Jav_NE Posted July 3, 2007 Posted July 3, 2007 Hey guys, As a long-time staff member and forumite of N-E i have recently become curious as to where the market for online gaming websites is heading. Now in order to know where its going, i thought it appropiate to find out where its been. Which is where you come in; i only visit the same few gaming websites regularly, and thought it obvious that you guys would be the ones to ask about the industry on a wider scale. So lets analyse; we all know there are the big guns in the business, so what has made them so great? For each of these websites (and any other you find appropiate), try and think about the following: 1: IGN 2: GameSpot 3: Eurogamer 4: Games Radar 5: N-E (just for fun) What does the site offer and how is the user experience? What do you like about the site? What dont you like? What benefits do they provide for regisitering? What are their unique selling points, and is that clear? What is their best feature? Now, finally, the most important question; What would you like to see on a gaming website that you perhaps havn't come accross before? Maybe my ever-ticking mind with such nonsense will help evolve N-E :p
thirtynine. Posted July 3, 2007 Posted July 3, 2007 I dont use any of those sites for news. http://www.gonintendo.com for news, i use ign sometimes when i quickly want to find a review of an older game or something but i rearely use it or the others due to there generally horrible layouts (altho N-europes is actuallty the best out of all of them and one of the best ive seen on a gaming site in a while). The things i really like are gonintendo. There writing style is fresh there podcasts are pretty damn good. and its a fresh feel to gaming news the blog formulae really works for me personally, and you dont have to regester to get anything.
corkcrumbs Posted July 3, 2007 Posted July 3, 2007 before I registered here I was a member to gamespot and your "rival" cubed-3, but that didn't mean I didn't frequent this site.. I did, a lot "frequent a site a lot"; a swedish word for that would be taftologi, when u repeat something, I don't know the english word for that, but anyhow... It would be pointless for me to compare IGN and gamespot since I'm a member to gamespot but not to IGN, thus I have never been to the IGN forum, but the gamespot forums are a bit dull in that there aren't that many interesting people there, but at the same time it feels like there are a lot of people there all the time, so it's always a good site to "test" ideas on. (I often "test" game ideas I have to see what people think about them.) the reason why I went with cubed-3 prior to arriving here at NE was because they had such a great layout to their site, it's really one of the most appealing internet sites out there, very clean and easy to navigate, and they have a little sidebar that lets you know which thread is the most active one at the moment, which is something I miss here at NE. Other than that, NE and cubed-3 are very similar: good articles, lots of members, good layout. You might wonder why I'm considering migrating to NE, and it's because I don't work too well with the members at cubed-3 so... now I'm here instead, or that of course depends on if I feel welcomed and not disliked by members here. And by the way Jav... I'm very interested in writing articles for this site What would it take for me to be allowed to write an article here?
KKOB Posted July 3, 2007 Posted July 3, 2007 Missed off 1up.com-i love their editor blogs and their points system, i also love the way their podcasts and video podcasts and features help you kinda get to know the editors there. The front end of the site is nice and clean but has a lot of information, and it isn't sidebar hell like ign-i HATE that site.
Guest Stefkov Posted July 3, 2007 Posted July 3, 2007 ign I just check really quickly for news on games I want news on. Naruto for the 360 is what I've been mainly going there for recently. I've never signed up to the place, the news was free so I didnt see the point. It looks so cluttered though, that's what puts me off it. Don't check the other sites much, apart from N-E, which I check for news once every while. I have it as an RSS in my vista sidebar. So no need to go to the main site
Daft Posted July 3, 2007 Posted July 3, 2007 Kotaku (Really don't like the new lay out) and GoNintendo are the way to go. I think mainly because they get updated a lot every day. Otherwise, out of that list, I only read them if they have a feature article on a game I'm interested in. Actually, I love Eurogamer. Its got an awesome balance of features and reviews. I like the ratings out of 10. The comments are always good to read. And it is updated quite a lot aswell. One thing that is kinda annoying about the n-e site, I'm not sure it might just be my computer, but every day to leave a comment under a news article I have to log in.
Konfucius Posted July 3, 2007 Posted July 3, 2007 I visit gamefront.de every day. They are not much more but a news site and very good at that. They have news of all consoles, are most of the time up-to-date and cut their reports down to the very essential points with links to the original source. Then I also visit gamestar.de It's a german games mag and gamefront.de doesn't cover the PC section. Most of the time they are late but they also have news about new hardware and such. And of course N-Europe. Sometimes I read news I didn't read somewhere else but I mainly visit for the forums and the brilliant essays - which I think is on of the biggest strengh of NE. Also the whole navigation and site layout is very very good although I'd like a images menu to quickly access screenshots to games. For the odd review every now and then I visit IGN and also if I want some screenshots to make a wallpaper or so. Their pictures are pretty high-res. Their navigation is horrible though and totally overcrowded. The whole site is much too flashy as well. Sometimes I also visit gametrailers.com for game trailers of course. It's great that most of the trailers are free to download.
AshMat Posted July 3, 2007 Posted July 3, 2007 I visit 1up for the 1upYours podcast. It's a very, very good Podcast, and i'll admit, i never liked the N-Europe podcast, the EGM one on there is also quite good. N-E Has the best forum though. What i think this site could use is more reviews, make this the site people come to if they want to read a review. Or a preview, get hold of preview copies like IGN and that do (though i understand this will probably be quite difficult). For news i rely on people on these and sometimes the Eurogsuion boards, i never actually read news sites, i just read the threads in the Wii discussion and the 360 thread. Oh, and Nintendork comes on msn and gives me totally random news things. Though lately, esepcially with Nathan, Flink and Cube going at it with the news, this site's become very good for that.
theguyfromspark Posted July 3, 2007 Posted July 3, 2007 For me, Eurogamer has the best reviews and previews. Kotaku and Joystiq have the most up to date and interesting articles that update almost every hour. My main criticism with N-E is that it's Nintendo only so if I want to spend 5 minutes looking at gaming news, I'm not going to come here. However, N-E does have the best community, even if they're skewed a little too young for me.
welsh_gamer Posted July 3, 2007 Posted July 3, 2007 I use GoNintendo for my gaming news, but I now visit the N-E main page also (which I hardly did months ago) due to the increase in posts. Forum wise, I am a member of 3 gaming forums, but here is where I spend most of my time out of the three.
KKOB Posted July 3, 2007 Posted July 3, 2007 ooo, we need some kind of reviews index-or have i just missed that somewhere? :S
somme Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 I use this forum to hang out. Look at the N-E news page every so often but then again I don't really have time to play games at the moment. And the only games I'm looking forward to are Spore and Starcraft2. Perhaps Brawl but I'll have to buy a wii for that. lol.
mcj metroid Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 I Am a member of pretty much every one of those forums. I can't stand gaf at all. Gamespot was just a joke in all ways,, same with ign. N-europe for the forums is not so quiet and not so crowded. Now for news I check gonintendo.com First and occasionaly check ign for reviews. Gonintendo just have a simple fast layout and is great for finding videos and quick screens.
immy Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 I Am a member of pretty much every one of those forums. I can't stand gaf at all. Gamespot was just a joke in all ways,, same with ign.N-europe for the forums is not so quiet and not so crowded. Now for news I check gonintendo.com First and occasionaly check ign for reviews. Gonintendo just have a simple fast layout and is great for finding videos and quick screens. Whats wrong with gaf? It's great for news.
Hellfire Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 IGN is good fr exclusive stuff that's about it, the design is horrible, so are the reviews. Gamespot is a complete pile of shit. The others I don't know. What's a N-E? Is it edible? Also NeoGaf is great for news, but it's filled with retards.
flameboy Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 destructoid for their odd take on things, kotaku for the random news you wouldn't otherwise hear about. gonintendo as you can find everything in one place and I have respect for the guys there, they are the only bloggers I know who get invited to press events.1up for their editorial and blog content My take on GAF is that it is full of pricks who have egos beyond their station...it may be good for news but you can usually find the stuff in other places...
gaggle64 Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 I visit Gamespot, Kotaku and N-E most regulary for gaming stuff. Gamespot is a pretty good, professional news and reviews site. I also have a subscription there which is well worth the few dollars a month for the decent downloads of videos & demos which they offer. Kotaku is a good contrast to Gamespot, offering a more casual opinion on current and upcoming games. N-E is just fantastic for the great community they have here. Everyone's friendly and sort of know each other, it's really a fantastic place to come for some banter with others like you. I also read quite a lot of video game web comics (Penny-Arcade, VGCAts, Awkward Zombie et all.) which I actually find useful for collecting opinions and sometimes even hearing about games I wouldn't normally.
Calza Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 Spong - because it's awsome Kotaku - good blog Joystiq - good blog Gamespot - Video Reviews and speak their mind (8.8) N-Europe - It is fun
mcj metroid Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 Whats wrong with gaf? It's great for news. Pretty much what hellfire said. They annoy me so much.
conzer16 Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 I used to look at IGN the whole time but I checked it literally for the first time in months when I read this thread. I use Kotaku and NE for all my gaming needs. I check out some other occasionally, Gonintendo and the like. IGN's design is horrible. Kotaku is a great blog, humour, personality and some there are some great comments on the blog entries :p
AshMat Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 That's what i don't like about IGN, it's fucking slow, too much there.
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