To be honest I doubt VGC will ever be able to truly break into the gameguides market, thats already entirely saturated.

Reviews is slightly different, there is a possibility that VGC could become a credible review site but certainly not one of the dominant players.

I think the focus needs to be on sales and data, its what makes this site unique and in my opinion the only thing that has made it big. It offers a service that nobody else offers and so people of course come and visit.

Forums, Sales numbers, Charts, Community, and now Reviews

Now you're talking, boss!

Now, if it wouldn't be too much of a bother, could you tell TalonMan to implement my feature for the database that I suggested months and months ago? He would kind of have to listen to you.

For the numbers and news. Gamespot is late on news...

The game database would be al ot better if there were more incentives. Whenever a new feasture is announced people are excited about it for a couple of days, and then queickly forget about it. 

Plus there are absoleutely no incentives to writing a user review

What about the Reviews?

I can't figure out why I've lost or am losing interest.

I doubt it's the interface though - probably the news section doesn't provide what I'm looking for anymore.

But that's not something I believe can be affected at least not directly by you.

Maybe it has to do more with my own path of less gaming and thus I care less about what others think of gaming.

I don't think there needs to be any major emphasis put on the forums and community. Those aspects will just keep rolling along smoothly, and us (the members) are going to continue posting.

If we focus on Sales data (most importantly), News, Reviews and the Database - then hopefully the site will expand and more people will be tempted to join the forums. 

Yep I agree with these 4 areas, and again I would put exclusive Features like interviews, reports, analysis, regional breakdowns of HW and SW, roundtables, right at the top with the sales charts. Then the general news, hands on, previews and reviews can be separated and go lower.

I can't help but feel VGchartz has lost some of its roots. I come here for the sales data and secondly for the forum (while waiting for the sales data lol). The ONE THING this site has that no other gaming site has is its sales data. Many sites have gaming news, gaming videos, gaming reviews, gaming you-name-it. No one has sales data except vgc.

With vgc 2.0 the sales data seem buried. Back when it was vgc 1.0 the color template made the sales numbers stand out. In 1.0, even a casual visitor could come here, glance at the home page and see the sales data right there on the side. Now the main screen is dominated by loads of other things that detrace from what built the site from the beginning. The main page is a bit overwhelming to the point that I even forget to see if new sales data is up.

I like the idea you mentioned about the domain being a webportal that branches you off into. But I also thing a different color palette will help make the site look more attractive. Maybe selectable themes? Let me put it this way, I with 1.0 i used to be able to get away with being on vgc cuz at work because at quick glance, the people walking by didn't exactly know i was on a gaming site. With 2.0, I have to minimize it at any sudden sound.

Wrong. NeoGAF is at a higher rank than us, and from what I've seen, they work on community alone. Community is very important to a gaming website. The site hasn't been expanding, even with all these additions. Working more and more on the issue just won't solve it. We need to make major changes, and we need to bring back the kind of community that this site used to have. Where the trolls were truly CRAZZY, and the comedians were actually funny.