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

QforQ · #1 03-04-2009, 10:19 PM

This week we launched Revision 1 of our new Game Pages. Every single game in the system now has a pretty snazzy page that should enable you to find out what is going on with that game, more info about the game, similar games, your friends that played it, and much much more.

You can find all the details here:
http://blog.gamerdna.com/blog/2009/0...release-notes/

We're interested in your feedback, so please feel free to chime in on this thread!

TheHedgeWizard · #2 03-04-2009, 10:33 PM

Really accessible, useful way to find a game or players, I like it. Good job guys

KaimerasPain · #3 03-04-2009, 10:38 PM

OH-----MY----OOGLY-----GOODNESS

. Im not much of a caps person, but this update totally deserves some caps chat.

I would have to say from first glance, I absolutely love it!

My breakdown:

The ability to click on any game anywhere on the site makes this page epic right from the get go. Not only that, you can see the listings of all the different gDNA users that are actually into the game you are into. This is kinda what I had expected when I first came to the site, but didnt quite see how it all linked, but with this page, you can get to ppl that dont post in the forums or attempt different things around the site. this allows you to reach out to them just to chat, ask questions about the game, get to know em and so on.

I love that it gives stats at the top of the page on the game, and lists the heavy users of each game (to the right). This will come in handy for ppl looking for the more experienced players. I dont quite understand the green bars at the top. I can only thing that they go up and down based on gameplay over a certain period of time.

The only thing I could really suggest is maybe a faction or guild section that lists the top member guilds for each game; this would also benefit the ppl that are interested in making new friends in a particular game, and allow for more public recruiting possibilities. A quick link to the guild directory for the specific game somewhere on the page would be nice too. Then new users dont have to go and add all the data in for a search; if their on the specific game page, they just shoot right over to the guild directory for that game.

Beyond that, I will have to look over it more to give a more in-depth analysis, but thus far, highly impressed guys!

Get the office manager out of his/her office for a sec would ya?

*LOUDSPEAKER crackles*

"EXCUSE ME mr/mrs manager person! This is Kaimera, a dedicated community member and I think you should order PIZZA tomorrow for the entire office!!!!" DO IT!!!! THEY DESERVE IT!! "thank you, and have a good day!"

*LOUDSPEAKER crackles off*

Kaimera-

TheHedgeWizard · #4 03-04-2009, 10:42 PM

I don't see a comment box, maybe we could have them implemented?

KaimerasPain · #5 03-04-2009, 10:43 PM

agreed, a shoutbox for each page would be really awesome- OK, hedge ur earned my respect. Good one! heh

Kaimera-

mykalgaidin · #6 03-04-2009, 11:03 PM

Kaimera, would you like to borrow my soapbox?

Nothing more I can add that hasn't been said before me. The latest update is a great way to connect with others that play the games I love but don't often post on the forums. Once I have a chance to really dig into it (after work) I should have even more praise to heap upon the gDNA staff.

KaimerasPain · #7 03-04-2009, 11:28 PM

heh, ur soapbox is still hidden in the forums somewhere. U havent found it yet. *giggle* I put it in the past if that gives ya a hint!

Its not as bad as what i did to Mishy. I snuck into his vampire palace and put garlic in his coffin.... hehehehehehehe He doesnt know yet though...

Kaimera-

Retodon8 · #8 03-05-2009, 01:26 AM

This is yet another nice improvement to the site!

(I'm looking at Halo 3 while writing this.)

The header looks good, and the "full details" option is nice, but it is a bit small.
I did notice the link (before reading the blog), and I wouldn't call it hidden, but it isn't very prominent either.

Below that the "gameCURRENT" graph, which I seems to represent the amount of times individual members played that game on every day for the past two weeks.
Some kind of mouse over tooltip stating what it shows exactly would be nice.
The activity list below is neatly showing us about some of the non-forum goers we're not familiar with (yet), like KaimerasPain mentioned, which is interesting indeed.

I'm not sure what "topPOP" means at the top of all the gadgets on the right.
In the (older?) screenshot in the blog it's spelled "TOP/POP", but I have no idea why it's there or what it means.

The Games, Players, and Screenshots gadgets themselves are nice.
It'll be neat having videos there in the future as well.

A shoutbox could be nice to have on game pages, but what I personally missed was a list of people's game summaries; the ones you see at their personalized game pages.
There is the standard description if you click "full details" at the top, but I'd love to be able to read through some other people's ideas as well.

OK, those are some of my thoughts, do with them what you like.
By default, everything I didn't mention I like, including the upcoming stuff mentioned in the blog, just in case my post sounds too negative or demanding or something.

Quote:

Back populated missing game data for the 16th and the 17th for Xbox

Of February?
I've had an event for the 17th since then, so no problems here.
I did play Halo 3 on March 3rd which gDNA missed, but I see MyGamerCard.net missed it too, so it was probably an issue with Microsoft's feed.

Quote:

[...]followed by some abilities to play games directly from gamerDNA!

Xfire URLs and/or Steam's version?

QforQ · #9 03-05-2009, 03:06 AM

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!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retodon8

Xfire URLs and/or Steam's version?

Interesting thought..and to be honest I'm not sure if we've thought of that. We're more thinking of..at least right now..of being able to launch a lot of flash/casual games from their game page.

colliny2k · #10 03-05-2009, 03:27 AM

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).

Retrodon, regarding your thought on adding the user Game Summaries opposed to just the official ones... it's a good a thought and I believe it was actually mentioned in a discussion by us in the office this past week. I'm sure we'll get it or something similar in some time in the future (near or far, I don't know) ... user game summaries need some loving in general around the site. So it'll probably come as a smaller, seperate package.