Hey folks. So those of you who have been around the forums for a long time probably know me pretty well. I started on VGChartz way back in 2007 as a user and have since worn many hats around the site from moderator to community manager, reviewer, editor, and communications manager. I love this site, its users, and its staff, and one of my greatest regrets has been becoming so involved in the operations of the site that I lost touch with my community roots. 

Luckily I should have a chance to get back to that soon. I'm heading up a new site for the almighty leader Brett called gamewise.co. Our staff has brought up the site on here before, but not in much detail. Basically it's going to be a community site, combining the features of a wikia (detailed game pages and information inclduing categories and subcategories), FAQ site (walkthroughs, individual game forums, cheats), and aggregator site (up-to-date news links from outside sources, review aggregates with an aggregate score and links to reviews, user scores and revivews). 

This site will be community run, managed by only a small staff of DB Admins and Moderators and myself overseeing the whole thing. It's going to have great modern editing tools and tons of freedom in customizing each game page to fit the needs of that individual game. We want all the detail of Wikia but with far more user friendliness and all the features you could want for your daily game browsing needs. 

With that we'll need a REALLY great community, and luckily there happens to be one just laying around over here to help give it a start. You guys. You'll all be given accounts on Gamewise, which will share your current VGC account screen names and passwords. Post counts and forum posts will not transfer unfortunately. We want Gamewise to be a fresh start for everyone. You can expect all the great community features you have on gamrConnect, with individual walls, game collections, wish lists, and achievements for posting and editing. Because the community is so essential, our staff, including myself, are going to be encouraged to be active in the forums, and the way the site evolves will be based heavily on your feedback and participation.

Gamewise will be my reintroduction into the community, and my chance to hopefully reconnect with the many friends I made here on VGChartz. I have posted sparingly over the last couple years on this site, but I still love it dearly. I hope you're all interested in and excited about the site. I'll be happy to answer any questsions you may have, and you can look forward to the full launch of gamewise.co in about a month. We're working diligently over the time between now and then to iron out the bugs and cram as many features in as possible, as well as flesh out 150 or so big game pages to make the site useful and fun right off the bat. 

Thanks again,
Nick "Naz" Pantazis

Much of the database stuff will transfer (boxarts, banners, genres, release dates, developers, and publishers). The overview will probably transfer as well just to give temporary information on most games, but ideally Gamewise pages will go into much greater detail over time. Badges will not transfer, as we want to give the site a fresh start. 

That's right. gamrConnect will continue to exist as the forums for VGChartz, though we're likely going to cut down on the number of forums here (it's become a bit overwhelming) and go for something closer to neogaf in style, with fewer forum categories.  You are obviously not obligated to post on the new site. We're just giving you the option. We hope to continue to nurture both a community here on VGChartz and a community on Gamewise, so we're not ending your account in either location.  

There will definitely be some changes to the forums here because they have become too bloated for the type of site it is, but all your posts and points at the very least will remain. Badges probably will as well, but I'll talk to Brett about that and get back to you. These forums are not actually my domain. They will be managed by someone else. I'll let you know as soon as I do. 

So we are going to have 2 separate forums?
And both will be linked to Vgchartz?

"and my chance to hopefully reconnect with the many friends I made here on VGChartz."

Ohhh look at Mr. Popular, showing off that he has friends, well whoop-de-do and tra-la-la. As if any of us actually have lives outside of a gaming site dedicated to console sales tracking. We are the nerdiest of the nerds.

Anyhoo, sounds like fun. Sign me up.

Wait, so the game database is going to be from scratch again?

I don't mind too much about post count being reset but will this forum be archived? or will we just no longer have access to old posts at all.

nm the above, already answered.

And what's with the Columbian domain?

Gamewise will be its own site and not directly linked to VGChartz, though there will be some cross-linking between it and gamrReview, similar to the old "around the network" bar. So yes, there will be two forums, but really only because they're actually two sites.

Yeah, I understand your position, and I'll let Brett know. I can see why people wouldn't want to lose their badges after the work they've put into them. We absolutely will still be doing a beta, but at the moment the amount of features that are functioning on the site is too bare bones to open it up. We would just get a mass of complaint emails, which isn't very helpful when we know what's not working, we just haven't gotten to it yet. But yes, a beta is still coming. I'll be sure to give you guys more info on when that will happen, but it will be before the full launch and sometime in the coming weeks. If we feel the site isn't up for a full launch at the end of the month we may push that back and extend the beta. 

If this site turns out like GAF, and can create bigger amounts of users I will be truthful and say I am just staying here. If the nature of this site turns to all sales then it is time for me to jump ship. The community is already way too small to have discussion on many topics and splitting it up seems like it will make it worse in the short term.