Chances are, you may have never heard of the websites I’m about to write about. This is not due to intense obscurity of subject matter but that they worked very hard to stay out of the public eye. However, on the internet it is impossible to be truly anonymous and the stresses of their efforts to create some of the most amazing gaming communities everywhere had taken a toll. Now, just during the year 2013, three sites are gone – presumably for good.

The first was BitGamer and it catered to fans of modern gaming. Although I am not the biggest fan of the current generation, my adoration of the PS2 still put me within the camp of “mostly modern” gamers. I appreciated this community for the wealth of discussion on genres such as dating sims, visual novels, and casual games such as hidden object titles. The site finally closed down with a message thanking the community it could no longer support.

This week, Gazelle Games closed their doors with their own goodbye note. Funnily, this is where the majority of the BitGamer ran to as their new home. It was never quite “home” but over the past few months users got accustomed to the people and happenings all the same. Gamers here seemed to have an enjoyment of retro and modern titles in equal measure. Unfortunately, they also seemed to dislike dating sims based on some strange notion rather than reality. Regardless, it doesn’t appear they were able to bear the strain of all the exiles, it just took a little while for them to realize.

Another may or may not be gone for good which is why I leave it unnamed for now. It is the place I have loved most of the gaming sites. The focus – retro gaming – was astonishingly thorough. Gamers in these forums were aware of consoles from every region and year regardless of obscurity. Many things I had never heard of before were discussed as normal and that blew me away. This community is by far one of the best I have ever seen for video games. Their determination to preserve and remember video gaming history was inspiring and made me expect it was something far too important to ever die. It’s possible it is now gone or will be soon.

Some would say that there are an infinite amount of gaming sites around and that is true. The problem lies with the fact that none of them will ever be able to hold a candle to what these places once were. There was a deep, intense love for gaming that was obvious from most everyone who came to these locations. I wish that they could still all be online today but unfortunately the internet is an unkind place which will never again accept such sites’ existence.