chirinea (47495) on 2/3/2014 9:03 PM · Permalink · Report

I was in the middle of a contribution, the site hiccuped, and now there's this neat new header! Great news, don't forget to update the changelog and keep up the good work!

Fred VT (25953) on 2/3/2014 9:04 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

Maybe giving a little more space above and on the left of the Games, Forums, News links would look a bit better? Now they are kind hidden in the shadow :)

EDIT: Ah,. never mind, I was somehow halfway to the new header :P

CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 2/3/2014 9:14 PM · Permalink · Report

By the way, is there some way we're going to archive the feature articles? I agree that the panel should be removed from the frontpage, but I still want to access them somehow.

GTramp (81965) on 2/3/2014 9:29 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

Feedback? OK! The new header looks nice. But the revamped screenshots section not so (imo). While I understand that the idea behind this was to make thumbnails larger and easily accessible, I'd say the new screenies section gets in the way of the game's description. The area to the right, on the other hand, looks empty now. (Not all games have any credits or purchase links). Also, this "Buy" link looks bad with longer titles like this: http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/fiction-fixers-adventures-in-wonderland-premium-edition

Terok Nor (42009) on 2/3/2014 9:33 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

Can't say I'm a big fan of having the screenshots above the description on the main page. Never mind that at my low resolution the 4th shot goes in the next row which looks ugly. Unless we're talking about very old games with large pixels, even at the slightly higher resolution compared to the old screenshot preview you can't see anything besides a blob of color most of the time. And I know many contributors take great pride in their descriptions and I think it's a shame those aren't at the top anymore.

vileyn0id_8088 (21040) on 2/3/2014 9:33 PM · Permalink · Report

I like the updated look, but... it breaks the MobyDark skin. Please try to fix that? :(

Havoc Crow (29859) on 2/3/2014 10:17 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I like the big screenshots, they help you to see what the game is like right away. In my opinion, the way screenshots look now on the rap sheet is fine.

Игги Друге (46653) on 2/3/2014 11:59 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I don't see the point in moving screenshots from one place where they're visible to another one, making the description fall outside the window border.

GTramp (81965) on 2/4/2014 1:28 AM · Permalink · Report

Where's the link to search for members? It was in "more searches", now that's gone.

leilei (343) on 2/4/2014 1:39 AM · Permalink · Report

New color conflicts with Black theme....and also reminds me of Microsoft.

Game Guesser (28) on 2/4/2014 1:40 AM · Permalink · Report

Most changes look basically fine to me, if a bit odd in the incredibly particular and uncommon browser setup I have going at this moment (on this computer only). But I agree with those who say that the current situation of the screenshot box on top of the description text doesn't really work. I do understand the desire to make them more visible.

It might not be really feasible, but....what about a line of somewhat smaller thumbnails horizontally beneath the top block of information and beside the box art slot? Just a line of three or four screenshots loaded in randomly, without a "screenshots" title and visible line break. People would instinctively realize that the media exists to be viewed, and perhaps the old screenshots box could be put back beside the description and between the retailer box/ad.

Would it be too intensive to have a script that checks the thumbnail sizes before it loads a page, to make sure the ones in this theoretical top line are uniform in size? Also only drawing from a single platform if possible. Maybe check the resolution to determine the number of pictures to show there - for example, only two pictures if it's a DS game, or a single screenshot if the original is high resolution (x/y>1000) And this top box, instead of giving the usual "There are no..." message for games without screenshots, could maybe have a little box that says something like "Want to help us? We need screenshots of this game!"

Cavalary (11445) on 2/4/2014 2:05 AM · Permalink · Report

Oy, check this again and... Nice top bar, I like that, and the platform listed next to the game title. Not that big a fan of that large a text for title and platform though, and definite no go on those screenshots there. The description needs to be on top, and the two columns should be used so there will be as little empty space as possible left for most games with contributions in all relevant sections. They were doing just fine where they were, above the credits (as having them below the description in the middle will get them below the fold in case of more serious descriptions, which will be bad).

But after what happened with the old design, please no such scripts unless absolutely necessary.

What about a one-line, (relatively) small font, table of contents at the top, right above the description, only including sections with contributions of course? That way it'll be immediately clear what exists, and one click will scroll down to the respective section, so doesn't matter if it's below the fold? That'll allow for shots to still be in the middle if you insist, though it'll look as no less of a really bad idea to me, as long as they won't be above the description.

Nélio (1976) on 2/4/2014 2:45 AM · Permalink · Report

I just realized that we have a lot of dead space right on the top of the page. I did some experiments, and came up with this layout suggestion:

I think something like this would make everyone happy. Things I've done:

• Cover scan enlarged;
  
• All summary details in one column - some spacing between different elements;
  
• Screenshots in the top-middle section, between the details and the scoring.

Other variations of this layout would still work. We could still keep the summary info in two columns, and have the screenshots all the way aligned to the right. The scoring would then come below the screenshots. I tried slight variations, and the one above is the one I liked the most.

Foxhack (32100) on 2/4/2014 3:12 AM · Permalink · Report

... everything's brighter. Why? D:

The MobyGames header seems brighter and it's hurting my eyes. D:

MobyReed (325) on 2/4/2014 3:56 AM · Permalink · Report

Update: Moved screenshots below description while working out how to better unify them. :)

Indra was here (20755) on 2/4/2014 4:00 AM · Permalink · Report

Mobydark users constantly suffer discrimination. :p

Indra was here (20755) on 2/4/2014 4:39 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

I'll keep using MobyDark even if they take it away from me!

Moving on...

They say you can't make everyone happy, but to me that's a lazy answer, specifically in web design. Though it would depend on resources actually. If users have the option to change the layout to their liking, it would even make those Scandinavian hipsters happy. Which is quite a feat in itself.

It would solve the issue of small old permanent loyal users (yes, I said old, you relics) vs. large infrequent users. The old users like the old layout and are illogically adamant about how important descriptions are (despite constantly refusing to put anything more informational than a book summary in it). The new users presumably prefer videos over screenshots. Judging from the Steam layout, that may be true.

Unfortunately, we cannot prioritize on videos and screenshots. Unlike most commercial gaming websites, our strongest asset also has its disadvantages. A user contribution system only allows certain features to be mandatory. In our case, new games will only require descriptions and release info. Screenshots and videos are not mandatory, hence prioritizing them in the layout will make us look like GB with a lot of no information available previewed up front. And that's just bad. Other gaming websites do not have this issue.

My personal analysis, due to the lack of resources is to either adapt that 1 big screenshot + 2 screenshots layout or just 1 big screenshot. The small thumbnails is noticeably not noticeable for the random user to be of any importance.

I've also noticed that the right panel is usually sparse when it doesn't have credits. I'd still go with this order: 1 big sample screenshot; 1 big sample video; credits.

Putting screenshots under the descriptions does pose the question: what happens when a game has a long description? When my sulking period ends, which is probably until the next Armageddon warning and I'll contribute long descriptions again, will the screenshots from view at first glance?

Also, why is the title font so large? I know the internet crowd is grammar blind, but are they also short sighted? o_o

MobyDark will survive!

vedder (70810) on 2/4/2014 8:04 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

I like it. I think how you have it now with the screenshots below the description is the best solution.

I definitely think the layout of the header is a big improvement. The random game button makes much more sense there, time to remove it from the user actions on the left, that always felt weird to me :)

The link to the forums now has a much more visible and prominent place which it deserves as it's the heart of the community we have here.

I hope the advance search will continue (it allowed to search for users and do a full description search, which was very useful for finding contenders for game groups), but I could always revert to google site search.

Keep up the good work!

Nélio (1976) on 2/4/2014 2:27 PM · Permalink · Report

Just did a couple more layout tests, given the latest comments and trying to accommodate the different resolutions that people are using. Please bear in mind that the admins want the screenshots visible on the top of the page, so there's not point in lobbying for them to stay under the description (which I actually like, but I understand their point in making the screenshots more visible).

So, here are those layouts (sorry, no ads again!):

• Cover size reduced a bit (still larger than it is now).
  
• Back to two columns in the game specs, but closer together instead of spread out in the available space.
  
• Screenshots now aligned to the right.

The first layout has a single row of screenshots. I duplicated it in the second layout mostly because I wanted the MobyRank/Score elements to be aligned with the description instead of kinda lost in there. 8 screenshots may be a bit overkill, though. Perhaps this combined with the screenshots layout Rola posted above (1 big, 2 smaller), would work great.

EDIT: Heck, here goes that layout:

Parf (7873) on 2/4/2014 2:56 PM · Permalink · Report

I like what's happening with the top border as well! Keeps the style while feeling modern. You don't have to throw everything and the kitchen sink at the site at once to make it look nice, and this is proof. :)

As for screenshots, the top right side is my favorite so far as well. Mainly because the attempts above and below the description made for some odd line breaks with three shots above and one below on my phone, and it felt empty on my computer monitor.

Overall though, I'm liking this change business the way you guys go about it. :)

CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 2/4/2014 6:24 PM · Permalink · Report

I'm wondering if the title of the games would look better in a color more compatible with the bright layout of the rest of the site.

Foxhack (32100) on 2/4/2014 9:26 PM · Permalink · Report

There's a layout issue in company pages. The text in the "Most Recent Games" box is huge and out of alignment.

http://www.mobygames.com/company/wayi-international-digital-entertainment-co-ltd

Joshua J. Slone (4666) on 2/5/2014 1:20 AM · Permalink · Report

Late to the party, but wow. It's been a long while since I was a very frequent visitor, so when I last stumbled in a few months back and saw all the dissatisfaction and people giving up on the site it was quite the bummer. When I arrived here today by way of a Google Image search my interest was piqued when I noticed the old logo was back. Nice!