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[FINALFANTASYDOG]

Edit:

A bunch of posts asking that I should have written why they were special. My writing skills are not up to the task but...

1998.... Imagine a world where online internet discourse for gaming was at the level of GameFaqs message boards. Pro sites that did exist either had very short reviews mentioning THE GRAPHICS THE CONTROLS or reprints of months old print articles.
This was before you could fund a site on ads, sites had to be paid for by the staff and worked for at volunteer level or be dot-com stock darlings.

In comes a site updated every day with the latest news (Many of it obtained through an express from Japan shipment of the latest Famitsu) - Think Gemetsu / Siliconera - , reviews written by a team with writing levels not yet seen in gaming, not just reviews, "Game Critics" - Think The Escapist -, and a daily curated letters / fanfics / fan music section - Think Neogaf -.
Along with a database of screenshots / media / movies like nowhere else on the web - Think googling a game before google existed - .

Some of their most famous hits:

Gaming Intelligence Agency - Sony PlayStation - Final Fantasy IX (Leaked accurate concept art from FF9 that we still do not know where they came from)
FF8 Gaiden -> Aprils fools joke that was good enough it fooled many pro-sites and even Famitsu wrote an article about it.

The moto

To us, games weren't just trivial diversions to be dissected into a laundry list of "features." Games (even bad ones) are art, created by artists, and deserving of contemplation and respect. Gaming journalism didn't have to be parroting the corporate line or unedited, stream-of-consciousness blogging. Game writing can be real, serious writing, brimming with research, focus, invective, and wit. And our readers weren't just binary sheep seeking a "buy / don't buy" proclamation for a game. Gamers are intelligent people who love games as much as we do, who welcome in-depth analysis and discussion about their favorite hobby, and who deserve to be treated with respect.

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https://www.neogaf.com/threads/so-its-5-year-that-thegia-went-out-of-business.149010/

Today marks 20 years Since thegia closed down.
great gaming site,it's a shame they had to bite the dust though.

http://archive.thegia.com/ (Original site)

Site was revived for few brief years in 2013-15, putting out high-quality essays / features at a slow pace:
http://www.thegia.com/
---------------------------------------

Where are they now? (Will only mention those with public profiles)

The Creator of the site - Drinky Crow : High-Level Exec on the gaming side for a very very large corporation. Public Facing: Appears on Retronauts Podcast ( + Xenogears ep) for a few episodes as special guest, still wears a moogle costume every now and then.

Jeremy Parish -> At the time the most in the shadows, has become the most prolific public facing, at least for gaming: Worked for IGN, Ran 1up / Usgamer / Created and helps run Retronauts, runs a youtube channel (that is the wikipedia source for half the retro gaming entries ) on top of a day job at Limited Run Games.

Zak McClendon (Moby Games) -> Now at DoubleFIne, Lead Designer of Psyconauts 2, worked on Bioshock 2 and helped create walking sims with Minerva's den.

Nich Maragos (Moby Games) -> Did localization at Atlus for a long time, now at Nintendo TreeHouse doing best localization work in the world.

The new recruits: Alex Fraioli / Ray Barnholt -> Have been hosting a "they sure are having fun" podcast together for years, No More Whoppers.
Alex runs a video game bar(Shop) in Japan, Ray created a utterly fantastic niche/retro game zine called Scroll and runs a one man game company bipedaldog.

Double Agent, Letters: Erin Mehlos -> Has her own comic series Next Town Over and a patron to support it.

Nathan Mallory -> Working on the legal side of gaming as Senior Corporate Counsel for a large developer.

Brian Glick -> Microsoft / Youtube / Google, now CEO of his own IT Startup.

The first double Agent Letters Andrew Kaufman ->
Currently the Director, Digital Platforms and Communications at George W. Bush Presidential Center

Server Guy! Andrew Church -> Worked at 8-4, Then google, now an independent game developer who ported F.T.L. AND Aquaria to Ipad.

99% sure:

Brooke Bolander　-> Possibly Hugo-Winning Speculative fiction writer? The name / age / hair type matches up, twitter followed by ex-thegia, but no for sure confirmation.

 

[ScythD]

Looking at that Drinky Crow thread brings back some memories. Was that really more than 15 years ago?

 

[Demigod Mac]

Still remember this. Everyone legit thought it was an April Fools joke at first.

 

[Rentahamster]

Thegia was legit.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

What a bummer, still remember the announcement on April Fools day 2002. They were the best RPG site for news/rumors/discussion.

I remember them being the first site to leak some early FF IX concept art:

Gaming Intelligence Agency - Sony PlayStation - Final Fantasy IX

archive.thegia.com

That included some cool shit that never made it into the game, e.g.:

 

[protonion]

I remember this site!
I have some memories of reading the letters column.

I was sad when it shut down.

This and sonyweb were the gaming sites of my teen years.

 

[Metnut]

Great site. Sad they are gone and sad that I’m old enough to remember the site.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

I went there a lot for my Japanese news.

It was pretty glorious at a time where print was still very active.

I would love to be able to have that anticipation without an over abundance of information spoiling the hype.

No better time to be a gamer than during the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

I don't even know what's "thegia" and I don't think I'm alone ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Would have been really nice to have a little summary about what make them special buddy.

 

[EviLore]

In the summer of 1999 I was reading thegia’s mailbag daily and submitting emails. I really enjoyed the in-depth commentary and debate from different viewpoints, but the pace of updates was far too slow. When I looked around the internet for similar content I found Gaming-Age’s mailbag, then a small forum of knowledgeable, passionate people attached to the site. I was immediately hooked. Within about a year I found myself helping to run the forum, and shortly thereafter I took on full responsibility for the community.

And here we are.

 

[th4tguy]

the-magicbox.com and thegia were my go to sites

 

[Quasicat]

The Gia was the only website I had donated to at the time. I was doing pretty well working at my first factory job and gave them $150. A few months later, they announced they were closing. They said in their final post that they had exhausted all of their funds before closing. I found this hard to believe at the time since I never had to pay for my GeoCities page.

I went to their website many times a day just to see what news was happening, pretty much what NeoGAF has become for me 20 years later.

 

[TheMan]

Yup. Discovered them while looking for help getting through the xenogears sewers and they were one of my favorite sites until they closed.

 

[Rest]

Never heard of it.

 

[Dr. Claus]

Sad to see what happened to most of them. So many seemed to have fallen down with the same mind virus that effects gaming "journalism" today. So many of them used to be sane individuals.

 

[FINALFANTASYDOG]

Added in some folks I forgot (Major surprises actually) and an intro as to why anyone cared.

So many of them used to be sane individuals.

It`s weird going back and researching this.
While I certainly think some staff from thegia would you tell they are the inklings of what was to come and they have not changed. (most critical sites today are very close to the editorial side of thegia)


I can find blogs from a staff member stating they consider themselves a Libertarian and that they find an argument, regarding marriage should be between a man and a woman, intriguing.
Hell, you have one of the agents ending up being the Tech Director of the George W.Bush Center

With how divided everyone is lately, I wonder if such a diverse group(Politically) of folks could work together today?

 

[Dr. Claus]

Added in some folks I forgot (Major surprises actually) and an intro as to why anyone cared.



It`s weird going back and researching this.
While I certainly think some staff from thegia would you tell they are the inklings of what was to come and they have not changed. (most critical sites today are very close to the editorial side of thegia)


I can find blogs from a staff member stating they consider themselves a Libertarian and that they find an argument, regarding marriage should be between a man and a woman, intriguing.
Hell, you have one of the agents ending up being the Tech Director of the George W.Bush Center

With how divided everyone is lately, I wonder if such a diverse group(Politically) of folks could work together today?

I mean more the extreme side. There are quite a few that have fallen into the same group you often find on sites like Era/Twitter. Complete psychos.

A few have seemingly became normal, well adjusted people with diverse views and thoughts - but they are sadly the minority of what was Thegia.

 

[V1LÆM]

i'm not old enough to know what this is

 

[West Texas CEO]

 

[ManaByte]

In the summer of 1999 I was reading thegia’s mailbag daily and submitting emails. I really enjoyed the in-depth commentary and debate from different viewpoints, but the pace of updates was far too slow. When I looked around the internet for similar content I found Gaming-Age’s mailbag, then a small forum of knowledgeable, passionate people attached to the site. I was immediately hooked. Within about a year I found myself helping to run the forum, and shortly thereafter I took on full responsibility for the community.

And here we are.