This website is too hard to use

[chrisdfw]

I really appreciate the efforts to bring 3d gaming to the masses...

However,

I am disapointed with many things about this site.

1) Sometimes posting requires me to log in again and sometimes goes to some screen where it wants me to edit my profile. It isn't consistent and I have tried from different PCs. Eventually I can get in and post but sometimes it takes repeated tries and starting over by getting into the forums again.

2) The links page is pretty empty. There are links in these forums posted by users and other website forums to different 3d helpful websites and manufacturers that should be here.

3) The unofficial games database is too hard to use. Screenshots are a nice bonus but shouldn't be required. I just want to be able to look up a game alphabetically and get whatever info users have posted about it as to how compatable they think it is and what drivers/setting they used. I don't even mind if if someone posts very limited info that says a game name and a 1-5 ranking for 3d compatability and what type of system they have (i.e. stereo Nvidia drivers). It would be nice if it could give an "average user rating". We should be able to sort by user rating. Sorting could also be done with game type (i.e. Racing, Flying, FPS, Roll Playing, etc). You may want to look at TrackIR's web site and see how they do their database of supported games. They also link to game demo's when they are available for a particular title.

I understand that you have to cater to official sponsors and certified titles, but if you can't make this a "one stop shop" for people looking for 3d stereo information and tutorials then there just won't be any traffic here. The site also doesn't feel very user friendly. First impressions are everything and the casual gamer interested in 3d will just not spend much time here and may never come back. If you need to keep this site catering more to game companies than gamers then you may want to partner with another site and move gamer related content over to that site.

Thank you for your efforts and I hope the site continues to improve.

Chris

[chrisdfw]

On the plus side, the News section is good, the Downloads section is good, and the Forums are good (but without more traffic there just won't be much participation).

Thanks,
Chris

[sharky]

hi chris!

thank you for your suggestions.. we are going trough a BIG site renoval program. and its weeks we are working on it. there is much to do and that is why things seem slow.

i try to reply to all 3 your points:

1) the mtbs3d registration (the one youre complaining about) is required for several reasons:
- antispam
- Real member count
- mail list
- protect sections
- give users the possibility to register to the site only without the need to rigester in the forum too.
it works with cookies, so once youre logged in it should be ok. actually you need to login twice, and then it should be ok. (this is a problem we are going to fix as soon as we can) if you still are expiriencing problems the you have a cookie problem and i can help you if you want. you can contact me in msn at sharkyenergy AT hotmail DOT com

2) the links page will be filled up at the right moment. we have more important things now in our plans, and as you said all the neeed links can easily be found on the forum. but youre right and at the right moment that will come too

3)the unofficial database is not hard to use. maybe it scared you at the first moment but there is simly to click on "upload file" (hoovering over the @) and fill the requested fields. the image should give a overall impression because every person sees bugs different. i mean somehting that is irritating for me hasnt to be irritating for you too. the fields are required to give a overall image of the game. only a "star rating" is nothing more than what we have already here in the forum. i think that the forum already says much about the compatibility of games, and this gallery is intended to give a full overall unofficial view about the game. probably there wont be much people uploading, but thats YOUR database, and no ufficial mtbs team members are going to put something in there.. we set up rules to keep it clean and usefull for who searches informations. EVERY information about compatibility can be found int ehre.. obviously its done by non professional so there can be errors here and there, wrong answers, or whatever you want, but that is the sense fothe thing.


we are also making a new start page wich will have the links to all categories.. all infos at the first page. very user friendly.. i want to post what neil said to me 2 hours ago:

Neil: User friendly is the first rule in the new design!

we are working hard to make this but ther eis a lot to do and it takes time.
thanks again for your suggestions i really appreciate that because this is what helps mtbs to keep moving forward!

bye

igor

[Neil]

I think I know where some of this feedback is coming from. Try going through the site with Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. You should have an easier time.

I sent our designer a bug list to fix, including some of the issues you brought up. Try running Firefox for now.

Yes, tutorials are a very good idea, and we'll get right on that.

I think Sharky responded to the other stuff already. Please keep submitting feedback ideas as we clearly take our members' input and ideas very seriously.

Regards,
Neil

[Neil]

Ok - some good news!

1. Most of the bugs with IE have been fixed.
2. When you have to enter your username and password, it goes to the section you want, not account administration.
3. The BLOGS section no longer scrolls. You can pick story by story.

There are some new minor bugs, but they should be fixed shortly.

Regards,
Neil

[sharky]

i just updated the template mods of the forum in the old temlate too.. now the users who use the old template also see the "gallery-logo" at the top and the gallery details.

i also have set a bright theme for the gallery for users who use the other template. its exactly the same as we use, but with bright gray tones instead of dark gray and blue.

see you

igor