The Video Game Critic

I've been adding quite a few new features lately so decided to start this thread to keep you posted.

I just added the Reader Voting grades to the mobile site! You can't vote on the mobile site, but at least you can see the grades.

Also, I enlarged some of the text on the main site. You'll notice it mainly on the home page below the "latest review" screenshots. As screen resolutions are getting higher, my text and screens are getting smaller! Have to keep up!

Also added a new HuCard icon for games like Dragon Wang, which come on a card instead of a cartridge.

If I broke anything or something looks odd, please let me know!

Thanks
VGC

"HuCard" is for PC Engine (officially Turbochip in USA for TG-16).

The icon should be "Game Card Software"

Are you going to place the icon on most of the games in the TG-16 section?

Thanks for the correction Gentlegamer.
I will probably not bother including it for the Turbografx reviews, since it's the default media for the system.
Mainly thinking of using it for the SG-1000 and Sega Master System card games.

Got another idea for a new feature I'd like to bounce off you guys. Everybody likes to read comments right?

It has been requested in the past to put a link at the end of each review to the message board thread that discusses the review. Sounds reasonable but there is a problem. I often post two or three reviews at time, all in the same comment thread. So you might see "3 comments" under Dead or Alive but it takes you to a thread that only talks about the Frozen game.

An alternate approach would be a separate comment system totally disconnected from the boards. When you clicked "3 comments" it could insert them right into the page (similar to the read more links). I think it would be a good idea to keep the comments short - longer than tweets but nothing that rambles. Would the user need to be logged in to post? Would anonymous posts be allowed? Good questions.

This would also be entail work for the moderators, as they would probably need to go to a separate screen to approve the latest batch.

What do you guys think? Would this be worth the effort?

Hmm, interesting. I kind of think you might segregate your forum users. That might be a good thing or a bad thing?

If the posts are anonymous, you'll get way more random spam bots showing up which I really don't think is something you'll want.

My vote goes to your existing forum thread for the latest comments about that series of posts. If no one posts about that game then that's a perfect opportunity for a new comer to jump in and say something...

ActRaiser wrote:I kind of think you might segregate your forum users...My vote goes to your existing forum thread for the latest comments about that series of posts. If no one posts about that game then that's a perfect opportunity for a new comer to jump in and say something...

VideoGameCritic in 2006 wrote:This board [review feedback] is only for current and future reviews. However, feel free to post your opinions on other reviews under Reader Reviews or the General area.

I agree with Actraiser on just linking to something in the regular forum.

I like that your site has years of forum history and an online culture. A comment area might devolve into just driveby comments or a place to post what gaming stuff is for sale. Instead, a link in the review inviting feedback is a lure to bring in people to the established forum community. This could boost site traffic, and create a more interesting and active forum community. Win-win.

I know many games don't have a specific review feedback link, either because its unreviewed or a review predates 2006. Instead of just a link to Review Feedback, maybe it could be a search of topics to pick up discussions on that game across forums. If there is still no thread, then the 'no results match' answer could invite creating a thread under Now Playing.

Thanks for the feedback.
I think a "search link" would be the easiest to implement, but there are some issues with it.

First, I think only logged-in users can search at this time, due to the way the boards are configured.
That's because searching is a resource-intensive operation that could bog down the site if every bot tried to search every link.
I think that's part of what brought the forums down when they were brand new.

Then again, it might invite more people to create accounts and join the forums.