, A deafening silence... @ Gamer411

Blogs: Exclusivity...., A deafening silence..., Not your usual Dungeon Crawler...

Time has been given to many things, change is one of them, like the recent changes here. The change to the new format came just as I was trying to post a review of Dungeon Maker for the PSP. And to be honest I facilitated the post on the previous format for said game also. So, I chose to give change a chance.

After some time, and watching the forum posts, I have come to my thought. Change is not always good, and that is also why beta sites are often used in website creation. I can say that I liked the previous format. Being able to get a list of the games that are out or will be with comments all on an organized page. That was the sweet spot. And while blogs do add some freedom for voicing opinions, they do not feel right for this kind of site.

I say this only because, for a blog system to work, the people looking must know what they are looking for. I can say that much of the time I don;t know what I am looking for and so would browse the listings for something interesting with comments. Was the system perfect...no, I do not think so. Could the system have been improved to allow greater diversity with out immense over site? Probably.

For some odd reason, I have the idea of a more community based site. One based on the principles of the past, but utilizing systems that would allow greater user interactions. And while I am not sure how that might really occur, I could see game articles and review spaces designed using a Wiki esk system. But that is my opinion and my personal tastes. I hope that things can change for the better, and that the list of titles and items can be reinstated, since that appears to be the will of the users. But only time and people will tell.

Thanks for the great place to hang, and I hope the lessons of the past and present have not been lost. For in life, change for changes sake can never lead to a good result. Have a good one!

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edited: Jul 05 2007 +

djwhetzel | PS3: Whetzel , 360: Whetzel

Quote: Ghostrida said: "go to psp411 then, you still can talk about ps3,360,wii stuff(maybe not the ds)"

That's really weird. I thought that psp411 was merged with gamer411 when everything else merged too. I just checked it out and that's exactly how I remember gamer411 looking. Ah, I miss that look. Will my gamer411 user name and password work with psp411 or will I have to sign up for a new account?

Edit: I just checked and my account from gamer411 will not work. Oh well.

07/05/07 +

ilian123 | 360: Jungle Breeze

I hated the previous design.. I didn't really see ANY point to it, if you really want to see upcoming games and correct dates, go to a site like IGN.
But I'm not saying I like this design too, it's kinda dull and boring.. It just misses something.. ..everything?
Maybe we should add user contributed downloads (legal ones, off course), polls, be able to have your own photo album (so you can upload stuff like gaming setups etc.), game guides, walkthroughs, user submitted videos of gameplay... those are just suggestions that may make the site a little more appealing..
So far the only reason I hang out here is because there are still some interesting threads popping up now and then..

Blogs: Ridge racer 2

07/05/07 +

captain

Harsh comments without any real solutions or suggestions (aside from a few from ilian).

Say what you will, but the problem with the previous design was that nobody was using it. It was very time consuming to add new games and products, and then FEW of you would even leave a comment about those products. And rather than post new games, you'd all just post news and new products in the forums. So the logic behind the blog is that it's exactly the same as the forums, but you can tag it (so others can find various topics easier in the future) and it should flow better.

Blogs: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Initial Thoughs, Stranglehold Demo Review, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom

07/05/07 +

djwhetzel | PS3: Whetzel , 360: Whetzel

Quote: captain said: "Harsh comments without any real solutions or suggestions (aside from a few from ilian). "

Everyone has suggested that you change it back to how it was. Everyone, for the most part, seemed to like it the way it was. Even if it was very time consuming to add new game a products.

Like I said before, it's your web site and you can do with it as you wish, but I always thought that you had a pretty good community going here and I would hate to see people leave, or not be as active here, because of this new change. When I was checking out psp411, I saw a web site that I was familiar with and was also appealing on the eyes. This web site just looks so generic and blah now. I just wish that you would see things from your users perspective. I know that your only trying to make things better, but if your users don't like what your doing then why do it? I would think that you would want to drive people to your web site and not away.

I'm not totally going to stop coming here, but I am going to start looking for other web sites to spend more of my time on as I feel that this web site has now turned it's focus on blogging.

Like I said before, this is just my opinion, but it seems to me that others feel the same as I do regarding this matter.

Good luck Captain.

07/05/07 + SyberSmoke

Hey Captain, Well I agree, I don't have to many ideas about what to do. I stated what I liked about the past design, and I started to add things also. I honestly do not know what to say in this regard. I did see something interesting that might work. Keeping the blogs, have some some of the keywords self sort into options...so say a blog with a game might have PSP and Action, thus you could have the look of the older system, while maintaining the blog format. This is kind of the system that G4tv uses for "the feed" section.

I think though that this could be a catalyst for ideas and change. Because we do not want you to be over worked. And if more of the burden can be distributed to us, while keeping a more opinion based DB of the games that are coming...then things could get back to and be better then before.

Blogs: Exclusivity...., A deafening silence..., Not your usual Dungeon Crawler...