The lights are on
Welcome to the new gameinformer.com.
Phew. Feels good to say that.
This project has been in the works for close to three years now, and I couldn’t be more excited to share the final product with everyone.
It didn’t kick into high gear until this March when we finally began creating the code. Since then, it’s been a wild ride with a lot of highs and lows. We had a baby born yesterday (‘grats Kato), several editors move, one beat Dragon Age: Origins (no small task), and another gets married this weekend (‘grats Miller). Unfortunately, on a sad note, the lead designer on our site had a motorcycle accident, and is still in intensive care (we are pulling for you Broom).
Everyone’s work and sacrifice has paid off. In fact, just last night we had to rebuild the video player in the wee hours of the night just to make this happen today. The site is most certainly a beta, but we will be updating and fixing issues on the site nonstop until we get it where we want it. We also have more surprises in the works that we will integrate into the site as we move forward.
So while I want you to cruise around and find all the exciting content and community options the site has to offer I do want to point out some features.
First of all, there are two important tabs on the home page – “The Feed” and the “Blogs.” The Feed is for straight ahead news, reviews, previews, and reporting, while the Blog is where you will find the editors (and in time developers and users who attain contributor status) waxing about the industry and just culture in general. We wanted to keep these two areas separate but intertwined, and you will see this relationship develop as we start posting new content.
On the community side, the site is one solid object, where you can create profiles that give you access to subscriber only perks, but more importantly, there are tons places for people to talk games.
Under the “Take Part” tab at the top of the page you will find all the ways to interact. You can create your own groups to share with the world, or keep to yourself so guilds and clans can be run privately. The great thing is, you can monitor all of them from the activity feed on your own profile page.
There are forums and all the other bells and whistles you would expect – like user blogs, user reviews, contests, and polls – so get out there and have some fun.
If there is something you want from the site, make sure to stop by our Site Feedback group and give us your input, as we will be monitoring this for new ideas to add to the site.
Also, before you blog or create your profile page, stop by the Game Informer Writer’s Guild to get tips and explanations on how to best show off your work.
We hope you love the site as much as we do.
Cheers,
Andy
If you want some behind the scenes shots of the office and us toiling away on the site, click here.
UPDATE: Bug update and new helpful hints can be found here.
Email the author Andy McNamara, or follow on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and Game Informer.
The site looks great! Nice job everyone. I'm pumped to see the mag.
(I half expected the office to look different too... it IS more clean than when I was in)
Looks good guys! On the bug squashing front, I was trying to update my profile and when I went to save I got an error screen with a bunch of code I don't understand. :) Just wanted to make you aware.
this is great! a fully internet integrated experience was all that was keeping GIOnline from being at the top of the internet game news mountain, but now that's a thing of the past! i'm totally going to frequent this site even more now.
Thanks, Brad. I'm looking into that now. We actually have an error page you are supposed to go to so you don't have to see that junk.
Have you been able to update your profile since? Let me know on my profile, or in the Site Feedback group. Thanks!
Thanks everyone! Please be patient while we iron out the kinks!
Another cool thing I should point out now that we have comments. Grey comments are from users, but blue posts are from staff members, experts, and contributors.
yes, I know...I'm pushing our own stuff, but I figure its our site I can what we want =P
Hopefully it speeds up soon! WAY. TO. SLOW. Also, is there a link to get any exlusive content if I'm already a subscriber to the print magazine? I can't seem to find it.
Yup, we are in Beta...so we are going to have some speed issues as we finally have the site running with a full load of people hitting it. We also have exclusive content coming, just didn't have any ready for the launch.
The site looks amazing! You guys did a great job!
Awesome
Hey guys, love the new site and love the magazine! I always used to go to gametrailers for my online gaming news, but now it looks like this will be my new abode for online gaming news! Great work!
one word: gorgeousity.
We're glad people are enjoying the site. It's only going to get better guys, so keep that feedback coming!
I made a thead about this but it will most likely go unseen.
You guys are going to post up ALL the old reviews... right? Atlest the current generation ones?
I'm surely not the only one who likes to re-read old reviews.
Tip to GameInformer : Start doing video reviews.
This look amazing. Good job on jumping on the social networking bandwagon! I think that this is just what GI needs to not get, but defend their title as best gaming magazine. Just look at GamePro's site. Definitely, not at as great as this is gonna be.
Hope you can sort out the kinks.
-Jacob
And, also, I definitely agree with Ultima. Video reviews would be great.
Video reviews, and the backlog of over 2,000 reviews we have left to port over...all part of the "No Rest For The Weary Tour 2009"
Great site! I'm finding the occasional bug, (sometimes errors while PMing people) but everything else rocks! Well, almost. I'm on the fence about the forums. They're kind of hard to navigate now. Can we have more page numbers to click please? I hate starting at the front, skipping to the end, and pressing back until I find the page I was on before. Ultimately, that old blue button that used to bring you to the first unread post would fix it. And if you brought back the list of users who are online, that would help when I'm looking for someone. The user search seems inaccurate to me.
The site is awesome! Also, I am curious to know: is that Fallout 3 thing in the picture actually in the GI office?
Great Job... The new site is a HUGE improvement compared to the old site.