<font color="plum">First of all, <font color="silver">Deathkiller</font>, GameBanshee wasn't run by "a bunch of guys"......it's owned and operated by an INDIVIDUAL!!!! Just like IronWorks/Escape is. And the owner ran into the same problem Ziroc did....increased popularity and bandwith coupled with a subsequent lack of funds.

The owner provided (and updated) the majority of the information on there BY HIMSELF!!!!

Secondly, if all it has is poor reviews and screenshots, then why did you keep going there to begin with???

GameBanshee is one of the most thorough and informative sites available.

But if you think the quality is so bad and the information so useless, why don't you build (and pay for) your own site that corrects all those errors?</font>

Dundee, why not save this entire section to your harddisk? I think I did the same thing with the BG2 walkthrough a few years back, because I wanted it to be available offline as well... Several years before they started charging anyways. I should still have those pages lying around here somewhere. ;)

As for alternatives... Dan Simpson's walkthroughs at Gamefaqs (free!) are without a doubt the best and most complete walkthrough ever made for *any* Infinity Engine game. The only difference is that his walkthrough doesn't have any screenshots but co-ordinates... Works fine for me. And if you really want screenshots, PlanetBG's walkthrough is also still available for free. ;)

[ 10-05-2002, 05:49 AM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]

Hi guys, just want to add my $0.02.

"There's no such thing as a free lunch", or so the saying goes. Same thing applies to web hosting. I used to visit GB regularly. It's a great site, better than IW (I dare say; oh the blasphemy!) when it comes to detailed information on spells, weapons, armour, items, walk-thrus etc. It covers most of the popular IE-based RPGs. It's convenient - instead of having to sift thru' several sites looking for that piece of information you seek, it's all in one place.

I was sad when it went pay-based. But I hold no grudge against the owner. He (or she) has to pay the bills associated with bandwidth, hosting, server upgrades and so on (sound familiar?).

While the community here responded magnificently to Zirox's call for financial help, the owner of GB was not so lucky. I don't know whether he did ask for help, but I like to think that in IW's case because of the strong virtual community that has been built up in the forums, (which I suggest to you is THE most valuable resource of IW), Z was able to pull thru'. Plus getting money by selling the IW name is also good.

So please don't be so quick to cuss at someone because he decides to charge for the information he puts up on his site. As much as he would like to, sometimes the alternative to charging would be to close down the site altogether. And in GB's case, I submit that that would be a real shame.

Now, back to you regularly scheduled programming...

I think the other reason that GB went to pay-only for some sections was the release of NWN. I think he foresaw the rush of hits and visitors his no doubt heavily-bandwidth-taxed site would get when players started searching for NWN tips.

I don't like the idea of paying for access to BG, so I won't. It's a damn shame we can't all get to it any more, but hey - as has been said, it was his choice. I don't like paying for Jean Claude Van Damme movies either, so I don't. I look elsewhere for my entertainment. Now I do the same with GameBanshee [img]smile.gif[/img]

Hmm ... on further reflection, it occurred to me that there are droves of people who wouldn't watch Van Damme movies if they were free either. hell, lots of people would demand to be paid, but you get what I was driving at ;)

Bah! I hate IGN! They have so many ads! :mad:

Gamebanshee was cool [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] even though I only visted it a few times.

[ 10-06-2002, 10:49 PM: Message edited by: GokuZool ]

I will <font color="red">NEVER</font> subscribe to a pay website.

I already pay to have the right to connect to the internet. I won't also pay for the right to browse it.

This is something you guys don't have to worry about with Ironworks/Escape Gaming. It will always be free.

Even though I have lost money on the site, I still would never charge for access to anything.. even when I get my new Escape Gaming news and other info added (Adds tons of new reviews and previews) it'll still be free.

I *can* see how bandwidth costs would make him need to charge. But I am REAL lucky because I have a friend that lets me get away with unlimited bandwidth [img]smile.gif[/img] .

I hope this doesn't mean the soon-to-be end of GB. When a site starts adding tons of pop-up banners and then charges, it usually means its a 'last resort' method, and if he doesn't get a good amount of subscribers, he will probably shut down. :(

He and I are lucky though, we survived the dot.gone era. You have no idea how many sites went belly-up.

This is a bit harsh, Deathkiller. Buck Satan ran Gamebanshee by himself and wore all the costs himself, like Ziroc does here. We're lucky in that Ironworks had some members who generously DONATED some funds to help us buy a new server. Despite the fact that it COSTS Z money to run this site, he does it for love of what he does, even though the level of traffic we have now is probably 20 times what we had when he started this up. Money doesn't grow on trees, unfortunately, and things like bandwidth, etc still have to be paid for - the choices are a) you keep the site small and piss your members off because of crashes, delays, etc; or b) charge members and put in popups.

I doubt if Buck put the fee in to make a profit - more likely he's just trying to minimize his personal costs.

In any case, we can all vote with our feet, anyway. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I like GB personally, there are still some free spot's on it, at least DAoC wise and some of which you have to pay for. If this fellow is paying for it himself and getting stuck with all the billing for his time and effort and very little thanks then I say charge. It is a small fee to pay for good information anyway's, if that is what you need. Not everything that is good is free and not everything that is bad will cost you an arm and a leg, If you choose to complain about it, then make a difference in it.(this may or may not make sense ;) )

The thing is, I don't find myself checking GB that often. Sometimes I'm interested in a walkthrough when I'm stuck in a game, but that's about it. It's nice to see all the strategy guides, item/class/npc descriptions and all kinds of other things, but I don't use them; not when they're free nor when I have to pay for them. All I need is a quick reference site where I can find whatever I'm stuck at within a few minutes, and if you stumble upon a "pay first" button, it more or less ticks me off and I start looking for a different site to find the information I need.
That and the fact that I only play a small fraction of the games listed on GB...

[ 10-07-2002, 11:39 AM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]