| ioi said:
Well this is exactly what it's all about. My feeling from speaking to non-vgchartz people is that they associate VGChartz as a brand with sales numbers - they won't come here to view news or to look up games. By making these things more prominent on the homepage and trying to position ourselves as more than just a sales site, the latest feedback is that we're actually losing sight of what the site is supposed to be about so people who visit just see it as a mis-mash of different info and are, if anything, overwhelmed by it all and just leave. So the issue is how do we integrate, build and promote features like news and the game database without detracting from the sales info and charts that are supposed to be the core focus of the site and should be positioned as such. The answer might be just to tidy the front page a little, trim down the content and make it easier to read - direct people to the news section, the games section, the forums rather than having it all on the front page itself. Part of the solution might just be to make sure people know that we have all this other content on the site and make it easy to find from the homepage. The idea of physically splitting the site into seperate domains is just one way I think we can focus more on each section. |
I like this.
If I had the choice, I'd prefer vgChartz to have a nice, clean, and uncluttered look. I don't really like the homepage now because it's just so busy. It just feels like there's so much going on but there's only a few things I'm really interested in. Most of the time when I want to look up sales, I'd rather just go to Charts and avoid touching the homepage if at all possible... but most of the people coming to vgChartz to look up sales probably go to the homepage. Maybe putting the focus of the homepage back on sales really would be for the best.
Also, to answer your original question... I come to vgChartz because this community is the best video game community on the net, bar none. The members here are quirky but they're polite and they're fun to chat with. You can have civilized conversations without people getting cussed out for their opinions, you can have intelligent conversations without pointless trolling, and many of the members here have a good sense of humor. I visit a lot of gaming communities but these are things which I can take for granted here at vgChartz that I can't do the same in many places.
Even better, almost every day I post here, I learn something new. I'm motivated to go out and pursue something I don't know much about and as a result I can better follow discussions and then contribute something back myself. I see the same thing with other members. I remember the posts from certain members a couple years ago and how corny they were, but today... today they make intelligent points and are interesting participants in discussions that range from video games to sales to completely different subjects. They've all gained something from being members of the vgChartz community.
Whatever you do with the homepage or the news or whatever, as long as the community remains as excellent as it has been these last years, I will always enjoy my visits.
