So... What's the plan for VGC going forward?

[Anfebious]

spemanig said:

Well I specifically said articles instead of stories because VGC could has a major focus on sales based articles, which other gaming sites do not delve deep into. The reason why articles are important is because sales data is worthless without someone to interpret it. They are also important because, as I've mentioned, the sales can't be updated regularly enough to be interesting on its own. A website that can only update its primary form of content once a week can't stand on its own. Having articles focus on sales, in the best case scanario, will be able to justify the relevance of tracking these sales numbers regularly. It's important because it will garner far more intrest in sales numbers than the sales numbers themselves could ever garner, and that's important for site growth.

I don't think the issue is that the Gaf page is dated, but rather that it's not at all well suited for the kind of content VGC provides. It's made for forums because it is exclusively a forum, so it wouldn't make sence to have that format for sales and articles. Sales numbers can't be updated frequently enough to merit primary space on the site, and if the front page is only articles and sales anyway, that's like 40% of the screen if it's given secondary screen space. That the same as the forum tab + the VGCBuddy combined. So it's not like it wouldn't get a very noticable amount of focus. I just think that you refresh the page everyday, and the primary focus of the site isn't changing, or is confusing to garner like it is now, that's death for the site.

I think it needs to be big because if the main focus is the sales, and the sales only update once a week, the site won't get as many hits. If the article get big headers and a lot of screen space, they'll get noticed, and they'll get more clicks, and the site will hopefully get more revenue that way, and definitely more traffic.

If it were me, It'd look a bit like this

EDIT: Okay clearly I can't accurately articulate this through text art.

Articles to interpet the sales data are ok but I feel that's not enough. Leaving that kind of discussion to the members of the site is where it's at. We used to have big threads about sales (we need to invigorate the forums). Sales articles get stale, threads can keep them alive.

Which is why i think a more "forum focused" approach is the way to go (that is why I propose the Neogaf template) . Build a bigger community by handing "reliable" week to week sales numbers and making the forums a more simplified experience. I do agree with you that sales articles should have big headers and be on the main page! (without making them occupy all the screen)

That's my idea, I might be completely wrong. I don't have a lot of data to judge from, I would need a lits of active forum members and a list of commonly clicked links in VG Chartz  to see if my idea is even worth it. Maybe people enter VG Chartz just to see the articles.

PS: Too bad, I really wanted to see the text art model of the website!