ioi said:
Don't get me wrong, I love the game collection - we spent a long time designing and building it and a lot of love went into that. But looking back now, I think it is too clumsy, too many options and not many people actually use it (beyond just adding a game). With so many games now multi-format and the rise of iOS / Android games, DLC, Facebook etc then I think for most people (outside of VGChartz) a console allegiance and being able to sort by console becomes meaningless. This was one of the big fundamental ideas with Gamewise - everything revolves around the game and the content within it rather than the SKU. This is a fundamental change compared to how most gaming sites are currently set up (and impacts on a lot of other things) but one that I think is a change for the better and how a lot of sites are going to move in the future - Gamespot has already done a halfway for example with a parent game and tabs for the different platform versions.
There were a couple of reasons for going for this, the first is neatness. If we want to create a full "wiki" for a game (levels, weapons, plot, walkthrough, collectibles etc) then it makes no sense to repeat all of this for each version of the game - the PS3 version of Black Ops 2 is near identical to the 360, PC and Wii U versions so it makes no sense to separate it out and have different entries for each and either repeat all of the wiki content or have it spread out so none of the entries are complete and you have to go between them all to find what you want. Aside from a few graphical differences, controls and sometimes release dates and minor content differences, most versions of a game are the same no matter which platform they are on.
An external issue which tipped this even further for me was a discussion we had with Gamerankings where they said that for a multi-platform game they would only count our review on the platform we reviewed it on. To me this is absurd and lacks any consistency - if a load of sites that love Far Cry 3 happened to review the 360 version and a load of other sites who hated it happened to review the PS3 version then the 360 version would have a much higher average and for no reason. With a few exceptions, most reviewers would give roughly the same score to all versions of a game (since it is fundamentally the same set of content), regardless of platform differences. This sealed the deal for me - the idea of treating each platform version of a game as its own entity is old-fashioned (back in the day when most games were exclusive) and treating the game itself as the entity is the way forward and allows for a much more productive system.
VGChartz, as we know, is fundamentally concerned with the sales of retail titles. The concept of platforms, platform comparisons etc is important here. Which version of a multi-platform game sells best is a central part of the discussion so having a database that is built around each version of a game being its own entity is important.
So we have two different systems, and the user to game following system is different in both cases. Here, you add a certain sku to your collection (even going as far as chosing which regional boxart you want) which was the right idea when we developed it and worked well. On Gamewise, tracking a game is a different thing - if I track Crysis 3 I am joining a group with everyone else tracking that game - regardless of whether I am getting it on PS3, 360 or PC. I am a Crysis 3 fan rather than a PS3 fan. Platforms aren't significant on Gamewise. We are encouraging the game profile image to be a generic box shot of the game like Wikipedia and other wiki sites use instead of a platform-specific version. When you follow a game (or indeed a person, franchise, character etc), you will be notified (via your dashboard feed) when someone edits that entity in some way (i.e adds a new section - Weapons - with a list of available weapons, or adds a new release date etc) and you will also be notified when someone adds a discussion item / article or review relating to that entity.
So, as I keep trying to point out, Gamewise and VGChartz are very different things. Gamewise is doing a lot of things that have never been done on a gaming site before but I do believe that it is the future. It will feel less like a traditional gaming website - there won't be the usual news, videos, games and forums sections like every site has copied from IGN / Gamespot (1up, GamePro, Gamesradar, Jeuxvideo, Eurogamer, Videogamer, Nowgamer etc) - we are trying to do something different. One of the many roles of Gamewise will be as a news aggregator (far more effectively than N4G, Digg etc) and on this front we will be partnering with a number of gaming blogs to pull in and syndicate their news. We will also be working with other specialist gaming sites to syndicate their content so the idea of keeping Gamewise and VGChartz linked so that doing stuff on Gamewise adds points on VGChartz just wouldn't work - we don't want Gamewise to be an extension of VGChartz but to be a stand-alone site.
|
A lot of this makes perfect sense to me, my not as subtle point was a form of integration and hybridisation.
Example. When I make a facebook account, I am able to post on other community articles using my facebook account. It doesn't make facebook and extention of those other communities, it just makes it integrated. (Example, I do it on gamrReview personally) I had mentioned branding, and I meant it. By using the Gamewise branding in vgchartz' game section you bridge your branding efforts. If it can be done without dilution of the brands and without confusion, it should be an interesting consideration.
I can see your vision ioi it's almost palpable and I am excited for you. If you were to say "you know happyd, I just really need to focus on the gamewise vision for now", then I would get it. But I'm just uneasy pretending like the integration I'm mentioning isn't possible, or couldn't be molded to to a certain extent.
Another example. You stressed that vgchartz is more about separate skus because in a sales community, what plat sells how much mattters, that makes perfect sense to me. To bridge the two, in gamewise, you would have a sub-entitly called "sku" which would be a specialization of the parent entity which is "game", with sole purpose to display the box art for that sku and link to vgchartz's sales info. When it's created, in either vgchartz or gamewise, the two entities will be mirrored. The problem's solved ;)
I'm not saying "do it", I'm just saying "think about it" :)
And, really, I appreciate your answers. And I'm starting to appreciate your support for vgchartz even if your monetary future might be in another endeavor. Either way I'm excited for you and wish you much success. Just bear with us when sometimes we feel like you're absent or are frustrated that some features here feel broken or unsupported. We spend a lot of time here and have lots of wishes for this place, but I'm starting to realize you have big plans and I'm a man of ambition too, I support you.
Little request then, since vgc is taking 2nd place, try to open the doors to some of us helping with the code and making the site more feature rich. I personally would love to be on the dev team.
