I think this Christmas is going to be/could be a very good period for the site.

If we pump out sales data and articles in that period (like How the Slim has affected things, Black Friday numbers, This Christmas sales vs Last Christmas Sales etc), and give out reviews fairly quickly on all the popular releases (Modern Warfare, Halo, GT5 etc) then there will be alot of good reasons for people to come here.

A focus on the community, reviving off topic again, and mote important :

I know it takes longer to release the weekly numbers, but I don't even know or even care when those number show up anymore. All I remember was Monday night 400 strong members used to show up and discuss numbers, now that's gone. In short, schedule it even if it's at the end of the week.

That's a much nicer story then how I got here....I went to SDF, they used one of the chartz and messed it up. I wanted to see how bad of a site this was that SDF used their numbers...well I liked it lurked for 2 days and joined...

Well I'l certainly try and post all appropriate content of ours out there on any game news hub sites I come along.

It might only get us a few extra hits, but it's all about getting the name out there.

I personally think that the Off-Topic discussion is the best it ever has been. But, then, that's because I have a big interest in politics/economics. Perhaps a few more light humour threads could be made, but sure as hell ain't gonna do it - people don't appreciate my humour.

I agree with your second statement, though, I also think that a big cause of the death of these discussions is that the numbers are boring. Damned recession, nothing ever happens quickly. I remember last year, consoles were hitting major milestones quite frequently, not so much anymore. Perhaps ioi should start throwing more spanners in the works, major adjustments will get interest going again.

If that seems somewhat immoral, just think: WWFD (What would Fox do?)

Here's my summary of Off Topic:

"Bla bla bla Obama sucks, we're all doomed."

"Post what the person above you is wearing!"

"Here's why Obama sucks."

"Post what the person above you is thinking!"

"Did I mention that Obama sucks?!!"

"Post in this thread to raise your post count."

"Original thre-oh shit off the page."

@Monti Don't make me bring Hitler into this discussion.

A portal would be great.

I like the new design, but in my opinion the homepage is extremely cluttered. Meanwhile all features get their own section on the homepage - latest news, latest videos, latest screenshots and so on, even latest cheats.

But why do we come here? For many members it's of course the forums, but it was first and foremost the sales data what brought us all here and what distincts this site from all other videogame sites on the web. With the new design the sales data on the homepage don't stand out anymore from other features like they used to in my opinion. Maybe this is preventing visitors more and more from clicking on the sales data - just a guess.

The VGChartz games database on the other hand is meanwhile the best I've ever seen on the web. The new design and content of the game DB pages is excellent, thanks to you and all the admins and helpers involved. In my opinion you included the sales section on the game pages better than on the front page and on a game page there's every info about a game available at one glance:

Sales history from all three regions, boxarts, release dates, other versions, ratings, "edit game" section, "need help?" section, alternative names, dev/publisher, genre, latest updates, summary/FAQs/cheats/screens/extras, links to 3 different types of reviews (VGC/users/critics), related news, community stats and members' opinions.

All information someone could ever ask for is avaiailable on one single game page and yet - unlike the homepage - the game pages don't look cluttered at all to me. Excellent layout IMO on the games pages. The downside: In order to get there you have lots of possiblities, e.g. "Home" => "Latest Charts/Browse Games/Reviews/Videos/Release Dates", "Wii" => "Wii Reviews/Wii Most Popular/Wii Cheats/Browse Wii Games/Wii User Reviews/Wii Screenshots" (same with the 5 other systems), "Charts" =>"Totals/World/Japan/Americas/Others" and so on.

This site has so much great stuff to offer, but I think that meanwhile some of the best features are buried under a labyrinth with endless doorways. Whenever I need a rest from the homepage and repetitive forum topics ("slim PS3!", "yet another Wii bashing journalist", "Forza 3 will smash GT5", "Shipped = Sold to customer?" ), I visit my favourite VGChartz sections like Game Pages, Games Search, Worldwide Total Sales, Hardware Table/by Date/From Launch and of course the Weekly Charts - all these sub sections are not only the most important ones of VGChartz IMO, they are also clearly and excellently designed and should be easily accessible (one way if possible). The sales  sections should dominate the homepage in my opinion.

This could be a tad unrealistic, but perhaps actually getting something done with N4G, where they have the a direct-feed of the latest figures (like that Kombo site, or whatever it was) - N4G (I assume) is one of the larger sites out there, and getting some official representation there could also help credibility.

Or, you could send out Missionaries to go trawling through Digg, Youtube and N4G comment sections, trying to convert as many as possible