Shadow and the Ghost

[E.J.FUDD]

no blitz actually i completely forgot about thermaltake and dont assume, cause man the mire of made up crap on each and every var reseller ect is vast and different. and considering this is new, nothing exist. up untill a few days ago it was lots of links, forms and piles of paper.

it has progressed. and becoming defined. ..research up the wazzou, thank you.

we will be moving these such things to the forums for the site, as well as emails.

however we will post the addy in here.

thanks guys, for such a positive responce.

[E.J.FUDD]

also FYI, patrick and i are auth resellers for dell, HP/compaq as well as other run of the mill lil diddies.

[Balaso]

lol, I hope you guys are writing all this down somewhere. Your getting so many companies now that your gonna start forgeting who you have!    

[HUD]

Well, I wouldn't be much help with the hardware reviews. But, if you do game reviews, I would love to take a stab at that. Best of luck to you guys though!

[E.J.FUDD]

thats to be phase 2 hud.


and yes balaso, i brought on of my wemon in for slave labor.....yea files...and yes i do have a folder and a favorites folder built..and buldging they all are....even the woman (in the right spots)...

but yes, several are signed up for but, unknown for benefits, remit payment setup ect....sigh...more of the unfun work .....

[sK_Cookie]

yes but fudd the payment they take you dont mind giving.

[Impolite]

Blitz, you and Imp are very good writers and are usually quite up to date on hardware. You two want to write some hardware reviews?

While I would enjoy something like this, I am in the process of switching jobs to here: http://www.salvadorimaging.com/.  I think I will be pretty swamped designing for them.  I'll be happy to proofread and/or answer any tech questions as needed, though.  Let me know!

Edit:  Other companies to look into:
Antec (Cases, PSUs), Thermalright(Cooling), Logitech(Mice, Sound), Sennheiser(Sound), XFX(Video), BFG(Video, PPU), Sapphire(Video), PowerColor(Video), Shuttle(SFF PCs for LANs), Biostar(SFF PCs for LANs), Seagate(HDD), Western Digital(HDD), Zalman(Cooling), Mushkin(RAM, PSU), PC Power and Cooling(PSU)...

That's all I think off at the moment.

Also, I saw Maxtor on your list.  I think they were just acquired by Seagate.

[FourScience]

I'm always reading Toms Hardware and Ars Technica, and at this point reading any more conceptual stuff gets redundant. Always fun keeping up with the latest, so this is right up my alley. Can't hurt that I also understand the software side of things being a programmer .

One of my own personal projects in the embryo stage was to do a hardware oriented site. There was actually a specific tool I wanted to incorporate that would be geared for sale to sites like NewEgg. I think it fits well with this website you are starting.

I am interested in writing reviews for hardware (components or standards), software/games, or even building this tool into the site, if it were desired. I'll email the details.

[E.J.FUDD]

fourscience.....that rocks, the emailed idea that is.....


any hook that can do us better....

[FourScience]

fourscience.....that rocks, the emailed idea that is.....


any hook that can do us better....

Ty

I would like to keep it on the DL (down-low). I trust you guys with my idea, but there are definitely websites out there that could do well to add these things.

Another brand I didn't see mentioned is eVGA. They and XFX had some of the only 7800GT cards for a while. Maybe someone has a table of all the different hardware categories, the interesting brands, and the status of investigating relations with them?

[SK_GodlyMike]

Hi, hope i can add my 2 bits as a consumer when it comes to Demo, PC Hardware etc.

Experience that i find reading in PC gamer magazine. But i am assuming this all will be in webpage:
1. 2 Main titles should be broke up. Game Review & Hardware Review
2. Game review should always try to be an Executive Summary. Short and simple.
a) Stats must be included(recommended hardware to play game)
Gamer Verdict 0 - 100%
c) List of Pros & Cons( i like how PC gamer uses 'bottom line'
d) Avoid too many pictures - Use one best picture to describe the game and an additional picture to show actual gameplay

Adding in a forum has its pros and cons:
1) Needs to be highly regulated.
2) Needs to be professional and in the interest of gamers. I have always known forums to have subjects that does not contain any relation to the forum.
3) CEO should not waste the time to go through each thread. Designate 1 individual to admin the forum.

Now the business part(i am sure u have gone all through this, but good enough to recheck your ideas in case):
1) You will need a competitive edge over the saturated market in US. What makes your pc game reviews or site better then the thousands already established? Or from an online purchase hardware store?
2) DELL has acquired Alienware, recommend to always get first hand news from them. Its good that Dell is already your client, you will need them as they are now the strongest brand of PC gaming hardware.
3) Set aside a budget for your advertising. Get involve in gaming online sponsorships and acitivities. Dont wait and depend on just 3com in Vegas.
4) Whos your target market? Set aside for an automated email news-alert to bring them back to your site (make sure its opt-in thought). If your product are all high-end specs, obviously these people have money to spend the dough. Find out where and who, type of channel advertising etc. Start advertising to gaming clans, for example.
5) Make sure you have an authorized signature on your site to authenticate your products on the site.
6) Calculate your ROI. How many hits do you need to go into your site and determine from hits to actual purchase. Then calculate your montly expenditure such as overheads and project costs etc.
7) What is the timeline of order to delivery to customers?
You will need to consider a Hotline: for customer complaints, tracking modules of orders etc.
9) Ensure you get the latest info on Hardware Discounts from your manufacturers or clients.
10) One of the hardest thing for a Internet business, is the need to factor a 24/7 service. You will need to determine your headcount and response time factor in this. Alot of software programs these days can deliver self automated enquiries, orders, quotations, purchase order raised etc. Be ready to spend an amount on such software.
11) Talk to software game development companies like EA, Atari, Edios, Gamespy, Microsoft Game studios, UBISOFT, etc. And get them to carry your name in their advertising.
a) Consider www.emagin.com selling 3D visor hardware that allies with www.3Dvisor.com manufacturers. They help carry UBISOFT company to recommend gamers to go to www.emagin.com to purchase for full gaming experience.

I wish i can talk more but i am doing this at work. So anyway i wish you guys luck and all the best. Hope my 2 bits created awareness. Cya.

[SK_CROW]

Hey thanks for your input Mike.  

For those that are not aware, Michael is sK's original founder.  He was formerly known as God of SC.  He went to a university in Hawaii and is now a business owner in Malaysia.  

[E.J.FUDD]

God_of_SC oi, its been a long while there old fella.
so good to hear from you! you know i still have it my head to fly over there and apply.

Any 2 cents ...well it takes money to make money.... valuable 2 cents there, indeed. i will state that the sheer amount of research and then progressive developement can become quite the quagmire. We are all  capable of overlooking even the most simple things, for to error is human....to have forethought to append such errors is brilliance.

heres where we are at.
website/server and name:
are paid up for couple of years. the name of two differnt enities being the Shadow and The Ghost, shadow side for game review...The Ghost for the hardware.,,,,,S&G....  marketing purpose for multiple reasons as im sure you can imagine. (ps i do have characture design in mind.)  as per advertising, this, this without a doubt is my knack.

parent company:
Bentwing Productions LLc
is located in louisville ky. (which offers a whole slew of city, state, local, we still have commonwealth, laws and taxes 6.7%) for some reason this idea doesnt quite have a check box that is handy.....however the attorney who argued the breakup of Ma Bell is my attorney and is looking into the best way for all of this.

resellers:
wooooo so not fun to go through and sign up. however my first concern was either consultant , VAR (value added reseller), some even more delved. however somethings you sign up once and youve accessed everything. others for each and every market you must sign up, qualify, test out..., some of these that are mentioned have not been contacted as for esellers. as per games, i have not signed to resell anything (holding for stage 2.) we will be needing the site up and running in testing phases to actually contact several of these companies for reviewers statues.

profit:
** though originally the idea was to start a little something on the side so that the Knights might have a place to pick and choose some of the resellers kickbacks, and demos that my company was privy to. however being that response has shown more could be warrented, the reseach of this has begun. though not unheard of i am of the belief that everyone involved has not only their seperate niches but the fact we have been the bleeding edge gamers for .......eons.
believe that profit can be derived of advertising(# of registared/visiting people would dictate this), Reseller of hardware, Reseller of games,profitable links/web rings for merchandising .... possibility of registared/paying members.
 

Balaso has the reigns of the actual site after inception, he has currently been testing different designs. he is actually waiting on me for the company man power structure needed, and several other key things.

We are in need of someone that wants to be a well advertised graphics designer for our site, no salary just resume padding and benefits.

Remember always, i expect almost the same CoC as the Shadow Knights carry to be adapted.

  p.s. Crow ad a speel checker to the forums here......

[sK_Cookie]

hehe fudd that is an upgrade for the paid version of this forum board.  

Mike thanks for the info that really helps confirm some of our competitive edge.

[Balaso]

If you use internet explorer, install this: http://www.iespell.com/