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The New Website: I've seen enough.
aandrethegiant
Member Posts: 3,369 Arc User
Ok guys, please take this site down again - and keep it down, until you folks are prepared to deliver a professional product.
You have lost 99% of the vibrant small community you did have. Furthermore, I think an apology is due to each and every potential Neverwinter gamer who decides to come back.
Unless those bears smilies disappear, I think my days on this site are about numbered.
***
Update: Well, since I originally typed this, some more folks have come back. Still unaccounted for are Truth, Saco, and a score of others. (That 99% figure is probably down to 75ish, maybe?)
As our remaining forumites come back, it will begin to feel a bit more like home again. Once all guildies and forum personalities I'm aware of are accounted for and motivated again, I'll be more settled in.
You have lost 99% of the vibrant small community you did have. Furthermore, I think an apology is due to each and every potential Neverwinter gamer who decides to come back.
Unless those bears smilies disappear, I think my days on this site are about numbered.
***
Update: Well, since I originally typed this, some more folks have come back. Still unaccounted for are Truth, Saco, and a score of others. (That 99% figure is probably down to 75ish, maybe?)
As our remaining forumites come back, it will begin to feel a bit more like home again. Once all guildies and forum personalities I'm aware of are accounted for and motivated again, I'll be more settled in.
TYRS PALADIUM - A Premier Neverwinter Online Guild
No Drama. Camaraderie. TEAM Focus. That's the TYRS way. If that's your style, come join us!
Research our Guild here: Read our official Recruitment thread | Sign up here: Tyrs Guild Website! | NEVERWINTER GUILD LEADERS: Join the Fellowship!
Post edited by aandrethegiant on
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The website is highly professional and nothing wrong with it except for the darn smilies.
OP reminds me of the MMO shift announcement that many raged against and were pretty much talking utter nonesense. There is no exodus, there is no massively damage to the community.
I'm sure we'll ultimately have our own. I don't imagine a custom smiley set was high on the shopping list.
+1 ........
That said, I'll look into seeing if we can get a different set of smilies enabled. For now, let's just try to make the best of the cuteness.
Thanks,
Stormshade
-1.
I'm a 35 year old man. Using these smilies feels stupid. Regular ones would have been fine. But it's not just the smilies that are the problem. It's everything else:
-lost cryptic user name
-lost post count
-lost original join date
-lost ability to choose ANY avatar
-the forum colors/layout is just kinda meh
-and of course cute smilies to match my hello kitty pajamas
Shade, come on now. It's a hot mess. Just the concept of the childish smilies make me wonder what exactly the design team was thinking about. Have they ever heard of demographics?
Smilies are not the only concern. If you take a ride over to DDO.com, which covers pretty much the same demographics, can you honestly tell me you are proud of this site?
If so, then more power to you.
This site has major problems.
- Total chaos first two days and counting. Post counts are WAAAAY Down. Most people are complaining of having to resign up.
- lost post count, join date. Gone. Also everyone's posts are anonymous. All the thousands of community posts relegated to Anonymous. As far as Im concerned - 99% of the comments are purged, because its too complicated to figure our whos posts belonged to who.
- the forum colors/layout is just very basic. Seems like a circa 2000 forum created by an amateur. Just doesnt seem up to standards.
- there's barely a resemblance to D&D. Have you lost your license? Sure seems like it.
- the cutsie smilies are not going to work. How could designers ever think, for just a second, that forum users would use/want these? You will chase people away. Having a forum filled with these bears will detract from you core audience (at least the ones that will be paying your salaries.).
TYRS PALADIUM - A Premier Neverwinter Online Guild
No Drama. Camaraderie. TEAM Focus. That's the TYRS way. If that's your style, come join us!
Research our Guild here: Read our official Recruitment thread | Sign up here: Tyrs Guild Website! | NEVERWINTER GUILD LEADERS: Join the Fellowship!
Old Name Talsik now Talsic.
Heya Talsic! Oh I'll be ready for the game once its ready (and maybe even for beta.)
We are organized, and primed as a guild and ready to have a blast.
That doesnt mean I'm not concerned on recent decisions that PW/Cryptic are making...
after all, I'm interested (and invested) in this games success.
TYRS PALADIUM - A Premier Neverwinter Online Guild
No Drama. Camaraderie. TEAM Focus. That's the TYRS way. If that's your style, come join us!
Research our Guild here: Read our official Recruitment thread | Sign up here: Tyrs Guild Website! | NEVERWINTER GUILD LEADERS: Join the Fellowship!
I wouldn't call it total chaos, I'd even say that this is partially expected. Remember that this is the first Cryptic Website and Title to be moved to the PWE Portal. We're going to experience some issues, tantamount among those is going to be difficulties with the user experience for linking PWE and Cryptic Accounts together.
A valid concern, but it's not something that could be helped. Remember this is a BRAND NEW Forum. We've done our best to port over the content that existed before this changeover, but it remains a brand new website. Our other option was to wipe everything and start fresh.
This is your opinion. However, the colors are consistent with the rest of the website, and the layout is similar to what every other PWE game's forums look like.
How is there barely a resemblance to D&D? While there has been some site redesign, it's very similar to the old website. Were you expecting us to launch a clone of WOTCs D&D Website? What's the real issue here?
The cutsie smilies work fine. See my test of them above. Are they ideal in appearance? No, they are not. But really, they're smilies, there are much bigger issues to get worked up over. If it's that big of an issue, I can ask the web team to completely disable the smilies if this is something that you would all prefer.
However, while you may not like them, smilies of any type are a very minor concern for me.
Thanks,
Stormshade
I think the real issue here is the level of frustration people are getting from this game or rather their expectations of it. Perhaps mostly from us "table toppers" and Neverwinter Nights players.
-Not trying to beat a dead horse here but the game is called Neverwinter so a lot of the NWN community was expecting something similar to what they were playing. Being able to host their own world and DM it. With the Foundry maybe it will be but that remains to be seen.
-Then of course the game was all ready to ship...then it wasn't.
-Information on this game (mechanics, content, gameplay, etc..) has not been very forthcoming even after all this time.
-And now we have a change in the forums where most of us have lost our forum identities that we were trying to establish as part of the Neverwinter community.
No one should be surprised that many of us are going to be upset.
I was expecting some upset with this change to be honest. What I didn't expect was absolute rage at something as minor as the smilies on the forum.
As for some of the issues you bring up:
While the game is called Neverwinter, and it takes place in the same setting and locale as the older NWN games, we are not making a Neverwinter Nights game. We've done our best to make this clear, and we'll continue to work on that.
While we were close to launching the game last year, and I can understand the frustration the delay has caused... The delay is a good thing. Delaying the game is allowing us to make the game much, much, better than what you would have seen at release a year ago.
I also understand the point about information starvation. We're working on that, and you're going to start seeing a lot more information about the game very soon. We've got weekly meeting where we discuss things like when we're going to make any given announcement. The hype machine started up at PAX East, and the information that came from there was very good, and exciting. We've got still more information on the way, and we'll release some smaller tid bits here and there, and our big pushes will be planned to be able to create the most impact, not only here on the website and forums, but also around the net.
I really do understand that the change in forums is not ideal. However, we've done the best we can with it, and we'll work to improve things as we go. The Cryptic and PWE website/forum/account merger had to be done. The good news is, now that it is done, we never have to go through it again. It may be a rough patch, but believe me, we'll get through it together, and come out stronger than before.
Thanks,
Stormshade
Added to my list already. Thanks for pointing it out.
Stormshade
You are in a tough spot here Stormshade. Considering that many of the faces I'm used to seeing on here daily I havent seen in 2 days I'd say theres more then a fair amount of chaos.
I would have just wiped it, and started fresh. At least it would look clean. Naturally, everyone wouldnt agree. However, maybe a user poll would have been a good idea. Talk a bit to the forum users here. Ask them what they would have liked. If it turned out 70-30 to wipe it, you'd have your direction of least resistance.
That it is.
Outside of this and this, I could be looking at ANY forum. Some D&D artwork would be nice, and would entice some more gamers looking for an immersive D&D online experience.
Dont just take my word for it. Quite a few others have mentioned their displeasure. Hell, how am I supposed to promote this game when the first place they go (most likely the game's own website) they see pages full of b:cry and b:chuckle? I'd absolutely shut them down until the graphic department can come up with something that's not so childish. I agree it shouldnt be a big deal. But when many of your forum goers are between the ages of 25-40+, <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> smilies will cause a problem. Just use standard smilies and thats the end of it. One thing to keep in mind Stormshade, the website is a major component of the total game experience for many, especially now when there's so little information and people are flocking here to get it.
I do feel bad for you man. I want this game to be a success. Remember, you are talking to just one of a very dedicated, loyal client base that's invested quite a bit of time into this website and future game (talking up the game, recruiting guildies, etc). I can speak only for me, but I am squarely behind the team, and only wish for the very best for Neverwinter, and the folks behind the curtain that makes it all happen.
TYRS PALADIUM - A Premier Neverwinter Online Guild
No Drama. Camaraderie. TEAM Focus. That's the TYRS way. If that's your style, come join us!
Research our Guild here: Read our official Recruitment thread | Sign up here: Tyrs Guild Website! | NEVERWINTER GUILD LEADERS: Join the Fellowship!
- there is too much black -> the font size of who is the latest poster in a thread should be small. This should allow to resize the row size.
- no longer possible to view posts from latest first. When u open the thread you have to click on last to see last reply.
- no longer a thread is auto-subscribed when you post in it. Difficult to track.
- Nice to hear smileys can be changed. Old smileys were good enough imo. New smileys should be an improvement on them.
- I see the option of Edit your Avatar = would it be possible to draw a new avatar (or just some pre-selected ones? I hope we can draw avatar online - would be some work but will help in customizing avatar.
- A spoiler code would be fine.
- html tag looks nice to probably make a table in a post. Hope it works.
EDIT: Reading them again it seems most of the points were already there in old site. Probably old site was better
EDIT 2: I have stated it earlier but editing post takes me to:
It is quite annoying actually.
I b:dirty the icons!
Don't mind the b:angry
They just like to b:shocked
b:victory out
Translation:
I (glaucoma) the icons!
Don't mind the (animals on fire).
They just like to (japanese anime teardrop thing).
(pick my nose) out.
Got it.
The posts have to much black, seriously. It's a wasteland of blackness. Throw some more brown or gray here and there?
I love that we can use images as signatures!!!! b:dirty I hope we keep that right and can also get the custom avatars too. If we cannot, I hope that at least, once the game launches we get to use our characters as avatars or something like that.
* forum moderation shouldn't be an issue as moderators already have to read the posts.
So I'd say ditch the b:beatup, pick a better background, and lets get back to waiting anxiously for this game!!
TYRS PALADIUM - A Premier Neverwinter Online Guild
No Drama. Camaraderie. TEAM Focus. That's the TYRS way. If that's your style, come join us!
Research our Guild here: Read our official Recruitment thread | Sign up here: Tyrs Guild Website! | NEVERWINTER GUILD LEADERS: Join the Fellowship!
[A quote on last page]
I don't think cuteness is culture dependent. Besides, bear looks more western in term of cuteness - Winnie the pooh. Though to me its quite scary - claws and teeth and all.
Good to know its not only me who sees the black as weird.
Have you noticed you are quite ... "singular" in opinion?
The DDO site is 7+ years old, and has more features than this site does today. As for the red, you can change the skin color. I use orange for example, which is much easier on my eyes.
Most opinions thus far agrees the bears and the blackness are no-goes. Here's a small customer service opportunity. Let's see what the devs do with it.
TYRS PALADIUM - A Premier Neverwinter Online Guild
No Drama. Camaraderie. TEAM Focus. That's the TYRS way. If that's your style, come join us!
Research our Guild here: Read our official Recruitment thread | Sign up here: Tyrs Guild Website! | NEVERWINTER GUILD LEADERS: Join the Fellowship!
I actually think the new site looks nice.
Er....
Ok a few things-
1. Customer Service != Devs
Devs != Customer Service
Forum Design really doesn't have a whole lot to do with either the Devs OR Customer Service. That's a whole separate group entirely.
2. It sounds like you're expecting "compensation" for the forums being changed. That's cute. Like Stormshade said the change had to happen. I know it's weird and different, but given time we'll all get used to the new forums. Customer Service deals with account issues- they're not going to give you a cookie because you're annoyed about some bears.
3. Didn't you say you were leaving? Huh. So that was just a ploy to draw attention to the fact that you're not pleased about something.
Fascinating.
I like the new layout. It's clean, there are more sections to separate things out into. My only complaint is that the registration (pwe/cryptic linking business) was mightily confusing. But hey, it's the first time this has been done- things break. Overall, I'd say well done Neverwinter Community team!
TYRS PALADIUM - A Premier Neverwinter Online Guild
No Drama. Camaraderie. TEAM Focus. That's the TYRS way. If that's your style, come join us!
Research our Guild here: Read our official Recruitment thread | Sign up here: Tyrs Guild Website! | NEVERWINTER GUILD LEADERS: Join the Fellowship!