What is Thunderbolt?

[thebaV]

Hey Phil,

Just wondering what purpose Thunderbolt is. I mean, it has some cool reviews, news and forums, quite good. do you have big plans for expansion, adverts? Anything like this? I see you are 16 so you are probably still at school I am guessing. Just wondering....

[Phil]

Interesting question :)

Well, one thing I can definitely answer is the adverts bit. I never plan to put adverts on Thunderbolt to make a profit. There will be Amazon links, but they're not intrusive and they pay for the domains. So, no pop-ups :D . This kind of links to its purpose I guess.

Thunderbolt's purpose. It started off about 2 and a half years ago as an experiment in Frontpage Express and just grew and grew. I never really thought it would amount to anything. That was, until Jim and James contacted me, literally on the same day, saying they wanted to review stuff. I knew I was onto something there. Now we've got 10 contributors, based from the US to Jordan.

Yeah, expansion. Thunderbolt 5.0 won't be so much as an expansion, it'll be a big improvement on the current site. A few people on the forum have seen a preview of it, and I think they'll agree that it looks much more professional. I think with the launch of 5.0 and the relations with Infogrames (they have started sending us free review copies), we're going to go semi-professional. As soon as the new site is up, I'm going to go to every publisher on the planet :P and get them behind us.

Now, 16. Yes, I'm only 16 and people twice my age work for me. :P It's funny because it just shows how age just doesn't matter to a certain extent. It's like race in employment. As long as the person can do their job, it doesn't matter what race they are. Getting back to the point though, I'm guessing that you want to know what's going to happen to Thunderbolt in the long-term?

Right, long term. Hmmm.. Well, Version 5.0 will be the last version of Thunderbolt (I think). I don't really see the design changing after that. I think in 5.0, it will have evolved to its best incarnation yet. I don't see it becoming my full-time job (even though it's currently a 10-hour/week one!), but you never know! I mean, two years ago, I would have fallen on the floor laughing if you told me that Thunderbolt would be getting games from the publishers to review. Anything can happen.

There's a couple of things I've missed out, so I'll fill them in quickly. 5.0 will be more automated, so to an extent, it will do the work for me. All I will have to worry about is the content, not the actual design. So this leaves more time to do content. So, there's going to be more and more content on the site in the future :) . Oh yeah, I've got a lot of work at school ahead of me, and this is going to take it's toll on me and maybe the site. Although that was what I though until I started working on 5.0. Since it will be automated like I said, it won't be as much work as it is now. When I go off to uni, I hope to keep Thunderbolt up and running, and keep it going into the forseeabe future. But that's really going back to my previous point.

Wow, that really was an essay! That should explain everything. Anything else, just ask me.

[jim]

Well, that's until Thunderbolt 6 comes along and you get a dev company in to produce it!

Yeah Phil, thunderbolt is doing really well - but when you go to Uni don't be swayed by all night drink, drugs and girl parties!!!

Anyway, you've always got a handful of trustworthy staff writers who can help out if need be :)

[Phil]

Yeah, you guys are such a great help :D

Thunderbolt 6 may not happen. However, I've got a little idea that might 'bear fruit', but that's for another day!

[NBS lamancha]

when u die, can i take over thunderbolt? lol

[Phil]

what?!?! you're suggesting that I'll still be doing this in my eighties! Dream on, lol.

[jim]

dude - i've been playing games since i was a wee child - 25 years of it i'd say - and i'm not getting bored of it at all.

So, don't be shy...