The MobyGames crisis

[MrFlibble 31]

I'd like to draw the attention to the ongoing crisis at MobyGames, one of the largest, oldest and most popular video game databases currently in existence.

 

Some of you may have already noticed that since last week, the site was updated with a new design. This was a corporate decision imposed by the company that currently owns MobyGames, GameFly Media. Many users have already expressed a negative opinion about the new look of the website, which was supposedly optimized for viewing on tablet devices, saying that it now looks bland and generic. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

 

In reality, the redesign has resulted in broken functionality of many of the site's key features. The new interface is far from user-friendly, the layout forces the users to do a lot of unnecessary scrolling (whereas previously all crucial information and options were available on a single screen), and the overall site performance had also decreased drastically with a huge reduction in loading speed of almost all pages.

 

MobyGames had always been a community-driven website, with both the contributors and the approvers being volunteers, many of whom have spent years of work to expand and improve the game database. The redesign that effectively crippled MobyGames' functionality was imposed on the community without their consent or knowledge. According to the core members/staff of MobyGames, GameFly was kind enough to provide a preview of the new design some time ago, but community feedback on its state was ignored, and the new design got implemented without any significant changes.

 

This has put off the majority of the core members, who are now expressing their wish to leave the site for good, in spite of all the efforts they had put into its development over the years. Their pleas to fix the most glaring deficiencies have remained unattended by the people in charge, who seem to have adopted the strategy of keeping the community in an information vacuum.

 

The protesting members are calling to revert to the pre-redesign state, however prospects of this happening are rather dim to say the least.

 

Currently all work on updating the site has ceased, as the members see no reason in continuing their efforts in this time of uncertainty. Quite possibly, many are appalled with this treatment from GameFly managers to such a degree that they will leave the website for good. This, in turn, means that either MobyGames will no longer be updated at all, or the staff will be replaced with people hired by GameFly to promote the company's interests. GameFly is a game renting service, so it would make sense for them to update the database with only those games that they have on offer, thus destroying the independent research potential of the website.

 

While there is little indication that the situation will improve in favour of the community, drawing the attention of the general public to the issue might help a bit.

[PurpleGaga27 40]

Wow. This is almost like what EA/VG had done to the official C&C website and forums. Old archives and links are mostly gone (even the slow loading of the site) and the forums failed to get a re-design of the site and forum despite the bug issues. Like Mobygames, most users no longer went to the C&C website and forums.

[Plok 327]

I'm not troubled about their new website as much as the fact that they add new games very slowly (TA still doesn't exist there and I remember they needed a lot of time to add C&C4 and TUC) and all contributions take a lot of time to be approved by the site's staff (I wanted to add a new rating source - an old Croatian magazine, but it took them a year and a half to add it because the language was not in their database!). They should rearrange their priorities. Although it's nothing like the old easy-access website, the new design's still not all that tragic.

[MrFlibble 31]

I'm not troubled about their new website as much as the fact that they add new games very slowly (TA still doesn't exist there and I remember they needed a lot of time to add C&C4 and TUC) and all contributions take a lot of time to be approved by the site's staff

It is my understanding that the lack of manpower resulted from some people leaving after having been disappointed with site's management by then-owners somewhere around 2009-2010. I guess this was inevitable as the site grew larger and the amount of effort needed to maintain and update it increased proportionally. Also, because it's a volunteer, user-contributed database one cannot expect anyone to dedicate all of their time to its maintenance and development.

 

They should rearrange their priorities. Although it's nothing like the old easy-access website, the new design's still not all that tragic.

With most of the community reluctant to work further unless GameFly demonstrates at least a remote interest in really supporting the site and not just making random, poorly thought out and poorly executed changes no one asked for, it remains unclear who the people in charge will be in the near future. Similarly, if GameFly has any plans for renovating the site in whatever direction, this is also completely unknown as they refuse to communicate with the forum staff (nice attitude, eh?).

 

People who have been spending years developing the site feel very bad right now, as with reduced accessibility and awful presentation, the quality of MG has also suffered. Of course they feel as if their personal efforts have been undone, and they are powerless to change anything at the moment. So maybe from a user's standpoint the change is not a particularly distressful event (after all, slow loading times and inconvenient interface aren't all that rare), but the long-time contributors' and approvers' spirits are down, and this is very sad.

[MrFlibble 31]

In a completely unexpected turn of events, the old design is back thanks to the effort of Mr. Jeremiah "Reed" Freyholtz:

http://www.mobygames.com/forums/dga,2/dgb,4/dgm,182637/

[PurpleGaga27 40]

Well that's good news.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

The old design looks like ****. I don't see what everyone was clamoring for, but whatever. I don't go there so it doesn't matter.

[Plok 327]

The old design looks like ****. I don't see what everyone was clamoring for, but whatever.

It's easier to navigate, maybe?

I don't go there so it doesn't matter.

Then why do you comment on it?

[MrFlibble 31]

The old design looks like ****. I don't see what everyone was clamoring for, but whatever.

It's not the visual design that put off the community, it's the completely broken functionality (people were unable to communicate via the IM system, the interface for content contributions disappeared entirely, the layout was horrible etc. etc.). This might not be noticeable for the end user but for a site that is 100% user-contributed content such "redesign" pretty much meant the end of all activity.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

 

Then why do you comment on it?

Why are you always such a ****?

[Sonic 296]

Tome to close this topic now.