My negative feedback on GameSpot's new website

So I haven't tried everything the new site has to offer, which means this won't be a full list of my concerns, but some things I've been using and I'd like to put forward my feedback, hoping you'll take notice.

1 - Games that were available on the old site are now gone and can't be added to a stack or individually found. One example of this is "Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team" which is exclusive to the GBA, yet, it's completely gone. Instead, if you go to the page for "Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team" (which is a DS exclusive), it now says the game is available for DS and GBA... which is false. It does make me think you combined the two games, which is a big problem for people who own both and understand the differences between them.

2 - In the old site, every version of a game had its own page. This was good because some of us have the same game on multiple platforms. Now it's been "dumbified" to only register the game once, listing "alternate platforms" on the sidebar... please, bring back the ability to have platform-specific choices.

3 - In the old site it was already a bit of a pain if I wanted to find "all games" from an old platform, but at least it was an obvious process: select "all games" and then filter by platform. Now, I simply can't find a link to a game list for anything other than "Nintendo", "Playstation", "Xbox" and "PC". Clicking on any of those gives me the option to filter individual consoles from that line but even that doesn't work right, so I'll divide this issue into two.

3.1 - If I go to "PlayStation" and then select "PlayStation 2 - all games", I still get entries from other consoles which are not the PS2. (non-issue, it's either fixed, or I misread PS3 for PS2)

3.2 - I want to find a list of "all games" for the Sega Dreamcast... how can I do it? Right now, it seems I just can't.

4 - Adding games to stacks doesn't work very well. It gives us 3 options regardless of how many stacks you actually have. A simple drop down menu with all your stacks would be appreciated.

5 - Speaking of stacks, I can create them, but can't sort them. What if I want one of my older stacks to be on top when I visit my stacks page? Just like I can number the games inside the stacks, so they are ordered the way I want, it would be nice to be able to do the same with the stacks themselves.

I'm sure there's more that could be improved on the site, and I have purposely ignored minor things like aesthetic problems (for now) but I'll add more as I find them..

Thank you.

I don't use Gamespot much anymore, this is the first time I have actually logged in for probably two years. But it is to say what the hell is up with this new layout Gamespot. It doesn't really look appealing and it seems to have lost much of its functionality. I may not have used GS much anymore, but I won't be using it at all now.

@EvanescentCrow: Rather than spam the forum with new topics, I'll just add to my previous one.

6 - When watching a previously read thread, there doesn't seem to be any indication of which messages are new (unless you memorize how many you read last time). You're probably working on this already because it's one of the bigger problems I've found so far, but want to add my support to see this up the list of fixes.

7 - I can "Flag" or "Edit" my blog entries, but I can't seem to find a way to "Delete" them.

8 - The above is also a problem on my feed. I uploaded a couple of images the other day, but decided I didn't want one of them so I deleted it, however, my feed still says I "uploaded" it. I wish I could remove that from my feed since it's completely irrelevant now.

I'll keep sharing my feedback as needed, but that's it for today.

@EvanescentCrow: Yep every problem you mention bothers me to a huge degree, especially not having different console releases of games be separated. That is just silly and defeats the entire purpose of rating and reviewing anything.

Please Gamespot upload the Downloads button for every game.Gamespot was the Authority of updates on every single game since the dial up era. Do not become every other gaming website. Distinguish yourself.

Thank you in advance

@EvanescentCrow: Part 3 of my feedback.

First of all, note a correction I made in the first post, regarding point 3.1. There is no PS2 option when you click "Playstation" on the new GameSpot menu and I couldn't recreate the problem with PS3, so it was either fixed, or I must have imagined the problem. Anyway, I crossed it out.

9 - I'm using Firefox 25.0.1 and I haven't tested this in other browsers, but all screenshots in review pages (and, I assume, elsewhere) are expanded to fill the browser. This isn't a big issue with modern games, but if you check older games, it becomes a pixelated mess. My screen resolution is 1680x1050 and a Final Fantasy X review screenshot looks like Minecraft.

10 - Avatars don't appear in comment sections. This has been resolved and the process is explained in the following thread: Avatar resynch. The reason I'm adding this anyway is because I noticed this thread is getting many views, and people tend to ignore "stickies", so this may help. It was reported it works on Chrome, and I confirm it works on Firefox.

11 - I can't find a way to legally shoot people who whine about the new site. Because it's clearly one of the most annoying aspects of GameSpot right now. Ok, so this one is a joke, don't take it seriously, but really, what this site needs is constructive criticism, not constant whining and threats of leaving, or whatnot. The new GameSpot looks more modern and shows great potential. It needs its kinks worked out, and I'm giving it a fair shot.

11 (real) - "Full Edit" exploit. I just noticed that if I want my thread to be on top of everyone else, all I need to do is keep using the Full Edit option. It catapults my message to the top, even if all I did was add a strike through. I would suggest you create something that forces people to only use it when absolutely necessary - like adding a query that says "add a reason why you want to edit this", which could then be accepted or refused by a moderator.

An alternative (to avoid stressing the mods) would be to create a limit of how many times a user can use the Full Edit option. Most forums accept "bumping" a thread if it's done just once every 24h, so that sounds like a decent limit to me.

EDIT: Actually, it seems any form of "Edit" does this. I just used normal "edit" to upload some images, and now my thread is at the top again. I'll take the opportunity to add one more issue I just found.

12 - Adding images to forum posts is a nightmare. The site doesn't seem to respect the original file size. Even if I pick "small", it still bloats it (observe point 6, above, for one of the worse examples). I can't even center it without choosing "Large". I wish I had more control over the size and positioning of images so it wouldn't be such a mess.

That's it for today. Thanks for reading.

I agree that people should really stop whining about the new site.

@EvanescentCrow: Part 4 is as follows:

13 - Inability to watch older video reviews. There's a sticky with a workaround for people with problems watching new videos ( Video problems - Ad blocker awareness ) but this issue I'm referring to is particular to older content, and is NOT related with ad blocking software. I explained the problem in more detail on the linked thread but, put simply, videos like the video review for "Forza Motorsport 4" or "Final Fantasy XII" only run their ad in the beginning, and then "hang", never playing the review itself. There may be many other videos, even gameplay videos, that suffer from this, but I haven't tested it.

14 - Auto-follow is the spawn of the devil. I made the "mistake" of posting a few comments during the Xbox One launch streams, and my inbox was showered with e-mails because I didn't noticed I automatically "followed" the comment section. There should be, at least, an option to have it on or off but, by default, it should be off, so I can follow only what I want, when I want. Even deleting my comments from those comment sections made no difference, and since there are no links to it on the front page, I had to manually look for them in the "All Videos" option... because searching for "PS4 stream" in the search bar resulted in a barren wasteland. So, in short:

Please, don't make me automatically follow something I posted on.

15 - If possible, allow the search bar to cover more of GameSpot content (this will only work if we have access to filters, though, or it will become a mess of partial results that will take forever to go through).

Thank you.

EDIT: Couple more issues.

16 - I can't unfollow games. I can unfollow people (just tried that with Jess McDonald and worked fine), but any game I try to "unfollow", simply reverts back to after I navigate away from the game page, and my profile (Following page) still says I'm following it, of course.

17 - Also, it would be nice if I could unfollow people and games directly from my Following page, rather than actually having to open each individual game page or person profile to unfollow them.

I agree heartily with all of the above.

currently, the only form of search that has any filters that are marginally as good as before is when searching for games. if you search the entire site though, the filters are pretty near useless.

@EvanescentCrow: Just because a vast majority feels the new layout sucks doesn't mean they're whining. They're simply voicing their opinions. Just look at the amount of views for this compared to your positive feedback thread.

considering that positive feedback thread hasn't been around as long as this one, I doubt it will have anywhere near the amount of views this one has.

There's a difference between "feedback" (voicing opinion, as you say) and "whining" (threats of leaving, for instance). I appreciate the community feedback, even when I don't agree with it, but I roll my eyes at the whining.

Second, your concept of "vast majority" is debatable. The "vocal majority" (a more appropriate term) has complained about it, but that hardly covers the entire GameSpot user community - I'd risk saying the "vast majority" simply doesn't care enough to come here and give their feedback to begin with, which could be interpreted as "they are fine with it".

Third, (as leon wisely pointed out) this topic has been up for 11 days, while the "positive" one has been up for 2. Do the math.

Regardless, thank you for bumping the thread.

@EvanescentCrow: It's not like this is a fast moving forum where threads are being pushed back to the 2nd and 3rd page. Both of your threads are still on the front page so the thread bumps and amount of days both threads have been up doesn't really make much of a difference.

In any case, whether the 'majority' of users leave their feedback here or elsewhere, or even choose to remain silent on the issue, I think it's safe to say more frequented users agree that the new layout sucks overall with the negatives clearly outweighing the positives.

Even with the threats of leaving, it's still just people expressing their disappointment with the radical, sudden changes to their familiarity with the old layout. Many useful features like unions, video downloads and rank sorting through filters, have all been scrapped for the sake of change.

This is true. The old site, I would say had the best updates and patches for any new and old games. So, when I found out that they are going to change the site and get rid of the download section. The first thing I did was download all the files and patches of old games that I have.

Looking at the new site now, good thing I did.

Already said in #15 by Crow, but I'd like to reiterate: lack of search filters. I used to be able to search for games based on genre so I could focus on news, reviews and rating for what I play; now I can't and have to sift through oodles of stuff I don't care for before getting to what I want. I don't care that they changed the UI of the site; cosmetics, whatever, we can get used to that. What I'm at a loss to understand is why they've downright removed very useful tools and functionality in this "update". Imagine Honda coming out with a new car that has a carburetor instead of fuel injection, no power-steering and the CD player is replaced with an 8-track....

4, 5, and 16. GS, for the love, please fix the stacks. Or at least just make the games list pages like the old site.

supposedly, the stacks bug is being worked on.

@EvanescentCrow: Part 5

18 - For some reason, after editing my other thread (first post), clicking the forum name ("Bug Reporting") at the top-left, led me to the home page, and not where it should. Just vising a thread to read it doesn't seem to create this problem (at least, it didn't now). I'm posting this to see if replying to a thread also recreates the problem, and will edit in the answer.

EDIT: No, the link worked just fine. Let's see how it handles this simple "edit".

EDIT2: I cannot recreate the problem. It was a random "hiccup", apparently. Tried "Edit" and "Full Edit" in this thread, and the link worked fine both times. Weird.

EDIT3: Figured it out. It only happens in the top link because it takes a few seconds to load the space between the link and the GameSpot logo (which is what actually takes you to the home page, of course). If you click that area too quickly, before the page fully loads, it will register the GS logo link, and not the forum name (where the mouse is actually hovering). If I wait a few seconds, the space "pops" (pushing the link down) and I can now click the link just fine without bumping into the site's logo link.

this usually seems to happen because ad-block is on.

The stacks arent the biggest issue;

It's the amount of things they removed ,and dumbed down.

that is definitely a big issue. though technically its comprised of all these smaller issues.

I don't think the stacks are the biggest issue either, but it's still worth listing, IMO.

Regarding the dumbification/oversimplification or removal of features, I'm thinking maybe the intention was to "open beta test" the site before adding them back?

Hopefully, that's the case.

as a long time user of this site, i must admit that i absolutely cannot use this site anymore. everything about this site is wrong. the layout is atrocious. i could go on for hours about what i find wrong with this site, but whats the point? it wont solve anything. the old site was so user friendly, the exact opposite of what this newer layout offers. i dont game too often any more, but gamespot.com will no longer be my go-to gaming site for any information i seek. super lame, guys.

I completely agree with the initial post on this forum. I've had issues with older versions of games being condensed with newer versions on a single web page. Robocop for Commodor 64 w/Robocop for Xbox/PS2 release date Q4 1988... what?! The non-sortable stacks are completely counter intuitive and it makes me upset to have to put in hours of work over time to sort my 'stacks' the way I want instead of just being able to sort them by console or release date with the click of a button like I was able to with the 'game lists'. I hope Gamespot fixes these issues and or returns to its previous 'lists' format some day soon as it was my most frequently used feature of the site and there was nothing like it (and now there IS nothing like it) on the internet.

I agree that there are definitely more pressing issues than stacks, and that even though, stacks should still be addressed eventually.