Chronicles. February-July 2009
In the beginning was the Word... However, judging by how the events unfolded, the Word was unprintable.
Recently, I’ve been coming across comments like “But what was before?” more and more often. Indeed, quite an interesting question. Human memory is not limitless, so for a long time, all mistakes have been recorded to avoid repeating them, as well as all successes to multiply them.
The time frame provided here is just a small part in relation to the entire duration of the website's existence, but in the meantime - the most challenging for me, as all these events occurred before my arrival here. For this reason, certain inaccuracies or the absence of any significant events is possible. If you notice anything like that - let me know.
I have tried to minimize the influence of any opinions - in most cases, I leave it to the reader to draw their own conclusions. I hope I managed to do this without making the text overly dry.
February
Creation of the portal.
To mark at least some point of reference, the date of creation of this website was accepted in narrow circles as **February 1st**. The history of the [domain](http://www.gamer.ru/games/1656-gamer-ru/posts/16208), especially that of [what was](http://www.gamer.ru/games/1656-gamer-ru/posts/16156) [before the site was created](http://www.gamer.ru/games/1656-gamer-ru/posts/15728), is more complicated, but I focus on describing the events of the portal rather than what happened prior to or outside of it.
In any case, in February, there wasn’t much. Everything interesting only begins a month later, when the design has settled down a bit, a general plan was worked out, and a normal administrative panel appeared...
Several sketches of the design. Note the logo.
March
First steps.
**March 4th:** development of the game database began, the [first blog](http://www.gamer.ru/games/1-fallout-3) was created and the [first post](http://www.gamer.ru/games/1-fallout-3/posts/1) was published. The system for uploading images was also put into operation. The formatting tools are still quite limited, but work is being done in this direction.
However, that’s where it ended for now. Until next month.
April
Preparations for the beta test are in full swing.
**April 2nd:** the [second blog](http://www.gamer.ru/games/457-unreal-tournament-2004) and the [second post](http://www.gamer.ru/games/457-unreal-tournament-2004/posts/2) were created. The next 2 days saw the transfer of the game database to the site, which included about 600 titles.
April 4-16: freelancers (and “closest relatives of the administration”) were hired to fill the site with minimal content. Here are the ordinary mortals who were among the first to touch the site:
...and a couple more people, but they didn’t write posts, so history has not preserved them.
Additionally, four from the administration participated in the filling:
April 17th, noon: the beta testing began, and the first to gain access were people from HabrHabr thanks to this topic. A placeholder with email addresses, to which invitations were sent, started working.
April 21st: the first activity of vikolyada
April 25th: the blogs “Industry News” and “Questions and Requests” were created.
April 26th: the blog “Gaming Hardware” was created.
April 27th: the blog “About Everything” was created. All four of these blogs participated in the top, but they will be removed from it much later.
April 27th: the first activity of LaCTuK
By the way, very interesting things were written in the help section back then (italicized points are what is most interesting for us):
What is this
This is a portal with blogs about various games, where their fans gather. It is a new project that combines features of Web 2.0 and RPG elements. This is a resource where a wealth of the most useful and interesting information [about everything](/games?search=обо всем) related to games is gathered.
What can you do here
Right now you have a great opportunity to level up before others. At this stage, you can do this by posting and commenting on the records of other participants. The leveling system works up to level 3 by upvoting posts and comments.
Additionally, now you can become the ambassador of your favorite game, form a lively and interesting conversation around it, gather all the most current and necessary information, thus solidifying your authority and position in the Tops.
As a secret: during beta testing, the process of accumulating energy happens significantly faster and easier than after the release. Don’t miss this opportunity.
What will change after beta testing
After the completion of beta testing, many new features will appear, the main one of which is the RPG model of interaction between participants. This means that the accumulated energy can be spent on various actions: promoting posts in the general feed, highlighting them in color, setting a “hidden” mode, banning other participants, changing their avatar, signature, or profile information, taking over other nicknames, and much more. In short, you will find yourself in a real gaming world with complete freedom of action and role-playing. Various clans and communities will also appear, and the most important - many Tops waiting for their headliners.
A referral system will also appear - bonuses to energy will be received by both those who brought in new participants to the portal and those who came via the referral link.
How to quickly accumulate energy
Currently, accumulating energy is very easy - it is granted for every post and comment. It’s convenient to level up to the third level by voting for the records of other participants. But voting is not just a way to quickly grow. If a participant’s post becomes popular, the author begins to receive energy bonuses. Another way to gain more energy is to become an ambassador and bring your blog into the Top - this also grants good bonuses.
How to become an ambassador
Becoming an ambassador is very easy: you just need to choose your favorite game from the list and click on “Become an ambassador.” After that, you will have the opportunity to edit posts in the blog, create new sections in it, and sort messages by these sections, pin important and interesting posts at the top of the general message feed, highlight them in color, or delete them.
What to do if there is already an ambassador in the game?
After the release, the opportunity to remove ambassadors in blogs will appear. For now, accumulate energy - it will be very useful for you in the future, along with your position in the ranking. And don’t forget about like-minded people - they will be able to vote for you or against your common competitors [implied but not introduced Path of Justice].
By the end of the month, the site becomes quite active. The number and content of fixes in April is unknown, but the site was also updated quite swiftly.
This is roughly how the site looked in the early days.
May
The start is given.
This month is perhaps one of the most important in the history of the portal - it is when the majority of users who greatly influenced the portal arrived, and events occurred that will bear fruit far in the future... So, the award for "most important registrations" could be granted to May =)
However, the month itself is quite dull.
May 4th: ...however, the beginning of the month was clearly successful! megadestroyer95 became a household name, being registered and banned on the same day. His quotes have been analyzed and are remembered and loved to this day. Although, sometimes with rather strange love...
But despite this, megadestroyer95 is indeed quite adequate. Yes, it was indeed a cruel jest.
By pure chance, I stumbled upon a record in his journal, where the true thoughts of this cult character are revealed.
He became famous among us thanks to this:
Full version (thanks to LaCTuK for preserving the national treasure). Every user of the portal simply must see this.
May 6th: the first activity of Snapp and Denai. The latter decided to conduct an experiment in the name of science and asked some people from the top to upvote his posts, and in return, he would upvote all their posts. Oh, if only he knew what that would lead to in the future...
May 8th: the “Administration Blog” was created. Ratings for both posts and comments were added.
May 8th: the first release of ProGame.
May 10th: the thousandth blog was created. It turned out to be the blog for the game “Resistance 2”.
May 11th: a feed appeared. Yes, it didn't exist once upon a time.
May 13th: spells