Competition Winner, Survey Results & Changes

Thanks to everyone who took the time to complete our user survey.  The response was fantastic, the results very interesting, and the changes we needed to make very apparent.

Most striking was how similar you all are, and how similar you are to us.  Based on wonderful averaging, we have managed to calculate roughly who you are and what you think.

So, on average, you are a man in his 20s with a fondness for a good, though-provoking feature.  You also really enjoy reading reviews.  You liked the idea of the new format, but thought it looked a little messy, and you preferred the simple, user-friendly look of the old magazine.

As such, you may notice we’ve made a few changes.  We really didn’t want to do anything too drastic so soon after the relaunch, so we’ve stuck with the same overall image, but we’ve taken on board your criticisms and made a few alterations accordingly.  Firstly, you’ll notice the Reviews section is no longer in its own box at the top.  You weren’t keen on this, generally, so it’s gone, replaced by three feature windows for what we consider our most interesting articles at a given time.  We’ve also increased the amount of recent articles shown on the front page, as many of you only visit once a week or so, and found that pieces you hadn’t yet read were already buried in the archives.  We’ve made browsing easier, in case things do get lost; and we’ve added a separate section for podcasts, something a lot of you asked for.

Aside from that, it’s really just been tidying-up jobs.  We’ve trimmed away some of the less important sidebar features, and generally made everything look a little smarter.  The presentation of our articles has altered slightly as well, with clever formatting making everything easier on the eye and hopefully more managable.

We had a few requests for user game ratings.  Unfortunately, we’re not in a position to offer these for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, and most importantly, the technology we use to manage the site simply doesn’t allow for it.  Without wanting to get too technical, Resolution’s database is governed on a page-by-page basis, with tags linking articles together for browsability purposes.  We don’t have separate database areas for individual games, something many of the larger sites do have at their disposal.  Secondly… well, while we certainly want to be user-friendly and encourage an active community, we’re not really that interested in what numbers people award games.  You told us in the survey that you like the percentage scoring system, so that stays, but we’re much more interested in developing features beyond simple reviews. As such, we’re reluctant to make changes that don’t reflect this ideology.  We hope you understand.

Finally, we’d like to say a big “congratulations!” to Thomas Worthington from Cheshire, whose name was drawn out of the proverbial hat to win the free game.  Well done, Thomas – something will be on its way to you shortly!