The New Shiny Escapist

[MistahFixIt]

Okay, I decided to use SCIENCE! rather than complain:

PageSpeed Report: [https://developers.google.com/pagespeed/#url=http_3A_2F_2Fwww.escapistmagazine.com_2F&mobile=false]

~ Failed to Reach 2 times out of 3
~ Report Score of 87 / 100 (...Huh. Didn't expect such a high score.)

AccessColor Report: [http://www.accesskeys.org/tools/color-contrast.html]

~ Both color difference and color brightness do not meet the recommended standard for 0% of the total text.

~ Either color difference or color brightness does not meet the recommended standard for 41.65% of the total the text.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Man a lot more rage than I expected, the forum is exploding with hate and its bot even that bad. I like this layout as well and I'm already used to this layout so if people want to rage about it that's fine but i will still be here shaking my head at them.

Did you notice the target of the rage? Not many people are saying "This is awful, your website is bad and you should feel bad" but there are a whole lot of people saying "well, I suppose I could get used to it, except for the bright white background.

It's a fairly minor amount of griping, considering such a massive website overhaul. I won't lie, I preferred the old layout, but I'm willing to give the new one a chance. Just as soon as it stops giving me headaches :-/

Guess what every other post in the PubClub early viewing thread was about? It used to be even more bright.

 

[JdaS]

One of the top boxes is overlapping with the news feed thingy, not sure I like that the video sidebar is gone and all around sluggishness has been detected. I'm willing to give it a shot anyway. Not like this is the only website that's trying new looks to varying degrees of success. Can't please everyone.

 

[514d3]

Just in case no one has mentioned this yet (which they probably have), the Zero Punctuation page is broken. Someone needs to set the width of those divs and float them to the left!

Not sure if this will help but eh... Here is some css that'll fix it right up.

.filmstrip_video {
width: 157px;
float: left;
}

 

[bismarck55]

Old Escapist was (imo) one of the most attractively designed and user-friendly gaming sites on the web. But, YOU MANIACS BLEW IT UP!

This is the worst site redesign I can remember.

 

[Skarvig]

There seems to be a misunderstanding. I come to the Escapist for Video Content. I love shows like The Big Picture or Loading Ready Run's Sketches. Do you know what you did? You hid them from me! Where is that neat little Series Index? You write that it is easier to find what is new and hot? NO! It is not! It's the same as before! New featured content is on the top end, like before. New news are in the middle, like before! It now looks cluttered and not finished. The white also makes the site look like my browser died halfway loading this site. The big blue bars on top and bottom look like they don't belong there.
Seriously this is what you guys are spending money on? Not so long ago you lost shows like Extra Credits because of fiscal problems! And you spend money trying to fix something that surely wasn't broken. At least give me an option to change it back to "normal".

 

[Volstag9]

I was going to say that i thought it was fine... then it took 4 minutes to go to the next page of this thread. I have a feeling that its just due to the high traffic since people are checking out the new changes and complaining about them. To be honest i have no idea how servers work.

Other than that the main issue is the color and how it hurts everyone's eyes... but i suppose you guys already know that.

The layouts nice though well most of it anyway.

 

[Alexander Cunningham]

It is waaaaaay to bright. and I miss the video sidebar SO MUCH. BRING IT BACK AND I CAN LIVE WITH EYEBALL RAPE.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Definitely missing the community tab right now. I liked selecting my user groups from there as opposed to the group tab in my profile, which I've commented on here before. I miss the list of user groups accompanied with avatars and descriptions. Now I need to remember what group is what and who is in it...

Also if there was an option to switch between a duller background blue and Grey scheme or whatever we had before it would be nice. I love this site, I don't want to get headaches from spending the hours I enjoy here normally!

 

[JokerboyJordan]

Change the blue to darker and use something on the borders to cover up the white other than an advertisement and it'll be okay.

Seriously though, the change is mediocre, I know I'll get used to it, but the old site with the old news bar and colour scheme was far more homely.
Like someone else said, it reminds me of facebook and that's not good.

Meh, I could've done better.

everything he said. And tho it does look kinda remind me of facebook, it somehow looks worse;

Another thing: I did not even realise I had been quoted.
On the old site I would see a (1) at the top of my tab/browser; that's not happening now.

I have no way of knowing of my notifications other than a tiny number right in the corner, rather than the central profile and red lettering of the old site.

Not letting us even see or even know about the change unless we paid for the privilege is disgusting practice.

Hell, I might pay for the privilege just to change it back to the old layout, so could you get to work on that?
That's a way to please your user base at least.

 

[zephyron]

I appreciate the work that's been done to the site. Unfortunately, I can't say I'm a huge fan. My biggest issue is that as a very regular reader, I liked the old default feed of "all news, features and videos" so that I could easily consume the content you guys were providing. Now I can't find something like that, I have to search through curated sections to see if there's anything I don't recognize, as well as go through several different places to find that information.
This seems fine for the occasional reader of The Escapist (and I imagine most of your traffic comes from them, so I can understand why you'd want to target them), but for me I am just frustrated.

 

[Appleshampoo]

I gotta say, I'm not a fan of this look.

When I first loaded it up I thought I my internet messed up and it loaded a 'basic' look that you get sometimes when websites don't load up properly.

 

[Tiersie]

So is a search bar for seperate video sections ever going to happen? I'm at the point now where I almost know the page number for every ZP review by heart, but still an individual search bar would be helpful and honestly seems pretty mandatory for a video distribution site by now.

For more general feedback:
- I honestly thought it accidentally loaded the mobile web page when I first saw the new layout, there's just so much space to the left and right with pure whiteness that I immediately assumed the page hadn't loaded properly. Please use that space for something else than gigantic ad bars in the future, a rehash of the old sidebar with the hotlinks to individual series would be nice. It's inviting to new visitors who are not acquainted with all the series and easier to navigate for experienced users.

- Some options for color palet changes would be nice. While I'm typing this my eyes are beginning to strain.

 

[TimeLord]

since the site was released to the Publishers Club a few days ago based on our own feedback. So keep in mind that some changes were made based on the comments made by members of this community.

(Ah, this little gem needs to be spread round. In the end it's the PubClub chaps who deserve to wield the megaphone.)

I'm not sure if that's praise or scorn for the PubClubbers but either way I should point out that the PubClub should not accept praise or scorn for any changes made. And even then they were only a few annoyances. Like the message alert thing and Active User Group and Active Friends drop downs were added/altered based on our advice. I just want to make it clear that the PubClub did not design the update. That was all down to the hard work of the artists and Tech Team and hamsters. We only came in at the end and tore holes in their work which they graciously altered for us!

Basically my point was that fellow users helped with little bits of the site. Regardless of PubClub membership or not and my god I really sound like I'm trying to dig a hole for myself here but it's really hard to put across what I'm trying to say without sounding like a complete git!

Maybe it would be better to forget I wrote this? xD

 

[ekimekim]

The main features I used on the old site:
* The "not just news but everything chronologically" feed on the home page
* The column sidebar

Guess what's gone?

EDIT: Oh yeah, and the old site option isn't working. Before you ask, yes I am a pub club member. Yes I was logged in.

 

[Tamrin]

My first impression was a bit negative to see the redesign, but I'm trying to adjust to it and give it a chance instead of RAGE posting. However, I'm having a lot of trouble navigating from page to page on the site. Severe loading issues have me constantly re-clicking or reloading and that is more of a hassle than actually adjusting to all this. Horribly buggy right now.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Interface itself is not too bad, but the colour scheme was definitely a step in the wrong direction. It looks like some people working on this had a spreadsheet fixation. Why so sterile and white?

 

[teebeeohh]

while i don't initially hate the new look(which is usually do) the videos crash on me and the site is loading really really slowly.

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

The layout is pretty cool, although the colors could be a bit easier on the eyes.

it is running really slowly though, and sometimes pages don't even load for me

 

[Tiger Sora]

I've two problems with the new.... everything. One it's slow. But I guess in time that can be fixed. and secondly. Too much white in the background and it's hard on the eyes. Could use the side bars like the blue ones that used to be there.

Otherwise it all seems pretty good from a visual view. I've yet to delve into any new features yet. But I expect I shall soon.