Topic: Favourite and least favourite bits of Nintendo Life

Now that Nintendo Life has merged WWW, VC-R and itself into one big website, what's everyone's opinions on this? Post one good comment about the website, and one bad thing that you'd like changing. I'll be a gentleman and go first:

Like: The new forums which have already become my favourite forum on the internet
Don't like: The way that the website might get a bit too crowded with new additions sometimes.

Like: Phew, that's a hard one...maybe...hmmm...if you absolutely wanted to you could also read articles covering other consoles...
don't like: The look. Especially of the forum. And the new structure of the forum. And did you really delete all the old threads? In case you did: this site ----------------------------------------------> me
Sorry, guys.

Honestly guys, all joking about NintendoLife aside, if this really isn't an elaborate prank, I have one main major problem. How could you put all that effort into revamping the look of the site, the organization of the game lists, etc. and then still maintain the incorrect usage of "US" in the giant VC and WW games charts?

It's great that the intro text to the chart says "Here is the complete list of Virtual Console games that are available now in North America and Europe." Hurray! But the "Regions" drop-down still says "EU" and "US". US is not a video game release region, it's one country within the NA region. Ditto for the release date header US Date and EU Date. Honestly, you can't use the tired old excuse that no one cares. Many people at the forum have already proven that wrong. And you can't use the excuse that it would be too hard, given all of the changes that have gone on here.

If this one thing changed, it would be a great first step in giving this site some credibility as a site that actually cares about and caters first to its readers rather than to its own staff.

Man, canadians get so freaked out if they are left out, you don't see the new zelanders, or aussie's in an uproar over not being on the main list. Maybe if Canada was a real country it would get that respect, but come on jogurt, when you say North America, it automatically brings the US to mind. Maybe P.R. or Guam, or Mexico should be protesting as well...JK....LOL

Dude, it is just a list, give the guys at nintendo life a break they are trying.

Jogurt, we'd be more than happy to discuss that mate... basically you want us to use "North America" instead of "US"?

I guess the main reason behind using US is that people instantly recognise it, if we used "NA" would people get it? How about NA/US "North America / United States"?

1 thing I like - One site for respectable VC and WiiWare game reviews.
1 thing I don't like - You dropped the number of blocks from the general description of each game! Although system 4.0's SDHC fix to the short sighted use of half a megabyte for system memory is welcome (though overdue), memory management is still an issue to me. I still need to keep 320 blocks of system memory available to play World of Goo (the largest game I own) from the SD card and I like to keep some "short burst" games on the main screen for immediate access for me and my young children. Just yesterday I was searching for some smaller games with good reviews to add variety to our immediate selection, Today I can't do that. I have to prod through the Shop Channel all the way to the point of confirming my purchase to learn the number of blocks a game will consume. This elimination has weakened the usefulness of your site. If you were to add it back I would find it most useful in the "games out now" database screens. I believe others would also find this info useful.

1 item that concerns me - VC Reviews and WiiWare World worked nicely from the Internet Channel, The new NintendoLife is sluggish. I enjoy sitting in my easy chair and browsing the web and I think you need to trim it back a bit.

Thanks for listening and I believe these changes would make your site better than the previous sites. Today it is worse than the sum of its parts.

@k9spy, thanks for your response, I'll reply to your two issues:

1) Block Sizes
Yeah, removing these wasn't really to do with the sites merging, we felt that now everyone can use SD cards it far less of an issue for the majority of users. It was actually quite hard work to maintain that information on the site - something we felt was very valuable until the 4.0 update. I'll raise this with the other admin's and see if they'll reconsider, I can see why it was decided to drop them though.

2) Wii Browsing
To be honest mate, we've only done minimal testing of this new design on the Wii so far - a lot of the work has happened in the past week or two and we were even making design changes last night! With that in mind, we indeed to review the Wii browsing and make some adjustments to the site so it works nicer on that browser - if you've got any suggestions please let us know!

Thanks again for the comments!

It certainly is less of an issue but still an issue to me at least.

As far as a "majority of users", if 25% of your users used this info would that be worth it? I find it hard to believe that is "quite hard work to maintain that information". Maybe masses will jump on my comments..lol.

Thanks for the quick response though and keep up the good reviews.

What do you mean give them a break? This is a forum topic where they are inviting suggestions on ways to improve. I assume they invite suggestions on ways to improve because they're, you know, actually interested in improving. The rest of your message isn't worth replying to. I'm not complaining because I'm a Canadian, I'm complaining because I'm an intelligent person who cares about a professional website avoiding inaccuracies.

Yes, I think it would be more correct and professional to use the region's official term/nomenclature. People instantly recognize "UK" too, but it's still not the correct term for the European/PAL region. People would definitely recognize NA, even if only because of context. When you put "NA" next to the abbreviation "EU" at the top of a list of release dates, it's pretty obvious what it stands for. (Then again, if the general public is as brainless as the other ignoramus who replied to my post, I'm not so sure.)

NA/US is better than just US, but it's still an unnecessary concession to the US, not to mention it's longer and probably more unwieldy in chart headers and drop-downs.

I've heard that it's common in Europe to just use "US" as a blanket term, but I assume that doesn't mean Europeans aren't familiar with the term "North America". North Americans are certainly well aware of the phrase and associated abbreviation, even if some thick yanks pretend theirs is the only nation on the continent.

How about just plain "America"? or better yet "Homeland" would that fix it?
Sincerely,
a thick Yank

(ok, just kidding. I get the idea, but you do see what he means about the wide use of US over NA even if it is wrong. NA often means 'not applicable', but sadly US is pretty often understood as meaning this entire region as releases go. I know it sucks but it's true. By that I mean, Yes, the general public is full of ingnoramus' even if you aren't)

i live in the US, and i would understand NA. i also agree that is the proper way to go.

But anyone that would get "Not Applicable VC/WW Releases" out of putting NA on the header would have to be seriously mentally handicapped.

I don't care about the whole NA/US thing but if it would make the site seem more "accurate" and appease our good Northern buddies, then I'm down with it.
EDIT:Favorite thing? That I don't have to type part of VC-R and WWW every day and can now just go here. Least favorite thing? That I'm still not a reviewer yet. HINT HINT.

@Jogurt, yeah, I totally agree with you over the issue, but I also agree with Ren that NA is not applicable, its certainly not a commonly used acronym.

How about if we simply used NTSC/US and PAL/EU ? Those are the names we SEE on the actual games and everyone should recognise them, would that make everyone happy?

I just like it

Like: Easier to navigate.
Dislike: Dull grey color scheme. I would like to see a variety of different color schemes and banners for those users with an account to choose from including classic VC-Reviews and Wiiware World banners.

Like: All VC/WW news in one area.
Dislike: May just be my computer, but sometimes the page takes a ridiculously long time to load.

Home of the Brave would be good enough for me. Also acceptable: Best Country in the World (on account of its being the only country in which I reside).

But seriously, while it does seem like much too minor a problem to get so worked up about, NA is immediately recognizable. Come on, we Americans aren't as dumb as we look. We will recognize the abbreviation of our continent, especially next to EU.

As for my comments on the site in general, I love having everything altogether. I personally never understood why WiiWare-World and VC-Reviews needed to be separate sites to begin with, but whatever.

My only complaint is the lack of a formatting palette for the forum. I know my BBcode, but it would still be more convenient.

I'm not worked up about it. It's just the only real tangible negative about the site that's worth bringing up.

Sorry Ant, but I don't believe that anyone in the whole world will think NA means Not Applicable in a "Region" dropdown menu that includes "NA" and "EU" as selectable options or as the header in a chart. Context. Besides, the common abbreviation for not applicable is N/A. Maybe I'm being dense here, but I really don't understand the resistance to using the proper abbreviation. It's not like if you start using NA all of your European readers will start sending mail wondering whatever happened to the United States ("are games not being released there anymore?").

But whatever, it was just a suggestion for a quick and easy way to improve the site.

I'm with Jogurt on the NA matter. It is the right region and should be adhered to. New users to the site could think that you guys just don't cover games from other Western Hemisphere countries and you lose those people to other site they believe are more catering to them. I didn't know at first that Canada was part of the same update group as the US until a lot of digging.
I also am frustrated with k9spy about wanting the block totals to be included. Considering the 4.0 update BROKE a lot of my games ability to use the SD card space is still an issue for me.
(PS-I'm not alone with the 4.0 issues, just look on the NoA Tech Support Forum.)

Now, on to the things I like
I think it was a wise move to combine sites as it is easier and more convenient for me. I was thinking it was ridiculous to be having Nin-Life, WWW, VC-R AND a new DSi site all affiliated and separate.
Along that line I am very glad that you kept all the old account stuff from WWW and VC-R because you could have lost a lot of people in that transition.
I also like the design of the overall site. It is functional and cleanly presented with a nice balance of objects. Good planing there!

I saw someone mention covering other systems, I wouldn't mind that as well, but I'm not demanding it. Maybe one more tab on the top for major non-Nintendo related news so people curious could see, but I know that would be a large effort to create and maintain considering you have 360, PS3, PSP and then there will be people wanting mobile/iPhone info and PC to boot. I'm sure most people already have preferred channels for those things anyway.