This is GameBoom v3.0

We have done it again, we've rebuilt everything from the ground up. This web site has gone through numerous mutations. It started as a simple forum chat for Tremulous, then changed to a user groups website and finally the game-sharing website that it is now. Today we celebrate the launch of GameBoom v3.0.

This redesign/rebuild/relaunch is very significant to me. It was three years ago when I started messin' around with a community website. My goal back then was simply to read the hundreds of forum posts of the day. Oh yeah, we had some game stats here and there, some game screenshots. When we moved to the user groups (remember those?), it was like forums on steroids. But moderation was a pain and people were confused. "How do I post images? How do I post? Hao to How?" It's not surprising the group format didn't last very long.

This brings us to recent times. A while ago I wrote about our goal of promoting Open Source games. Which many of you have adopted by contributing many games, guides, images, etc... you name it. Thank you to all of you that contributed to our games directory, it is a great success! Now for v3.0 we are working hard to streamline our system and make sharing easier.



The reorganized About-us page has a clearer version of our mission statement and our ideals.

"Our mission is to empower gamers to share their favorite games with others, and with this collaboration bring new gamers to adopt Free Gaming".

The concept of our refreshed mission statement is still the same as before. Find out about the best games to play, based on opinions from the gamers themselves and NOT from commercial review websites or paid TV shows. It doesn't matter if the games are free or commercial, we just want to know. We use the interest from these games to get players interested in Free Gaming.

These are some of the major changes from v2.0:

• Redesigned website from the ground-up to be simpler and friendlier to use.
• The game search and individual display pages have been optimized for quick information scanning and readability.
• Vastly improved forums while remaining simple to use.
• Easy video embedding on posts - you just need the link to the video (no matter the website).
• Quick image embed images in posts. The complicated asset system is gone.
• Most popular information is accessible from every page.
• The credit system has been completely overhauled with larger payouts.
• Forum tweaks: embedded polls and file attachments.

We also have new shinny guns in our arsenal:

• Facebook-inspired Community Wall - Got something quick to say but you're too busy to make a forum post? Spray it on the Wall!
• Flickr-like Image tagging - You leave comments right on images. See the demo
• Community Top 100 - Almost every post on the website can be rated, which enters them into our Top100 list. See the Top100
• Favorite anything - Just like the Top100, you can make almost any post your favorite, which ranks them into our community favorites. Look at our favorites.
• Browse in your language - Instant page translations with the use of Google Translate. Simply click the country flags in the top-left corner (above the logo).

But we are not done yet! Here are some features that were not available for this launch but will be available in :

• Classic Gaming
• Flash Games
• Prepackaged Downloads
• Video Streaming and Uploads
• Mobile Gaming
• Gaming Stats
• Much, much more...

We hope that you will have as much fun with the new website as we did building it, and that you find it a useful source of entertainment. Also that you will continue to support us as we move ahead with more ambitious goals. Thanks for sticking around, the bumpy ride is over. Now let's just cruise...