Adventure Gamers - Forums

It seems like the front page is now almost like a bot and doesn’t have any kind of curation to it. Tons of casual games and no real information or intrigue beyond the stock blurbs for each game. Is there any sort of explanation or discussion of this? Gotta say, for as much as the old site could’ve used updating, I’m not a fan of this new approach. It seems more spammy and less like a trusted curation of adventure game news.

RockNFknRoll - 05 September 2022 08:13 PM

It seems like the front page is now almost like a bot and doesn’t have any kind of curation to it. Tons of casual games and no real information or intrigue beyond the stock blurbs for each game. Is there any sort of explanation or discussion of this? Gotta say, for as much as the old site could’ve used updating, I’m not a fan of this new approach. It seems more spammy and less like a trusted curation of adventure game news.

I appreciate the feedback, as I add everything myself manually I can guarantee that it’s not bot work but my typing… I’ve tried to focus on sharing a lot more daily information/news, that in the past was hidden and didn’t really get any attention. The full news items and reviews still are full coverage, while some of the other tidbits are more announcements of new games that have been uncovered (in those cases linking to the game page or a new trailer).

How would you expect this new news to be further curated then? Is it that you expect a story behind every item to give more context? Do you want to have a clearer bit of information that you’re going to view a trailer? What is it exactly?

Ivo

(I write a new blurb for every single game, so it’s hardly ever a ‘stock’ blurb, but clearly feels like that to you. How would you expect this differently then?).

To be honest I never payed too much attention to the front page until the recent complaint.

Since then I’ve looked at it frequently & love it! It’s eye-catching, contains a lot of info that’s easy to look at & click on for more info!     

Thanks for that Chrissie! That’s one of the key things I’ve tried to achieve with it, the mobile and desktop experience are also much more in line now (before it was hard to see the latest info on mobile).

Please note that I haven’t been here in a while, so I don’t know which changes are recent and which are not. I can’t remember how things used to be exactly and I’m probably not the core audience and abhor change in general, but whether it’s actually the case or not, the new page, while looking modern, streamlined and somewhat elegant, seems to lack a clear hierarchy and perhaps charm and a personal note. For my taste, there is too much scrolling and too many elements that all look alike at a first glance, despite the little labels, until I get to other parts of the page. This might also be part of what makes it seem like the content is added automatically. It looks quite mobile oriented. Another association would be an online store.

For example, what I’d expect to see featured more prominently would be the new Monkey Island or still the Gamescom Roundup, the feature section perhaps split into articles and news or similar, followed by a timeline of the current news items with pictures in their current form, either scrolling in its own section so other parts of the page are immediately visible or much shorter, maybe followed by some only text news items.

I realize different people might have different priorities, though.

Shnubble - 21 September 2022 09:22 AM

……It looks quite mobile oriented.

If you read CaliMonk’s post he was aiming for the info to be more easily seen on mobile devices.

I play on a desktop but am aware that for a number of years a lot of older games have enjoyed a renewed interest by being ported to hand-held devices. Also there now seems to be more & more adventure games being made either exclusively, or as well as, for handheld devices & therefore surely play some part in contributing to continued interest in the adventure game niche? 

I don’t see any reason for a “clear hierarchy” & I like that the various info is presented on an equal basis (apart from a couple of double slots for Indie games).

There is a ‘pecking order’ in the form of a Hype-o-Meter & Trending Adventure Games to be found if you scroll down (I don’t myself have any problem with scrolling). 
But otherwise until a game has been played &/or reviewed, the quality of the content would have to be presumed to present the info in a hierarchical format along with assuming the interest of the readers.
E.g., Not everyone who looks at this site is a Monkey Island fan or immediately interested in the Gamescom Roundup so why the need to highlight the info based on someone’s opinion of their importance when the info is included for anyone that is interested. 

I guess my main complaint would be that for me, the desktop experience got worse due to that unification and overall closer to a mobile experience, and if I have a choice, I always prefer the desktop experience. But I can see how optimizing both for desktop and mobile would be more work.

As for the hierarchy, that might be influenced by how often someone visits the site. I can understand if the content is catered more towards people who visit more often, but I’d like to have some curated content at the top: What was important in the last week(s)/month?
I understand the current content is curated as well, for a shorter timeframe, but it didn’t feel like that when opening the main page.
Sure, different people have different preferences, but a very rough consensus should be possible. But ultimately, I can’t demand that my point of view is taken more seriously than other ones, of course, I’m just giving some input on why the new site feels a bit off-putting to me.

I just clicked through some of the content that didn’t interest me and in many cases, the linked page doesn’t give more current information than the blurb on the main page, or it’s like one sentence on each page, without any obvious indication if that will be the case. Plus, basic information about the game in question, which is good, if you know that this is what the link is for. In my opinion, if a news item is just one sentence, then it could be presented in a much more compressed form on the main page. Or maybe there can be a filter for categories like game updates and trailers if that doesn’t exist. I’m aware of the “Articles” and “Links” category at the bottom. Basically, in my ideal version of the main page, there would be a combination of that with some additional featured items.

Hi. I am a long-time reader and lurker of the site, I was here even before the site lost its previous domain!

I decided to join the forum just to give my opinion on the new homepage design and, more importantly, what it might communicate to new readers.

First, the large cards used in the new homepage have long been a popular element in cheap/quick website templates. They are usually used to emphatically mention the title and description of an article on the homepage, not to provide unique content. These tabs have been used in this way for so many years that new readers are more likely to psychologically (and instantly) associate them with “cheap design,” regardless of the time spent putting unique text on them. So, if your goal is to communicate that you are an editorial site, using these cards as the main homepage content will not help you achieve this communication goal. I suggest you take a look at the homepages of other editorial sites devoted to video games (serious ones, not blogs) and ask yourself why no one uses these cards.

Second, not all content is equally important. Web design should be used to give more space to what is most important and less to what is least important. Cards that mix all kinds of content do not go in this direction. In this regard, too, take a look at what other editorial video game sites are doing.

Third, if you evaluate the percentage of screen space devoted to text, you will see that it has decreased. The more space devoted to larger images in cards and affiliate buttons, the less space is devoted to text. If you think about it, you are giving more space to images that everyone else can see on competing sites and less space to the unique text you write. This is not a good idea. your spotlight should be on the elements that differentiate you from other Web sites. The smaller thumbnails used in the previous version were certainly instrumental in achieving this goal. Again, take a look at other editorial sites.

Fourth, treating desktop users as mobile users is generally a bad idea. You should take advantage of the extra space that desktop users have. It is not enough to list the same content that appears on the mobile version, you also need to think about how to use a larger screen to show items that mobile users cannot see immediately. For example, using two columns instead of one on desktop is often a good idea to separate different types of content. Other editorial sites do this as well.

Now, you will find many designers who will confirm what I have written above, but my fifth opinion is just conjecture based on personal experience and observation of this website for decades: the only reason you have changed the homepage in this way is that you are experiencing a “crisis” and are kind of “desperate”.

In fact, you have crossed the line of desperation to the point where you have started making decisions that will make the situation worse. When I visited the new homepage, everything screamed “help! We are desperate, please click on our buttons!” and I was not surprised to find a thread on this topic. While you might think this new design will make things better, trust me: all it does is hide and diminish the editorial value of AdventureGamers. New users will associate it with any other cheap wordpress blog, and some of the people who already know you will think that the site is no longer as serious as before.

I recommend that you reconsider the current design.

Cheers!

Appreciate all the feedback and that the new design isn’t for everyone, it’s not the first iteration by any means, and I’ll continue to work on ways to improve it. As with all things, I doubt it will make everyone happy.

I agree that there should be ways to bring more attention to more significant events/themes/articles, but I haven’t found an excellent natural way for this yet; I have some ideas, but they need more work.

Mobile traffic on Adventure Gamers is more than 60% right now, so most users get this new experience that indeed caters more to what they expect there. The old site did not correctly show the latest content in a way on mobile that made much sense. This was a bit better for the Desktop site but still not the best.

If you have examples of websites you believe are doing it ‘the right’ way, I’m all ears and open to reviewing those; I disagree with calling the new buttons cheap and straightforward, but you are entitled to your opinion, obviously, and I respect it.

This will be an iteration until we get to a place that works for ‘most’, but I don’t expect it’ll ever be a spot that works for all. Users nowadays expect things to be very visual, and that’s part of what I’ve tried to achieve here, but as always, I’m open to suggestions.

I’ve made some further changes to the homepage, mainly to put more attention/awareness on the items that are full-on reviews versus the more minor updates on new games being released, coming to steam, or trailers being there.

I don’t think that framing the design goal within a “personal taste” perspective will help you to properly recognize and assess the issues and figure out what is the best way forward.

I suggest you do something very practical that can help you find the problems with this specific new interface: do an A/B test on the desktop homepage to understand how you are treating the 40% of your readers.

Limit the test to new desktop users, show the old version to 50 percent of them and the new version to the other half. Acquire enough data over a long enough period and then evaluate the typical KPIs associated with usability and engagement: clicks, how far the page was scrolled, how many elements appeared in their viewport (which might be especially important in your case because you use now giant cards that take up a lot of screen space), average time on page, and so on. They’re not the best KPI to use in this case, but they are available in many analytics platforms and they will be good enough to understand that there is something wrong.

I am hopeful that acquiring evidence based on data might help you to put away the “personal taste” measurement and focus on how you are objectively treating 40 percent of your users. That data will tell you if the suggestions that I have provided above, quite solid among UI designers, make sense or not in your specific case as well:

* Cards don’t help and you should consider abandoning them
* Desktop design should be different from mobile design
* Desktop version should take advantage of the more screen space, for example differentiating contents using columns
* Attributing the same size to every item, regardless of its importance, is not a good idea

Any serious editorial website will show you a sound approach to desktop interfaces and how they should differ from mobile interfaces: RockPaperShotgun, IGN… really anything popular with similar contents. You’ll never see an homepage filled with cards like that.

I was mostly surprised by the new front page because it seems to include non-adventure games?

For example, right now there’s a zelda like https://adventuregamers.com/games/view/47668 that’s listed there. Likewise, https://adventuregamers.com/games/view/47852 doesn’t seem to be a game that would typically have been featured on adventuregamers?

From what I can tell they’re action adventures that have always featured here.

As for the look of the home page I like it a lot & it’s got its own individual feel that sets it apart from the very generic designs of the home pages of say RockPapershotGun & IGN that look very similar & not particularly distinguishable from each other. 

LowLevel - 01 October 2022 03:49 AM

* Cards don’t help and you should consider abandoning them
* Desktop design should be different from mobile design
* Desktop version should take advantage of the more screen space, for example differentiating

From where I’m looking the ‘cards’ I think present a very nice visual display which distinguish the site. Yes, I’ve seen that kind of display on Kindle. It’s colourful, clear & nice to look at.

Why should desktop design be different from mobile design? Yes, I see what you’re saying but many PC game players also play on mobiles & I think it’s only very large companies that have the facility to present alternative presentations to cater. But in this case AG does a great job to cater for all users & the homepage looks perfectly okay on my desktop!

Differentiating between what? Screen space for what? I’m lost.

chrissie - 04 October 2022 03:38 PM

From what I can tell they’re action adventures that have always featured here.

The first game is very much a zelda like, the second game is more akin to Tomb Raider.

I don’t think those two game franchises have ever been featured in adventure gamers? I mean don’t get me wrong, the games in question look potentially interesting but they don’t seem to fit the theme of the site?

chrissie - 04 October 2022 03:38 PM

From where I’m looking the ‘cards’ I think present a very nice visual display which distinguish the site. Yes, I’ve seen that kind of display on Kindle. It’s colourful, clear & nice to look at.

I’m ambivalent about the cards… I feel that it works relatively well on the front page but on pages like the crowdfunding page where there’s only 1 to 4 games at a given time, it feels a bit strange.

i’m glad this thread has spurred some discussion, i was starting to feel crazy that it wasn’t talked about anywhere. it’s a huge change to the feel and quality of the site, not just from a design perspective but from a perceived quality perspective. i strongly suggest taking “low level”‘s advice seriously as he clearly has some design background, as do i.

i am also of the view that it looks a lot cheaper and more confusing with the cards smattered around, without any sense of curation or importance. some objectively cheap and casual games this site never would have given the time of day to are now placed with equal weight among the important releases. actually they’re given more weight since there appears to be a lot more of them.

the net result is that i am seeing mostly cheap looking games on the site and end up dismissing the front page as a whole altogether. whereas before when i could see the reviews front and center and the grades you gave them, it gave a sense of quality curation that i could trust and be intrigued by. i could instantly see that some new 4 or 5 star games had been released that i never heard of. i would instantly find something of interest and quality whereas now i’m too overwhelmed by shallow graphics and blurbs that i can’t dig in. my only hope is to scroll allllll the way down to the hypo meter, which honestly should be closer to the top imo.

i strongly agree you want to return to a sense of important big releases and reviews up top. that’s why people come to this site, to quickly get updated on the most exciting news in adventure games. not see a gallery of 100 free hidden object and casual games in no particular order, with no text that gives a hint of their quality. it’s a lottery at that point of whether i click on anything of note. that makes sense right?

i like this site, been coming for years bc it’s pretty much the only place i know of for reliable adventure game news. so i was dismayed to see it possibly diluted. but i’m glad to hear at least you are open to still adjusting it and finding the right answer.

I didn’t like it at first, but that was just cause i didnt feel like i got the information that i usually did. But when i understood the logic of it, it just lists all new updates/news chronologically with pictures attached to them. It’s totally fine.

Probably easier to update when the look is the same on mobile and pc.

And like all changes it’s just annoying until you actually start using it and getting used to it. IMO. I don’t think it cheapens the look, that’s the way most front pages look now, since most people browse the web on a mobile phone.