MobyGames redesign (is dead; long live MobyGames revived!)
 

As of December 2013 the situation stabilized and the site layout was reverted to the old one we all know by heart.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At first I got worried that the website got hacked. The reality was more shocking: MobyGames got a face lifting. That was hinted years ago...

Some people moaned about the need of a complete redesign, while I'd be happy with only the most needed fixes and updates.

So far the changes I see are regarding layout/visuals. I don't see suggested fixes/features implemented. Some previous features are removed?buggy? I'd say the whole thing looks untested (supposedly the feedback they got on the back-end approvers-only forum was ignored?) and not ready for public launch. For example you could have separate "have lists", now they're gone/merged?

And the whole front-end fits the trend "we're designing all websites for tablets now" :suspicious:

OMFG.

Also, it's utterly slow now. Especially with screenshots.

And it not accepts my password anymore. :(

I'm usually the last one to accept redesign of websites, but if the confusion of new layout was outweighed by benefits - such as updated browsing/search (I often asked for year range) - I could get along with it. The problem is I don't see the improvement. And it's not that I didn't suggest certain features or solutions, I didn't sit idle.

The old look was better.

UGH. I don't like the look of it. That's my first impression.
Well, I don't like how it looks at all, the old design was looking much better (and warmer / more welcoming) imo. Now it looks like Gamefaqs or similar sites, or online game magazine website. That's my following impression. Gimme please the old Mobygames back :whops:

Their website was hardly impressive before, but this feels like a step backwards.

The whole design seems rather amateurish and basic. It's altogether disappointing.

Saw the topic title and raised an eyebrow.
Wow, it's really... weird. I do not think that I like this, but it's change so it might take some time getting used to. I dunno. Seems very trimmed down in a bad way.

*retch*

Not only you do:
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/mob...redesign/page1

I'd swallow the pill of unwelcoming layout if only... major features weren't broken: private messaging (inbox inaccessible), your work-in-progress entries (inaccessible), have-lists (all merged into one). Obviously someone who did the redesign doesn't actually use the website, because all bugs can be found within minutes by one person.

It's slow indeed

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...x297-59009.jpg

@ new "design"

Just used the site to check out screenshots for a game. They took a fortnight to load as opposed to the split second that it took previously. That's a problem.

A user at MobyGames forums pointed out that the Wayback Machine copy of the website is fully functional and the Game Browser works as it should (which is something I completely missed).

Isn't it just a static crawl? After all, they don't have a duplicate of the database. Sure, use it for old Game Browser interface, but the results will likely be from the live site.

I wish it was a full copy: if more people would use it and skip the current MobyAbomination, the dwindling traffic (read: less ad revenue) would surely send GameFly the message.

Wow, is really ugly :ouch:

It's a full copy, due to the URL rewriting making the Wayback Machine assume those were static pages.

The grande thing about mobygames was the database search. It reminded me of the movie "The Fugitive" with Dr.Kimble aka Harrison Ford: You would search for something, displaying the result "2000 results found"
Then you would add "show only isometic", which would mean, displaying the result "140 results found"... and so on. Everytime you specify a property, the results would narrow down until they become managable, and so on.

"now only 12 results remaining" and in the end you see, there was only a detailed view for the results that matched. Damned that this is gone! FFS!!! :sucks:

Umm... Is there something... changed? %) I see no difference. Maybe it was some secret game browser that I am not aware of?

Not a Big Deal For Me
 

It's Changed now. It looks fine to me, almost like a less clunky version of Gamespot. Don't see what the fuss is about. Everything is there, isn't it?

From what I read, there's other features which have been tampered with?

I never used the site, except as a Search engine only to find old Dos game listings, so I wouldn't know.

For what I use it for, it seems fine!

There, you've answered yourself. If you don't know a thing about something, why do you keep talking? (oh, you do love to talk...).

3 years ago the community-driven website was sold to a company.
Last year the website redesign had closed preview, which was rejected and reported as buggy.
Last month it was launched with all the bugs.
No hotfixes in 4 weeks. No communication, feedback ignored.
What's broken? Man, the list is too long: http://www.mobygames.com/forums/dga,2/dgb,4/dgm,180389/

I said I never used the site except as a search engine-- that doesn't mean never used the site...
Your post comes off as snarky... and yet, I know, it's mostly very correct :)
The situation sounds pretty dire-- Why did the site need a re-design anyway? It was working fine as far as I knew. (Which, as you prestigeously pointed out, isn't much ;))

Still though, no one can argue the search feature has been destroyed-- can they?

If I may say so, I didn't keep talking, I spoke. You're the one who continued the Convo.
Plus I made it pretty clear that I only used the site for searching-- and that otherwise I knew nothing about it-- so my belief is you (and everyone is) are more angry about the Mobygames problems than you are about my comment. Besides, you were pretty nice anyway. :)

So as far as Mobygames goes-- yikes!
Rest assured that someone will fix it eventually-- however for people who have lost lists or info, I am truely sorry.
P.S. Next time, let's try to keep Mobygames anger directed at Mobygames-- not at the noob who's never used the site except as a search. Thanks so much :)
All this said, thank you for catching me up to speed with your link. It helps :)

Uh-oh.

Seems, they totally broken everything for those who worked on site.

I was simply casual visiter, and it seems, it mostly works the same on this level. It explains, why I didn't noticed too much changes. Thank you for the link.

Exactly. But some features relevant to users also got screwed up (in addition to the generally unfriendly, wasteful and confusing layout that is). Maybe not everyone used those - like manually typing game titles in the browser address field, and the old version would bring up partial matches if you typed something wrong (in some cases this was more effective to use than the built-in search function) - but they got broken anyway, very possibly because the person who did the new design was entirely oblivious to those features' existence.

I - and quite a few veterans of Moby's - would say it only needed few critical fixes, enhancing some features would be cool (like not just a year in search, but year range). Adding a new gaming platform bimonthly wouldn't hurt either (remember my updates here?).
People who were major contributors/approvers were so used to the current interface it simply made things quicker (than learning any new one).

However I do admit the site was a bit dated. My major problem was ancient forum script: no basic formatting buttons, no link autoparsing, confusing quoting etc.

We'd probably all get used to a new design provided it wasn't completely broken as it is now.

If you were a MobyUser, one of the most annoying bugs is... only PM outbox, no inbox displayed! Shows the skills of their designer, probably a typo!
Contributing/approving is nearly impossible without internal communication.
Note how it breaks any attempts of rallying the community!

My anger is aimed at GameFly, the current owners. I hope the website starts generating loses and will drop in value, so they'll be inclined to sell it back quickly... back to the community where it belongs! We'd Kickstarter to get the database back.

I've never liked companies owning non-profit online sites.
It makes we wonder when the day is that they will say "PAH! You stupid non-profit community nonsense! You aren't helping us!" and SLAM the whole thing goes 6 feet under.

I also don't like the idea of a company owning AB, but I guess they seem like a faithful enough company.

Then again, I don't like the idea of a single person owning it either.

That one person goes down, quits, stops caring, whatever, all gone/downhill.

I wonder how a community owned site would work? I suppose 1 person would take care of most of the "Boss" stuff, and when they decided to quit, they would hand it off to another?
And for the other things, the community would do the rest?

All in all, I guess I could say I'd rather have a lot of money and own these things myself than someone else... but I don't think that's going to happen:D

So, to sum up, I don't like the idea of Gamefly, a rather small little game-rental company, owning MobyGames.

I just hope they give it away to someone good if they go out of business.

Gamefly also seems like someone who would be overly concerned with profit.
But not like I know that much about Gamefly, anyway.

That's all for me.
STUVANI

I noticed the old design looked a little old. Also, a little text heavy/ small fonted.

It worked, though, and besides, if anybody's likely to complain about Dated designs, the Dos-Game listing site's community isn't them.(I think)


So did Moby have listings for other things besides the really old stuff? Like did it have new things and such?
^^ Above comment sounds stupid but needed to be said anyway.

Toast to design improvement!

*clink*

It sounds like the best option: a non-profit association. How? Ask those guys:
http://www.oregami.org/en/association.html
http://forum.oregami.org/viewforum.php?f=39


* * *

CornPopper replied GameFly is going to have bi-weekly meetings regarding MobyGames.
Honestly, this corporate smokescreen sounds ridiculous... two weeks, online IT branch, in the age of Internet? nobody told them you can make a conference using Skype etc.? Those two weeks would be probably spent ironing their expensive suits? :palm:

The latest official statement
http://www.mobygames.com/forums/dga,2/dgb,4/dgm,182202/
only confirms my last comment:
*phone conferences ...on an online IT project? how one can describe fine changes on a website by talking on the phone?
*"missing code" - what, were they sending the floppies to a programmer in some third world country?

Screenshots don't load at all anymore. With this new design they used to work for some games a while back but now they all seem to be broken.

Tried about a dozen different games, waited for a few minutes each for the images to load but all I see is the gif animation that indicates the images are loading.

I think screenshots only loaded once for me since the change, weeks ago. :palm: This is going to be a problem. :rolleyes:

Their URLs are still in the page source. It's just that whatever script is supposed to insert them is not working right.

It's not that only veteran users - like me - don't visit it anymore.

Look how their Alexa rank is sinking.

Also, their "how fast is it loading" rating used to be "fast", so our complaints aren't made up.

Wow, are screenshots really loading finally? Better late than never.

Same for me. Today.

(It didn't work on last week, FYI). :)

I reviewed some games on there before. But sites like that benefit more from having a set of boards. I really like Chris' Survival Horror Quest, but he no longer has forums. It's hard to keep folk interested in your site when sharing info is the key to a good community.

But they do have forums?
http://www.mobygames.com/forums

Actually I think I'll join some day, specially since Abandonia is so dead :-|

Don't bother, the moby forums are dead as well after the redesign.

Probably not as dead as these :p

I've just been checking the MG forums and stumbled upon a message from one of the few remaining approvers:
This message alone gives a picture of almost total devastation that the redesign caused.

MobyGames isn't a sole example of this happening.

Wikia went through similar changes of interface that were the last drop that spilled the cup.
http://awa.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Buy_outs
Here you can read about wikis that were bribed to move to Wikia, also about wikis which moved away from Wikia - no longer wanting to generate income for people who ignore the community.


All of this sounds very discouraging when it comes to community-driven projects. Not only you work endlessly for free, but someone makes money off your workhours...

i prefer the old look of mobygames. it was more user friendly and catchy

Official reply from CornPopper (the only link between the community and GameFly), last Saturday:

Said 6 weeks after noting us that there will be staff meetings about MG.

Bravo...

I think I stopped caring.

old MobyGames is back!
 

...and in this time of great despair:

MobyGames got bought out.

The frontend was rolled back to the old design.

Don't believe me? Check it out yourselves!

That was unexpected!

To convince us that the site is alive, they've just added Playstation 4 and Xbox One to the list of platforms (of course new titles have yet to be added).


Sounds too good to be true?

Just read the news, this is awesome :D

Hurray! :D

I honestly thought that it was the end of Moby. :)

:perv:

It takes exactly five seconds with the old site to see how retarded the redesign is... actually, was :smile2:

What a pleasant surprise!

Thank God Mobygames is back again.