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GamersGlobal Feedback Event
GamersGlobal Feedback Event
Last updated on December 15, 2007 - 18:34.
This is the thread of GamersGlobal's first Feedback Event from December 14th. Feel free to still add questions or suggestions, we'll continue to monitor this post for a while. Our Thanks go to all participants, and also to all the people who have contributed to GamersGlobal in the last (and at the same time, very first) weeks!
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Last updated on December 15, 2007 - 18:34
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— Jan
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Kennst du schon die stark
verbesserte deutsche Version?
Please note: After the launch of our improved German website GamersGlobal.de, and for the time being, GamersGlobal.com is no longer actively supported.
verbesserte deutsche Version?
Please note: After the launch of our improved German website GamersGlobal.de, and for the time being, GamersGlobal.com is no longer actively supported.
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Talk to everyone then!
How long will this discussion round be open?
I might not be able to attend before 9:30pm-9:45pm EST.
That depends on how many people join us, but I would say at least and hour, and maybe up to two.
I'll be around.
ping /all
where have u been over the last few days? missed your news.
Heh, am a bit under the weather currently...
Hello everybody!
Ping. ;P
hey there!
Okay, this is no formal dinner or something, so just type away :-) How do you like GamersGlobal, what do you not like to much, etc. :-) Oh, and if you've just arrived, please drop everyone a little Ping so that we know that you're here!
Hello!
We doing this in the comment thread?
Q: How about getting a regular chat thread, as previously suggested?
We'll probably have this thingy up around Xmas.
How is this going to work and what's it for?
Ideally, we'll open a fresh chat-thread every now and then. Pretty much like the feedback/support thread, but for on- as well as off-topic talk.
You could see it like a forum discussion, but in "real time". The feedback event is for You, to ask questions or give us feedback (that can mean criticism, too!), and of course, for us -- to learn this things so that we can make the site better.
I say "Hi!", too
Ping :)
We've decided to do is this way the first time, I think Jan will elaborate on that. BTW, please do not use the "reply to individual comments" function if you add a new topic or question. So don't be shy!
I am happy to see some of the main contributors here, as one can easily see looking at the EXP. But also Hi, Moritz!!! :-)
Hi,I am Claus 99, I am not at my standard PC, and I've forgooten my password. But hi everybody!
Let us start by us asking some questions, and forgive the constant reloading :-) So do you think the concept of GamersGlobal -- having "everybody" write news, and have users edit other users' news, is a good idea?
I think the basic idea is great, but the main problem is that - at least at the moment - the amount of news contributed by the users is rather small. Perhaps this would change if the categorisation changed slightly, if there were clearly marked sections for reviews and previews, for instance. One could of course overdo it, and to many categories aren't very good either, but the system we have at the moment seems a bit unstructured.
If there were more clearly defined categories, perhaps more people would post, say, a review of their favourite game (perhaps even for an old game that they'd like to put in the limelight once more).
You're talking about exchanging "Special" for "Review", "Preview" and so on, I presume? I like that idea, although, right now, we do not have so much special content as to make this the priority number 1. What do you think: If we'd have a sort of "Special start page" which would branch out like you suggest, would that be what you're thinking about?
I have a question: What do you mean by "Beta", exactly, how far are you in terms of going live. Okay, that's stupid, but you know what I mean...
We can't say at the moment. Perhaps in a half year, perhaps end of 2008. As long as there will be major enhancements of the site, we will call it "Beta". Also, we're just at the beginning of working things out in terms of what we want to offer. So we're really open for your suggestions.
So tell us about some features you're working on :-)
We'll add in usability features, content types, additional feeds and news categories over the upcoming weeks. And then there are nicer user profiles as well.
We're also thinking about adding a new category for you to post, which would be more an article or FAQ then just a news. Some of you have written very long news (Kyle and Phlexonance, for example, but also others), they could easily be turned into a preview or review. Or, we could have articles which could be worked on by various people.
This comment-"chat" is weird, but funny! So about the FAQ style of articles: First, I would like to have that oppurtunity very much, and second, am I mistaken or are you thinking about a Wiki?
You could see it that way (All this is under a "we're discussing it" disclaimer, don't hit us if it will turn out to be something entirely else"). But I am more thinking about, for example, having a growing FAQ or Wiki for very specific gaming topics. Wikipedia, at some point, says that a topic is "closed" because it is felt by their admins that a topic has been thoroughly answered. But "our" Wiki would have articles like e.g. "All Wii Virtual Console games", or even a big, all-encompassing "Wii FAQ", which would include everything from watching videos on the Wii to games to virtual console downloads to peripherals.
But Wikipedia only works because, for every topic, there are hundreds of contributors. That's what's keeping Wikipedia more or less objective, and more or less correct. I am sorry to say, but with a mere 100 or 200 at GamersGlobal rifght now, I cannot see the system work too well.
But here at GamersGlobal, there would be experts on gaming, by definition. Perhaps we'd need a "champion" or two for each FAQ, meaning that there is somebody who really wants that FAQ to be "in order", and he could channel the contributions of the other users. Perhaps that "champion" should have sort of admin rights in "his" FAQ. What do you think?
I just used your "Request password" option :-) Are you gonna answer me, or is that top secret?
Hi ho! o/
Hi Phyra!
Any plan for a chat option? I beleive I heard somewhere that the software you are using is quite capable of handling this...
E. Gregore and Kyle already commented on that... :-) Yes, this is stone age, and our plan definitely is to offer you more comfort for the next feedback round.
Hi Jörg! First I just want to tell you, that GamersGlobal is great! What I like most about this page are the very detailed and informative reviews. There's nothing I could criticise, except for the videos. I would like to hear more comments during the them ;) The Zapper videos were good, even if the communication between you and Jörg Spormann sometimes looked like acting, but, I think that's because I'm not familiar with your english voices ^^ The news are great too, except for the fact, that I have to click on "New" to see the newest informations out of the gamer's world. Sometimes I forget to do that and then I think there's nothing new on GamersGlobal :-/ On the other hand, most of the news are very short, I like that :D
Phew, I hope somebody understands my english xD
Thank you very much, the praise for the videos goes to Joerg Spormann. You're raising a couple of good points, let me answer them in turn:
- "Acting / English voices": As we're both no native speakers, it is indeed a form of acting of not saying "Oh Gott!" but "Oh god!" (or "Oh gosh!" which came into my speech center for some reason). This is weird, because we were definitely playing it live, without rehearsal or second takes or anything.
- News / Top News: Yes, but Jan is thinking about adding a "All of GamersGlobal" RSS feed, that could help. Also, the Top News, by definition, will not change as often as the "New Section", I think this is just something which is in the system.
- Reviews: Thank you, but we are aware that they're few and far between.
More comments are nice to discuss cause in our experience many want to see (and hear) as much of the game as possible. So comment is not always as good as it seems. I believe that the information you'll get is most important and sometimes it is better to say less and to let the game speak for itself.
That might be correct, but I want to tell you an example: In one Crysis-video the player destroys most of the pillars of a "house", but it still does not break down and the roof was supported by just one or two pillars. At that moment I wanted to hear a recognition from Jörg, that the physics are not perfect. Otherwise the spectator could think, he didn't notice that. That's my opinion.
That's correct and there is information useful. We will keep that in mind for further videos. But I think sometimes you'll get a good impression of a game but just watching. But nevertheless info must be placed when it's needed.
I am happy that you noticed the pillar thing, and I really WANTED to comment on that when I was playing for the video. Still, see below, I think Jörg Spormann's reasoning is quite sound.
I totally agree, and also, it might be good that our (or at least my) accent is not all over the video...
suggestion: get rid of the points-system for news and use it in some other place/for some other function.
Hmm. Like what?
Let me explain what we try to achieve with the points system: In a couple of years, when GamersGlobal is the world-dominating source for gaming news (well, one can dream... :-) ), there will be so many news that the points -- or a similar system -- could really help us and other admins (we're planning to have some of you as staff members in the future, if you like and if we're growing!) to tell important news from less important ones. But we're not fixated on the points at all. Do you have another idea that we could use instead of the points, or what would you use the points for, or shall we quit using them alltogether in your opinion?
yeah, i figured the voting/importance part but i just don't see it working out for the content itself. especially when the main idea is that content is community managed and sooner or later someone will check it anyway. smart users will figure what topic is important and "reads/comments" should give some indication as well.
use the system for user reviews/games, just not content.
You have a point there. One small argument against it would be that, right now, the points can be seen by everybody whereas the reads can only see by login users (and I think, only if they have at least the second "user role"). Still, the comments would again give a hint on the importance of a news.
One technical suggestion: When replying to a specific comment, it would be useful to see the entire branch of the conversation that you're replying to, i.e. that you can also see the post that the one you're replying to is a reply of... did that make any kind of sense?
Like a "reply to thread", instead of "reply to comment" function?
I think that's in place already, a reply to a reply has a higher offset then the previous reply.
Edit: Oh now I get it, when writing the comment, you see the comment you're replying to, and you want to see all previous comments....I get it, sorry for that.
I meant that if I were in the act of replying to your comment (as I am right now^^), it would be nice to see my own post, that you replied to. As it is, I can only see your post, and when you in turn reply to this post, you'll only be able to see my post, and not whatever it was that I was replying to in the first place.
I think we all have a short-term memory capable of coping anyway (at least barely ;)) but things would be easier with a sort of "reply to thread" function, as Jan suggested.
Oh, I see. It's nothing I can do out of the box, but I'll keep it in mind.
pong....Hi everybody, just got home and joined the discussion right now.
Hi Starkiller. Perhaps you can use the chance and give us some criticism!
Hi Jörg, well, I don't have much criticism, maybe just that we need more users to achieve worlddomination.
And of course, for the far far future, that I can customize GG to my wishes, like locations of certain features and colors and stuff, but thats far away for now
User numbers is of course an important parameter. I think the system we envision will work best with many users (also we'll go with the "few" if "the many" equals Trolls and so on), but obviously, we do not have many users right now (we have a registered user count in the low hundreds and we have like 10 fairly regular contributors and perhaps another dozen or two of people who have contributed once or twice. So the big questions is, as Jan an I are doing this without any funding, at the moment: How can we grow to make the system really work.
one obvious answer to this question would be "Advertisement", I sure would donate maybe 20€ for this cause, but I'm not sure if we would get the funds needed for a good ad in gamestar (e.g.)
Another possible answer would be to use all our contacts to spread the word, maybe mouth by mouth, or if someone would create a few banners, we could but those in our blogs, forum-sigs and so one....just thinking on the top of my head here
Well, it's the hen-and-the-egg-Problem. I think no advertisement will convice users to frequently visit a site if that site does not have all the 10 or 20 gaming news per day which are interesting. So in order to get those 20 news per day, we need more users, especially since we would like to have news not everybody has. (That's why we liked the C&C 3 Middle East Crisis news so much.)
I see the problem...the other side is that we won't get news if nobody knows about the site.
Exactly. Also, we hope that, by having reviews and interviews which show what we can do (although we can't do many of them right now), we get mentioned by other sites. This has worked very well with the Hellgate and the Crysis review and also the Patrice-Desilets- and Richard-Garriott-interviews, but for some reason, it has not worked out at all with the Wii Zapper video review. By the way, in the next 24 hours, you'll find a really extensive interview with two of the three ArenaNet (Guild Wars) founders here on GamersGlobal.com :-)
You have a point there. You should post such interview / reviews / Previews every day. You can't do that, I guess?
To get back to your comment, "spreading the word" would really help us, as we don't need the "average, passive game news reader" here, but select people who actually contribute -- like you guys do.
I'm not so much contributing as I'm commenting here, but that's just due to my limitation of time. If you would like the GG-forum-Signature idea, I would use it when I leave a comment here and there on the net.
Of course we would like that idea :-) Also, if you and others would place "Signature-referrals" to GamersGlobal on big gaming sites, their Google page rank would definitely help our own page rank.
I will do that, too.
About time, dude! ;)
well, 9pm is the time I leave work, couldn't make it sooner B-)
Ahh, I've noticed that I've written Jörg Spormann - sorry Joerg :(
(Sorry if I'm quiet folks - I'm in the middle of a multiplayer review session and trying to check in between frags).
Hi Kyle, that's the best excuse I've heard in a long time :-) (What are you reviewing, if I may ask?)
I probably shouldn't say what in the forums. Sorry :) There are, however, lots of pretty cool explosions.
I bet it's Duke Nukem Forever. ;)
BTW: I like the points system, I was suggested earlier to get rid of it, I would be against that.
Still, right now we're not doing much with the points. What would your suggestion how to use them (better)?
as I suggested in the feedback-threat a few weeks ago, I would break down the system to much more levels, to give the users a better feeling of accomplishment, but that's not really 'using' the points-system, it's just a suggestion for an improvement. I also suggested a "Highscore" but I'm sure you already had that idea.
I guess I don't really have a good use for the points apart from that, but the whole reason for that system is to get the user more involved, and I think these features would improve that.
I like the "Highscore" idea (e.g. a list that shows who has the most points), we'll definitely add that in the coming weeks). But this could also be achieved with the reads or comments a given user has "generated", as E. Gregore suggested.
hmm in terms of a "live-chat" this is a bit like a conversation with someone on the moon, you always have a few minutes delay.
I'm not a big fan of IRC, but one thing you can't say is that it's not fast.
Cheers for dropping by folks. I'm off for now, but Jörg & Co. will be around some more and answer your questions.
The only other thing I can thing of in terms of Improvement, would be a more detailed list of suggestions what news and topics you would like to see on the site, or maybe even a few hints where one could get news in the first place, after all, you can't force people to write news, you can only encourage them.
That's right (about "not being able to force people").
By the way, let me take this chance to send a really big THANK YOU! to all of you, for all the good news you've provided, and for taking the time tonight.
I think what we "need" could be experts in a particular genre or even a specific game or mod because then, their insight and up-to-dateness (forgive me, Gods of the English language) would be at least as big as that of a professional journalist.
But we'd also like to have generalists who just keep an open eye on all stuff that is happening in the console and PC gaming world.
I think in that terms I would be a "generalists", I get around on the net, but nothing first hand.
my point is, when I read a news, in a blog, on gamestar, eurogamers, or get a mail from a publisher, I assume that you all already know about it, so it's not news worthy anymore. The only other thing I might be able to write would be my opinion on certain games, maybe a review, or what I read in a dev-chat (currently I'm playing Tabula Rasa), I don't have any news that are hmmm fresh out of the oven.
I disagree. There is the "Scoop" and there is the "news" and there is the commenting on a news. It's easy to write "Vivendi and Activision have formed Activision-Blizzard", but not everybody writes "Vivendi bought Activision". BTW, the first Activision employees here in Germany are changing jobs, but that may just be a coincidence. My point is, after the initial news is out, there may be worthwhile sub topics to follow up, to comment on things. For example, I posted the Activision-Blizzard news very late on that Sunday evening, about 5 hours after other sites brought the piece. (hell, it was sunday and I was spending time with my family). And I can't say that my initial news was very good. But Kyle Ackerman improved on it, added worthwhile thoughts about the financial transaction itself, and you couldn't read that information on every other gaming site. That's where I think GamersGlobal could really shine: In not only posting a news and then forgetting about it, but in constantly adding to important news.
You're absolutely right, I have seen it happen here many times, news improve over time, get updates, a picture and so on. A good point.
Sorry - I have to leave now. We'll write a test tomorrow :(
Bye everyone, have fun and make GamersGlobal even better as it is ;)
Moritz
Ping. Just arrived.
It's already been mentioned before, but I also want to emphasize that I would really like some branch for reviews, previews or little columns. I posted some traditional news already, but it is much more interesting and fun for me to write reviews or things quite like it, as I already did with two mini-reviews, as some of you might probably still remember dimly.
But because there is no separate section for it I am still not really sure if this is really something that belongs on the site Gamer's Global. And on a site that only has a news branch reviews kind of always look out of place if you know what I mean. I think that if there was an own branch for it, more people would contribute more work to this page (including me).
And it would add to the diversity of the page as well.
What I would also like to add: I think that this site is great work so far and has already improved over the last weeks.
Happy to see you here, as you, too, have contributed much to GamersGlobal, so far! We do not want to limit GamersGlobal to the news section, but as it is the most easy for everyone to participate (and also, frankly, because we sometimes have problems filling the news section, right now, so it is probably not the best idea to add six more categories right now), this is what we concentrate on right now. What do the other participants in this discussion think about Knurrunkulus' idea?
I have to side with Knurrunkulus on this one, he's not talking about adding a bunch of more sections, just one, I would also like to see a review section. The main problem is, and the point he raised: Are these actually welcome here? a review is not really news, if you say that GG is strictly a news site, it wouldn't fit here, but you never definitely commented on that.
And if there are reviews should they have scores? On what scale?
Personally I'm against scores, the are just too subjective, you need to know the poster to understand it, on the other hand, if all members here could vote/influence the scores, that could counteract that, something like a meta-score.
And if you aren't able to transmit how good something is in the text, a score won't help.
Why not use the typical 1 to 10 gamersglobal is using? Or not use any scale at all? I think that people liking the gamersglobal idea might be experienced enough not to need those ratings at all.
Jörg, I completely understand your point because I also think that this page was not exactly flooded by news in the last two weeks. But: I think that not only news will get more people to regularly look at this place. My opinion is rather that stuff like reviews can, as I already said, add more diversity to this page and may probably catch some readers that are not too much interested in only reading news. Frequent readers know about the fact that there were already 5-10 posts done that are not really news, but new readers just won't find them if there is only the news section.
And Starkiller is right, I was not thinking of a whole bunch of new branches. Probably there could be just one section added, called "Not so News" (no, I'm just being silly with proposing that name, but you get what I mean) and under this section, reviews, previews, columns or whatever somebody wants to add apart from news could be added. If this is then very successful, you could think of making more sub-branches out of it, but at the beginning you could just throw it into a big pot.
So if new readers arrive here they know that there is the news section, the section for stuff apart from news and the "Special"-section with some exclusive stuff done by the makers of this site.
I really think that this could work out well. But that's just my two cents.
Sorry, I didn't get your point at first. Okay. Do you think that we could have those "user reviews" beside the few and far between "big reviews"? Because I think there would be a noticeable difference, because I can't see "users" spend as much time for the review than we try to do from time to time. Or am I wrong? Maybe we should call the section "User reviews"? Or would that sound like "second class" (as in "editors against users"?). Please give me your thoughts!
I would be perfectly fine with this, except for the point (I don't know if I have pointed this out clearly enough) that I am not only thinking about reviews, but also about columns (for example if someone wanted to write something about "How I became a gamer" which I was thinking about in the last days). Of course this would all take place under your admission and if you somehow think that sth. really doesn't belong here you should let the users know.
But this is why I don't know if "User Reviews" would be the best headline for a new branch, 'cause then everybody would think: "Oh, it's only reviews, I wanted to write sth. else, but obviously it doesn't belong here". However, I can't think of any other, better headline at this very moment.
I hope that I am not completely confusing you.
But to emphasize this: If you WOULD call it "User reviews" or anything else with the name "User" in it I don't think that it sounds like "second class" at all. Users really have many options here, I wouldn't call that second class.
Just to make sure that I get an answer on my last reply which I simultaneously posted yesterday to Jörg calling the live-discussion a night (so he could have probably missed it 'cause of my bad timing) I write these few sentences as a quick reminder.
So, Jörg, honestly hope to still get an answer on my last reply. But there is no rush, of course. ;)
I will give you an honest answer, although you might not like it (and I'm not saying that what I write is "the truth"): Your example for a column sounds like a typical forum's posting, and of course could be interesting in that context. But I doubt that it would be interesting to many outside of that context (that is, in the "mixed topics" part of a forum, in a thread like "What's your history as a gamer?"). I know that you were giving only one example, but, in general, let me point you to the subhead "We are not the news, neither are you", as stated in our How to write News section. Having said that, what Jan was doing after he'd seen the 3D version of Beowulf is something entirely different: He was commenting on that movie, but also on the 3D effects, thereby giving a first-hand account of something relevant. But we wouldn't need a user section for that.
Another thing, just to avoid a possible misunderstanding: It is not my impression that "User Reviews" would sound "2nd class", but I could imagine that non-contributors coming to the site could see it that way.
Jörg, I'm very sorry for completely forgetting to answer your reply. I can completely understand what you are saying and i like the subhead "We are not the news, neither are you". I personally think that what I had in mind for the column that I spoke about would not make me the news and would not just be one of those typical postings you talk about, but I understand if you think that things like this wouldn't really fit to the concept of this site.
Non-contributors coming to the site could probably think that User Reviews sound like "2nd class" but they would just be utterly wrong with that. Every website has to have people who really steer it and people who use it. That's just how it is. So I don't think that the term "User Reviews" is degrading, because users: well, that's just what we are.
Are there other questions? Criticism? Please use this chance (although there will be others in the coming months), we'll really want to improve on the beta version you're seeing right now.
Do you make money with GamersGlobal. You have all those adds. If not, do you plan to make money with it?
No. Yes.
Okay, I'll elaborate: No, we're far from making any money with those Google ads, they do not even come close to finance the server costs (which are not very big right now). But yes, we'd like to make some money from GamersGlobal.com in at some time in the future. The Crysis review, for example, took me the better part of a week, including the videos. I spent another 5 days actually playing it from start to finish, revisiting some levels for A.I. evaluation, trying out multiplayer and so one. That's close to 2 weeks I couldn't do much else. But I am a freelance journalist in real life (with a gaming background, which you might have guessed) and I need to make money. So yes, we'd be happy if there would be some money to be made from GamersGlobal. Do I think we''ever get rich with GamersGlobal? Honestly, no.
Forgive me for the typos in this comment, my fingers are wet from brushing aside all those tears after reading your explanation. You're saying that you're doing this site for the better of the gaming community? I really do not want to attack you, but I'm finding that hard to believe.
Thank you for pointing out that you're not attacking me. Because a) my explanation was honest and b) where exactly do we state that we want to be philanthropists?
Please excuse my little sarcasm. But are you not writing about things like content syndication in your terms of use? I am quite sure you do, because I just read them. So why are you thinking about all those ways of making money, and at the same time you state "we'll not get rich"?
You have to have some terms of use, and, as I've said: We would like to make some money with Gamersglobal. IF it turns out to really work the way we envision, and IF the site is much better than today, and much more frequented. I just can't see how we should ever make big money with it, gaming ads just are not profitable enough. Have a good night, I am not avoiding a discussion with you, I am just tired. Keep firing, you'll get answers :-)
I don't see the conflict in Joerg's Statement, he just said that he would have nothing against earning a few bucks with this site, but that it will be a long time before Gamers Global can even pay the server costs, and that he thinks that it would be an even longer time (like never) that all founders could quit there jobs because GG is making so much money :-)
ping. just arrived as well. As I know, they don't make money with it until now, because you need a lot of hits to get money from these ads.
Hi bolle! Indeed :-)
just popped up in my head: the main article: the Text is in the center of the picture :)
Excuse me, but I'm not getting your point?
sorry, was away a while. Well, if the text is in the picture, a part of the picture is hidden behind it. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.
I see. But you always get the full picture once you've clicked on the headline.
yes of course. Still I think, it should not be blocked on the front page. Is it possible to move the text in the picture for the writers? Then you could find a fitting spot for it...
Because I still like it that it is in the picture. Just it sometimes blocks out interesting stuff...
I don't think that's possible in the near future, and I think it would be much easier to crop and/or resize the picture in a way (using a simple photo tool like XP's built in picture viewer) where an important details would still be seen, if that's important to you. Also, let us remember that only a tiny percentage of news will actually make it to be the First News, anyway :-)
Hi, everybody! I would suggest to clean up the layout of the front page a bit. I guess there are about two dozen different font types used, which is bad for readability.
Actually, I think we're using only two or three. Maybe you're including font sizes in your estimation, too? What else do you not like about the front page layout (or what DO you like?)
I like the overall clearly arranged layout with the white back ground. It looks modern. With front types I reffered also to things like fat, underlined, colored, small, big, shrinked etc. There's really a lot of them.
Okay, let me discuss that with Jan :-)
Another suggestion I have while reading the comments here, it would be great if I could set my time-zone in my profile, the server time is one hour behind my timezone.
I've noticed that, too. I'm sure we can do something about that, perhaps like you're suggesting.
Folks, I'm calling it a night, it's 11pm here, and I've had a hard day in "real life" today... Jan and I will definitely check back here in the next couple of days, so feel free to continue the discussion, you'be getting answers to all your questions. The only thing which will happen is that once the interview I've talked about will be posted, it will replace this news as the "First News". Thank you very much for participating, and if I may ask this of you: Do spread the word, every person that visits GamersGlobal.com for the first time is a person who could turn into a contributor. Have a good night!
Ok, good bye for now, this was fun. Until next time.
You, too! But please give us a real chat next time, my right mouse button (for reloading) is broken, now :-) Good night, everyone...
yep, I should go to bed as well. have a nice evening, people across the ocean!
Good night!
Jeez, the thread has become big. This form of conversation is rather tiresome (haven't read all of the thread because of this).
I think for feedback we could have a forum. (Or an IRC channel, if you prefer chat type conversation)
Look at this, it's one big wurst. In a forum there would at least be differentiation into actual topics.
I'll give my feedback and go to sleep.
I like gamersglobal because the overall quality of the articles is higher than average and because the people are friendly and respectful.
But this also brings up expectations, which I believe hinders some people to write news. (Just the other side of the coin)
Btw, I have an idea: How about a personal filter for everyone? So there is another article on, for example, the PS3, but I don't own a console and I don't plan on buying a ps3, so I just klick a "Filter" button and then on the "ps3" tag of the news and I won't see any news containing this tag anymore.
or they are in a smaller branch, because it is still interesting sometimes. If a PS version of a PC game is realeased, or it's about technology, or else. If it is blocked completely, you could always miss something...
just my thoughts .)
This is also what I would think. You never know where interesting news pop up all of a sudden.
OK, I'm late as always. Virtua Fighter 5 on the 360 kept me forgetting space and time while training an ultra hard-to-execute combo in Dojo mode (not that anyone would care ...).
First of all congratulations to the founders of GamersGlobal. For a beta this site is way more advanced than most other projects at this beta stage level. All the countless little innovations that made it into the layout and architecture of this site are well thought, and I wouldn't want to miss any of them.
Frankly said I wouldn't quite know what to make better at this stage of the development of the GamersGlobal platform. To me there are only the decision left what you want the people of GamersGlobal to contribute at what point of time. You surely want to keep the reviews to a very limited amount of contributors, if at all, as the whole reputation of GamersGlobal could get into trouble if that weren't the case (i.e. due to badly written reviews, etc.).
A small summary of my suggestion, in a nut-shell:
Hope you had success in Virtua Fighter 5 (although I honestly REALLY don't care) ;).
I just want to say one little thing to your concerns about poor reviews being bad for the reputation of this site. I honestly think that you cannot prevent this danger in any way, and just fighting it by surrendering and not trying to open up a reviews-section is in my opinion not the right way to do it.
If someone really writes bad reviews, the readers of the page and the editors should just be honest enough to tell him so (with constructive and polite criticism of course), and this is pretty much the only thing you can do.
But just saying "Oh, someone could write something badly, so let's just keep everything very small and tidied up" is in my opinion the worst thing you can do on a highly user-oriented site like this. After all: It could also happen that some user just constantly writes poor news, so this is not at all just limited to the (not yet existent) review-section. You can't prevent it. You just have to deal with it.
And I am pretty sure that this community and the editors will be able to do so.
I like both suggestions, although the first one seems to be a lot of work (I could be wrong). As with all suggestions, we'll discuss them in the next days and give you guys feedback what we plan to change. I see can your point about possible "bad" reviews, and frankly, I am sharing your "fear", too, but I am not sure whether the concept of GamersGlobal.com should allow for "bad contributions" -- otherweise, you have the old, editorial-only style of most other websites.
I am not of the opinion that no one should be able to contribute reviews. The user roles, and the necessity of administrative pre-post previewing of the potential article may serve finely here limiting the contributors and guaranteeing a quality assurance by the moderators/editors or more experienced users of this platform. Not everyone can, or should write reviews. Why is that? You surely don't want numerous user-reviews for a single game. Thus, that one review becomes the GamersGlobal take, our voice, on this particular game making it even more important that there is some standard, and routine for the writing of reviews behind it. I think we agree that just-registered users cannot fill in here, as this is the case with editing news or adding images to other articles.
On the other hand, in the long-term run only allowing users to write news may be boring, as there are other, more up-to-date sources (thanks to paid "journalists") on the net.
I think that there is something to be said for multiple user reviews. As long as all the opinions are well written, it can be nice to get a variety of viewpoints rather than one monolithic voice.
Good morning, I know I'm late ;)
Proposal for future live discussions: "Now live" is very short notice. Why not announce these events a bit earlier?
My thoughts on dividing the "news" or other entries into different threads: Please make a difference between "games news" and "business news", and please also separate "news" from "(p)reviews" - I think a lot of non-business readers are interested in games, but not in, say, Activision's stock market problems. And if you allow reviews and not news only, you must enable the readers to find them. News are updated very often, thus making the other articles vanish in the depths of GG very quickly; and because readers don't know that there were any new reviews they can't effectively look for and find them again.
The rating/point system is good, but needs a couple 10,000 more readers to effectively work. And even then I see the risk that "hype" game news will always be preferred and rated better, making the "little" fine news that you do not find on every other news site (which could make the difference for GG) disappear.
Chris, this article was started on the 10th, so this event, with definitive times and everything was announced 4 Days ago.
What you say is true, and more categories will help people to orientate them on this site, but as Joerg pointed out multiple times, with so very few news at the moment, this would only lead to more deserted sections right now, but for the future you're right. In the meantime, I strongly suggest that you use an rss-reader (e.g. google reader), it really help to keep up to date.
Hi Chris,
we *did* have an announcement since Sunday night, but it was only a Top News, not the First News, so some people have missed it. Your input is very welcome, nonetheless. Your point about news, because of their frequency, making other elements like reviews vanish, is valid. For our "own" reviews, we have the special box, but that wouldn't help user reviews (unless we simply put those into the same category). Also, what you write about the "little news" is a very good analysis -- what would you do to cope with that problem (or are you suggesting to quit the point system alltogether)?
[/wise-ass mode] See? That was my point :P The announcement was there but you can't find anything that's older than 5 entries, because it goes off-screen. Splitting it up in more different topics would be great. [/sorry] But seriously, I apologize for accusing you of not announcing the live discussion - I was just too stupid to participate!
I do like the point system (not only for the lovely green "+" signs), but I'm not sure how to improve it. If the news position depends of the number of points it won't work: As in all similar rankings, people will rate only the first 10 (i.e. the visible) "contestants". Maybe leave the news in chronological order, but enable some "bonuses" for contributors whose news get a lot of points. "Average points per article" might be a measure to assess how good an author is in chosing a topic and in writing quality. And for other authors the number of points any article gets is a simple and first indication of what readers want and what they like. In short: More people give points than write comments, so you have more feedback when you keep the point system.
To be honest, I really like those little pluses too, on a, well, optical level. But I have to agree with E. Gregore and others that their actual significance seems limited right now. I find your point about "clicking is easier than commenting" a good one: you can express yourself by just clicking, and that expression is better than no expression at all.