Front Page Changes
As I’m sure you’ve all noticed by now, the Utopian frontpage has undergone some changes. I’ve been reading the comments and feedback left on the blog, and I would like to take this opportunity to call for any further suggestions you may have. I will be collecting them all and improvements will be made based on your input.
Currently, I’m working on some basic in-game changes, of the nature described in the previous blog post. In a few weeks, they may propagate in-game.
The Earth frontpage will also be getting a new look, in the near future, so if there are any Earthers out there with ideas or suggestions, now would be a good time to hear from you! I have created a thread for comments of this nature specifically, here.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
it looks like wood :)
August 14th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I would love to see you all take into consideration mobile devices when redesigning/remaking the site. More and more people have internet enabled windows mobile phones, and letting them easily play will greatly increase activity.
A more streamline design for agents detected as mobile device would help a lot. You could arrange the adds to be before or between page views so at least it wouldn’t make the actual game screens hard to use. You would greatly increase your traffic, membership, and therefore advertising revenues!
August 14th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I’m not the world’s greatest artist so I’m not gonna even try to draw anything here.
However, might I suggest having an opened art competition (with guidlines) for a new earth page/art work?
August 14th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Get rid of that color. That is the ugliest shade of brown ever. You need colors like green, blue, silver, etc. Not a shade of poop soup. Common guys, you can’t be color blind.
August 16th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Um.. what the hell is with that black colored cartoon face in the right down corner? It’s a black image on a black background…
August 17th, 2008 at 5:08 am
I do not like that I have to choose the server now. Keep the log in pages seperate so we can save each to favorites. I really like being able to click Utopia, double click username and hit login.
August 17th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
I like the link to this blog ingame in the top of the screen!
August 19th, 2008 at 5:43 am
OMAC, please re-read the comments on blog Front Page Changes July 29th, 2008 by Roisin. I hasn’t see improvement for the main problem: color.
And stop using same title for different ‘topic’, people hardly refer as ‘oh that front page changes topic’. It is weird and not professional.
August 19th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
When I login from my mobile phone I can only login from games.swirve.com/utopia/login.htm I can’t login from your new page. It only sends me right back to the same page.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
The new utopia front page is nice, but the colors are ugly. Too much brown, and like someone above said, its an ugly shade of brown.
August 20th, 2008 at 3:25 am
I dont like the new look. It seems you guys have gone backwards in style and appearance. It looks like websites use to look 5-7 years ago. I liked the old look, layout and user ability to the old design.
August 20th, 2008 at 3:30 am
Bring back the separate login screens please. It’s not helpful to have the pull downs.
August 20th, 2008 at 4:19 am
As remarked before, I too think the color is not great. However, I think the overall design is improving. One thing that bugs me though, is that you publish the page apparently without putting it through an (x)html validator -> http://validator.w3.org/
The effort involved is negligible compared to the overall time it cost to design a good website and its a good practice otherwise.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:14 am
I left my ideas for the game here … please take a look:
http://www.utopia-blog.com/?p=15
August 20th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Bryce makes a good point. Part of the day I play Utopia on my phone (a Samsung Blackjack), and the relatively low-tech design actually works in my advantage. Streamline it a bit and make it easier for all of us and you could have a winner.
Also, and this is less pressing, but why not see if the game could be adapted into a Facebook app? There’s some really interesting IP here that could work in that usage.
August 20th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
I don’t think people started and kept on playing this game because of the design. If we wanted visual stimulus, we would’ve started to play a 3D game =) I think that simplicity is the one of the keys of this game’s success.
I also don’t like the new front page because it doesn’t fit all the screen, it’s just some spot of color in the middle, I find that very disturbing. Not even the elements of the interface make sense , it’s like different pieces put together. Those stripes under the menu are ugly, the columns are ugly too.. I think it’d look way better if they used the old black theme. Not to mention that the add… is at least horrible .
August 20th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
^^^ I find that very disturbing too.
August 20th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I like selecting the server via the pulldown menu. And at least i have the (probably illusionary) idea that any scripter-multis need to rescript now.
The colours work for me too, but then again i’m also no ads-kiddie that longs for bright colours. It is a bit calm and unglamorous.
But then again, i never spend more time on the front page than the few seconds it takes to log in anyway. For all i care you could also make it bright pink.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Or, if the pull down for the server choice is undesireable, why not have 2 buttons side by side to get to each server. Save 1 lind to favorites, double click username, pick a button.
Color really doesn’t matter to me.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
I don’t think the new pull down is much of an improvement and the colors are ugly.
In responding to requests for adopting the site to cell phones etc. remember, it’s not just a windows universe. Keep us MAC users in mind.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
lol salomo.
A frontpage of a website is internet best advertisement. Format, graphics, colors are important if you want to invite newcomers. Have you seen a dull-colored item package that makes a lot of people interested? Brown or Pink can be used as good colors, but with a good blend.
August 21st, 2008 at 2:05 am
Omg Love the new look
August 21st, 2008 at 4:32 am
No offense, but it looks like the graphics froma a children’s cartoon mixed in with msn advertisements. The shading on the top makes it look cheap.
August 21st, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Why don’t you use the utopia logo on the top of this blog with the castle? And some more black… The theme from this blog looks great. Everyone agreed with that. Use this or something similar and there will be less complaints and you’ll look more professional..
Really looks cheap now.
August 21st, 2008 at 6:10 pm
the only thing i am not fond of is the color, as most players seem to hate as well! brown is just ugly and has a 70’s feel to it.
August 21st, 2008 at 11:48 pm
They arent changing the color because they are divas and think that they know more about colors than the rest of us. The art guys probably like There newbs they dont know what there talking about, or they will get used to it. The front page is UGLY
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:41 am
i don,t care bout the look, its okay. but what i,m really stressed about right now is that whatever ya,ll did won,t let me log in to utopia. i can,t type my full user name.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:42 am
You need a proper CI, there’s not even a logo.
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:00 am
As said above, who cares about the frontpage. Its the game machanics that need to be fixed up to date.
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:10 pm
I dont know if anyone else cares, but PLEASE NO ADVERTS ON THE MAIN FRONTPAGE.
Its so UGLY that it hurts my eyes.
The front page is so nice with all the nice coloours and designs but that bright habbo advert just ruins it all.
It turns a classy page into trash.
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:44 am
I dont understand why my post about the advert at the bottom right makes a classy utopia page look trashy was removed.
Its my right to make a suggestion and it is for no ads to be placed on the utopia front page.
Or if ads are placed, please pick proper ones which fit with the theme. Thanks.
August 24th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Ugly+cheap.You should count how many times these 2 words were posted on this page. The pull down is impractical.First, do a study on the players: age group, education, location, favorite themes/colors(post 3-5 pictures and have them choose the most attractive one, then study the colors/theme used in the favorite pic)-don’t count on the personal info on the account page being to accurate; that should help you with the sponsors too.Then, start thinking hard how you can attract new players while keeping the old ones. And also start taking a hint, when a vast majority of your consumers are unhappy, do something about it. Luckily you didn’t start messing with the game itself yet.
Most of the players probably have 1 question in their minds: If they messed up the start page so badly, what’s going to happen when they start working on the actual game. That’s what bothers us most.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:59 am
I think the start page, looks like its going in the right direction, sure it may look a bit off at the moment but i personally feel that its looking good and they are making great progress =)
for one at least the ads are something which fits the colour scheme!
I hope omac actually creates provinces and plays in the game, contact some vets to help you out with teaching you how the game works and everythhing then you can make good decisions i suppose.
August 27th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Great job OMAC! The frontpage going in the right direction. The lines and color mix seems fine by now.
Ok, now we have empty field on right bottom corner. I have four kind of suggestions:
1. Is there any chances to compile in game events with the frontpage? I think it will be awesome to have news about KD A war against KD B, KD C won war against KD D. It still need to be re-think about the war win, since it allows people to know when a KD will out from war without CE.
Benefits: Showing an interesting activity on utopia, give feeling of proud towards any KD, whichever they are SK or not.
2. Testimonials of Utopian experience.
Benefits: Interest new people to play, since it seems to have unique testimonials. Though this strategy is kinda old.
3. Preview/Summary of Utopian events. Go cooperate with site like alliancerankings, put a paragraph of an event from there with ‘read more’.
Benefits: This is like the first suggestion. Showing an interesting activity on utopia, give feeling of proud towards those who highlighted (positively).
4. Or maybe the best if you guys and girls could make up some events.
Put the IRC server on tools, you know most of us use it to communicate. ;)
My other suggestion would be regarding a tutorial.
Why? I found out reading the whole guide are too demanding, especially if I’m just random bored gamer that want to seek a good game. I will just play a bit, see if I feel fit to it, and decide to play or seek other game– seeing the complicated guides might make me fall asleep or left it. Yes I know that utopia encourage us to interact to learn, but not everyone in utopia is reliable/eager to teach newbies.
How? Build an interactive tutorial. It would like dummy account in dummy server. In there, you would be seeing step by step how to build your province basically. Yes it is not a good build or such, but at least people will have idea of what to do at protection to how to attack. I can make the tutorial by screenshots, but I can’t make it interactive.
August 31st, 2008 at 7:36 pm
I also find the need to choose Gen or Wol annoying. It’s an extra click that’s unnecessary. A simple link to one or the either and login from separate pages is fine. Though I do use a form filler that auto detects it, but when using phone, it is another click that I would rather not do.
As to the color, the brown is really not that pretty and I am a woman. Go with silver or if you want to stay with the warm tones, then make it more vibrant with gold.
Additionally, resurrect the Prophet simulator for each age change. It helps to forecast and helps to teach newbies with. Also, as noted before, links to quickies, like Irc, or Target Finders/KD War Finders/SoM Calculators and Formatters and UtopiaPimp would be nice.
Other than that, thanks for taking the time to elicit feedback.
September 1st, 2008 at 4:44 am
Few quick suggestions:
1) Mobile device friendly. Earth2025 might have a future on mobile devices. :D No big text, no frames, preferably.
2) Minimal graphics?
September 1st, 2008 at 10:28 am
It has been said over and over, I think the color is way off, drab and depressing. I also strongly prefer the separate logins over the current menu. Plz give it a thought.
September 1st, 2008 at 6:12 pm
PLEASE TAKE OFF THE THANK YOU FOR THE SURVEY!! The survey was up for 2 days and the thank you wont go away. PLEASE!
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Q.13
How many computers do you have in your house connected to the Internet that you use to play Earth? *
<< that’s a stupid question. I selected multiple answers, but it refuses to accept it. blah. i have both notebook and desktop at home!
September 5th, 2008 at 4:04 am
*sigh* the past few days I have to log in (enter my password) twice before I am able to log in, something must have changed…
September 5th, 2008 at 8:22 am
the color is terrible, the layout is terrible. the old look was way better. you guys shouldnt have tried to mess with the layout and look of the whole site. it was brilliant before. ya’ll should have just stuck to the game itself and not the design. the first impression of the site is usually the home page. and this just gives a very bad impression
September 5th, 2008 at 11:31 am
I do NOT love colors on front page. In fact, I hate it. It’s some combination of golden and brown that looks like s**t I released yesterday…
On the other hand, I love this layout.. Why not using this one?
September 5th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
This is getting rediculous, starting today i have to try logging in “3 times” before the system will accept my password…(???)
September 7th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Hmm, I just forgot.
You guys use full background images, it is not supposed to be cropped since separated images took more space(bandwidth).
I suggest that all images on the top (banner: dragons and utopia logo) merged to ONE single image.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Why aren’t you updating genesis charts since fryday sept 5 ??? For me it shows me lack of interest in the game itself…
September 13th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
I would like to have genesis implemented into the Hall of fame, would be nice to have the option to look back and remember great ages youve had..
September 13th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I would like to have Genesis implemented into the hall of fame, It would be nice to have the option to look back at ages in the past..
September 17th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Going on 2 weeks now and still having to log in 2-3 times before I can get in, even after getting an e-mail from the admin, which i appreciate the concern and follow up
Am I the only one experiencing this?
maybe it’s just me…
September 17th, 2008 at 7:12 am
On both Genesis and WoL I’m still getting directed to the page that says
I am sorry, but you provided an incorrect password for the username xxx. Please return to the Login Screen and try again.
Every time I log in (several times a day), it takes 2-3 tries before my password is accepted
September 24th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Nothing has changed, still having to log in 2-3 times every time I try to log in (?)
September 28th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
I think it’s the ad’s on the front page affecting log ins, the longer the ad takes to load it seems the more times I have to keep trying to log in, today after several attempts (almost 10) I still cannot log in, it’s really getting annoying and am about to quit playing if it’s going to continue like this, unfortunately I just don’t have the time and my patience is running out after several weeks of this
September 29th, 2008 at 6:01 am
ahhh…it’s working now finally, thanks! :)
October 1st, 2008 at 10:33 am
having gen in hall of fame would be really great!!!
it will encourage more people to do there best like @ WoL.
and having a choose to stay or not in the same KD in Gen will be very very accomodating…
i have been playing ages in gen now and i keeps on landing in a KD that is dead…and i just leave my account till deleted by itself…
except this age,luckily…if everyone could get to know each other age by ages,i guess the number of players in Gen will be like the numbers of players that are playing in WoL…
Gen is NOT only for experementing—but GEN is great if everyone are working it out…
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November 10th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Any Ideas as to why Im still seeing the Last Game A stats on my current game?