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Meet The Team Behind GameCrate

By May 26, 2015No Comments
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The team involved in producing articles and videos for GameCrate is enormous. Seriously, look at all these names!

But at the core of the editorial team are two lifelong gamers who have been churning out stories since day one: Nick Scibetta and Quibian Salazar-Moreno.

I’ve watched Nick and Quibian put in a lot of effort over the last few months making the newest incarnation of GameCrate better than ever. Today’s launch of GameCrate 2.0 is proof that these two editors are just as passionate about their readers as they are about their video games. It’s also the perfect opportunity to ask them why and how they made all of this happen.

Here’s what they had to say:

Ivan: How long did it take to launch GameCrate 1.0 and how long have you been using it?

Nick: The idea of GameCrate started before either of us came on board, but the run-up started to pick up speed around when I was hired in December of 2013. There was a very early version of the site in place in the first few months of 2014, though it’s changed a lot since then. We’ve been using GameCrate in its present form since it launched at the beginning of April, 2014.

What problems did you experience with the original version of GameCrate that made you want to upgrade to GameCrate 2.0?

Nick: The original version of GameCrate had a lot of limitations in terms of its ability to handle the kinds of articles and media content we want to produce. The framework on which it was based was designed to handle basic, standard types of written content, but we had a lot of exciting and experimental ideas we wanted to try out that simply didn’t work with the structure of the site.

GameCrate was also built on a basic publishing structure that was very limited in its capability in terms of integrated e-commerce, which is an important aspect of the site as it exists in relation to Newegg as a whole. With 1.0 we were forced to improvise and push the site to its limit in order to include things like buy boxes and special Newegg promotions, but 2.0 will be built from the ground-up to support integrated e-commerce.

Who was in charge of making these changes and how long did it take for them to happen?

Nick: There are a lot of people involved with running GameCrate, from the editors to Newegg’s web designers to the marketing department as a whole, among others. The main person spearheading the 2.0 redesign was Carlos Villanueva, who is in charge of Media Development for Newegg.

GameCrate 2.0 has been in development in some stage for a long time – basically as soon as we launched 1.0 we were making plans for what we wanted to see from the next version of the site.

Did you face any obstacles along the way? How did you handle them?

Nick: The biggest obstacles in the 2.0 redesign process had to do with translating our vision for the site into technical terms that the designers could work with. As writers and editors and media people we had a lot of ideas for what we wanted the site to look like and what we wanted it to do, but figuring out what that actually meant from a coding and design perspective was often tricky.

Patience and communication were key when it came to handling these obstacles.

What are some of the new features you’re excited about?

Quibian: I really like the new video player on the home page, and the fact that you can actually watch some of our top videos right there. I’m also a fan of the way we can now make the featured deals and hardware alongside the article more relevant to the content we’re writing about. And in general just all of the new options we have as editors as far as versatility and expandability are great.

What can we expect from GameCrate the rest of the year?

Quibian: We’re going to have a lot about Windows 10 during the run-up to the launch of that, and of course we’ll have coverage of the big industry events like E3. We’ll also return to features our readers have enjoyed, like our Most Anticipated Games and Blind Gaming Mouse Showdown.

Do you anticipate any more changes/upgrades coming soon? Ever?

Quibian: Getting the most out of 2.0 will be a learning process, but there is a lot of customizability so we will be able to expand, tweak, and upgrade the site as we go. We expect to continually improve the site in the near and far future, and we’re always interested in the cutting edge.

Is there anything you want to let your readers know?

Quibian: We appreciate the reading, commenting, and sharing you all do. Tell your friends!

Author Ivan Barajas

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