Does anyone remember a website called "Ask the Gurus" or something similar? Looking for info or ANYone else who remembers this website. (It was video game characters answering advice column type questions)

October 17, 2012 5:37 PM

I'm trying to track down any information about an old website that's been offline for years. I believe it was called 'Ask the Gurus'. People would write in with their questions, and they'd be answered by video game characters. Karsh from Chrono Cross was probably the most frequently used avatar by the site's author, but many other characters showed up too.

I want to know... what was the website really called/what was its URL... I would LOVE to be able to look it up on the wayback machine and read some of them again. I recall laughing until I cried on multiple occasions. Also, if anyone knows, I'd love to track down the author to tell him what an awesome job he did on the site, and to propose an arrangement where I host an archive of the site free of charge.

posted by signsofrain to computers & internet (5 answers total)

I think that was the True Meaning of Life, though I can't seem to connect to the site at the moment.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:44 PM on October 17, 2012

You can still find archives of it at the Wayback Machine.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:48 PM on October 17, 2012

There were also other websites with the same gimmick as True Meaning of Life. I don't think any of them are active any more. The wiki article I linked to lists most all of the major ones except for Ask Dr. Science.

The closest equivalent these days are the "Ask [Character]" tumblrs that have sprung up for some fandoms, but those are typically only one character from one franchise and not a cast of dozens from a cross section of media like the old Q&A sites typically had, and because they rely on fresh fan art for the answers, instead of stock icon avatars, the volume of posts isn't nearly as fast as what the Q&A sites would do during their height.
posted by radwolf76 at 6:16 PM on October 17, 2012

Thank you all for your help everyone. The site is currently up(!) and the archives are accessible. I shall scrape myself an archive.
posted by signsofrain at 7:35 AM on October 18, 2012

I was a daily visitor to that site in its "ask the characters" form. Then they offered t-shirts for sale, with the fantastic Buddha-holding-an-atari-joystick logo, and I eagerly ordered one and ponied up the twenty bucks. Never got the t-shirt, pretty sure nobody did, and the site went defunct shortly after. Not sure if the "new" version was from the same guy, but he never responded to emails or inquiries about the status of the shirts (or a refund). I don't know if he took the money and ran, or what... I don't really care about the $20 at this point, but man, I would still love that shirt.
posted by Roommate at 7:59 AM on October 18, 2012