Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
MEGATHREAD: Feedback on the new Website
Zettrex
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
MOD NOTE: I have a feeling lots of people will want to leave feedback on the new website so we're merging them all together to make it easier for Intrepid to see. Please use this thread to give your feedback rather than creating new ones. Thanks
Hey Intrepid, want to say before i go off on a little rant I like what your doing for the most part and i got faith in you creating a amazing game if you keep to your vision for the game.
So on the new website I like the new look you go for its nice.
My main grape with the current website is the layout and lack of additional Information about the game that have disappeared.
why is the first thing I'm getting when I open the Webpage, "
Special Offer" this should be "This months cosmetics" at least? In your own words "We are not going to be like every other Game Developer", "Our game is fully funded, and you should not buy it before your sold on the game". For me and likely other this looks cheep when we take this into consideration.
My recommendation on this would be Put it below "Key Features".
Give people the Information about the Product before you try to sell them it.
For me this could look like your just like all the other Cash gabby game studio out there.
regarding the "key features" this section is lacking a lot of content there was from the old page.
not saying that this is a perfect idea either as this was done quick and dirty. but sell your vision for what Ashes of creation aims to be. and give more information about what the game will have of features in the texts.
some other stuff I saw.
on the sub pages, the "Hero" looks out of place something to fix this could be to add the arrow from the main page "hero's"
I think the background is to harsh in the splatters and maybe should be smoothed a tiny bit.
other then that I would say the website is a lot better, Store ofc needs to be implemented a lot better then it currently is, but I know & understand that your working on this but wanted to go live with the stuff you currently had.
will provide some ideas of what I could see the website's home page looking like
or
the first one lacks the additional information I would recommend adding it was created to give feedback during livestream but didn't get seen.
Zettrex.
11
Comments
What I appreciated:
The Missing:
- No animations or video. Examples:
- I would like to see the latest dev video on auto play front and center, wich a prominent link to browse the past videos.
- Would also like to see a more prominent element for the forums.
Forgive my presumptuousness... I have rearranged the site elements:https://robertsspaceindustries.com/star-citizen
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/
Well done.
I agree with @Zettrex that "Special Offer" has mobile-game quality connotations - but no biggie.
However, I disagree about putting "Key Features" at the top: This is not an "About" page - it's the Home page so it's important you show the actionables (buy/register/download/latest updates) before you info dump on people. Then only first-timers will have to scroll down to explore the site - and only first timers need to subscribe to newletters.
While your layout design may look a little bit dated (think of the common CMS layouts from 2006-2008), it would work even better than the current official website. It tells us where our main focus is and secondary actions would be right where we would expect it to be. It doesn't look modern but that's a small matter.
I wanted to make some notes so y'all can understand the decisions that were made:
- As someone stated in this thread already, you usually want your CTA (call to action) items at the top of your Home page (Registration and Special Offer in our case currently) as folks rarely scroll down. [For example, if someone comes to the site, they see that they can register and the disclaimer, but don't know how to be a part of the test, and immediately can see that they can click the special offer to partake in the above disclaimed message.]
- When it comes to content, we're going to have a TON of other pages with information on the game, but we want to keep the Home page to a minimum for viewer retention - so that is why we have slimmed it down to 2 key features on this page. (Lots of data analysis went into these decisions.
- Most of the game info will actually be in the "Game" section of the website before the "News" tab on the top bar once we launch that area of our website.
- In regards to the style choices we've made, this is to fit our brand style guide, but we'll work out some adjustments to meet the suggestions of the community in future phases.
- As far as animation/video movement on the webpage, that is something we'll be adding as well, but we want to make sure the performance of our website is smooth first. (We're currently in performance updating mode at the moment.)
This is just Phase 1, so we'll have many more adjustments and changes coming down the line, and we'll take into account your feedback as we move forward. We hope this gives a little more understanding as to why we made the decisions we made thus far.
Edit: I guess wallpapers and screenshots were added.
While I agree with it, my only concern about that panel is only because it's titled "Special Offer". It doesn't reflect your words, especially Steven's, the Creative Director. I would be fine with it if it was titled differently, like so:
The idea behind this is that it would reflect on your company's vision more accurately. Your Creative Director himself have repeatedly said "no P2W", which implies monetization and making money will be the last thing that Intrepid Studios is worried about. Even more so at this stage of development. He has also said previously, as a call to action, "don't tell people to buy the game but tell them to get involved". In that sense:
"Special Offer" = telling people to buy the game
A different title (eg. "Help bring Ashes of Creation to life") = telling people to get involved with the development of the game
There can be many ways to get people involved, such as participating in the forums or the Discord server. Those can be included in that panel as well. People should be presented with the choices they have to get involved with the game other than only pre-ordering the packs.
I don't want to talk like I know more about marketing than you do. I am not a marketing professional. I am only speaking as a customer. As a customer, we see what we want to see based on our expectations of your company. Looking at your website is fine to me as someone who has followed the game for more than 3 years. But for someone new who only heard about the company's stance regarding monetization yet the first thing they see is "Special Offer with exclusive cosmetics", it would leave a bad taste in their mouth.
To be clear, I like the updated design. It looks modern. Its theme fits Ashes of Creation and Verra. Everything else is great. Once you're done with the content of the website, it would be the one-stop shop for everything Ashes of Creation.
Aren't we all sinners?
That being said. The new website looks better. 10/10, top marks, ect...
My favorite part is that the first key feature on the front page is "Risk Vs Reward". Which will be ignored by all of the "Care Bears" this game has attracted.
Maybe if they write it in blood people will get the message.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
We mentioned this in the live stream. In future phases, we'll be adding more details - I gave an example of the races page and how that will improve with each phase.
This is a fan-made site, we do not own it.
Oh, my bad, i really didn't knew. i expected it to be owned by intrepid or atleast associated.
Aren't we all sinners?
Its too soon.
The site loads fast
The site does have some content within it and I do feel like the registration AND the cosmetics should be up the top because the game is trying to get interested users to register and perhaps support the company.
But where we start to fall down is we do have a lack of content, why? Because the game is in Pre-Alpha and content is extremely limited.
What would I recommend for the future?
Classes page - Example of the abilities of each class, a little GIF/Video of said class.
Lore (Optional)- Dedicated lore section once the game is out
Game Guide - (What the game is, FAQ, Races, Crafting, Housing etc all there) - I separated classes because when you're into an MMO I want to see what classes are available immediately.
I don't know how everyone feels but quite a few of us are kind of putting all of our poker chips as a last bet for this MMO and wishing it all the best to succeed as a final MMO to "retire on" and stick to. I believe the website should not be given too much focus over the core game itself however I do see its relevance and appreciate it greatly as it is.
I'll leave my comments about the shop elsewhere, it needs TLC but i'll see what improvements they do before giving feedback on it.
As always, listening to your community can be a double-edged sword but I fully believe you have made the right choice for this issue. Special Offer can make a comeback once the game is fully released.
We mentioned all of these things in the live stream.
We do our best to listen and taken in all of the feedback, but of course, we will always make the decision we think is best in the end. That being said, we're always willing to explain why we are making said decisions.
We appreciate that y'all are so invested and that you also are willing to hear us out.
You want to show content on a site
None of the content is ready yet or still being made/private
I have a huge amount of faith with the team and that's why I just want people to remember its going to be coming out - this is a website for early stage development, more will be coming just hang tight and enjoy the journey.
Thank you for your clarification, the new phrasing helped a lot on the website alone, i would still liked the store not to be as the first element, and instead maybe have easy buy a pack action when registering & have it on the bottom as right now your call to actions are both at the top & you got no follow-up when on the bottom, having those on opposite ends will in my mind create more "wanted actions" but if you have done user testing before releasing i cant say anything. but the change you did is acceptable, good to know that you are taking feedback.
The "about game" tab will solve the "information" section of my post.
The sketch @xdrac made is more a design i think looks appealing as a homepage, just missing the call to action for "buy" / "support" on the bottom. but thats changing your style, but doing something more with the sites with bigger sections that break the boxes & the flow, a little less stale. would be a nice welcome.
looking forward to the next phases
I worked some more on a design sketch the last few days and included how a new design/layout for the site and shop could look like.
Link to original image/bigger resolution version: https://i.imgur.com/XQt4UmW.jpg