Here are some changes I would like to make to the front page. Honestly there's a lot of stuff on there... and not a lot of it is being used. The most anyone will do is either click the forum link, the chat link, or iMAGine to upload pics... and that's about it, other than checking for any new announcments.

So here's what I'd do away with:

Top users: While it was a good idea... being on the front page hasn't pushed anyone to try and change their MP. So it's been sitting there not doing anything.

Featured Review, Preview, and Articles: I think they can be moved to the top of the actually review, preview, article page respectively (which, technically it already is... making it a bit redundant). And speaking of redundant, Latest Content is just a mirror image of the featured review, preview and articles. If you wanted to keep this, It wouldn't be a big deal as it doesn't take up near as much room. Or get rid of this and keep the left pane... just whatever you think works better.

As for featured games, I'd take that away and replace it with something else. And this is the main point of this suggestion. I really like the top lists we have. But getting to them isn't going to be easy for visitors to the site. And we don't really check them all that often even as members... so here's my idea.

Make top 5 lists of these three categories: Most downloaded, Top Rated, and Most recent. And put them all in the right pane. This way whenever a visitor sees the front page, there's at least 15 suggestions for games they should play. Not only is it good for visitors to see what's here, but it'll get us (the creators) more attention and more downloads. And it might inspire creators to try to get more stuff up if it'll get them a spot in these lists.

And also, I would like to bring back the Dev Stuido announcment box on the front page. The reason I think it was taken down was just the lack of updates durring our magpathy stage... but now, I think it's time to bring it back as there's a lot going on. And again, more traffic from visitors. As well as insintive for dev stuido owners.

Oh and keep latest issue on the front page as well.

But yeah, that's kind of what I'm thinking.

The problem with using top lists on the front page as a mode of suggesting games to users is that these lists don't change very often. It'll change quite frequently at first as a games particular stats change based on user comments/ratings/downloads while everything is stabilizing, but once it stabilizes people will get used to seeing the same lists each time they access the front page. Then they'll stop looking at the lists at all, or much less frequently

A feed that displays 5 random games from a larger top list would probably be more relevant. At least then, people know the games aren't totally randomly generated and that whatever is showing does have good status in one or more top list. A fully random generator that doesn't take its feed from larger top lists, on the other hand, will have very little meaning at all because people have no way of knowing if what is showing is trash or not.

So, yeah, I'd say 5 random taken from larger top lists is probably the best compromise.

/flee

You bring up a good point. I think that would be a good idea... either way, I think it would be a good idea to get some games on the front page other than just the featured games section.

I agree with pretty much everything that's been said. Stythe's idea makes the most sense, it keeps the list from never changing.

I'm looking at the top list page right now, so I'm going to go over what I think would be best fitting for the front page.

Most downloaded might not be a good choice as the most downloaded games aren't really hurting for downloads, right? Most commented wouldn't be all that great because the most commented game hasn't even hit 5 comments yet (and the only reason it has 4 is because the comment section kind of screwed up). And most the time, if someone has something to say, they'll go to the creator him/herself or just post in that person's studio.

That said, out of the already exsisting database, the best choice seems to be the games listed by the highest score upon review. And out of the 25 titles in that list, pulling 3 to 5 of them randomly WOULD be the best way to go. But that still leaves quite a bit of room to fill on the front page, so I would still recommend either keeping the featured section and/or adding most recently uploaded game/demo.

And the dev stuido update section...

I just want to see a field for comments like this nifty quick reply that I didn't have to go find or click to show. Makes commenting less like work. And yes, most of us are THAT lazy

As someone who uploads content regularly, I actually like seeing myself on the top users list. (Take that, Duel!) But I think the system is a little broken. I mean, comments give more MP than a full game. And one could really do either at the drop of a hat.

As for the featured preview, review, features....we don't exactly have a lot of new content in that way, so we probably should drop it.

I'd love to agree with you on the development news update section Lantis...but honestly, most of the development studios just aren't active enough for that I think.