VGBoxart
Encyclopedia
VGBoxArt is an online community
for video game hobbyists to showcase and discuss their mock-up boxarts, which are organized by the respective gaming console. As of 2008, is has been extended to accustom artwork of other nature such as posters, album covers
and DVD covers. As of June 2010, the website has over 25,000 members, with 24,000 boxart submissions and 270,000 comments.
Users also have the ability to favorite authors, who are shown in the author's page under the favorite author section. The home page of VGBoxArt also has an automatically updating “Latest Additions from Favorite Authors” section, which lists the last four submissions from their favorite authors.
technology. Members can share boxart ideas or receive critiques of their boxarts before initial submission to the main site. Members can also host or take part in various unofficial competitions and chat about things unrelated to boxart, prominently gaming topics.
A user is also entitled to his/her own Control Panel, which allows the user to change his/her publicly viewed personal information and settings.
Mock boxarts have also been featured in many online video gaming articles such as Joystiq
, GamerBlips, Blogged and many others.
Bingegamer.com reported that Capcom was inspired by elements from a VGBA Resident Evil 5 fan boxart. It is still unsure whether this was intentional or purely coincidental.
to remove any LEGO related mock up box arts from the site, and if he failed to do so, a lawsuit would be filed against him. This was due to LEGO's strict copyright
ownership of its images. A rule has since been implied which prohibits the uploading of any LEGO related boxarts, or they will face an instant deletion.
Online community
An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual. An online community can take the form of an information system where anyone can post content, such as a Bulletin board system or one where only a restricted...
for video game hobbyists to showcase and discuss their mock-up boxarts, which are organized by the respective gaming console. As of 2008, is has been extended to accustom artwork of other nature such as posters, album covers
Album cover
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...
and DVD covers. As of June 2010, the website has over 25,000 members, with 24,000 boxart submissions and 270,000 comments.
Boxart Submissions
When a boxart design is submitted, it is added to the internal website database and dedicated a page where users view, favorite and/or comment the design.Author Pages
Each user who registers is entitled an author page that exhibits the user's boxart submissions in chronological order, as well as the author's fans, favorite authors, favorite boxart submissions, resources and his/her comment history. Each user also has the choice to personalize the banner at the top of their page.Favorites
If a user favorites another author's boxart submission, it is placed in the user's "Favorites" section of their Author Page.Users also have the ability to favorite authors, who are shown in the author's page under the favorite author section. The home page of VGBoxArt also has an automatically updating “Latest Additions from Favorite Authors” section, which lists the last four submissions from their favorite authors.
Hall of Fame
Boxarts, after gathering enough favorites, will be added to the "Hall of Fame". Requirements for a box to get into the Hall of Fame has evolved since the initial creation of the system. Originally, thirteen favorites were necessary for a boxart to reach the Hall of Fame. It later increased to twenty. The Hall of Fame system now calculates both the number of favorites and the rank of each user who submitted a favorite for the boxart. After gathering around 55-60 favorites, a box will normally transcend beyond the Hall of Fame into the highly exclusive "MasterWorks" section."Humor" Hall of Fame
Once called the "Satire Hall of Fame", the Humor Hall of Fame consists of boxes with satirical, funny or humorous themes. At its inception in June 2007 this feature was titled "Satire Hall of Fame", but in 2008 it changed to the "Humor Hall of Fame".Resources
In 2009, a "Resources" section was implemented to improve the main site. In this section, every author rank 7 or higher can submit a variety of boxart resources. Each resource submitted by an author will appear chronologically on his "Author Page" under his most recent boxarts.Forums
The VGBoxArt forums is the site's most popular feature. The forum is built on vBulletinVBulletin
vBulletin is a proprietary Internet forum software produced by Jelsoft Enterprises and vBulletin Solutions, both subsidiaries of Internet Brands. It is written in PHP and uses a MySQL database server.-History:...
technology. Members can share boxart ideas or receive critiques of their boxarts before initial submission to the main site. Members can also host or take part in various unofficial competitions and chat about things unrelated to boxart, prominently gaming topics.
A user is also entitled to his/her own Control Panel, which allows the user to change his/her publicly viewed personal information and settings.
Outside use
Several outside websites and retailers, including toy store giant Toys Я Us, have used fan-made boxart from VGBoxArt to promote a game (it is unknown whether these were unintentional or not).Mock boxarts have also been featured in many online video gaming articles such as Joystiq
Joystiq
Joystiq is a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 that has since become one of the most successful sites within the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs. It is the centerpiece of WIN's own network of video gaming blogs, which also includes a blog dealing specifically with the popular MMORPG World of...
, GamerBlips, Blogged and many others.
Bingegamer.com reported that Capcom was inspired by elements from a VGBA Resident Evil 5 fan boxart. It is still unsure whether this was intentional or purely coincidental.
Copyright and Licensing Issues
Jeremiah Freyholtz [also known as Reed], the administrator of VGBoxArt, was forced by LEGOLego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
to remove any LEGO related mock up box arts from the site, and if he failed to do so, a lawsuit would be filed against him. This was due to LEGO's strict copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
ownership of its images. A rule has since been implied which prohibits the uploading of any LEGO related boxarts, or they will face an instant deletion.