Incline MobyGames - Bought out and turned back to normal

[TripJack]

Won't load for me. Anyone else getting 403?

yea, forbidden

https address is causing this

 

[Excidium]

Hmmm, apart from the screenshots section being fubared and the game lists being a bit harder to navigate (no thumbnails), I don't think it's that vomit-worthy, seems like it's a matter of getting used to it. But yeah, the old design was better.

Wut. Try doing a search by year and plataform on this new layout. Shit sucks big time.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Yeah, why just click when you can click, scroll 2 screens, click again and repeat? It's improved. Now they only need tabs within tabs to be completely user friendly.

 

[Excidium]

Not only that but the list is terrible, you have to scroll like a retard while in the old it would just show everything neatly in a box.

http://web.archive.org/web/20090220174831/http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/1988/dos/x,50/
vs.
http://mobygames.com/browse/games/1988/dos/x,50/

Which is better and why? Discuss!!

 

[Kaucukovnik]

Yeah, why just click when you can click, scroll 2 screens, click again and repeat? It's improved. Now they only need tabs within tabs to be completely user friendly.

Clicking and expanding stuff is fun on a tablet, you want to do it as much as you can. Not that I knew, but by now I can quite imagine such "WOW ITS STAR TREK" attitude.


Funny, the archived wayback machine version is considerably faster. Never seen this happen before. Current MG actually never finishes loading a page for me, its browser tab indicates loading indifinitely.

According to their forums, they got bought a few years ago, and most people happily continued contributing despite total silence from the administration.
Looks like another "use the name, ditch the rest" corporate move. Soon there will be an online gaming shop called MobyGames, which happens to contain huge database that was built by fans for free. Maybe the redesign is actually a plot to finally ditch the userbase before the final transformation?

 

[FeelTheRads]

I don't think that shit even works on tablet browsers. At least I always had problems with pop-up and expanding menus in the browsers I used on my tablet.

 

[Turjan]

Funny, the archived wayback machine version is considerably faster.

Heh, I noticed the same thing. It's really weird. But they are probably still ironing out the kinks. Just remember how long that took with the Codex.

 

[The Vanished One]

Kinks or no kinks, fixed-width can't be fixed.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

 

[Jarpie]

The new design of MobyGames is horrible, what the hell were they thinking?

 

[The Vanished One]

Just tried to view a modern game's gallery. No way to view screenshots at a decent size, unless they're opened separately. Galleries still slower than youtube videos for me, wonder how much it'll take them to fix that.

I know I'm repeating myself, but how could those who implemented the design look at it and think, "yes, much better than before"? Is it really just a matter of aesthetics? Not that the new look is anything more than generic.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Here was my idea at a redesign:

Black on yellow gets hard on the eyes after a while. Probably not a good scheme for a database where you'll be looking at big lists of names and dates.

 

[Luzur]

yeah i noticed the remake yesterday.

goddamn.

 

[Morkar Left]

After the initial schock I have to say the only things that are annoying me is the white background (my eyes!) and the use of javascript for the screenshots. Navigation is easy and all in all it looks more tidy to me.

I hope Dfend can still search and take the data from the new design.

 

[Kaucukovnik]

The situation is dire. Most of MG staff are on a strike.

http://www.mobygames.com/forums/dga,3/dgb,4/


Anyone got some offline mirror or other backup?

 

[tuluse]

I find their top 20 best games list provides tons of , makes me wonder if this site is used heavily by Neogaf.

Word of Goo gets two entries, one for iPhone and one for iPad.

 

[Kaucukovnik]

Yeah, multiple entries for a single title suck. Whined a while back on their forums along with a few others.

But the database is incredible. I hope someone manages to preserve (at least a part of) it for the community to continue on their own.

 

[taxalot]

I hear the design is part of a deal with some company that might involve digital distribution : forget it, Mobygames is dead. How well is it archived on archive.org ?

 

[:Flash:]

I hear the design is part of a deal with some company that might involve digital distribution : forget it, Mobygames is dead. How well is it archived on archive.org ?

It's not a deal with some company, the company owns MobyGames lock, stock and barrel.
I never understood people who contributed to MobyGames. In contrast to Wikipedia it was never a foundation, it was a privately owned website, and it was always clear to me that the founders would cash in once the gullible internet folks had done enough free work for them and made the site the No. 1 gaming resource on the web.
Which they promptly did - they sold to GameFly for an undisclosed sum. GameFly is now trying to turn it into a cash cow - which is why you now have things like displaying only 15 games per page. The need to click "next" increases page hits and thus advertising income.

 

[Infinitron]

The situation is dire. Most of MG staff are on a strike.

http://www.mobygames.com/forums/dga,3/dgb,4/


Anyone got some offline mirror or other backup?

Wow, that's some massive butthurt there.

 

[Boleskine]

No sir, I don't like it.

Old version was better, but like most sites these days MobyGames has...been...TABLETIZED.

 

[A user named cat]

Mobygames vs Flickr: which revamp is worse? A battle for the ages.

 

[Boleskine]

Flickr always stunk, so I'll go with Mobygames.

 

[Stokowski]

What about Metacritic?

 

[groke]

I was pretty fucking furious about this when it happened, but eh. GameFly was bound to have a negative influence on the site eventually, the muck has just finally risen to the surface. Oh well, MobyGames joins the mass grave with HotU and co.