As a public service announcement, someone scraped every single text file on GameFAQS in March 2020 for archival purposes, and you can find it on archive.org with the title “Gamespot TXT GameFAQs – Full Archive.” You can download the whole thing (it’s about 2 gigs) if you want to spite Wikia’s attempts to make themselves the gatekeepers of all fan knowledge.
Can someone elaborate what Fandom Inc is doing to GameFAQs? I know they bought it in October, but if they have any specific plans to take it down or make it unusable, they haven’t made them public.
I made an account a few weeks ago because I have some maps I wanted to upload that have been on the verge of being complete for the last month or so, and as far as I can tell, it’s still intact, with guides dating back to the 90s. I didn’t even know Fandom Inc had bought it at the time.
Not that they won’t do some terrible redesign/decide they don’t want to pay for this actually in the future, or that it’s not important to archive things against this happening. But I can’t find anything saying it’s gone now? It’s just quieter.
The response I’ve seen from GameFAQs management since the Fandom deal is:
Nothing changes in terms of ownership. Copyrightable content is still owned by the original author unless we pay for the content. Aforementioned content can be removed at the request of the author.
Having said that, at this point nothing has really changed yet. We haven’t been given any directives (other than to update the site owner in the footer) and haven’t been given any inclination as to what, if anything, might be planned for the site outside of our own roadmap, which already extends through the entirety of 2023 and into 2024. Would I assume they have absolutely no plans in store for the site at all and will just let us keep doing what we’re doing without any input from them? No, I wouldn’t. Do I think the site is going to crash and burn? No, I don’t. Would I hold it against anyone to pull their content if they felt the site was going in the wrong direction at any point? Absolutely not. But as of now, I would at least ask that you wait and see like I’m doing. I’ve fought the good fight for this site for almost 20 years at this point and will continue to do so until I retire or become too big of a pain in someone’s ass and they give me the boot.
For now, I’m (cautiously) optimistic that this change is for the best. RV is a firm that buys and sells brands. Fandom is a company that revolves around gaming and entertainment. They purchased some great gaming and entertainment brands. It’s a better fit for the brands.
Edit: No, people won’t be able to edit other people’s guides.
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