Ten Years of Vooks – Your Australian Nintendo Website
Ten years ago Vooks went live, but its taken a long time to travel this far
October 16th 2000, the date a decade ago that I set this very website onto the internet. The first version of the site that went up, was actually just a page, its white and yellow text on a red and grey background was displeasing to the eyes. But hey, you had to start somewhere.
First version of Vooks (images sadly missing)
Today of course things are very different, not only is the website a whole lot better looking, there is actually a team behind this site now. Them and I are just as dedicated to it as I was in the beginning.
It’s really hard to sit here and write about something such as this. What do I write about for such a grand event as this? It’s TEN YEARS. How can you write just one article! So many different things have shaped this site and the community on it. So I’m going to try and be brief and list some of the bigger moments and best things that have taken place. Things that make Vooks the site it is.
As brief as a 10 year recap could be.
The true history of the site however, is what you see today.
The Community
The people that make up the Vooks community, now and in the past are the core of the site. The great thing about the Vooks community isn’t the size of it. We’re in no way the largest community on the internet, nor do we want to be. The Vooks or Vookian community as it has come to be known as, is the people who make it up. Most people on the forum weren’t friends when they joined the site. However after being here for so long many people are close friends or closer because of the site. We’ve met at events and meetups, it’s not just the guys here in WA either, in my travels I’ve met more members than I can nearly remember, which is a pain because it is hard to keep track of everyone!
Industry Recognition
When I started out the site it was just a small hobby, as we got bigger and bigger and went from strength to strength I have always wondered, did the video game companies or Nintendo read what we write? Do they read our opinions and perhaps take it on board? Yes they do. Vooks is read and recognised by not only all the local publishers but also local developers and some international ones as well. It’s a great feeling to know that your work gets acknowledged by the people who you admire.
Informing
Being able to tell and inform people about Nintendo, no matter how weird this sounds, is a great feeling. Nintendo is a very secretive company and being coupled with the fact that we live in Australia, we’re always the last to know everything. This can cause confusion which leads to anger which is sometimes misplaced. This isn’t a problem so much any more, but in the past, getting information about release dates and games coming to Australia was very frustrating. Being able to tell people when something is coming and why, means that we now have less people coming onto the site or emailing my "Where the <expletive> is Super Paper Mario?1", "Why do games cost so much?", "Does my US charger work in my AU DS?", "How do I get pens out of my Wii drive?". Seriously, I got that last one just the other day. I still get excited when we get a suprise announcement from any company, I drop everything to make sure everyone knows as soon as possible, if we get told something we’ll let you know as quickly as possible. We want everyone to be informed, not just about news, but about what games to buy and what’s worth your time.
Just some of the designs the site has had in 10 years.
When I started doing the site, I thought I knew a lot about Nintendo. Turns out it wasn’t a lot really. Thankfully over the years I’ve learnt more and more about the company I love. Not only that, but my knowledge of the industry has increased too and knowing ’how things work’. Without doing this site day in and day out, I wouldn’t know as much as I do about Nintendo as I do today.
The People Who Help
Nearly everyone in my life has helped me along with this site at point or another. My parents, my brother, my cousins and even my extended family. My friends too also help out and most of my friends I have met through here. I could not do this site without the people who help me out on a near constant basis. There is no way I can list everyone, that has ever helped out on Vooks in the last 10 years. This article would be huge and I would no doubt miss someone. I thank you all.
Nintendo in the early 2000’s had that old ’kiddy’ stigma that has really never gone away. While the Nintendo 64 was popular, the new kid on the block, the PlayStation and then Xbox, were cool and new and exciting. Nintendo’s next console, the GameCube wasn’t without it’s own excitement though before launch at least. However with the PS2 continuing the momentum of the original Playstation, the Xbox’s smart move to drop it’s price to match the GameCube just weeks after launch, it all kind of fell apart and we spent from 2002 to 2005 in the depths of hell basically.
The hard times Nintendo and the GameCube had were felt within the Australian Nintendo fanbase. With Nintendo Australia’s poor website at the time there was no way people could tell what and when was coming out. We did our best here but at this time even the staunchest of Nintendo fans jump shipped and bought Xbox’s and PlayStations in order to fill the time. There is of course nothing wrong with owning other consoles, but to jump ship because there is nothing to play shouldn’t be a reason. The other issue was exposure.
Open a sale catalogue today of a popular department or chain store, hell you don’t even need to open it, the Wii or the DS is usually on the front. This wasn’t the case in the GameCube days. You would be lucky if even big AAA games from Nintendo got exposure. The Gameboy Advance was quite immune from this, so it wasn’t just a anti-Nintendo sentiment it was a anti-GameCube one. The GameCube failed and failed hard in Australia, stores soon pulled it from the shelves, some stores even stopped selling Nintendo products all together. Soon after the delays started, this just kept the console from selling well. It being a purple lunchbox, didn’t help. (We love you GameCube handle!) We’ve since learnt that the GameCube only sold 160,000 units in Australia compared to the millions the Playstion 2 and Xbox sold. This was even after the console was chopped to $99 by every store out there in an effort to move consoles. Nintendo Australia had originally predicted that 50,000 consoles would be sold in the launch month with 200,000 before the end of the first year. That didn’t happen.
So when you complain about release dates now, say there is no advertising for Nintendo stuff (when clearly there is tons) and say it’s hard to find games, just remember that GameCube fans never had it this good. Basically? You damn kids don’t know how good you have it. </oldman>
The Nintendo DS surprise
With the Revolution still a long way off Nintendo’s next hope to get out of the depths of despair was the Nintendo DS. Up against the PSP, everyone including myself though that the DS wouldn’t be long for this planet and another GameBoy would sooon come to the rescue. With no momentum after the GameCube, poor graphics and a ’touch screen lololol’ it looked like the DS would be done and dusted. People even baulked at the then ’steep’ price of $199. Then something happened, the DS Lite came out, Nintendogs, Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing all hit, it was a day and night change. The DS moved to the front of store, had more mindshare and the PSP had a battle on it’s hands. For the first time in a long time it looked like Nintendo cared about winning something and not just copping it on the chin. What happened next we all know.
E3 2006
This one is really personal but still I think it stands out with everyone as well. E3 2006 if you’re not aware was the one where Nintendo, having announced the Wii name months before and the Motion Controller idea the year before. Nintendo let rip with everything Wii. It was of course the year I was there, which made it all the better. I remember three things from that year, that I will never forget. The first one was when Shiggy came out and played the Zelda theme on Wii Music as then a reel showing all the upcoming Wii games was shown off. I got goosebumps, it was a Nintendo fans craziest moment. The second one is of course playing the game of forever, Super Mario Galaxy for the first time, in an empty booth at the E3. Being one of the first in the line on day one was a crazy thing. Last but not least is meeting two famous people, one Shigeru Miyamoto and the other, Charles Martinet. My excitement is shown off in the picture below.
Me, in 2006 – lots of weight ago.
The Wii
There was two schools of thought with the Wii. First was the sentiment that "Motion Controls look rubbish, what, no HD? The Wii is going to suck!". Then there was everyone else who thought, Nintendo just might have something here. Naturally the second group was a hell of a lot smaller and now we all know who won that particular battle. The Wii now struggles with maintaining the hot momentum it had in earlier in its life. Nintendo now has to deal with cooling sales and keeping third parties interested. Left unchecked, it could get bad. And soon.
The Future of Vooks
So what is next for Vooks? Where do we go from here. We could keep just going at our usual pace, keep to the same thing – I mean it works for some other sites. But no, we’re not going to rest on our laurels. You may have noticed a change in the site already, if not you will soon. Were going to be giving you more reasons to come back to the site on a daily basis. That doesn’t mean just screaming out more and more news. Seriously how many screenshots of games, spin filled press releases with no information do you really want to see? We’re going to be doing more and more features, interviews and of course interaction with the community of this site. We’re an Australian Nintendo site, we want to give you something you can’t get anywhere else.
We have a new site and a new design in the works and we’ll be looking for more people to help us and join the team.
We’re in it for another 10 years, if you’ll have us.
Daniel Vuckovic
Vooks Owner and Editor in Chief
&
The Vooks Team, Awesome People
