GameLegend.com

A community for the open exchange of gaming wisdom.

Who is this Game Legend?

It's not a person, or a title; it's a place. A place for Gamers to meet and share tips, strategies and cheat codes, ask questions, offer advice, tell stories, and help create a repository for gaming legend and lore.

When will the place be open?

The Beta is now open to the public. The current target date for an offical launch is January 21st, 2010. There are some issues remaining to be worked out, however, so delays are possible.

What will this cost me?

Absolutely nothing. The site will be ad-supported, but I'm making it a priority to keep the advertising unobtrusive and the site design clean. The goal is to keep setup costs and maintenance low, so only minimal revenue will be needed to keep the site going.

Who is behind this?

Only one person: me. My name is Philip, and I'm a professional programmer by day. I dabble in game development on the side and am working on a game I hope to release commercially. If you want to learn more about me and my project, I have a blog at http://blog.mrphilgames.com/.

Why are you doing this?

The primary reason is that the technology is already available. As a programmer, I've been following the development of stackoverflow.com. It is a well thought-out medium for the exchange of Questions and Answers. When I discovered they are open to licensing the technology, it immediately struck me as an excellent way for gamers to share hints and get help with games. Secondly, I hope that the time I put into growing a community will pay off down the road when my own game is released. It's a small investment for me, with the potential for great benefits for both the gaming community and myself.

Why are you making this public now? What if someone steals your idea?

I'm almost sure someone will! Actually, many people are doing similar things. This isn't a new idea, after all; there are plenty of websites offering hints and cheat codes. The difference is in the execution and the technology. Hopefully, GameLegend.com will provide enough unique features to make it more useful to gamers than the alternatives. The most important of these is the exchange platform.

Secondly, as a gamer myself, I have a strong intuition for what gamers like and need. For instance, I personally look forward to finding new strategy guides for Company of Heroes, and hope that GameLegend.com will encourage gamers to write them.

Finally, I'm keeping overhead low, so the advertising will be minimal and unobtrusive, unlike the banner farms that most such sites grow into. By maximizing the content-to-distraction ratio, I will create an environment where finding the tips you're looking for is pleasant and easy.