So GameOPS is finally back after several years of absence, so what? If you don't know what GameOPS is, you came to the right page. Here are some info about the first ever Filipino website dedicated to Video Games. Read on...
ABOUT GAMEOPS
It was a dark and stormy night... Err... Actually it was a hot summer afternoon on the 24th of April 2000. Rocky Opiña and John Phillips "Jepoy" Bengero were trying to create a walkthrough for the PlayStation game Fear Effect to be submitted to GameFAQs. Halfway through the guide, Rocky realized instead of submitting the walkthrough to GameFAQs, the guide should be hosted on a website they could call their own.
With Rocky's high egoistic characteristics, he immediately suggested (or was it insisted?) that their planned website for video games should be named GameOPS (short for Game Opiña). Somewhat hypnotized by the creativity of Rocky, Jepoy started to work on their site's logo using only MS Paint and Microsoft Word's Word Art. Thus GameOPS was born.
The first proposed launch date was originally set on July 2000.
The igad Video Game e-zine (igad's Video Games HotSpot)
In the late 1997, Rocky proposed to his high school friends to have a weekly zine of video games together with igad Comics. igad Comics was created by Glen Ramos, John Phillips Bengero, Mark Anthony Bravo, and Robert Ryan Arca during their sophomore days at Saint Claire School in 1996. igad Comics’ primary character was Rocky. The zine didn’t materialized but instead, an e-zine was uploaded by Jepoy on January 1998 on his personal homepage hosted by his ISP, Maple Internet Services.
The e-zine contained news and rumors gathered by Jepoy and Rocky from GamePRO and Electronic Gaming Monthly magazines. The igad Video Game e-zine lasted until March 1999 when the founders graduated from high school.
The GameOPS Era
(The first site layout concept of igad's GameOPS)
The first concept of GameOPS was to compile a database of guides and cheats for different video games with a Filipino appeal. With Rocky, being a self proclaimed RPG King, and Jepoy, having video game experience since childhood, they started reviewing games and making guides and walkthroughs. However, since there are a lot of games to be reviewed and guides to make, the formal launch of the website was postponed.
Jepoy started to reformat the original concept of GameOPS. From a GameFAQs like site, GameOPS evolved to a video game news site. Jepoy and Rocky then decided to merge the video game e-zine of igad Comics to GameOPS, thus igad's GameOPS was born.
(igad's GameOPS Launch Notice)
With the launch date coming close, the idea of having GameOPS readers sent their game reviews to us was proposed by Rocky. Thus we came up with the site slogan "Speak Your Mind", which refers to the Reader Reviews and "It's Not the System, It's All About the Game", referring to the quality of games.
(igad's GameOPS Launch Notice -2nd)
igad's GameOPS was to be formally launched on July 2000, but due to the founders' busy schedule on their new life as college students, the launch date was moved again. This time to October 2000.
The GameOPS Launch
(igad's GameOPS 1st layout)
On October 2, 2000 the gameops.net domain was registered at NameZero and on October 26, 2000 the first ever issue of igad's GameOPS was uploaded at Geocities. The volunteers and staff of GameOPS grew from 2 to 17 in a span of 3 months from launch date. More ideas for the site started to flow, and finally a PC Games section was suggested by former GameOPS staff Germaine Lisa Ang.
During this time, GameOPS has forged partnerships with popular Filipino sites like DOGZ (Destiny's Online GameZone), Gameophilia and PinoyPC. GameOPS was also included in one of the full page newspaper ad of Globe Telecom for its Text Site service.
On March 2001, GameOPS temporarily ceased operation because of the planned migration from manual HTML to a dynamic PHP-Nuke powered site.
The Re-launch and GameOPS Gurl Gamer
(igad's GameOPS 2nd layout)
April 2001 marked the return of GameOPS on a paid hosted service using PHP-Nuke as the site's content management system.
With the new content management system, GameOPS also launched Gurl Gamer. This was a section of the new GameOPS in which the staff are all girl gamers from DOGZ (Destiny’s Online GameZone). There’s also a guy who wants to pose as a girl that we'll hide in the name of munky :P
The End...
GameOPS finally folded up on the last quarter of 2003 due to the lack of updates, busy schedules and financial difficulties brought by the site's high traffic.
Jepoy and Rocky tried several times to revive GameOPS but due to their busy school and work schedules, GameOPS almost failed to see the light.
The Return of the Comeback
On March 2007, a bold move was undertaken. The original founders decided to convert GameOPS to a Video Game blog. During the early days, blogs were considered as personal journals. Personal blogging eventually died a few years after. But thanks in part to Google Adsense, someone realized the potential of blogs for income so the blogs started to be the "in" thing again. This opportunity inspired us to give life to GameOPS one more time.
On 23rd March 2007, GameOPS finally returned online as a video game blog with Rocky Opiña, John Phillips Bengero, Glen Ramos, and Dian Dela Cruz at the helm and with two new members, Karlo Datoc and Andrew Delos Santos (Siopao Master).
On 13th April 2007, GameOPS was officially re-launched as a video game blog with quarter of the original GameOPS archives reposted.
THE STAFF
- Rocky Opiña (rocky) - The founder of GameOPS. A self-proclaimed RPG and Resident Evil king. He loves the Legend of Zelda franchise and was able to finish all handheld versions. He was playing Wind Waker when Jepoy's GameCube stopped reading the game disc. He's now trying to use a real-life ocarina to revive the GameCube.
- John Phillips Bengero (jepoy) - Co-founder and webmaster of GameOPS. Star Trek and Nintendo Fan. Metal Gear Solid, Legend of Zelda, and Survival Horror genre games are his favorite. He doesn't like online MMORPG/MMOG games, well with the exception of the upcoming Star Trek Online. :~) He is currently collecting old video game consoles. If you have an old 3DO, Sega CD, etc., please email him at jepoy (AT) gameops (DOT) net
- Glen Ramos (glen) - His current favorite games are WWE Games and Grand Theft Auto. He's the undisputed 2D fighting games champ who has beaten every single GameOPS editor he has faced. He has beaten Rocky and Jepoy in WWE and NBA handicap matches. (UPDATE APRIL 5th 2007: Jepoy has finally beaten Glen on NBA 2K7 on the PlayStation 2. Coming from a 35 point deficit, Jepoy's Kobe Bryant err... LA Lakers won from a dramatic come from behind victory score of 104-99... w000t!). Glen is also the top Pinoy NBA Live patcher at the NBA Live forums. You may check his work here.
- Mark Anthony Bravo (mark) - Mark is one of the original founders of igad Comics, the grand daddy of the current GameOPS. A self confessed Civilization addict. He blogs at Medyo Gwapo and The Geekothon.
- Karlo Datoc (karlo) - A self-confessed Atari-era boy, his favorite games are mostly PC games and a few PlayStation 2 3D fighting games.
- Andrew Delos Santos (siopao master) - He currently owns almost every handheld video game system available. He loves anime & cosplay and listens to J-music. He is currently in-love with Leah Dizon and secretly stalks Alodia in his free time.
- JM Taylor (JM) - JM is our resident Ninja from Japan and has been playing video games since the Apple II computer. Like Jepoy, he doesn't like MMORPG that much. JM owns a PS3, PS2, a Wii, a DSi, and a WonderSwan. He's currently taking up his MBA in the southern island of Kyushu, Japan.
- Dian Dela Cruz (dian) - One of GameOPS' original Gurl Gamer staff. Her favorite games include Counter Strike, Quake 3, Jedi Knight, Warcraft and other online multiplayer games. She's also one of the few girl gamers from Destiny's Online GameZone (DOGZ) gaming community and a member of DOGZ's 7D's Clan. She'll also impress you with her Photoshop skills.
- Mike Abundo (mike) - Mike Abundo serves as Vice-President for Emerging Technologies of the Philippine Internet Commerce Society, identifying and analyzing nascent IT trends of potential benefit to the Filipino people. He also writes for PC Magazine Philippines, Pinoy Tech Blog, Emerging Earth, Inside Online Video, and Anime Mashups.
- Alvin Infantado (rainblood) - Looking for next-gen gaming? Then he's your man. From Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3, PSP, to the Nintendo DS..
- Micael de Rivera (micael) - Pokemon, documentaries, religious materials, magazines, tennis are some of his interests. He also moderates the K-Zone Philippines forums..
- Previous GameOPS staff:
- Jay Anthony Encarnacion
- Cezar Francisco Jr.
- Germaine Lisa Ang
- Ademar Aurelio Jr.
- Elgin Jan Candoleta
- Ferdinand Ebido
- Ryan Joseph Benjamin
- Miko Elisha Liggayu
- Paulo Bengero
- Albert Cabas Jr.
- Francis Angeles
- John Sexon
- Benedict Lim
- Jei Dela Cruz (GameOPS Gurl Gamer)
- Kara Hizon (GameOPS Gurl Gamer)
- Monica Sexon (GameOPS Gurl Gamer)
HIRING FOR NEW CONTRIBUTORS
GameOPS is looking for video gamers and bloggers to report and contribute. Talk about video and PC games, the latest mobile phone or gadgets, animes and Asian series, etc. all with complete editorial freedom. If interested, contact us at contribute (AT) gameops (DOT) net with your full name, blog or website, or a sample article you have written.
Here’s the lame part: We won't pay you anything since GameOPS doesn't generate enough money yet. But don't 'ya worry, we're already planning to make deals with local stores and game developers for their ad placement on GameOPS. Once we generate enough income, Rocky might throw in a parteeh!
By the way, we're specifically looking for Mac and PC gamers. :~)
ADVERTISE ON GAMEOPS
GameOPS offers the following advertising packages made for individuals and large companies. The following are our introductory rates and may increase in the coming months:
728x90 (GIF, JPG, PNG, SWF)
- Ad located above the GameOPS logo. Will be displayed site-wide.
- US$199.99 / month
468x60 (GIF, JPG, PNG, SWF)
- Ad located at the top of GameOPS' main content. Will be displayed site-wide.
- US$149.99 / quarter
468x60 (GIF, JPG, PNG, SWF)
- Ad located just above GameOPS' footer section. Will be displayed on the main page and archive pages only.
- CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE
120x240 (GIF, JPG, PNG, SWF)
- Ad located on the upper GameOPS sidebar. Will be displayed site-wide
- US$79.99 / quarter
CONTACT THE EDITORS
Do you have game reviews that you would like to share? Please do email them at reader-reviews (AT) gameops (DOT) net.
For general questions, email them at ask-g (AT) gameops (DOT) net.
You may also contact us via the form below:
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
*coming soon*
