April 22nd Update Notes and Feedback

[Sensational]

Originally Posted by EvilAerosolCan

Meh, I still like the old layout better. After reading about your priorities for GamerDNA, I don't think the new setup made it any easier to find that stuff. It just made it harder to find the stuff that is not priority.

What he said. Unless I've missed something, I now have to scroll all the way down to find the only button I really need (When there are no new features to explore), the forum button. I guess I need to start using the dating service features now.

I can't help but think of SWG (Sad, I know, but true), it's almost the same thing, only I didn't have to pay for the new expansion to find out that it wasn't the same game that I had been playing. Atleast they pulled it off better than SoE did, they actually ended up in a better position than they were in before.

[LordXenophon]

The only point on which I disagree with Hades (in fact, the only time I have EVER disagreed with Hades) is the need to get rid of "useless features." There is no such thing as a useless feature. Some should be lower priorities, but this site was founded on the idea that more is better. Give people more ways to get engaged and you increase the number of people who will decide to stay. The trick is to make sure the features which are found first are the ones which are most likely to engage a new visitor.

Of course, I'm not sure which features Hades believes are "useless," but nobody I know of believes that news, forums and guild hosting are useless. They are the flagships of all of the successful sites.

[PimpMethod]

I like the new home page. It looks cleaner, The Home, proflie, and DNA icons are great.

[QforQ]

Hi LordXenophon and Hades, thanks for your feedback. You guys have been here a long time and we appreciate what you guys have contributed over the years, and we appreciate your feedback.

Originally Posted by LordXenophon

Why would they join GamerDNA instead of going to MMORPG.com? They won't.

We're working on some blog posts that should go up in the next 24 hrs or so that should help address this, but I'll attempt to do that here a bit.

gamerDNA isn't trying to compete directly with MMORPG.com, any MMO site, any Game News website, or any forums. We're trying to offer something a bit different from what you get there.

Trapper explained it a bit in this week's Update Notes (found here) but it's worth calling out a bit more. What gamerDNA is trying to build is a community site for gamers that easily enables you to share gaming content (game posts and activities, screenshots, news, etc) with your friends and the gaming community at large. We're building a place for you to not only easily share content yourself, but to find that content as easily as possible, and even discover some new games and people along the way.

We think that the purpose of what forums do is important - We're not trying to get rid of that. At it's core, forums are a platform for people to share 'stuff' with eachother and have conversations. gamerDNA will be somewhat of a next evolution of that concept, but it more about sharing that stuff with your immediate friends and others in the community.

I know that's sort of tough to see right now, but you can already see this concept on your Member Homepage or on individual Game Pages(like this World of Warcraft game page). We'll be revamping the Member Homepage next month as well as adding something called the Now page, a page that will enable you to see a Live view of what is happening on gamerDNA right now. All of these places enable you to see different conversations, whether they are started by your friends or other community members, and then jump right in.

Alphadoque and myself are working on some posts right now that will explain the new Site Navigation as well as the Game Conversation system. We should have those up within the next 24 hrs or less...

As always, we welcome your feedback and I hope you hear us out on the changes and decisions that we've made. The community is absolutely core to what gamerDNA is all about

Sincerely,
Sam Houston
gamerDNA Community Manager

[WayneMSmith]

QforQ how does this look? Think it will help?

[Retodon8]

Originally Posted by Hades-LotD

Player blogs are gone.

I don't think I got an answer when I asked this before in response to a similar comment:
Don't gDNA posts replace blog posts, along with game activities even enhance the concept of a blog?
What do blogs offer than gDNA doesn't?
Maybe it can be added.

Originally Posted by Hades-LotD

The site is hard to navigate in firefox with links and tables everywhere.

I don't notice anything different using IE, but I admit I haven't checked that well.
There are a whole bunch of links at the bottom of the site now, but I don't think they are hard to navigate.
The top part is less cluttered now, so easier to navigate than before.
Not sure what you mean with tables.
If you fill in all your AKAs, your personal profile gets quite messy with all those modules, but profiles are getting a makeover soon-ish.

Originally Posted by Hades-LotD

Player news has gotten harder to find. With this revamp, I don't even see a link to it at the bottom of the page.

Are you talking about the (user submitted) News section?
It has been removed; see this thread.

Originally Posted by Hades-LotD

Forums have gotten sort of dead over recent months. Mainly because GDNA lumps all MMO's into 1 general forum instead of breaking them out by game like MMORPG.com does. I have absolutely no interest in any other forums not related to MMORPG's, guilds, site news, and leader support.

MMORPG.com is about MMORPGs, this site isn't (any more), so it makes sense they do things differently.
I don't think there are that many threads about MMORPGs anyway, so why would it matter MMORPG-only fans need to share a forum?
As long as everybody puts their game title in the subject, it shouldn't matter, should it?
The same goes for fansites, of course a fansite for game X will/should offer a better feature set for game X than a site about any and all games.

Originally Posted by Triconium

However, I do think it is a mistake to not include key footer navigation items in a more logical place. Footer navs are great for miscellaneous info such as "Contact" and "About", but important elements such as "Forums" need to be elsewhere.

I'm not suggesting they be put back into the main nav. Instead, consider making these available from "Home" or somewhere else more logical.

I think I agree with this.
Inspecting the bottom: About us, Partners, and Support I would look for there, but Community and Tools I would expect to see higher up.

Maybe there could at least be a link called "More features" (or something) at the top which points you all the way to the bottom (bookmark).
That way you don't have to scroll all the way down.
(I personally press End on my keyboard, much less hassle.)

Originally Posted by Triconium

I realize that this site isn't about forums, but they are clearly important to active members.

I've heard a number of people literally say they think they are gDNA's best feature.
I don't really understand that, every site has a forum these days, it's a very boring feature compared to some of the other things gDNA is doing, but it is a part of the community... or a part of part-of-the community anyway, and that counts for something.

[Svoboda]

I thought the forums were gone until I clicked on the "what you think" link and found this thread. I never would have thought to look on the bottom for something that important.

Since you want my opinion, I have to say the new linkbar really looks empty, generic and boring. The previous version was interesting and it really showed off what you have to offer. This new version is definately a step backwards. It's like you're trying to move into obscurity.

Originally Posted by QforQ

We're building a place for you to not only easily share content yourself, but to find that content as easily as possible...

Please put your money where your mouth is. You made it harder, not easier.

[Blaef]

Not very user friendly took way to long to figure out where everything got hid at. The point this account for me is to keep up with friends and share stuff not to hunt for Easter eggs.

[QforQ]

Originally Posted by Svoboda

Please put your money where your mouth is. You made it harder, not easier.

Is there anything in particular that you think is harder to do, with respect to sharing content and having conversations?

--

We fully admit we're not there, but we're working towards it. It's not something that can happen over night, it's a gradual process that is going to take a ton of work on our part to get us there. We're working on revamping your Member Home, your Profile, adding new pages to the site like the NOW page and other sections.

The good news is that we're getting closer and closer every couple weeks and it won't be much longer until we're where we want to be.

We understand it's a rough transition (I'm still getting used to the new navigation myself ), but our hope is that after a while you will find new systems like the Game Event system are actually better. It makes having friends on gamerDNA much more useful, it makes the game tracking that we do with Xbox Live/Xfire/and Steam much more useful, etc. It *is* a big transition, but it should be for the better.

[TheHedgeWizard]

Originally Posted by Retodon8

I don't really understand that, every site has a forum these days, it's a very boring feature compared to some of the other things gDNA is doing, but it is a part of the community... or a part of part-of-the community anyway, and that counts for something.

That's like comparing your buds to your toys