
GameRifts 2005
Names have been changed to protect the innocent, so we will refer to parties involved in the discussion as “Me,” and “Them.”
It all started with a conversation that sort of went like this…

Them: Didn’t you run a website which had something to do with computer games?
Me: I did, but it was a long time ago, and it was more specific than just computer games, it was more of a community site for news about MMORPG Games.
Them: What was the name of it, I was trying to find it? This is where the cool swag would come from? You also went to conventions and events?
Me: Yes, we had several members from the larger guilds, online social clubs that were founded way back in the day, with writers across the U.S., and we played multiple games based on our interests. The site’s name was “GameRifts.” It was more a central location for our old community, and new members to have a central location for the interests we had in gaming.
Them: Why that name?
Me: So every virtual world we went into usually had a unique world name. So, from a character point of view, as we all had pretty unique names and guilds with specific lore; we would “travel the rifts” to get to each online games world, create our avatars / characters, and continue our role-play backgrounds.
Them: What happened to the site?
Me: Nothing. We ran it for four years and reported news on the games we were playing, the games we were looking forward to playing, and covered other topics of interest to our readers.
Them: But where is the site, it is not running, I just went to the website and nothing is there?
Me: Well, most of us had moved on to our professional career paths and started families, we did not have the disposable time we had to game, report, and travel to events. We became adults.

Them: But where is the site? You still have the website name and all the content?
Me: Oh. Yes. The domain name is parked and all the content is locally backed up on my NAS as well as the server.
Them: So you have almost five years of historical game news and images from almost 18 years ago available to the public?
Me: Well, I guess I do.
Them: Let me see.
At this time it took a few minutes to get access and pull up some of the directories.
Them: Hey these are some really well written articles in the editorials and are still relevant to gamers today. These game graphics are horri-bad. So is this what all of you looked like two decades ago!?
Me: Ouch.
Them: So, you really need to make this accessible for readers. There are not many sites that have this going so far back. Why is it not published today?
Me: Well, I had to stop due to a conflict of interest with an employer at the time we stopped. Then I was in need of a new CMS (content management system), and then just did not have the time.
Them: So, what is stopping you today. Put it on some hosting platform, there are a lot of blogging systems to use.
Me: Well, we were not a “Blog” per se. But, I probably could get something up and running over a weekend during the winter. I’ll see.
A couple of months went by…

Them: Hey, I went into the server and found some old pictures of you, too funny. I also had to go to the wayback machine. Are you going to put the old website up?
Me: Too funny. I hate you for getting “that picture.” No, I never put the website back up, was distracted with other hobbies and projects at home and work.
Them: DO IT!!!!!!!
Me: Sure.
Them: Also what are all these audio files?
Me: They are interviews and stuff from radio.gamerifts
Them: Wait you were streaming 20 years ago?
Me: Well, in audio format. We had an internet radio station as part of the website.
Them: So did you also do YouTube, Twitch and TikTok?
Me: No, we are technically older than google and for the most part that was not as big then as it is now.
A couple more months pass…
Me: Hey, so let me know what you think. I just grabbed a quick template that was pre-configured and ported all the old content over.
Them: It still looks like a website from the 90’s! LOL.
Me: Some stuff is missing and broke, but from a historical perspective I have been proofing after doing import or cut-and-paste before publishing. There are links and images broken or missing but for the most part, everything is there.
Them: So with the next John Wick movie coming out soon, I have to ask what they always ask, “Are you back?”

So, I can’t say if we are back, there have been games that have come-and-gone while the site and I have been offline. While I did dabble in some of the MMO’s that have been out, nothing really stands out to continue with a dedicated news site, at least for today, that you can not get from reddit, or some of the other mainstream MMO new sites, or even just quick videos.
Hobby interests have also changed. While passively playing MMO’s, everything has come full circle from RTS and MMO games to single player console / pc games and to traditional tabletop games.
So, are we back?
At least for now, as a historical reference for everyone who over the years wrote some great articles, the devs and publishers who allowed us to interview them, preview and review their games, and you the reader, (at one time we had two) gamerifts is, while not back, at least online again.
Thanks to “Them” for the reason to find a time block over a couple days.