any ideas on how Gamefaqs canmake their page uglier?

[jlarlee]

I swear the web designer must be taking his cues from the owner in the movie Major League

[nneace]

umm acquire another corporate sponsor

[PsyClerk]

I just commented today to someone that GameFAQs has become absolutely horrible. It's so corporate now. Guess it goes to show that everyone has his price. Wonder what CJayC's price was...

[weimerwanger]

i didnt mind the front page or the sponsored polls, but the new boards look terrible

[EggViper]

i just went and checked it, and i have to say that brackground is pretty retarded. half the pics cut off anyway, so whats the point. o well, as long as i can still get the walkthru's and codes i need im happy.

[Wasabi]

hmmm how to make it uglier

AH-HA!

take some design hints from IGN?

[Mustang O-Line 75]

Make the text "comic sans MS"

*shudders*

[yellowaznboy]

I just commented today to someone that GameFAQs has become absolutely horrible. It's so corporate now. Guess it goes to show that everyone has his price. Wonder what CJayC's price was...

What exactly is so "horrible"? Nothing has changed except the layout and a few plugs for GameSpot on the front page. Other than that, the website is exactly the same. If the layout is so awful, change it to the classic skin... :idea:

[Dead of Knight]

Apparently you haven't seen the Syphon Filter junk on the front page, which makes the text unreadable....

[Wasabi]

Apparently you haven't seen the Syphon Filter junk on the front page, which makes the text unreadable....

Is it worse then when IGN was Mc Griddle-ized?

[yellowaznboy]

Everything is perfectly fine for me. In fact, I rather like the new layout. Most of the GameSpot stuff have been moved to the botton of the frontpage. You need to scroll down to see them, so it doesn't affect me one bit.

[jlarlee]

Everything is perfectly fine for me. In fact, I rather like the new layout. Most of the GameSpot stuff have been moved to the botton of the frontpage. You need to scroll down to see them, so it doesn't affect me one bit.

Gamefaqs may want to nab you for their customer satisfaction focus group

[basketkase543]

Slap a picture of Carrot top on all four corners of the screen and you've got a winner.

[alongx]

Slap a picture of Carrot top on all four corners of the screen and you've got a winner.

That would be hot. I think I'm going to do that on my own web site.

[Moxio]

If the layout is so awful, change it to the classic skin... :idea:

How would I do that? =/

[scsg75]

I went there today for the hell of it and went to the boards, and the print was so tiny it looked like little periods. I changed it to classic and it was still tiny. Freakin stupid. Am I expected to change my monitor settings everytime I visit the site or what.

[yellowaznboy]

What's there to complain about? I've yet to read a legitemate complaint. All I see is people whining about the new skin/layout. Well, as long as the FAQs are navigatable, the message boards easily accessible, and it remains a free service, it's all good. That's what the website is all about, no?

I realize that change is sometimes hard to accept, but, seriously, get over yourselves.

Moxio, to change it back to the classic skin, click on your username and select "Change My Display Settings." It's in its experimental stages at the moment, so it will reset after 24 hours and only works for the message boards. If you don't like any of the stylesheets, CJayC has promised customized (user-created?) skins, too...

scsg75, you can select different stylesheets which changes the size of the font. Give them a whirl.

Edit: Actually, I'm not sure about that last part. If you are using Internet Explorer, you can change the Text Size under "View."

[PsyClerk]

The whole site is a giant ad for Gamespot, that is what's so damn bad about it. Maybe you didn't visit GameFAQs back when it was independently run, but it looked better, and just felt better.

The message boards went down the drain a long time ago, now it appears the rest of the site is following suit. Tiny fonts, many ads, even the FAQ portion of the site is going downhill. About half of the last few walkthroughs I looked up were written by morons who spent too much time trying to be funny and not enough time explaining the game.

I sure as hell hope you don't ever work for a marketing department. "But it's fine!" doesn't cut it. It's great that you like it. A lot of folks don't. Why else would they post about allowing your style sheets on day 1 of the new design?

And why change something that worked great for years? Change is good, yes, but change for it's own sake is stupid.

[thingsfallnapart]

lol i cant wait to the backround imagine is the goatse man!!!

"This valentines day show her you love her thiiiis much" would be the advertisement.

[yellowaznboy]

I still don't understand the basis for your complaints. So what if it is a "giant ad for Gamespot"? Websites all over the internet have ads. Television and radio programs, newspapers, public transportation, billboards, essentially everything has advertisements. Even cheapassgamer.com advertises other websites through its affiliate program/referral links. Why? Because money spins the world around. I'm surprised GameFAQs has been "independent" for so long.

Complaining about the FAQs and message boards? Seriously, now. All forums have dumbasses and morons that troll and flame. The popularity of GameFAQs means there will be a higher concentration of them. I bet the ratio of non-"morons" to "morons" is the same for GameFAQs and cheapassgamer.com.

Again, FAQs are written by non-professionals. Can you really blame the website for a few crappy guides? Here's some advice: the next time you are reading a poorly written FAQ, press the back button and select another one.

[basketkase543]

The ads are a necessary evil if you wanna continue to get the service for free. That's one of the paradoxes of being independently popular: as long as there is high traffic than bills go up and they've gotta get paid somehow. I agree though that it could've been done in a more subtle way than having 40% of the screen have an ad.

[jmcc]

Yeah, I don't know what all the complaining is about either. It's exactly as functional as before. Cosmetic changes happen to every website over it's lifespan. And if you don't like all the front page's ads, bookmark your boards page or your profile. They've both got the same menu at the top that the front page does.

[perfectcell770]

The Syphon Filter thing will probably only be up there for a day or 2. The FFXI thing didnt last long

[scsg75]

scsg75, you can select different stylesheets which changes the size of the font. Give them a whirl.

Edit: Actually, I'm not sure about that last part. If you are using Internet Explorer, you can change the Text Size under "View."

Actually, I did do that, changed it to "classic" biggest font size option and it was still barely readable. That in my opinion is a legitimate complaint and not just whining. If I am forced to change my monitor settings to 640 x 480 just to make the print normal size, that's not good web design. If I change the text size on internet explorer, than only gamefaqs would be normal looking and every other site I go to would have print meant for the almost blind.

[scsg75]

Just went back there, and now the main page has a wall paper that is a syphon filter themed ad in black and green and the text is dark blue making it unreadable. That a legitimate complaint?

[jmcc]

The Syphon Filter stuff is there through the 18th, according to the page source.

[yellowaznboy]

Of course it is a legitemate complaint. Maybe you should bring it to the attention of CJayC. That's why he has a board specifically for complaints. He even provided a direct link in the front page for the first two weeks since the new layout to encourage people to submit ideas and problems.

FYI, the frontpage works fine for me. I have never experienced any problems since the implementation of the new layout except for a bit of slowdown. The problem has since been rectified.

As with all website overhauls, there are bound to issues. You just have to be patient.

[jmcc]

Huh. I just looked at the page with my bookmark sidebar open and it completely obscures the Syphon Filter ads. Not that it bothered me, but still...

[PsyClerk]

I tried setting the boards to the old style for the hell of it. The main page became unreadable. It appears that the Syphon Filter ad actually fills the whole page, you just don't see it all because of a layered background image. With the old stylesheet in effect, that layered image disappeared, so I see an ad across the entire page.

Next up: ads with imbedded audio. Place your bets, place your bets...

[LaraCroftsLeftBoob]

the biggest thing they could do to make gamefaqs uglier is to put bethany masmilla' pic back on the front page.