GTPlanet is an online community dedicated to the Gran Turismo racing game series. GTPlanet was originally created as an MSN group in 2000 by Jordan Greer. It became a fully functioning website in January 2001 and has undergone several functional and visual changes since then. The site currently has over 300,000 registered members, features over 12 million posts and 345,000+ threads so far. As of November 2007, GTPlanet owner Jordan Greer acquired the address GTPlanet.com. While the site remains at the .net address, typing .com will redirect to GTPlanet.net. The .com address previously belonged to the now defunct Gifts and Toys Planet.
History and Features
The Forum section of the site could well be considered the core of the GTPlanet community. Though a minority of registered members actually visits the forums, almost all of the information in the Forums section of the site is generated by and from registered members. Prior to the update to GTP8, GTPlanet featured sections for videos, car list data, prize car list data, race data and screenshots for each individual game from the Gran Turismo Series. These were called Game Guides. In an update to GTPlanet, these guides were scrapped and turned into an archive called the Library. The Library is where one can find all the data from each game in the Gran Turismo series organized by release date. Members can contribute to this library by submitting new data and/or verifying accuracy of pre-existing data. The sections included in the libraries are as follows. On January 20, 2008, GTPlanet updated to GTP9, giving the site and forums a completely new look. GTP9 also introduced GranTurismoTV, a section containing videos of Gran Turismo HD and . On June 13, 2010, GTPX was released. Registered community members can now upload and use avatars as big as 100 pixels by 100 pixels, regardless of how long they have been a member. The look and feel of the website had even dramatically changed since the CSS was redesigned from the ground up. On October 18, 2011, GTP11 was released. New features include a forum page width change, in which the page is narrower and easier to read. Members have the option to change back to the original width if they prefer. Other new features include Country Flags, where a member can select which country they are from. Thus makes it easier and faster to interact with the members from nearly 200 different countries that visit GTPlanet each month. The next iteration of GTPlanet, GTP12, is set for an October 2013 release. A very valuable section was to added to GTPlanet that helps craft the evolution of Gran Turismo, titled “Feedback”. The current version was released in October 2011. On April 9, 2012, a Google Chrome extension was added to the Web Store to offer users a faster way to receive GTPlanet news updates. From January 15, 2006 to October 2013, a mobile-device-friendly version, was available. An App for GTPlanet was also available for iOS devices in the App Store and on the Android Market for Android devices. The mobile applications were taken down from their respective application stores, and were taken offline entirely on October 28, 2013. They were replaced by a site which uses the Responsive Web Design codebase. GTPlanet offers members and guests with multiple ways to interact with the community, including Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter & YouTube.
Impact
With the release of Gran Turismo Concept in 2002, GTPlanet grew by a large margin and was featured Sport Compact Car Magazine being noted as "We found the amount of knowledge related to Gran Turismo intimidating in its nerd-like scope and obsession." Then again in 2004 with Gran Turismo 4 on the market, GTPlanet grew even bigger with GT Enthusiasts looking for a place to find all that is Gran Turismo is one convenient place. That growth caused the online presence to reach new heights. Over time Jordan had the opportunity to interview Kazunori Yamauchi himself. The success of GTPlanet has allowed Polyphony Digital to gain more feedback in an efficient process. Read GTPlanet's 10 Year Anniversary and Jordan's first Interview with Kazunori Yamauchi at the 2011 SEMA Auto Show. Through the past two years, GTPlanet has found the opportunity to be invited to many large scale gatherings and events. Such as the GT5 launch party in Madrid, a Need For Speed launch party SEMA in Las Vegas, and the GT Academy. While GTPlanet's main focus is Gran Turismo, there are also sections on the site forums dedicated to other games as well as a sister site for Turn 10 Studios' : Forza Motorsport ; ForzaPlanet.net. ForzaPlanet.net was established at the end of May in 2007. In addition to allowing users to discuss other games, GTPlanet has a section devoted to cars in general and a section for off-topic discussion. GTPlanet gets a high amount of traffic per day. Whether they be first time or returning visitors. Alexa ranks GTPlanet worldwide at #21,600, with the Netherlands being the highest rank by country at #5,624. USA ranks at #12,959. GTPlanet is visited by predominantly males under the age of 35. GTPlanet receives more traffic on a daily basis than the Gran Turismo official site; with an average daily views of 100,000 to 200,000. GTPlanet also beats out the PlayStation Network Community Forums section dedicated to the Gran Turismo Series. This section of the forums has just over 40,000 threads, or discussions.
Publications
On November 27, 2012, GTPlanet unveiled a print book and accompanying PDF-format eBook called "GTPEDIA: GTPlanet's Guide To The World Of Gran Turismo". Written and edited by site owner Jordan Greer and administrator Andrew Evans, the book comprised an amalgamation of information previously found in the Guides and Library sections of the site, after further verification, alongside wholly new data that had never been featured on the site in any form. Divided into chapters for each of the ten commercial releases in the Gran Turismo series, GTPEDIA contains complete track lists, car lists, event and licence information for every regional variation of the games. Other chapters dealt with smaller releases and demos, the GT Academy racing program and Gran Turismo Trivia and Easter Eggs. The first chapter of the book, dealing with the original Gran Turismo game, and an additional complete track guide featuring hand-drawn track maps are made available for free in PDF format.
