We’re looking to roll out Gather Your Party version 2 fairly soon, but we need your help.
What improvements would you make to the site? What bugs you most about the front page? Any features you’d really like to see?
Let us know in the comments!
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29 thoughts on “Help us improve the website!”
How about a darker theme, as this is bright.
Also, a directly scaling article area, as this has so much free space on my screen.
If you make a darker theme please dont use white text on dark background, that kind of style gives me eye cancer(or add a ::selection line in the css with dark text on white background).
What teh0ri said.
Also, all times should have the timezone of the shown time specified (comments). If it’s GMT the only modification needed would be a Z at the end of the time.
And my browser seems to show certain transitions on the site, like when I readjust this comment box, it’s resizing in an accelerated manner. I find these quite silly and rather have them dropped.
Otherwise, I dunno, maybe an AJAX-based comment refresh button.
And captcha to complete when adding a comment, I love captchas!
Tags would be nice too.
When you’re mousing over articles, the page numbers jitter a little bit.
Also i’m really missing GYPcast
We’ve got a new GYPodcast coming up, just finished recording it.
More discussions on topics affecting the gaming industry.
Let me write angry nerd articles for GYP.
Oonga boonga.
Smaller font please!
Only improvement i want is more writers with diverse tastes.
And smaller font, maybe.
I’d like to see more video reviews, or previews…WoD for example.
Also maybe you can review some classic games to showcase the difference in game design.
Some comparison stuff might be interesting, but we talked about review older games early on and we kind of decided against it.
But comparing something like an older BioWare title to a newer one might be cool.
That would be awesome! Someone needs to show them where they went wrong ;)
and it begins (sigh)
I would personally one of three rankings for the games reviewed:
-Good (green)
-Neutral/OK (gray)
-Bad (red)
Or something like that. Furthermore categorization where one can look up good neutral and bad reviews. I know the site does not give games a rating like ’7/10′ and such, but the reviewer should have a good idea if the game is horrible (like the ghost recon review) or good (like the black mesa source review). This makes it easier for the readers to find information faster.
Also it may be a good idea to put multiple reviews of the same game by the same writer in a single article (ie. black mesa source first impression and actual review), under the title of ‘Black Mesa Source’ with the author’s name underneath in different text. The different entries should be clearly separated, and perhaps even inspire a popular format for all reviewers where they update their article depending on their progress with the game (initial impression, mid-game ~ completion, afterword/other stuff)
Different works by different authors, or different sorts of articles (ie. news on the game’s release and development) appearing under the category of the game it reports on, but as separate articles from the actual review.
So to put it simply some sort of navigation like:
Browse Games -> Black Mesa Source -> (Articles like the ones listed below)
-BMS devs stated release coming next month
-New BMS screenshots and demo video
-BMS released today
-Black Mesa Source review by Marcus Puckett
-Pros and Cons of BMS by Someone
and
Browse Games -> Bayonetta 2 -> (Articles like these)
-Bayonetta 2 trailer released
-Why You Shouldn’t Be Angry About Bayonetta 2 by Charlie Cade
And so on. Just a bunch of my opinions there. One way or another the navigation needs overhaul as many would agree. Hope you guys find a good solution.
Another piece I forgot to mention in my last post. Along with articles associated with a game, it may be a good idea to associate polls with them too if you ever decide to do polls. Archive the results to help people make decisions such as:
Do you think Dark Souls (PC) is a good game for the PC despite the negative reaction to the questionable port it was given?
-Yes: 67%
-No: 33%
(bullshit numbers there I made up for the example). Stuff that would help someone form a first impression about a game they have not yet played. If the numbers where overwhelmingly low like Yes 2%, No 98%, this tells the reader that there is something seriously wrong with the game, and they may want to avoid it.
“Also it may be a good idea to put multiple reviews of the same game by the same writer in a single article (ie. black mesa source first impression and actual review)”
Damn that is a really good idea, I think I’ll follow this format from now on actually. Updating the review as I move through the game would be pretty cool. 5 star post, hopefully it works as well as it is in my head right now.
Glad I could help. Make sure you make it so edited articles get bumped to the top of the front page with some kind of notice though! I wouldn’t want to miss an update on an interesting one.
We’re definitely not implementing any type of scoring system, for multiple reasons and it’s something we decided a long time ago.
I also actually disagree with updating old first impression articles with review content. It would drive me nuts to want to find a review for a game and half the page is old info and not the actual review. Keep that separated.
Well I would keep a running log of when I made the update and an over-all impression at the bottom (aka conclusion) for people that just want the review period and nothing else. It could work or it could not, so I’m going to try it out and see what the readers say and how it feels.
User profiles for commenting. This is my first ever comment because I don’t ever feel connected with the other commenters on the site and no need to comment. I believe User Profiles will help.
Also more reviews, previews and whatnot, I don’t come to this site for my gaming news and I don’t think that should be a focus, the odd post about important thing is fine, I come to this site for honest video game journalism, and would like it to be more about games rather then news. I love the videos and articles discussing the real pro’s and cons of games, so that’s what I would like to see more of.
I agree with that first sentiment. I feel like allowing users to create profiles would strengthen the community, and would result in more discussion in the comment section of the articles. A forum for the website might also be nice for more in depth user-to-user discussion, but I worry that such an addition could yield unwanted results if not handled properly.
I agree a forum would do more harm then good at this point, so just user profiles for commenting would be nice.
I’ve suggested forums to the rest of the guys in the past, and the general feeling seems to be that 1) it wouldn’t be used enough and 2) it would discourage discussion within the articles. It is something that in the long term might happen, but for now we want to focus on growing readership so a forum could actually thrive if/when we add one.
User accounts for commenting are something you might see in the near-ish future though. It’s been something we’ve been talking about from day one.
I’d love to see more GYP Plays. I know you don’t make any money from the site, but it’s be cool if you bought some of your guys games, like the Torchlight 2 4-pack, and made some videos of that. Also, a donate button.
For the articles smaller text and smaller pictures please.
I’d actually enjoy more interviews on this site because it’s the main reason I come here, I know this depends on the people you’re trying to interview but it’d be great. Also, smaller fonts and dividing the whole ARTICLE-Thing into subcatogories would make the whole site more clear.
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