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BIOHAZE'S 5TH
BIRTHDAY
"We love you."
Biohaze is turning five and suddenly I
feel like an aged father of four, or four thousand. Considering
the content at hand, I'm going to approach this special as more
of an informative history blog than an editorial. We'll move on
to the birth of Biohaze.
2002 was a genuinely beautiful year for Biohazard fans. Rebirth
was looming, Biohazard 0 directly behind it and at the time the
rest of the series was said to be being remade in the fashion of
Rebirth. All of these titles and Biohazard 4 was still in the
foreseeable future. There was a ton to talk about and while I
personally participated on sites like Resident Evil Fan and
Biohazard Extreme, I was also a member (and later Moderator) on
GameSpot.com. Within this site started a thread in the GameCube
forum titled Everything Resident Evil, it was a stickied and
dedicated topic to the Biohazard franchise. This was the early
groundwork as we accumulated various members who provided both
resource and insight on the series.
Eventually GameSpot moved from their Lithium forum boards and
started to provide various new features, one being user created
forums. Due to this, the thread that lasted multiple years
eventually became it's own forum within the GameSpot structure.
Along with the new forum, we also started our own unofficial
union (before unions were a part of GameSpot's structure). Fun
to note, Green_Lizard and myself started handing out union
signature banners to members. This eventually took off and to
this day most of GameSpot still replicates these in their own
way.
The Everything Resident Evil forum lasted only a couple of
months as the structure of GameSpot continued to change, this
time in a different manner. GameSpot and GameFAQ's merged and
due to this so did the multiple Biohazard game forums and
members. This is also around the time of the review scandals and
such. With the bad karma and influx of new members I kindly took
an indefinite break from moderating and decided something fresh
needed to happen for our members.
I pitched the idea of running my own forum, or potentially
website, to the Everything Resident Evil members. The positive
feedback confirmed this was the way to go and I then put
together a dedicated forum for our members, titled Biohaze. This
was a sad and yet exciting time. From 2002 - 2005 Everything
Resident Evil served a huge community on GameSpot, though due to
their own changes it was the best time to start something new.
Though hard to say goodbye, Biohaze opened up an entirely new
door of possibilities.
In our first month Biohaze was strictly a forum, something we
were used to. While the transfer of members went smoothly,
obviously all of our posts were lost. Within our core of
members, we also had a ton of resources, some better suited for
a website than a small forum. With this I wasted no time and
continued to make Biohaze a full blown Biohazard resource, or
what I thought was one at the time. The forum started on
November 3rd and the website sometime in early December of 2005.
The style was similar to our Everything Resident Evil banner's
and the old GameSpot color scheme. Though the information at the
time was average at best, our community tied together nicely and
was a focal point of the site. We kicked it off with various
competitions, one of the first giving away a free copy of
Outbreak FILE #2.
Within a year of creating Biohaze, I felt constrained by the
site's structure. Though this was my second big website at the
time, I wasn't familiar with the coding aspect as much as I was
the design. Needless to say, as the members and information
started to roll in, the site needed to change or else it
wouldn't be able to keep up in a user friendly manner. This is
when Biohaze V2 came long, in 2006. The site and forum were
completely overhauled and we started to receive an influx of new
members. Though we originally promoted a bit on GameSpot, I then
started to reach out to the Outbreak community. In this regard
nothing has changed as even now we remain one of the only sites
to push the remaining elements of the online titles. However at
the time when Outbreak was lively in North America, a lot of
players found their way to Biohaze and made it their home.
Biohaze was originally developed as a friendly alternative for
GameSpot users and other Biohazard websites alike. It was never
developed to be a challenger, instead to work alongside other
sites and offer a unique perspective on the series. It was this
unique perspective and various features however that brought in
many new members and most of all viewers. Working with the other
sites also offered a lot of input to success and different
approaches to both the community and web design in general. I do
believe Biohaze's friendly and supportive nature is the key
element to it's success beyond the GameSpot days.
Around this time, we also received members who would later
become a huge part of the site. Though not part of the original
cast, members like Mr. Rod, cvxfreak and TheBatMan have taken my
vision for Biohaze and ran with it each in their own unique
ways. Each of them has added so much to the site that I can
honestly say it would not be the same without them. Members like
SunglassesAtNight also provided a constant news feed and
continued to keep Biohaze up to date at all times.
During the time between 2006 and 2009, we finally received a
mainstream title to be introduced to together, discuss and play
for the first time; Biohazard 5. Biohaze won the Kijuju
Competition held by Capcom, was the first website on the
internet to show footage of Lost in Nightmares and attended
Tokyo Game Show 2009 as press. It was our first chance to cover
a new Biohazard title and we cohesively brought some of the best
coverage possible.
In November of 2009 I pitched the idea to Mr. Rod that I wanted
to design a new Biohaze from the ground up, though I'd need his
help as it'd otherwise take months to complete. With his
vigorous help, we combined for one of the best efforts I've
experienced. It took literally thirty days to complete in which
we worked on the website nearly every day. When the new website
was launched it was covered by Capcom, other Biohazard websites
and even select gaming press. The new website once again allowed
Biohaze to grow beyond it's older shell which was starting to
limit us. With the re-launch we have gained new members,
introduced special competitions and features and surpassed our
original goal with a whopping 26,000,000 hits in a single season
and are continually growing.
It's been a long road for Biohaze and the groundwork was
ironically laid in areas outside of it's own territory. This
however is what made us a unique alternative; outside
perspective formulated in our own manner. Relationships with
other sites have been our most pertinent element to success and
we thank all of them for their support over the years. Here's to
another five!
Special thanks to the original help: Green_Lizard, Progenitor,
Dvader, Stevebord and Sandbox. |
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