| 27 APR 2009 at 4:58pm |
ShanyGuild Master
Posts : 3313
Joined: 19 JUN 2003
Status : Online | It will probably be a lot of work, but I think there should be a way to arrange the database so that one could search by Platform, Year, etc. Something like the Game Browser on Mobygames.
Anyway I actually don't mind the current system, it's like the one The JAVE uses and it doesn't take forever to load like the old one used to.
Maybe you should give an option for a full list, that way everyone will happy.
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| 27 APR 2009 at 5:50pm |
JKingSchattenjger
Posts : 2350
Joined: 4 MAY 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By TheTraveler (26 APR 2009 6:31pm)
You're going to hate me, Karla, but I preferred the old format. Now you have to click a billion times to get to a game's review, whereas it used to be one click and you could view them all... :'( [smiley=cry.gif].
I couldn't agree more. Really a lean-on-markup sortable table would make the most sense by far.
You can't kill someone in a studio.
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| 27 APR 2009 at 9:49pm |
Lady KestrelGuild Master
Posts : 4047
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, NJ
Status : Offline | I like the new format. You only have to click a letter and a game, just like the last one. I like the fact that all the information regarding platform and type of game is right there before you click.
"Where is the fountain that throws up these flowers in a ceaseless outbreak of ecstasy?"
-Rabindranath Tagore
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| 8 MAY 2009 at 9:26am |
karlaAdministrator
Posts : 2613
Joined: 27 JUL 2003
Location: US, Close to the Edge
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By JKing (27 APR 2009 5:49pm)
Originally Posted By TheTraveler (26 APR 2009 6:31pm)
You're going to hate me, Karla, but I preferred the old format. Now you have to click a billion times to get to a game's review, whereas it used to be one click and you could view them all... :'( [smiley=cry.gif].
I couldn't agree more. Really a lean-on-markup sortable table would make the most sense by far.
I don't hate anyone, and I'm sorry you don't like the new format. I was just following orders.
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| 8 MAY 2009 at 4:32pm |
CrisGerSchattenjger
Posts : 2548
Joined: 28 APR 2007
Location: US
Status : Offline | I study and read game reviews and visit many game sites and find that the JAV site is the best for many reasons. The format of the review is fine. The content is the main reason i come here. To complain about the format of things is trivial and petty and I am sorry to see it happening, for it takes a tremendous amount of work to achieve these resutls and remarks are best kept to the purpose of this site, which is to discuss the games involved. I am sorry to see such bad manners from all who have posted negativly here and with all the problems in the world that face so many (i am currently working as a dispatcher and media helper on a major disaster in California online and took a moment here to make this post) i am sorry to see that the perspective that people ought to have is missing. I shall probably move away from here for a while for this sort of mis places complaining sickens me for many reasons. Grow up JKing and stop making complaints about things that dont matter at all.....and get on with things. Traveller i know you meant well, but the site is run by its owners who ever they are and they are the ones who make the decisions, not staff. It is up to owners to know what they want and to explain it.
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| 8 MAY 2009 at 5:28pm |
| Deleted User | I am very sad to see your post, Chris, as I was expressing how I geniunely feel about the matter, especially seeing as I use the reviews extensively for my own research. I do not live in the US currently, and my bandwidth is slow and expensive. Therefore having to click more is a geniune concern for me, and not quite as petty as you would suggest.
I had been using the JA reviews for a long, long time in it's old format, and it is actually one of the things that had initially drawn me to the site, and why I initially joined the site. I enjoyed the old format, and I used it very often. I am sorry that you see it as bad manners when a person expresses his genuine concern about a matter that really matters to him/her a lot. Strangely, posters actively encourage criticism about games and the like, and yet, when one does try to give a bit of honest and geniunely felt feedback, people come down on you like a ton of bricks.
Anyone who has been around this site for a while, will know that I absolutely love and adore JA+, and have always in the past defended the site wherever possible. I have also often stated that this is my favourite site. I like Karla, and was not in the least trying to be mean to her. I was just sincerely stating the truth. Do you expect a person to lie then? All I had basically said, was that I had actually preferred the old format. Unfortunately, crticisism will per se hurt feelings, but I expect Karla is mature enough to realise that well-meant critical comments such as :"Oh I preferred the old format, for such and such a reason" was not meant in ill-will at all.
I have a lot of respect for Randy Sluganski, the owner of the site, and I likewise feel pretty confident that he is mature enough to take very minor little criticisms for what they are, especially if they come from someone who absolutely adores his site, and is a very prolific poster on it. As I said - this was the only criticisim I had ever made about anything regarding this website ever, -in fact I promote JA+ whenever and wherever I can; and I am extremely saddened to see that it is being taken in such a negative light, especially by people whom I had liked and respected before.
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| 8 MAY 2009 at 5:28pm |
JKingSchattenjger
Posts : 2350
Joined: 4 MAY 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By CrisGer (8 MAY 2009 4:32pm)
Grow up JKing and stop making complaints about things that dont matter at all.....and get on with things.
With respect, Chris, presentation does very much matter on the Web. I'll be the first to agree that the information on Just Adventure is utterly fantastic (it is for me the only worthwhile source of information for adventure game news, reviews and so on), but when information is badly organised or takes too long to get to you because there is more markup bloat than there is information, it's really unfortunate, and it makes the experience of using JA less pleasant and rewarding than it ought to be (JA is awesome; navigating through it is sometimes not).
For what it's worth I have contacted Randy offering my professional services to fix what I perceive to be problems in the site's presentations and organisation, and I've offered to make publishing the site's content easier as well. I won't go into the details of what I wrote or what I have since received in reply (I don't want to cross any lines Randy might wish I didn't, and had you not posted your message I wouldn't have mentioned it publicly at all), but rest assured I am not idly complaining; I am also taking action.
I love this site: my criticism was meant constructively.
You can't kill someone in a studio.
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| 8 MAY 2009 at 5:58pm |
karlaAdministrator
Posts : 2613
Joined: 27 JUL 2003
Location: US, Close to the Edge
Status : Offline | Okay, I need to say a couple of things.
The new review page layout was 100% Randy's idea. All I did was implement it. I kept my opinions to myself.
To construct the pages, I used the same program that's used by everyone who works on JA's web pages. If there's more markup bloat than information -- an opinion I don't happen to share -- blame Dreamweaver. It doesn't clean up after itself the way it should.
I worked long and hard on those review pages, including creating all of the icons and graphics. No one helped me; I did them solo. Randy said they looked great and up they went.
Please excuse me for being a little sensitive here, but I don't think I deserve cheap shots for doing the job I was told to do, in the manner in which I was told to do it.
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| 8 MAY 2009 at 6:28pm |
| Deleted User | Karla - the new format DOES look lovely. I'm so sorry - I suppose I should have added that bit of praise to my criticism.
The way it looks is very nice and informative, and so on. The only single thing I was missing, and that I was remarking about, is the fact that one cannot see all the letters of the alphabet on the same page like one used to. That is my only and single complaint. Otherwise, the new format is very, very nice.
I had truly not meant to discount all your hard work, and had not meant to imply that it was all for nothing or unappreciated - but like previous posters have also suggested - is there not a way to put what you have done there, in a kind of database form so that one can see all the letters of the alphabet together, and therefore navigate less?
I confess I have no clue what this would require technically, - and if it would be problematic, of course I am quite happy to make one extra little click every time.
A small price to pay to have such a nice-looking review front page. :-* :-*
EDIT: I want to make it very clear that by "format" I purely meant the fact that when you used to click on the old review page, all the letters of the alphabet would load at once, and all one needed to do, was to scroll up and down to get to the specific game you were looking for.
My reason for pointing this out - and I'm sorry if this is rude of me , is that this would facilitate many things. Sometimes, I would simply be browsing for new games to buy, and then I would have all the games that were awarded scores of A and A+ , and A-, etc. all listed for me on one page. I could then simply select the ones that looked nice, and go in to read the review. Now, I have to click 26 times to achieve the same result. Sometimes, I would be researching, let's say a list of 10 games I had seen on sale. It is also then more convenient to be able to see all the scores awarded to the games, at one glance.
Another reason why having all of it one page is easier for me, is that when you are looking for a particular game, you are not always sure whether to look under T for "The" or L for "Longest" or T for Three, or 3, etc. If all the games are listed together, it's just a quick scroll up and down.
Furthermore, I might be searching for all the games released before 1999 for Mac.; - or - horror type titles, or - games with Dracula in them, or reviews by Christopher Tate. Do I have to click 27 times, or can I get away with once?
I had not at all meant to criticise the great new icons and similar features. Those are great, nice-looking, aesthetically very pleasing, and extremely useful indeed! I do apologise that I had not made that clearer earlier on.
Oh, and please, please, please don't take these remarks personally! Aesthetically, and functionally the new "look" and extra icons are really very, very nice from an artistic point of view. I was merely pointing out some practical issues, but they are definitely not important in the greater scheme of things, and most definitely not worth hurting someone's feelings about. :'(
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| 8 MAY 2009 at 7:24pm |
JKingSchattenjger
Posts : 2350
Joined: 4 MAY 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | I would likewise wish to extend an apology, Karla. I did not mean to belittle your efforts---which given the tools at your disposal and the number of data to handle, was obviously considerable. I am aware that Dreamweaver (as well as most hypertext authoring tools) makes efficiency difficult to achieve at best; if nothing else the image-swap script it insists on peppering every document with instead of linking should have been fixed long, long ago.
I recognise you are working with imperfect tools, and never did I single you out as the source of what I take as the new format's shortcomings. Indeed, the individual pages themselves are very nice: they are visually clean, and the icons do indeed help to tell at a glance much information about a given game. My complaint was merely a technical one (as was Traveler's), and I'm sorry if I came off as dismissive of the work you put in.
Believe me: as I looked at the markup the other day and considered how difficult it would be to extract the data programmatically, I did feel very sympathetic knowing how monumental a task it would be to do manually. The difficulties inherent in dealing with so much data without automated processes in place are not lost on me, and I realise that it's sometimes simply not possible or practical to have your site living in a database. Still, with such a database you wouldn't have had to work nearly as hard to get the task done, and my earlier comments were as much lamenting this situation as anything else---however implicitly. The less time the editors such as yourself spend on managing the existing site content, the more time you have to add new stuff, after all.
I really didn't mean any offence, Karla, and I hope you can believe me when I say your efforts do not go unappreciated. It's a very good layout, even if it isn't all things to all people.
You can't kill someone in a studio.
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