IGN - I HATE the new website [Archive]

Scream

11-01-2008, 12:45 PM

Am I the only one? I know some of you are going to think "I've ALWAYS hated IGN" but I'm talking specifically about the visual changes they made to the site within the past few months. There are so many graphics (mainly advertisements) on the pages that it literally feels like you're on dialup loading them. Since all their written reviews are stupidly spread across 4, 5 and 6 pages, you often have to load several pages just read some friggin' text, and it takes forever.

I find their site approaching unusably irritating now.

Nacho

11-01-2008, 01:03 PM

I find it a lot harder to find the information I want now, so yes, I hate the new IGN. Its too cluttered.

Kit

11-01-2008, 01:10 PM

It used to look clean and sharp. Now it looks like an amateurish mess.

Cleric

11-01-2008, 02:11 PM

Yeah, it's pretty bad. It's really hard to navigate without the tabs they used to have that separated screens, videos, previews, etc. The advertisements on the site are also pretty taxing on my computer.

psyborg

11-01-2008, 02:12 PM

Yea I hate it too, reminds me too much of ugly sites like Gamespot and 1up. I find myself going to it much less now.

Daveman

11-01-2008, 03:42 PM

It takes forever to load, and their proprietary video window is a resource hog as well. They take forever to load too.

Damien_Azreal

11-01-2008, 03:56 PM

I, along with the group, hate the new site as well. I really liked the old layout, is easy to navigate and find what you wanted.

This new layout is cramped, cluttered and just poorly done.

Scream

11-01-2008, 04:03 PM

One of the things that REALLY irritates the hell out of me is that it takes forever to get to an article linked from their front page. If you click on one of the images in their little scrolling list of "top stories", it should take you to the friggin' story. But no, it takes you to the front page of the platform or section the story is about (eg. 360, PC, Babes, Gear etc.) Then you have to find the same article listed on the front page of that subsection, click on it, and endure another load. If the loads were of a reasonable time this would be a minor annoyance, but with 30 second load times it makes it very apparent, and every click you have to make just makes it that much worse.

I'd love to see what a "Page generated in..." counter like this site has would look like on that site. Anyway, I already sent them an email detailing my displeasure with the new format. Should send them another with a link to this thread. I haven't checked their own forums to see if people are complaining about it there.

Steve

11-01-2008, 04:03 PM

Wow. I didn't believe you guys until I had a look... it is indeed ******* horrible :mryuck:

Scream

11-01-2008, 04:06 PM

They had a "Top 100 Games of All Time" list recently. Each game counting down from 100 was presented on it's own page, with a link at the bottom to the next game in the list. Ya, I'm gonna spend 3 days clicking through that...

Phait

11-01-2008, 04:11 PM

I have yet to find a game review site that I like design-wise.

December Man

11-01-2008, 04:23 PM

*looks at first few posts*
*checks IGN*

Holy...cow, that's pretty horrible indeed.

d3ad connection

11-01-2008, 04:25 PM

I don't visit game review sites that often but damn... I agree 100% with you guys on this.

Yatta

11-01-2008, 04:25 PM

They're losing traffic: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/ign.com?q=

:)

Scream

11-01-2008, 04:26 PM

I have yet to find a game review site that I like design-wise.

I used to like the layout of Gamespot, but they screwed theirs up as well earlier this year. It's nowhere near as bad as the new IGN though IMO.

I notice the IGN site indicates it's in "beta". Roll back IGN, roll back...

peoplessi

11-01-2008, 04:33 PM

I have always hated their sitedesign, it's too graphic heavy.

Scream

11-01-2008, 04:41 PM

They're losing traffic: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/ign.com?q=

:)

Not surprising. Page hits would have to be down, because if you've got limited time to read their site you can only load half the amount of pages you used to be able to in the same time.

I have always hated their sitedesign, it's too graphic heavy.

Agreed, but it's much much worse now.

Simon Charles

11-01-2008, 05:05 PM

http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/5200/radioactivemangogglesaz1.th.jpg (http://img388.imageshack.us/my.php?image=radioactivemangogglesaz1.jpg)http://img388.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

Dave-ros

11-01-2008, 05:33 PM

I agree, it's horrible -- I clicked on the "Reviews" tab, and it gave up trying to load almost entirely:

http://forums.3drealms.com/vb/picture.php?albumid=133&pictureid=2271

I'm on a 24-meg connection (well, "up to" 24-meg :p) and it still takes a while to load :o

superevilcube

11-01-2008, 05:57 PM

I loved their old site design. It was easy to navigate and it loaded quickly.

But I agree with everyone about their new site design... it's just awful. I used to go to IGN once every day or so to check out news, but now I can't even remember the last time I went.

Pontiaction

11-01-2008, 06:25 PM

Clearly the site is focused on being a conduit for marketing first and information second.

Seriously, though, there is a "Babes" section?

peoplessi

11-01-2008, 07:16 PM

I loved their old site design. It was easy to navigate and it loaded quickly...

It certainly wasn't :) Or does that kind of design qualify for a good website in your and others books? It sucks, but the new design sucks just a little bit more.

Scream

11-01-2008, 07:24 PM

I always thought the site layout was poor. It's just a little worse now. What's gotten really bad is the load times. I don't know if it's the excessive graphics, poor coding, or a lack of system resources or bandwidth at their end, but navigating the site is brutally slow now. Half the time it feels as if your browser is freezing up trying to render the pages. It was never like that before.

Steve

11-01-2008, 07:32 PM

Half the time it feels as if your browser is freezing up trying to render the pages. It was never like that before.

It was like that for me with the old design. That's why I NEVER bookmarked or even bothered reading crap on IGN. The content maybe great (is it? Don't know. Design put me off) But both the old and the new design sucks ... with the new design being 10x bloody worse.

The main reason why I come here is... the design. Doesn't look like some retarded monkey coughed up pictures everywhere :o

Scream

11-01-2008, 07:36 PM

The content on IGN focuses more on quantity than quality I find. The quality of the writing is average at best and poor most of the time, and the editing is terrible (site is full of typos, poor grammar and misspellings). They tend to get some early exclusives on games, and often have reviews up before most other sites. Those are the main reasons I visit it.

Steve

11-01-2008, 07:38 PM

Scream

11-01-2008, 07:41 PM

I can forgive a lot if I get some value out of something, but the technical issues they've got with this new layout are too much.

Daveman

11-01-2008, 08:48 PM

The content on IGN focuses more on quantity than quality I find.
Their RSS feeds include press releases. Yeah, they want your clicks.

superevilcube

11-01-2008, 08:55 PM

It certainly wasn't :) Or does that kind of design qualify for a good website in your and others books? It sucks, but the new design sucks just a little bit more.

Sorry if my post wasn't specific enough: "I found it easy to navigate and I think it loaded quickly." There, is that better? :rolleyes:

I never had any problems with their old site layout. It never loaded slowly for me or anything like that.

Wamplet

11-01-2008, 08:58 PM

wow, it is slow and as i closed the tab to come write about it, it locked up my browsar. :o

Monkey Butler

11-01-2008, 11:12 PM

They used to have a "recent updates" thing on the mainpage that you could just go through to find what you wanted, but now you've got a bunch of clicks even to get to that. Not to mention the bullshit "top stories" things at the top of every page, which at one point linked me to a story from 2005, and at one point linked me to a story on whether an FPS Gears of War 3 would be better than Halo. WTF!? Bad site, just got worse.

And maybe it's just me, but the actual content (not just press release features list with a two sentence intro) has gone downhill as well. The multi-page reviews have always sucked, as has their video section, but the quality of the writing and the actual incisiveness of the reviews and previews is pretty much a joke now.

Wouldn't it be weird if the current shittiness of all the major gaming sites caused a renaissance of printed media.

Reaper

11-02-2008, 04:44 AM

Yea I hate it too, reminds me too much of ugly sites like Gamespot and 1up. I find myself going to it much less now.
Gamespot I can agree on, but 1up? 1up is awesomesauce. The design? Meh. But it loads quickish and it has been useful to me.

What review sites do you guys like?

ZaphodB

11-02-2008, 05:50 AM

YAY!! Now it looks as crappy as IGN Insider does! XD
At least I don't get ads being a Gamespy Founders Club memeber.

Denz

11-02-2008, 06:05 AM

I do not have all the ads on the sides, honestly it looks clean.

Took too much time to load, it slows down my computer, thank you flash sites!

Komb.at

11-02-2008, 06:30 AM

I never liked IGN .... but yeah, the new site is one of the worst i've seen in a while ... ugh

Stense

11-02-2008, 09:17 AM

Tis indeed a rubbish site layout now. Too busy with needless graphics, harder to find stuff you actually want and woefully slow.

psyborg

11-02-2008, 10:54 AM

Gamespot I can agree on, but 1up? 1up is awesomesauce. The design? Meh. But it loads quickish and it has been useful to me.

What review sites do you guys like?

I was refering to the design/layout. 1up is a good site with good content.

I quite liked IGN's layout before the change.