It was a haze. And a lot of people didn't like that and it just went down.

author=LordBlueRouge
...Cause, I really loved GamingWorld! During 2007 - (I have this bookmarked somewhere) - in the art forums, there was a dude who was going to art college, who would upload his 3 hour facial plane studies onto GamingW's art forums - and these were really cool to look at, cause not only did it show, how much hard work and effort paid off towards honing your craft - but how truly varied GamingW was, as a community:

No matter what forum you went into on GamingW, there was always someone who was particularly good at something.

Also you're talking about either Medieve or Mr. Delicious (Dave Rapoza). They're pretty awesome and helps artists all around. There's even Woofycakes/Corel. And I love GW around 2007 too because we have Art Wars, Art Competition and Coding Competitions and you get to see cool shit implemented back then. Also RPGs Alex games man.
Yes, Steel unfortunately passed away.

I do distinctly remember the transition to a more indie focus. They started to resent the rpgmaker folks, which is a shame. That's what built the site. But I guess I can see their side. They were tired of being a site that offered ripped Chrono Trigger graphics and illegal downloads to rm2k when a lot of other sites were moving to a different direction. It definitely was a huge schism.

I remember when rm2k3 came out, it was a big deal that GW decided to NOT host the download link on the site. I also remember when DarkPriest, who was like the king of rpgmaker decided to use Game Maker for a new project. It was a big deal.



Corfaisus
"It's frustrating because - as much as Corf is otherwise an irredeemable person - his 2k/3 mapping is on point." ~ psy_wombats
7874
I remember the lockers. I also remember S4D being a mod (Esp I believe he went by) and him teaching me the ropes when I started my first thread.

The things I miss the most are the emoticons and the engine image labels for threads. Stuff like that slime RPG with the custom character designer, Clouded Heart, Demon Legacy and RMXP being the hot new thing; not to mention the reliable Rare Game thread.

Oh, and Grave Spirit. Still 10x more dramatic, dark and poetic than anything written before or since, and despite not being a horror game, still manages to give me the heebie-jeebies (especially the massive ominous owl statues).

author=Archeia_Nessiah
Someone left GamingW and handed the reins to Steel. And they were one of those who wanted GamingW to be less RPG Maker focused and more indie game focused. I think part of that crowd hates RPG Maker. It failed. And then I heard he died of Cancer.

I remember him spending a lot of time in the hospital having his brain rid of tumors and having him squeeze out a post once in a blue moon that would take him forever to type with the few fingers he could use at the time. Then he just disappeared and his sister logged into his account to tell us that he'd died.

The resulting memorial thread was something else. Someone dug up some old quotes of his, one of which was him saying that the one thing he wanted to do was make a difference in the world and how he doubted he'd ever do it. If he could've seen the crowd that came together after he was gone, he would've scratched "make a difference" off his list.
author=Archeia_Nessiah
Someone left GamingW and handed the reins to Steel. And they were one of those who wanted GamingW to be less RPG Maker focused and more indie game focused. I think part of that crowd hates RPG Maker. It failed. And then I heard he died of Cancer.

It was Drule who took over. Due to server costs, he had to delete a part of the forum and nobody backed it up, so it lost most of the stuff. I think the Salt World was like an inside joke in a specific part of the forum and became the new name because we can't keep the domain name. It was a haze. And a lot of people didn't like that and it just went down.

…That feeling, in a murder mystery, when you’re trying to solve a case and figure out, who dun it. But it comes with a shocking plot twist revelation.
This is who Nessiah is to me right now – the girl who solved the case, but reveals an all too dark plot twist revelation. <3

Thank You Nessiah! It all makes sense now:

(if this doesn't sound correct, let me know - I'm hoping someone like Kaempfer, or someone else more involved with GamingW will be able to summarize it better:)

So, GamingW originally started out as an rpgmaker site back in 2001. Around 2006-2007 when the site started to lose members, someone handed the site over to Magical Negro/Steel and GamingW, originally a home for rpgmaker games, began to loathe rpgmaker in an attempt to shift it’s focus to an all encompassing indie-game making site in order to stay relevant.

Shortly after Steel's unexpected death, the site was then handed over to Drule, who unfortunately had to delete a part of the forums, in order to cut back on server costs, which made a lot of members angry. But by then most of G&Ders RPGMakers had migrated over to RMN at that point. And while Drule had plans to eventually revive GamingW, control was wrestled out of his hands by the admins, who then renamed it SaltW.net.


But yeah, I remember everything now, vaguely.

During that weird time in 2008 when the front page of Gamingw became a blog, I remember Nightblade standing toe to toe against Steel/Magical Negro, in a 1000 year flame war/critical discussion, (…it lasted longer than 3 pages) - it was very similar to the Intro to Demon Legacy and the ending to Phantom Legacy: it was the stuff of legends.



(I love this game more than I let on...<3)


...But yeah, I remember the fundraiser for Steel's cancer. I remember how everyone donated. I remember how everyone cheered once they heard it was in remission and how Steel never told anyone about it, when it came back - And that's why it was such a big shock to hear that he died; There were a lot of strong emotions during that time.

Like, It really sucks how no one bothered to back the site up, cause there was a lot of interesting things going on - Like, most of that stuff is still there somewhere on the SaltW.net forums, but it's been so rearranged, you can't really find anything now and even if you do find it, often the download links to the content itself is expired.

Like, I remember, during the GamingW blog era, (which you unfortunately can't find anywhere anymore) someone wrote this really interesting blog post about Phantom Legacy and how Nero, the main character, didn't have a weapon, he had to absorb the abilities of other monsters in order to make his own.

I remember Ciel's blog post about Legacy001's Rpgmaker2003 game Rose Chronicles - Like, as much guff as we got for sticking with Rpgmaker in 2007-2008, GamingW challenged us to make better games. More than anything else and I think this was the most important thing about GamingW. Just having that clash and striving to think outside the box - to do better, creatively. (it wasn't always positive I admit that, but if nothing else, I think this is what was important about GamingW).

author=Archeia_Nessiah
Also RPG's Alex games man.

Oh man, the Alex games <3, When RPG asked me if I wanted to be in the 5th Alex game, I foolishly declined - if I KNEW it was going to be the last one for the next ten years. Oh my god, if I could go back in time…

author=Cofaisus
Didn't Steel also go under the aliases Super Mairo and The Magical Negro? I could've sworn he did.

I think it was either "Steel" or "Magical Negro", Supra Mairo was this dude who made this really whacky-abstract-clever-action-platforming-game in GameMaker I think, where you went up this tower and each level was nothing but these crazy boss battles. (if anyone knows where this game is now, or where I can download it, let me know.)

Supra Mairo, could've been Steel, but seeing as how, there was this one dude who had five different accounts across GamingW and one day revealed he was all the same person, (this was the same dude who also wrote that bitchin' article for Phantom Legacy) - Also, that one time when the forums were hacked and everyone's gender was switched - I won't rule out the possibility.

author=Erave
I remember Dark Priest's Santa's Sled Racing. He figured out new ways to use the program, which inspired me to try and take rm2k to its max potential.

I'd love to try out this game if anyone has it.

Erave, if you have anymore memories of the early days, please share them, you're like my hero right now; Guys, if you have anymore memories of GamingW, please share them.

I had no idea GamingW started off as an rpgmaker site.


Like, I only joined around 2007, but compared to the rpgmaker sites that exist today. GamingW definitely didn't seem like one.

(...Did Bart create GamingW?)
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
from LordBlueRouge
Supra Mairo was this dude who made this really whacky-abstract-clever-action-platforming-game in GameMaker I think, where you went up this tower and each level was nothing but these crazy boss battles. (if anyone knows where this game is now, or where I can download it, let me know.)

I think I still have a copy of that on my computer. I was one of the folks who helped test the game a lot. It was ultimately named Banana Nababa.