New Game Pages! (gamerDNA Update Notes March 3rd 2009)

[KaimerasPain]

Originally Posted by colliny2k

Great feedback everyone, keep it coming!

As per the suggestion for a ShoutBox. While I'm certainly not dismissing it, a thought that is in my mind in response to that is that people could just create a Game Activity (if it's in relation to just playing it) or a Game Post (if they didn't just play it, but want to say something about the game).

Would that be of equal value? Is there any reason think that might not work as well? I'm thinking that it may be the right solution, but that there may be a need to add the ability to do that right on the game page...to make it simpler and more obvious. Which may actually already be on our plate for Revision 2 (I forget).

Its not that I have anything against the idea of just posting from the calendar, and people see it, but I was thinking more along the lines of the game pages become more of a hub per say, for the ppl that play that game. With the amount of games that ppl play across this site, these hubs open tons of potential for user interaction and GamerDNA growth.

GamerDNA has its direct front page (home), which is currently the hub of everyone coming into the site; but as they enter the site they tend to go directly to built faction or guild pages (unless of course they are involved in the forums). This would seem somewhat evident by looking at how many ppl only have ranks of "initiate or warrior. They simply bypass the front page skipping a profile and just focus on forums within their guild site. In order to get more "community interaction" these game pages can provide a huge benefit to newer ppl coming to the site to find a community niche, and to bounce from community to community (game to game). Especially if things such as a direct link to the directory for that specific game is implemented (not just for factions/guilds but also for lists of ppl that are only in that specific game from the user database), and a somewhat longer spanned shoutbox or even a java popped chat room were added.

These new members and old alike, will be able to chat directly with each other, join together for more factions, or larger factions within the games, thus bringing more member sites which = more "word of mouth" members joining to interact with the game pages and the faction sites.

By only having the ability to post from a calender which is located on your homepage and then jumping to a game page to see what ppl are posting I feel that it limits the more direct "specific game" interaction because your still not directly interacting person-to-person. Your on a profile page while other members are looking at a game page. This function causes a click between the gamers. Although I like the calendar posts and how they show up on the game page, I just feel that it would be more beneficial to GamerDNA to implement one page direct interaction with gamers on a central page with tons of direct person-to-person functions like a chat or shoutbox.

Not only will this pull ppl together and have the possibility to pull in new members, it also increases the possibility of more members building up their main profile pages; kinda spicing em up, adding more pictures, more game akas, and so on, simply because they want to support the internal game communities with information and activities. You can see the potential here. Ppl will add more games to connect to those specific game pages, which is already directly available on each members profile page in the center column. Allowing a user to have their top 5 games at thetop of the "games added" column would help make the connection to the game page more seemless, but overall, the link to other people is already there and easily accessible.

To be honest I see these hubs, designed correctly and built up properly with direct contact options, as a potential growth path that could be very good for GamerDNA and I'm always interested in helping a community I enjoy grow *giggle* (eerr... bring in more ppl i can toy with! HAH!)

*lowers the microphone... Grins at the roaring standing ovation, and accepts the nobel prize*......*takes a bow; hands the mic to Collin & winks*

Kaimera-

[QforQ]

Thanks for the feedback Kaimeras, please keep it coming

You're spot on on a lot of things there. We definitely want to drive more and more traffic to game pages, since those certainly are central hubs for that particular game. We'll have a lot of focus on doing that exactly...building compelling ways to drive people to individual game pages and to drive activity on those pages.

Next week's update I think you will find pretty interesting, since it will have some "calls to action" and features that leverage your gamerDNA (friends list, traits, games entered/tracked, etc).

I wanted to address this part specifically, though.

Originally Posted by KaimerasPain

GamerDNA has its direct front page (home), which is currently the hub of everyone coming into the site; but as they enter the site they tend to go directly to built faction or guild pages (unless of course they are involved in the forums). This would seem somewhat evident by looking at how many ppl only have ranks of "initiate or warrior. They simply bypass the front page skipping a profile and just focus on forums within their guild site. In order to get more "community interaction" these game pages can provide a huge benefit to newer ppl coming to the site to find a community niche, and to bounce from community to community (game to game). Especially if things such as a direct link to the directory for that specific game is implemented (not just for factions/guilds but also for lists of ppl that are only in that specific game from the user database), and a somewhat longer spanned shoutbox or even a java popped chat room were added.

A lot of this paragraph is assuming that most members of gamerDNA are coming to the site to join a guild/clan. That isn't entirely the case...while we do have guild hosting as a small part of the overall site, there are a good number of people that come to discover new games, automatically track their gaming, take the quizzes, etc etc. With this in mind, it is important to always keep in mind a "single player" experience of gamerDNA(to use a gaming term to describe the usage of the site ).

You point out very valid problems that we do have, though, in terms of how our community is formed and interacts, and ultimately uses the website. This is the reason we are trying to build out a lot of the features that you see on the game pages..those pieces that introduce you to new people, get insight into what is going on right now, new user generated content, etc. That is all aimed at introducing you to others, other games, and driving further engagement with the site.

The game pages, the new version of the game event system and the member home, and soon a new member reward system (a system that rewards you for actions on the site), all are aimed at helping build out the community at gamerDNA, helping you discover new games, new people, etc.

So I guess in summary..while we do have a lot of users at lower levels of fame, it isn't exactly because they're just in guilds and don't do much outside of them (which that is a problem btw), it's a reflection of a lot of other things. Things that we're gradually fixing, update by update, by adding more useful and compelling features.

I hope this gives some insight into how we're thinking of things and developing them. This isn't meant to come off as harping on you Kaimeras, I just want to answer a specific comment and explain where we're coming from and where some of the direction is coming from.

[KaimerasPain]

Its now worries at all... *crawls under Mishys coffin to hide* The crimson guard is hunting me down. I love multiple angles on things that will, when combined properly, create a very streamlined, interactive community. I was just throwing out my observations and how I was looking at them from a users perspective, and giving some insight on what I see based on collins question below:

Originally Posted by colliny2k

Is there any reason think that might not work as well?

Kinda my reasoning on why more interation should be added on the game page itself rather than working from the profile page. You all are probably well aware of this, so my apologies for tossing out the obvious-

Just my 4 cents i guess.

Kaimera-

[Retodon8]

Well thought out post, KaimerasPain.
I tried giving you some respect for it, but I need to give other people some respect first.
I keep running into this for the active people that write good posts; the forum community is a bit small.

Originally Posted by QforQ

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I really appreciate it and I'll make sure the rest of the team sees this. Please keep it up!

You're very welcome!
As long as you guys keep listening, I'll keep on talking.

Originally Posted by QforQ

We're more thinking of..at least right now..of being able to launch a lot of flash/casual games from their game page.

That would be a nice feature as well.
Are you referring to embedding Flash applets into the game pages here?
That could cause licensing as well as technical issues, so maybe you are talking about basic hyperlinks.
If so, why not broaden this to games of all kinds, not just web games?

The Unreal (Tournament) games adds a protocol to Windows, like "ut2004://", which can be used to start the game (specific servers to connect to are optional).
There are probably more games with such functionality, and if not, there is Xfire and Steam I mentioned above, which are basic hyperlinks, just with a different protocol than "http://".

Originally Posted by colliny2k

As per the suggestion for a ShoutBox. While I'm certainly not dismissing it, a thought that is in my mind in response to that is that people could just create a Game Activity (if it's in relation to just playing it) or a Game Post (if they didn't just play it, but want to say something about the game).

Would that be of equal value? Is there any reason think that might not work as well? I'm thinking that it may be the right solution, but that there may be a need to add the ability to do that right on the game page...to make it simpler and more obvious. Which may actually already be on our plate for Revision 2 (I forget).

Let's say I really wanted to play a game online with others, but I don't know anyone that plays this game.
The calendar doesn't feel like the "right" place to discuss this kind of thing.
In my mind a calendar should contain events that actually happened, or, if support will be added, to plan upcoming events.
Well, actually game posts would be suitable for this kind of thing, and people can filter out the auto-generated activities, but that's an extra step.
With other people (or even myself) playing the game, my invitation would dro(p d)own in those other events after a while too.
Also game stories belong to a specific member, so people would need to respond to that person.
It's probably easier to use a shoutbox which is more casual, more like public property.
It could smooth out things like this a bit simply because of the lower threshold.

I don't think a shoutbox would be the best solution (don't know what would be), and I don't know if the problem even exists, but that's what I'm thinking about.

As always, I'm liking reading about the other upcoming stuff that has been mentioned.
Not sure if I understand exactly what everything entails, but I'll be here to find out.

[Jono00]

Err... Posts look long so sorry if I say something already mentioned.
Quote:
"play games directly from gamerDNA!"
What, who, where, HOW, WHEN, zomg!

[KaimerasPain]

Originally Posted by Retodon8

Well thought out post, KaimerasPain.
I tried giving you some respect for it, but I need to give other people some respect first.

*walks into the room covering it in shadows*

Thanks. Simply voiced my "outside" perspective.

*drops a black rose on the floor, pulling all color a joy from the air*

Seems rather dismal in here...... See you-

*exits the room humming Kerli softly to herself... death following in her wake*

Kaimera-

[WayneMSmith]

The game pages, the new version of the game event system and the member home, and soon a new member reward system (a system that rewards you for actions on the site), all are aimed at helping build out the community at gamerDNA, helping you discover new games, new people, etc

A new member reward system! Yessss! Maybe adding to your fame for getting 100% on game details. That would encourage people to write reviews about their games, and if/when user reviews showed up on the games page would drive even more people to explore those.

The games thing sounds really fun. Even if it's just flash games like you find on most forums nowadays.

[QforQ]

Originally Posted by Retodon8

Are you referring to embedding Flash applets into the game pages here?
That could cause licensing as well as technical issues, so maybe you are talking about basic hyperlinks.

Something similar, yes. And don't worry, we have all the licensing/deals taken care of and the technical issues as well. We've got the people on staff to take care of those sorts of things

[Jono00]

Originally Posted by WayneMSmith

That would encourage people to write reviews about their games, and if/when user reviews showed up on the games page would drive even more people to explore those.

Talking 'bout reviews...
How about (when the new reward system will be released) giving each game a "featured member review" bit somewhere in its page?
I hope I made it clear :P It's useful and encouraging at the same time.

[mykalgaidin]

My thoughts:

I love the new game pages. They bring together not only the details about the game (for those who are looking for new games to play) but they also tell me who is playing that game, in case I'm looking for some new blood to spill.

Something you might consider doing is allowing us to "subscribe" to a specific game, so that we can get periodic updates on comments, game activities posted by other members, and any details/news that may emerge, similar to how we can get email updates on any game activities we comment on. Could be helpful in following an upcoming release or keeping tabs on what our fellow members are saying about our current faves.