HardOCP

Infobox Website
name = [H] ard|OCP



caption = HardOCP.com on 21 April 2007
url = http://www.hardocp.com/
commercial =
type = online magazine
language =
registration =
owner = Kyle Bennett
author = Kyle Bennett
launch date =
current status =
revenue =

[H] ard|OCP (Hardware Overclockers Comparison Page) is an online magazine that offers news, reviews, and editorials that relate to computer hardware, software, modding, overclocking and cooling, owned and operated by Kyle Bennett. The website was started in 1997 by Kyle Bennett.

Product Reviews

[H] ard|OCP is known for reviewing products and technologies in an untraditional form by focusing on "real-world" gameplay opinions when it comes to computer hardware reviews. [H] ard|OCP does not review products based upon how many FPS it scores in synthetic benchmarks such as 3Dmark but instead bases its reviews on the computing experience that the product provides to the end user.

[H] ard|OCP vs. Infinium Labs

On September 17, 2003, [H] ard|OCP writer Steve Lynch posted [http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTEy “Behind the Phantom Console”] , an investigative report concerning Infinium Labs (now named Phantom Entertainment) and its CEO, Tim Roberts. On February 19, 2004, lawyers from the firm Morrison & Foerster, representing Infinium Labs, sent a letter to Kyle Bennett, alleging libel and demanding a retraction. Bennett responded to these allegations by filing suit against Infinium Labs under the Declaratory Judgement Act, which allowed KB networks (the legal entity behind [H] ard|OCP) to force legal resolution of the issue. Facing sanctions from the Court and an order to produce detailed financial information, Infinium Labs settled the suit by admitting all of the allegations in the [H] ard|OCP complaint, dropping their co-pending lawsuit in Florida, and paying approximately $50,000.00 to [H] ard|OCP. [http://www.whereisphantom.com/hardocp.html] A prayer for relief was filed, releasing KB Networks from all claims of liability. [http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?
] [H] ard|OCP reportedly incurred close to $250,000 in expenses during the course of this lawsuit. [http://news.designtechnica.com/article6618.html]

[H] ard|Forum

[H] ard|OCP maintains a forum community (based on vBulletin) called [H] ard|Forum which has over one hundred thousand registered users and hosts close to 6.5 million posts. [H] ard|Forum comprises several dozen subforums covering numerous topics related to computer hardware and software. It is also the birthplace of the General Mayhem forum community, which was split off from the [H] ard|Forum years ago due to its abusive nature and non-tech focus.

Controversy

General [M] ayhem

The original [H] ardForums contained an area for off-topic discussion, known as "General [M] ayhem or "GenMay" for short." After operating for a while, Kyle closed the General [M] ayhem subforum, and many users who disagreed with this decision were banned. In the words of Kyle, "I like to always say that GenMay was like a great big party that was as fun as it could get. It was just we had the party at my house every night and we had to clean up the house ourselves the next morning." Some forum members broke off and started their own General [M] ayhem website, [http://www.genmay.com genmay.com] . Several years later, [H] ard|OCP's General [M] ayhem subforum was reopened, and is now operated on a subscription-based access. In May, 2006 the Cars subforum was renamed to Cars/Motor Vehicles and made a subforum of General [M] ayhem but since then the activity within this subforum has declined rapidly with many users requesting it be moved back. The independent incarnation of General [M] ayhem was also the forum responsible for the infamous Christopher Walken for President campaign.

Dispute with Falcon Northwest

In 2005, Falcon Northwest's President, Kelt Reeves, had a dispute with [H] ard|OCP. [H] ard|OCP received a system from Falcon that performed less than optimally, with noted instability, and reported these findings to their reader base.

In the exchange that followed, Mr. Reeves disputed [H] ard|OCP's findings. He cited that [H] ard|OCP had come forward and publicized incorrect claims with questionable objectivity with regards to which piece of hardware was the true cause of the instability. Reeves stated that both he and [H] ard|OCP had initially assumed that the problem lay with the motherboard but upon further analysis discovered that the video card was at fault. Falcon Northwest's quality assurance testing included 14 hours of looping the 3D graphics benchmark 3DMark 2005 in an 85°F room. Upon receipt of the returned system, it could no longer complete that test without crashing. Falcon Northwest offered to repair the system and send it back to [H] ard|OCP for testing, but they refused this solution, stating that it would interfere with the anonymous testing process.

[H] ard|Gaming

[H] ard|Gaming was a Counter-Strike based gaming community founded by "Duck" and "Hondaman", friends of Kyle Bennett. They received web and server hosting for the community from [H] ard|OCP; however, they operated without interference from anyone at their "mother" community. During their 5 year run, from 2001-2006, they enjoyed a number of regular gamers, and hosted several tournaments and stats-based prize competitions. All prizes given away were donated by [H] ard|OCP, often previously tested hardware from recent reviews. [H] ard|Gaming closed its doors for good in Winter 2006, after many attempts by Duck to maintain a working server setup. The cause of the community's decline was due to insufficient support of Valve Software.

The End of [H] Consumer and [H] Console

On 26th April 2007, [H] Consumer was shut down because of financial reasons. Jason Wall, Managing Editor of [H] Consumer, posted a forum topic [http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1184312] which explained why the section was shutting down. It was made clear that the old articles of [H] Consumer will still be available for visitors to read. [H] Console was also shut down. Although the reasons for this decision were not stated, it was presumably closed due to financial burden as well.

External links

* [http://www.hardocp.com/ Hard|OCP]
* [http://www.hardforum.com/ Hard|Forum]
* [http://www.genmay.com/ GenMay]