Sochl Networking for Gamers

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: blurredvision
That's definitely understandable. I guess you have an idea of how far exactly you want to take the site....you add too much stuff and you suddenly appear to be competing with the likes of IGN and Gamespot.

Well, if you need any help with content, I'm always available.

Thanks for the offer
If you want, you can add blog entries tagged with certain games (currently limited to games you own / games on your wishlist), so you're basically writing news postings. Thats what r Nilla did for Kane and Lynch.

edit: Oh yeah, I'm much happier with the response I've been getting with the site. If you guys want, please spread the word to your cohorts. I'm not going to let development stall like I did with Gamer's Pouch... at least this time I've got another guy helping me out so I'm not doing 100% of the site.

 

[gorcorps]

I added Sochl to the stumbleupon database. Hopefully some folks find it interesting enough to join.

 

[oznerol]

Why is this not just a Facebook application - or, at the very least, have a Facebook application built for it?

Viral growth, access to millions of users with personal information readily available - I find it a bit unnecessary to spawn an entirely new social networking site solely for gamers.

That being said, I think the site is a little intimidating and crowded, but it has definite promise.

Money-making potential - links to Amazon affiliate pages on game listings.

The statistics page is my favorite - you should expand on it further, as I predict it to be the focal point of your site, especially if you amass a large user-base.

Recent activity is very, very cluttered and the choice of formatting is not fitting for it.

When Facebook opened their API I had an idea for something similar to this, but I had neither the time nor energy to put any effort into it. I think you've done some things right (statistics, friends and rivals, custom tournaments) and some things not so right (overall design, user interface, game listings, game trading), but nothing that hasn't been done before.

I don't intend to sound pompous or demeaning or anything like that - I am just giving some constructive criticism. I know this is only a "Beta" and everything is still in development and the foundation more than anything else is the primary objective at this point. But once that is done, I suggest trying to be a bit more creative and fun with development ideas - I know you are a gamer, and like myself you're probably fond of things like numbers and statistics and whatnot, but there are some unique things that can be done in a gaming site - particularly one that revolves around community - that does more than just list stats or lists of games.

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: gorcorps
I added Sochl to the stumbleupon database. Hopefully some folks find it interesting enough to join.

Heh, thanks

Originally posted by: ducci
Why is this not just a Facebook application - or, at the very least, have a Facebook application built for it?

Viral growth, access to millions of users with personal information readily available - I find it a bit unnecessary to spawn an entirely new social networking site solely for gamers.

I guess you dont care about garage development Asking me "why didnt you use facebook" feels almost like Lucas asking Scorsese "why didnt you just use CGI?"

I wrote the original site / database this was based off of LONG before Facebook had their facebook apps. In the future, I have considered adding some sort of addon, but why bother? Facebook lost a ton of cred when it opened up to "everyone". Now its just a somewhat classier myspace with a bunch of retarded ass applications. I have no idea how people make money off of "HUG ME". I guess tie ins with ads somehow, but I'm not going after money. I'm going after community. If I was money related, I would have thrown google ads on. They're easy enough to do.

Originally posted by: ducci
That being said, I think the site is a little intimidating and crowded, but it has definite promise. Recent activity is very, very cluttered and the choice of formatting is not fitting for it.

Not sure how its intimidating or crowded, or how recent activity is cluttered. It's just text. Care to expound?

 

[Beev]

I joined finally. One thing I found is that you can create blank games. I was scrolling down and accidentally clicked "add game" without putting anything in, so now there's just a blank game on the list (I forget for which system).

Also, there's a bunch of "Final Fantasty" games

 

[oznerol]

I agree most Facebook applications are useless. But really, it's hard to ignore their massive growth potential and quick and easy access to just about everyone's basic information. For example, I'll guess 90% of the people who replied to this post alone have a Facebook account. Not creating an application which would at the very least tie in your existing platform to the Facebook community is really unnecessarily limiting yourself.

Before posting my original comment, I actually did read up on your FAQs and About pages - I read that it started out as an older site - which is why I wondered why the site didn't at the very least have a Facebook application built for it. Your metaphor doesn't quite fit. I suppose a better metaphor would be Scorsese releasing Goodfellas on Blu-Ray LONG after Goodfellas was created (or HD-DVD, I don't know, whatever). Not doing so would restrict growth, and essentially cut off a large community of people who are just fine using the Facebook as their sole social networking platform. And as I said, it's especially convenient since the majority of gamers who would be willing to sign up for a gamer networking site already have a Facebook account. And when building community, growth is good.

The site is intimidating to me for a few reasons. First, I'm pretty sure it's considered bad design practice to provide links to users who don't have access to the pages they link to. As a non-user with 0 experience with the site, I can see 2 things prominently displayed which I do not have access to upon clicking. This is a bit disheartening (from the standpoint of a potential new user).

Your "games manager" really doesn't make any sense to me. Upon clicking it I get a random listing of a user's games? Also, on a tangent, any and every time a user's name is displayed, it should link to their profile page. But anyway, this random listing is really confusing and is actually pretty useless. I can randomly be sent to a user's page who has 0 games listed.

Basically I think you need to have a better design as to what you want a non-registered user to be able to see vs. what a register user sees. Simply showing everyone the same thing and then just having an if($registered_user) conditional is bad practice.

And as far as being crowded goes, that is primarily due to the recent activity. That also ties in with the intimidating aspect of it, as I personally don't think that should be seen unless the user is registered and logged in. In fact, I think the only things a non-registered user should be able to see are the FAQs, About, and other basic site info stuff, along with some specific statistics.

However, I also find the profile pages to be crowded as well, but I think that is more of a CSS/design visual issue than a developmental one. I really like the ability to see which friends/rivals are currently online, though.

 

[blurredvision]

ducci, your second post is much better than your first. Lots of good input IMO.

 

[R Nilla]

I have a Facebook account but would probably never install or use Sochl as a Facebook application, just FYI. I only have a couple apps installed, which is a couple more than I'd like to. I realize that I'm probably in the minority and I'm not even trying to argue against it; but just providing my personal opinion.

 

[gorcorps]

Are we as registered users allowed to change the game photos? If not I think we should be able to regardless of if we registered the game or not. There's a ton of games w/out cover art that I think would be fairly easy to link to. Maybe if we had a special Sochl photobucket account to upload cover art for now, and link from that... just so it's not as plain.

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: ducci
Your metaphor doesn't quite fit. I suppose a better metaphor would be Scorsese releasing Goodfellas on Blu-Ray LONG after Goodfellas was created (or HD-DVD, I don't know, whatever).

Basically my comment was in relation to the fact that its easier to create something using pre-existing easier tools, and not build it from scratch... not specifically limiting my audience. In all honestly, I want a smaller audience, a niche as opposed to something that applies to everyone. I have no problem taking it slow.... also, taking it slow has advantages like accepting user feedback instead of just hearing "OMG THIS SUKZZZZ DOOD!"

Originally posted by: ducci
The site is intimidating to me for a few reasons. First, I'm pretty sure it's considered bad design practice to provide links to users who don't have access to the pages they link to. As a non-user with 0 experience with the site, I can see 2 things prominently displayed which I do not have access to upon clicking. This is a bit disheartening (from the standpoint of a potential new user).

Yeah, I have tossed around the idea of shutting those off if you are not logged in. We're still building it and now that someone other than myself has said it may be a better idea to do that, I'll take it into consideration.

Originally posted by: ducci
Your "games manager" really doesn't make any sense to me. Upon clicking it I get a random listing of a user's games? Also, on a tangent, any and every time a user's name is displayed, it should link to their profile page. But anyway, this random listing is really confusing and is actually pretty useless. I can randomly be sent to a user's page who has 0 games listed.

This is another not logged in page that you are seeing. instead of displaying "must be logged in to use" I just randomly select an ID and show that collection.

Originally posted by: ducci
However, I also find the profile pages to be crowded as well, but I think that is more of a CSS/design visual issue than a developmental one. I really like the ability to see which friends/rivals are currently online, though.

Profile page is meant to be a one stop shop for you as a user... there will be more on that in the future, but I'm not yet at liberty to discuss that. I honestly don't feel that its super crowded, but I may need to change some things around.

I appreciate all feedback, so thanks for taking the time to share your views

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: gorcorps
Are we as registered users allowed to change the game photos? If not I think we should be able to regardless of if we registered the game or not. There's a ton of games w/out cover art that I think would be fairly easy to link to. Maybe if we had a special Sochl photobucket account to upload cover art for now, and link from that... just so it's not as plain.

Right now, I'm screening and formatting all boxart. If you've got some you'd like to send, feel free to forward them to me at my email address (modeps@gmail.com). In the future, I will be adding the option to upload game art to be put into a moderation queue though.

 

[gorcorps]

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: gorcorps
Are we as registered users allowed to change the game photos? If not I think we should be able to regardless of if we registered the game or not. There's a ton of games w/out cover art that I think would be fairly easy to link to. Maybe if we had a special Sochl photobucket account to upload cover art for now, and link from that... just so it's not as plain.

Right now, I'm screening and formatting all boxart. If you've got some you'd like to send, feel free to forward them to me at my email address (modeps@gmail.com). In the future, I will be adding the option to upload game art to be put into a moderation queue though.

Ok, awesome.

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: Beev
Also, there's a bunch of "Final Fantasty" games

Yep, got your report I went in and fixed them all. Thanks.

 

[Modeps]

Ducci,
Last night I took your advice and went in to make some updates to the navigation. One of the reasons why I left them open was so people could check out the site without needing to create an account... so I also added a screenshot tour to the homepage for prospectives. Now, if only you were a user, you may get a badge out of these suggestions.

 

[Modeps]

Just dropped a pretty big profile update. Lets hope nothing breaks in the process? let me know if you see any problems. As always, clear your cache if you?re getting javascript or visual issues. If that doesn?t work, lemme know

* Revamped entire Profile editing section to prepare for later updates, it is now broken up into multiple pages relating to specific topics.
* Included in the update is ?Up to Date? where you can go to list up to 5 games you are currently playing, update your mood, or change your status.
* Updated user profile page for more visual prettiness and inclusion of Up To Date fields. Icons, layout fixes, etc.
* Updated game pages to also display who is playing a specific game.

Please note, there are references to things that are coming shortly but are not in there yet for your use, so don?t get confused.

~Jim

 

[blurredvision]

I thought it would pretty cool to add some kind of highlight to newly added games to the market, so you'll know what's been added since you last visited.

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: blurredvision
I thought it would pretty cool to add some kind of highlight to newly added games to the market, so you'll know what's been added since you last visited.

Not quite sure what you're looking for, can you explain a bit more?

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: blurredvision
I thought it would pretty cool to add some kind of highlight to newly added games to the market, so you'll know what's been added since you last visited.

Not quite sure what you're looking for, can you explain a bit more?

Well, assuming the site takes off, I believe the market will be one of the more interesting features. People would most likely come daily to check it out to see what's been added. I think it would be nice to be able to sort the list by newly added games so you don't have to look through the entire list every time you visit.

I said "highlight", but being able to sort would probably be a better solution.

You could make a column that lists the date added so you can sort the column that way, or you could have a button that would refresh the list with only the entries added in the past day or two (or maybe make that a user-settable option to sort by how many days old).

I just thought of this when I went in last night to see if anything new was added from when I looked at it a week ago, and it was hard to look through all that text and remember what was there before. Being able to better sort new entries would please visitors, I think.

 

[warcrow]

Things are really starting to come along here--I like it. I'm glad to see that you're keeping a moderate, steady work flow of updates on the site.

"If you build it, they will come...", Right?!

Ok, so here is my two cents/random thoughts/suggestions (I didnt read everything, so excuse the stuff you're already working on, intend on implimenting, or are just not interested in) :

- I love the "no nonsense", simple login status bar at the top of the site. It never loads a (read:tedious!) new page once you've logged in, it's almost transparent to the user and follows everywhere. I like it!

- Would it be possible to add a "friends currently logged in" list up top in the status bar? Maybe it could be just a little box stating something a long the lines of "Friends Currrently Logged In (6)" or something to that effect, and when you click on it, a list drops down showing who's on line? I dont really feel contected to anything or anyone when I log in (maybe I need more friends and rivals!).

- Support for Animated gifs for avatars?

- It might be kind of redundant--or not. But would you like some kind of Sochl forum for discussion and such? I can make a separate section in the Played forums for Sochl if you want. Just let me know. It might be a great way to get some of our listeners to check it out.

- When I clicked on "Dashboard", I sort of expected it would show a summary of me--to get the gist of everything, listing what I'm currently playing, my profile pic, who my buddies are and maybe even the last few entires of my blog up top instead of recent activity. Maybe have the recent activity stay in the same place (on the right hand side) as the main page, so that there is some continuity?

- Added games to my profile, listing them as FS/FT is well done. I just added my current play list and it was surprisingly simple and responsive. I even added a game (Hellgate) and there was an option, while creating it, to add it to my "currently playing" list. It's not that big of a deal, but it's a little thing that goes to show that you're making things practical and easy to use. I'm ALL about easy of use.

- Is there going to be some kind of Sochl forum signature graphic? It might be a nice way to extend Sochl's reach, visibility and perhaps make it more accessable.

- This is totally subjective and might not be worth mentioning--but since I'm at it here it goes; I'm not a huge fan of the font. Actually, let me be more specific--I like it in the menus, just not in the main reading pane (the parts of the site with the white background). I know that that sounds weird, but for some reason it's totally fine in the other areas. FYI--I'm using IE 6 to view it.

- I like the color scheme. It's unique enough that, to me, it is now assiciated with your website. It's not drab, boring or annoying which, on paper, I would think it would be for a website. Nice!

Ok, that's all for now. I hope I didnt come across wrong, because I like what you're doing here and are doing a bang up job. Keep it up man.

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: blurredvision
Well, assuming the site takes off, I believe the market will be one of the more interesting features. People would most likely come daily to check it out to see what's been added. I think it would be nice to be able to sort the list by newly added games so you don't have to look through the entire list every time you visit.

I said "highlight", but being able to sort would probably be a better solution.

You could make a column that lists the date added so you can sort the column that way, or you could have a button that would refresh the list with only the entries added in the past day or two (or maybe make that a user-settable option to sort by how many days old).

I just thought of this when I went in last night to see if anything new was added from when I looked at it a week ago, and it was hard to look through all that text and remember what was there before. Being able to better sort new entries would please visitors, I think.

I got you now, yep The Market will be enhanced to provide filtering and what not. I added it quickly thanks to the suggestions over in a Console Game Swap thread a little while ago. I've been focusing on other things.

Originally posted by: warcrow
- Would it be possible to add a "friends currently logged in" list up top in the status bar? Maybe it could be just a little box stating something a long the lines of "Friends Currrently Logged In (6)" or something to that effect, and when you click on it, a list drops down showing who's on line? I dont really feel contected to anything or anyone when I log in (maybe I need more friends and rivals!).

If you hit your dashboard, you can see who's logged in but I will entertain this idea.

Originally posted by: warcrow
- Support for Animated gifs for avatars?

No.

Originally posted by: warcrow
- It might be kind of redundant--or not. But would you like some kind of Sochl forum for discussion and such? I can make a separate section in the Played forums for Sochl if you want. Just let me know. It might be a great way to get some of our listeners to check it out.

If you'd like, sure.. but I dont know how much I'd post there. I posted that one time about the site and it doesnt seem like your listeners were interested. No need to keep beating a dead horse. I'll have group message boards on Sochl in the future to handle discussions so I can take it out of here.

Originally posted by: warcrow
- When I clicked on "Dashboard", I sort of expected it would show a summary of me--to get the gist of everything, listing what I'm currently playing, my profile pic, who my buddies are and maybe even the last few entires of my blog up top instead of recent activity. Maybe have the recent activity stay in the same place (on the right hand side) as the main page, so that there is some continuity?

You can get your snapshot by clicking on your avatar in the upper left. Also the link to that is on your dashboard under 'view profile'

Originally posted by: warcrow- Is there going to be some kind of Sochl forum signature graphic? It might be a nice way to extend Sochl's reach, visibility and perhaps make it more accessable.

I liked this idea so much (and had entertained it before) that I decided to throw together a little script to do just that. Very simple for now. If you want yours active, goto your dashboard and activate it. http://sochl.com/imgs/avatars/modeps.png

Thanks for all of the feedback so far

 

[Modeps]

I haven't posted any updates in here for a while, so I figure I'll drop one down. I integrated sochl with twitter, so now sochl can auto-twitter for you and also display your twitter status on your member page.

 

[randay]

sochl emailed me about lost odyssey, but it doesnt come out for a week or two.

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: randay
sochl emailed me about lost odyssey, but it doesnt come out for a week or two.

You were the one who entered it into the DB with the release date of Feb 1 You can go in and change it to be the proper date, or just submit a report about it and I'll update it.

 

[randay]

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: randay
sochl emailed me about lost odyssey, but it doesnt come out for a week or two.

You were the one who entered it into the DB with the release date of Feb 1 You can go in and change it to be the proper date, or just submit a report about it and I'll update it.

ah i see, it must have been delayed since then. so did only i get an email or everyone who had it on thier wishlist? that could be a problem as games get delayed all the time.

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: randay

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: randay
sochl emailed me about lost odyssey, but it doesnt come out for a week or two.

You were the one who entered it into the DB with the release date of Feb 1 You can go in and change it to be the proper date, or just submit a report about it and I'll update it.

ah i see, it must have been delayed since then. so did only i get an email or everyone who had it on thier wishlist? that could be a problem as games get delayed all the time.

Everyone that has it in their wishlist gets a PM sent to them... if they've got PM Email Notifications turned on, yes they'll get an email about it. It's not really a problem if people keep the info on the games they enter correct and up to date. If people get pissed and feel like retaliating, they'll be able to see who entered it, and give that person crap (or just submit a report that the entry is inaccurate)