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Post by Discoalucard on Oct 16, 2010 21:29:42 GMT -5
www.hardcoregaming101.net/nanashinogame/nanashinogame.htmThis strange little game draws a lot from The Ring, except instead of a cursed video tape, it's a cursed video game. Said game takes the form of an 8-bit Final Fantasy-style RPG. The "real" world, on the other hand, is a first person exploration game. Anyway, I'm mucking around a bit with the standard design, not only to make it look more professional, but also create some space for advertisements, in an attempt to grow the site a bit. Please provide the harshest feedback, unless it's "don't put up ads!", because that's not quite what I'm looking for!
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Post by bioniccommando83 on Oct 16, 2010 23:41:31 GMT -5
I like the new layout- and while I'd like to say, "don't put up ads!" (though they don't seem too obtrusive, so no real complaints there), I do like the index features at the top and bottom of each article. That'd be rather helpful for some of the articles like Ys or MegaTen.
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Post by caoslayer on Oct 17, 2010 3:20:35 GMT -5
I don't know why but every japanese horror thing must include a pale woman with long hair.
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Post by Sketcz-1000 on Oct 17, 2010 5:23:36 GMT -5
to make it look more professional We've already talked regarding the redesign, but I thought I'd ask this here regarding the above point. What is the definition of professional though? I didn't think the old design was unprofessional (I found it more conducive to reading than most professional websites). Though I can see how it would be impossible to integrate vertical ads along with the traditional parallel vertical imagery. I hope the amount of imagery won't decrease over time - I had always felt HG101 was founded on the idea of showing what few other sites showed. Also, although it breaks my h-scroll when zoomed in to my usual level, in this case it only cuts off the ads. Which is probably not what you wanted...
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Post by derboo on Oct 17, 2010 8:52:55 GMT -5
There's an inconsistency with the ad at the bottom - on the first page it is below the index, but above it on the second.
Also, the bottom index on page 2 has the link back to main broken.
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Post by chevluh on Oct 17, 2010 9:25:22 GMT -5
I don't know why but every japanese horror thing must include a pale woman with long hair. It's a classic ghost look there. Kinda like bedsheet ghosts for us.
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Post by Discoalucard on Oct 17, 2010 9:38:53 GMT -5
There's an inconsistency with the ad at the bottom - on the first page it is below the index, but above it on the second. Also, the bottom index on page 2 has the link back to main broken. Yeah that was a test. It's an eBay link - the idea is that the user would see it right before they'd leave in case they wanted to look it up. It's also somewhat redundant because there's already one higher up on the page on the column. I'm not sure which I want to stick with - I might just put it below for consistency's sake.
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magus
Full Member
Posts: 110
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Post by magus on Oct 17, 2010 11:08:43 GMT -5
i don't like the new horizontal index,the index used in article like the shin megami tensei might look less professional but it doesn't clash with the rest of the article
also in the older design,the title would be written huge above the boxarts,so you would notice when the article started a new section but this way with the boxart and the data on the same row it looks a little mashed up
so in short since those are the only two thing i see changed i guess that means i just liked the older design better ^_^'
maybe the index would be better if it was only at the bottom? maybe there could be an index button and when you click on it,it shows you all the page of the article in a list form,that looks more professional while mantaining the old index style
have you tought of putting the ads,between the articles instead of mashing all of it to the right side? i didn't want to say it because then it looks like i'm complaining about ads but the diminished space is really noticeable... it looks cramped compared to the older articles
EDIT: looking it at better i guess that same space was occupied by the game screenshots,so ummmmm.... i guess it's more noticeable now because the screenshot were part of the article as opposed to now
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Post by Discoalucard on Oct 17, 2010 11:35:13 GMT -5
also in the older design,the title would be written huge above the boxarts,so you would notice when the article started a new section but this way with the boxart and the data on the same row it looks a little mashed up That's definitely something to consider. Right now it's not as noticable that you're reading about a new game - it's just a new box box shot and, thre you go!
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Post by derboo on Oct 17, 2010 13:55:22 GMT -5
also in the older design,the title would be written huge above the boxarts,so you would notice when the article started a new section but this way with the boxart and the data on the same row it looks a little mashed up That's definitely something to consider. Right now it's not as noticable that you're reading about a new game - it's just a new box box shot and, thre you go! The mockup for the layout had borders around the info boxes. I think that did a better job at marking the start of a new entry. Also, how about adding genre to the info box? There's also that thing that Home of the Underdogs does - listing the director of a game. I always thought that was a great idea to give more attention to the people creating games, especially with the more obscure ones.
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Post by Discoalucard on Oct 17, 2010 14:25:48 GMT -5
I really love the design of this site, but I think the new index is looking pretty good. I agree about the title thing and the decrease in imagery though. The ads are also clashing horribly with the rest of the page and making me feel like I'm on some kind of shady warez site. It would be great if you could get them in black or something, don't know if it's possible. For some of them yeah, I can change the color. I had actually played about with that. My concern though that is if they blend in too much, people won't notice them and therefore won't click them.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 17:05:21 GMT -5
I don't like any of the changes made to the article structure. There was nothing wrong with the old one, it looked great, so why try to fix something that wasn't broken? I especially found the lack of screenshots on the right side of the pages unpleasant. As for making things to look more professional, the only thing that I see doing that is the inclusion of ads, since that's what all professional sites have (good for hosts and bad for viewers), but in this case there's WAY too many of them. No matter which part of the article I was on, there was an ad shown somewhere. Talk about rubbing them in my face. The only change that I see having potentional is the better index features, but I'm not sure if it's necessary to have them both at the top and bottom of each page, since they're mostly accessed from the bottom and you get there easily by pressing the "End" key once.
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Post by Discoalucard on Oct 17, 2010 17:33:49 GMT -5
Btw do you get money for people just clicking on the the links, or do they need to bid or something? Because I'll gladly do some clicking. Actually clicking does almost nothing. Well, they MIGHT for Google Ads, because they're very secretive on how they work, but it doesn't generate a whole lot. To actually generate any money you'd need to click on it and buy something from the site. Obviously you shouldn't just spend money just so the site gets some, which is why I'm trying to make them specifically relevant to the article in question. That way, someone will be like, oh, this game sounds cool, here's an eBay link, let me bid on it, and THEN I actually get a tiny bit of cash. Internet advertising is a joke and there's a reason why media companies are bleeding money. For example I signed up with affiliates for GameFly and GameTap. The ads themselves promote awareness of the site - clicking on them will send the reader to see their products firsthand. But unless the user BUYS something, it barely means anything. I think Play Asia pays me seven cents every week just for sending people there? You can't do anything with that! Never mind that I'm still promoting awareness, but everything is so specifically tracked - and therefore, commission driven - that payouts are slim. the inclusion of ads, since that's what all professional sites have (good for hosts and bad for viewers), but in this case there's WAY too many of them. No matter which part of the article I was on, there was an ad shown somewhere. Talk about rubbing them in my face. Well, the idea is that I want to get the income to the point where I can actually pay writers. It takes a lot of work to write stuff for this site and it's only right that they should be compensated, but in its present form it's not even remotely set up to be profitable. The ads may be annoying but the end result (hopefully) will be more writers, with more articles and a greater variety of them. It's either that or donations, and I'm not a fan of (a) begging for money or (B) because it's not a consistent flow. Each page actually doesn't need as many ads as it has. I'd be fine with the Google ads, and maybe the Play-Asia, Amazon and eBay ones. It's mostly because it's either an ad or blank space. The side column isn't large enough to hold a screenshot. But if I DO make it large enough to fit a screen shot, there's too much empty space for the ads, because the side banners are usually designed to be 160 pixels wide. But will those actually bring in income? I have no idea. That's why this is more of an experiment than anything - I'm not entirely sure it's the direction I'll be taking in the future, especially because it would take a LOT of work to redesign older articles. I also want to implement a CMS, but that's more for the editors than for the readers. But the way the site is designed - too many table widths need to be resized based on the size of the pictures - it wouldn't be pretty. That's one of the reasons why I look at it as unprofessional - it's not consistent enough, and it's also designed for 1024x768, anything else and the screenshots just don't line up and there's wasted space.
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Post by derboo on Oct 17, 2010 17:42:52 GMT -5
Each page actually doesn't need as many ads as it has. I'd be fine with the Google ads, and maybe the Play-Asia, Amazon and eBay ones. It's mostly because it's either an ad or blank space. The side column isn't large enough to hold a screenshot. But if I DO make it large enough to fit a screen shot, there's too much empty space for the ads, because the side banners are usually designed to be 160 pixels wide. Hmm, maybe it's worth trying thumbnailed screenshots in between ads? One site I know that uses thumbnailed screenshots for reviews is sega-16.com, and it doesn't look too bad. That might be fine as we still have full-sized ones in between the text.
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Post by Discoalucard on Oct 17, 2010 19:27:59 GMT -5
The guy who redesigned the Castlevania Dungeon did that, too.
Personally I'm not a big fan of it. I'd like to have pixel perfect pictures, at least of low-res shots, and at least equivalent sized pictures for the high res ones. They give a good idea of what the game looks like without having to click on them.
What I thought about doing was having the ads on the right side, but as soon as they're finished, expand the rest of the text into that column, until the end of the page. I'm not sure how that would look though. Besides, it's neatly comparmentalized as it is, and your brain can go "oh, the content's on the left 80% side of the screen, while the ads are on the right."
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