GamersGlobal: Feedback Wanted
GamersGlobal: Feedback Wanted
(Update: I've reset the authoring date so that this post stays on the front page a bit longer)
Dear all, today it's been five months since GamersGlobal.com launched into its Beta phase, and while we've been thinking a lot about topics raised and suggestions given (in the feedback thread and in our first feedback "meeting"), we have not made many changes to the website in the last weeks and months.
So today we'd like to hear your thoughts about some specific topics, which we could and would improve on in the next two months. Feel free to make other suggestions, of course.
1. Votes
We have the feeling that the voting does not function properly. Some news have 20 to 40 positive votes, while others seem to be "pressed below zero" for the sake of doing so by some anonymous users. We do *not* think that we know how people *should* vote, but when a long piece about a Sid Meier speech is below zero, or a news about the honors given to one of the few veterans who actually made personal or home gaming possible is below zero, something seems to be slightly off balance. After many discussions, we would like to stick with some kind of voting, because it adds an additional (simple) way of expression, and it can help people (and us) find important news sooner. Any suggestions?
2. New possible big feature: "FAQs" or "COOPs"
We have not decided on the title (we're open for your ideas), but first we'd like to know whether you think this would be a good addition to gamersglobal.com: We'd setup a new category of articles (like news and specials) where we could collaborate on Wiki-style knowledge articles. For example, there could be a list of all released Wii virtual console games (perhaps with links to videos about those games), there could be "How to"-articles regarding games -- for example, the best mods for a classic game --, there could be a history of the real-time-strategy-genre, and so on. Everything which evolves over time could find a place there, in opposition to "everything's said about a topic in one article", like an interview. What do you think?
3. Relation of top news and normal news
We are aware that there are much more gaming news out there than are featured on GamersGlobal.com at the moment (and we will be working on the quantity side, soon). But what about the number of top news to the normal news: Should there be more news promoted to top news? What do you think of our choices for the "First News", so far?
4. Specials
This is a question whether the specials so far were, generally speaking, of interest to you or not. As we were quite interview-focused: Would you rather see more previews or reviews, like other sites do? Give us some suggestions, please...
5. User Roles
The user roles, at the moment, work as follows: Each news gives you 10 points, each comment 1 point. You start as a verified user. 50 points make you a Contributor (see the view counter of news), 300 give you the Reporter status (edit and update other user's news, get access to the advanced search), 1000 points get you the Editor role (add images to all news, moderate new revisions). So far, we have no "Editor" outside of our little staff, but three users have managed to get the Reporter role: Starkiller, Leonard McKoy and Bolle. Now, three people after five months having the "second best" of four user roles does sound like our system is "hard currency", doesn't it? Please share your thoughts with us on this topic.
Thanks in advance for answering!
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My opinion so far:
1. Votes
Not a too useful feature in my opinion. This should only be open to registered users (if at all) in order to avoid the confusing anonymous votes.
2. New possible big feature: "FAQs"
Hm. Hm. Gotta think more about it ...
3. Relation of top news and normal news
So far your choices for the top news were excellent. I wouldn't want to veto here.
4. Specials
The interviews were top-notch. But what I'd like to see more are reviews/previews which are the real mass attraction (if properly done). Jeff Gerstmann's new blog site Giant Bomb (which frequently crashes my Firefox) doesn't do too bad here.
5. User Roles
This is a nice feature. But the reward that you gain with each higher role isn't really appealing enough. As Editor I'm now able to edit everyone's news. That's fine but that actually only means more work. Where's the real reward?
6. Side-Note
A "What You See Is What You Get" editor would still be nice.
Thanks, I strongly agree with at least one point (6.) :-)
My Opinions:
1:
I totally agree with McCoy. Registered users only. It is true that GG will get much less votes, but, as the votes are sometimes really weird, it seems necessary in my eyes.
2:
Sounds cool. I always spend time looking for patches and mods when I reinstall old games, Morrowind for example, there are lots of really cool plugins out there now, which almost make it look like Oblivion. Would be cool if a fan would put that together and write it down.
On the other hand, aren't there already things like this out there? If you need information about the development of a game, you will surely find a forum where fans talk about these things. But could be cool. I would write a few things ;)
3:
I agree with McCoy again. But if you have the preview of Fallot 3 in your drawer, one more couldn't hurt ;)
4:
More previews would't be a bad thing, but it is not really important in my eyes. People get previews somewhere else. I like GG because there are lots of interviews, stuff you don't always get somewhere else.
5:
Depends, if the Admins want things to run by itself, you need more Editors. But then you never know what these people will put online. I would not dare to use Editor rights, as my articles still need to improve, but others might be more self-confident :)
6:
What about a small forum, where registered users can talk about stuff? An area for contributors? If there should be more Editors, they should know themselves a little bit, at the moment it seems that people are just there, but not running GG together.
Votes:
Letting only registered users vote is one possibility, of course, but what about having only positive votes? A news with no votes would still be regarded as not all that good, and the worst "damage" the herd of anonymous nonsense-voters could do would be to give a mediocre news lots of positive votes. I'd say it's worth a thought.
As to the rest, I'm either undecided or indifferent. ;)
I think I like that idea, and it should be quite simple to implement, too. Let's see, because having only registered users vote seems to be a good solution, too.
I would choose one of these things.
Either you make people who want to vote leave their name, instead of anonymous "graffitis", or you deny bad marks at all, then the "vandalism is fun"-element will be gone, and there won't be that problem anyway.
I like that idea very, very much.
1. Votes:
When we get rid of the “-“in the voting system the balance might be better.
2. New possible big feature: "FAQs" or "COOPs":
Interesting, but can you go more in detail? (Maybe it’s just too early in the morning…)
3. Relation of top news and normal news:
I agree with McCoy and bolle.
4. Specials:
Pre/Reviews are a good idea but by now I don’t miss them. Maybe a job for the Editors…
5. User Roles:
Look at 4. Btw there are at least 4 Contributors… ;-(
6. Side-Note:
I support a Forum for cons or registered users.
FAQs or COOPs: Let me expand on one of my examples: You could have one guy (he would need to have a rather high user role, I think) open a new COOP-article. This could be "Virtual Console Games for the Wii" -- I'm using this example because I did exactly such a list on my private blog joergspielt.de. This list would include all games released for the Wii shop. Another person could correct errors or add alternative games in another region (US and Europe differ, sometimes, Japan differs quite much). Yet another person could link to YouTube-videos showing those games. Other contributors could link to (old?) reviews of those games, et cetera.
So instead of one person (like me at joergspielt.de), who is maintaining this list very irregularly (I'm talking about me!), you could have a very dedicated person or a group of persons creating an ongoing, up-to-date-list about Wii virtual console games. That's only one example of course, one could imagine a FAQ about oldie RTS games, all the mods for a particular game (with ratings), a list of worthwhile gaming blogs, a collection of funny pictures of top designers, et cetera: Anything where people can collaborate on a list or collection or "evolving" article would work. Perhaps the person starting the list would be the "COOP champion" for that particular article, and maybe it would be a good idea to limit those articles to a small, but manageable number in the beginning. But we really like the idea of people working together -- but not in a "neutral, facts only" way Wikipedia upholds, but more in a journalistic way.
EbonySoul, I wanted to write "Reporter" (fixed it), sorry. Of course, we have a good number of Contributors already, including you :-)
Why a forum? Do you mean just to coordinate? I do not like that elite kind of stuff, where only a select few will get access to.
I also would like to have the coop section, and also some user reviews. Question is, how would you assure that these longer articles have a decent form of quality?
That's what the votes would be for, or am I overlooking something?
1. Make votes only possible on conjunction with a short description
2. I'd like the coops
3. I don't know. I have both rss feeds and read only those articles who seem interesting and don't pay any attention at all to which article is top or news.
4. I never read previews, I'd like more reviews of less known games
5. I think 3 users in 5 months is pretty hard currency.
@3 This is completely different when you don't use RSS, but the main page. I use the RSS as well, but when you visit the site, there is a big picture of the main article, so you pay it much more attention. As the main articles are much more interesting as the small ones, I wonder if this should be changed somehow. Don't know how, though :(
Do you use both RSS-Feeds (Top and News)?
Yes, I use both RSS feeds
Yes, I use both RSS feeds
Votes:
Don't mean anything to me, i don't vote, mostly just because i don't recognise theese tiny little buttons at the bottom of a text. I don't recognise the points a comment has either, actualy i just recognised that the interview with sid meyer is below zero. That's indeed a pity, but i decide myself if a topic is interesting by looking it up.
Relation of News:
I ofte visit the side and think ahh again nothinmg new, i often don't recognise the normal news, the because top news are something like IN YOUR FACE and the normal news are some tiny thing at the side of the site. That's a pity because the main part of a site shouldn't consist of a rarely updated section. So More Top News or make the Normals Bigger.
Specials, FAQS, COOPS:
Yeah want it all, give me more more more.
User Roles:
I'm not interestet, not my thing.
Thanks for the feedback; I think your problem with "nothing new" is not a problem of layout, but a problem of simply not enough new content. Still, you're the first to raise the question whether the normal news are visible enough or not -- let us think about that!
First of all: Apologies for me being so seldomly around in the last months. I'd like to change this very soon, let's see if I can find the time, and even more important: if I can get myself a bit more organized. ;)
Votes:
I like the idea of only allowing positive votes, but I think that the idea of only letting registered users vote and keeping the plus/minus-idea would also be okay. But the "vandalism" by anonymous people should really be brought to an end, because for them it might be fun, but not for the people who wrote the news and put some effort into it.
FAQ/COOP:
Sounds good, I would like that pretty much.
Top News/Normal News:
Phew, erm, next question please. I really don't know how to judge on this one.
Specials:
I like the interviews, I think they are really good and always worth a read.
But I would LOVE more previews and especially reviews (not necessarily only about new games that everyone reports about). For example I really liked the bit about "Fantasy Wars" back in the day (oh, that's really long ago already, isn't it?) I would also like to contribute some more reviews like I did with "Shadowgrounds" and "Reprobates". Like I already said: I hopefully will find more time for that from now on (no april fool's joke).
User Roles:
THERE IS NO CAKE! No, honestly: It might be hard currency, but it's something to look forward to.
Side-Note:
A "What you see is what you get"-editor? What do you mean with that, McCoy? I don't get it, I'm getting old. ;)
Wikipedia is your friend
Ah, yes. If I would have had to take a wild guess, I would have guessed exactly this.
Side-Note:
Now that I know what is: yeah, such an editor would be cool and practical. ;)
it was discussed earlier, and it seems that it is quite difficult to implement. If it is really much effort to get this running, I don't mind clicking on "show preview"...
The problem is that, according to Jan, there is no single WYSIWYG editor for Drupal (the CMS we use). But, also according to Jan, perhaps there could be a selfmade solution somewhen in the far, far future. :-)
I'd be fine with the solution of letting people vote only positively -- not voting would simply mean the opposite, or "I don't care", which basically has the same effect for not promoting a news. You could still use a flag function for really bad news / false news etc. as a user. Coops sound interesting, as does the old idea of having users, ahem, contributors write mini reviews and the like. Trust your users, at least those who are willing to spend time at Gamersglobal!
Good point. BTW, we *do* trust you, very much so -- there are not many websites where you can post directly to the front page once you've registered as a user...
there only is a frontpage...
Or am I wrong?
No, if you click on "Top", "New" or "Special" (to the right of the logo), you get other pages. But that's not the point, anyway: Most if not all "user content driven" sites let you post into "pipelines", "user review" or "upcoming posts" sections et cetera, some let you post without checking to the front page when you've proven yourself for weeks and months. With us, it takes a registration, and off you go.
Cool! Didn't know that. I have never clicked on these 3 underlined texts next to the main logo :(
Just an example, stuff like the first comment in this article would fit rather in a forum than in the comments of the article imho, because it is about "how to write", not about the article content itself.
I also would like to let only registered users vote. To say it as brutal as possible: If a user thinks it's too much effort to register, or he thinks he might not come back anyway, then I'm not interested in his opinion at all. Sure, it robs the casual visitor of his chance to contribute, but it will make the votes that actually make it to the site, much more meaningful.
Having only positive votes from everybody sounds good too, but it's still to random for me, if every anonymous user can vote, seeing an article with 20, or 40 votes, does tell me nothing about it's quality.
Maybe we can combine this! In 5 month, I only needed to vote negative once, because of an duplicate article.
Sounds like a really cool idea, and I would like to see it implemented, but only in a much later beta state. This feature will only become meaningful, if a lot of people add a lot of content, and if we have moderators to save us from lists like: "my favorite chrismas list". There's also the problem of how to present these ..hmmm 'items'. Normal news age with time and are allowed to vanish after a time, but these lists and faqs could be alive much longer, a normal time-sorted list wouldn't cut it here, the easiest solution would be to install the free wiki-software on the GG server, but maybe not the best solution.
I like the ratio, in my opinion it's somewhere around 1:2 - 1:3. I also wouldn't mind if it even shifted towards a ratio of 1:4 or even 1:5.
I have to agree with most commentators here, I actually like that it's not simply reviews. Don't get me wrong, I like reviews, but we get these from a lot of places already, that's not really "special", a good interview, or an article about ingame-advertisement, or how AI has progressed over the last 10 years, or what happened to Company XY, those sound special.
Sure, the user roles could use some tweaking, but I like that it takes some time to "grow into a role", you shouldn't be able to rush from User to Editor in 2 Weeks. That only 3 users made it to contributor is not so much a problem of the Role-System, then of the lack of new users. As a fresh user you can start writing articles, editing other peoples articles or adding images is a bonus and it doesn't matter so much.
One thing I would change is the XP you give for an article, I admit freely that I comment more then writing articles, just because my job is demanding and I don't have the time to write well thought articles, at least not all the time, I would like to see that a written news article gives a bit more XP then the value of 10 comments, or, here's another though: If you change the voting system so that only registered users can vote, why not give away some XP for highly votes articles, e.g. another XP for every 5 votes (remember that the number of votes would go down).
As a general Feedback that doesn't fit the topics, I would really like to see an expansion of the user profile, so that people can fill out some fields, or even a free text field. I would like to know a bit more about valued members, like bolle or Knurrunkulus, I value their opinion.
And theres one last feature that I would like to see somewhere in the far future: GamersGlobal is for me not primarily about news from around the world, the title means to me somehow "bringing gamers from around the world together". The Feature I would like to see would be a complete subsection, maybe even a subpage, called "Gamers helping Gamers". It should function a bit like www.wer-weiss-was.de (forgot the names of any internatinal sites that are similar), so it's not about writing a complete FAQ to explain everything about a single topic, it's simple about asking a question like
"does anybody know when XYZ is coming out", or
"who was the guy that made the music for XYZ", or maybe even
"what would be the best GPU on the market right now?".
I think it would be a good idea because it would bond users together more, and because it simply doesn't exist so far.
"What hardware do I 'really' need", just means something very different to a gamer, compared to an office worker.
The "Gamers help Gamers" bit is really one hell of a good idea.
And concerning the other points you make: Well, basically I fully agree with everything. Full stop.
*bow*
thank you very much.
The Person who would ask the question, could set how long the question should be open, or close it sooner when the question was answered to satisfaction. (giving the wanted answer could even give xp^^)
I thought about a title for that, (I know, it might be years before we get this, if ever, I can't help it) and this is what I came up with:
any more Ideas?
The first one doesn't need to be explained. The second one is a reference to Portal, probably a bit too nerdy.
The first one is way to serious imho, but the second is much better then "the answer is a lie" :-)
If you don't like that last abbreviation, change the title to "frequently asked players"... ;P
You this this is better? :-)
General Accumulation of Really Thoughtful and Erudite Responses?
Of course the Urban Dictionary has something to say about G.A.R.T.E.R. as well, but that would be going to far :-) (Leo)
How about "intelligent notes transfer", which would just be I.N.T. (for Intelligence) B-)
Well, I guess we can think of a name when the powers that be decide that this feature is indeed interesting.
INT is way too obvious. How about "Helpful Online Babble of Opinions"? Or maybe "mass" instead of "babble"... hmm...
Interesting Messages, News, Articles and Kilotons of endless Details.
Billions of Resources 'Bout games.
Hi Starkiller, thanks for the detailed feedback. I especially like the "Gamers help Gamers" part. And thanks to all, I think we now have a lot of input to work with (but feel free to continue to post ideas or requests!)
thanks for reading it all.
Can't wait for the next version of GG