What's New: Mar 7

This is going to become a weekly thing, so hold onto your butts!

Features of Note

Improved Stacks - In Testing

Obviously this hasn't gone out just yet, which I understand is super disappointing (I too am disappointed, believe me!), but this is a really huge change and we want to make sure that everything is working the way we intended it to before we release.

In the last week, we've made some adjustments to the UI and fixed a ton of issues. Here's what Stacks look like now:

tl;dr Stacks will launch next week, possibly as early as Monday but no later than Wednesday when it's done.

Autoplay Next Video - Out Now

On the old site, if you finished watching a video you would be given a 10 second countdown and then automatically taken to watch the next video. Though you could manually cancel this countdown, it was not the most user-friendly feature and it drew its fair share of criticism. After all, if you were writing a comment or reading a story while the video played up at the top of the page, you would lose your place!

As of yesterday, we've brought back this feature with a number of changes and improvements:

• Rather than triggering the countdown after the video has completed, we now trigger it 10 seconds before the end of the video. In this way, you can immediately go to the next video as soon as the current one ends!
• No more searching for a tiny cancellation button! The large X icon at the right side of the countdown notification is what you're searching for.
• The countdown will not trigger unless the video player is within view. If you've scrolled down the page, the video you are watching is within its last 10 seconds, and you scroll back up within view of the player, a 10 second countdown will trigger.
• If the countdown has been triggered and you rewind, the countdown will be cancelled until you reach the last 10 seconds again.

The one known issue with this is that the countdown will continue if you pause the video, but this will be fixed in a couple weeks.

Other Changes

Please note that this isn't intended to be a list of ALL the changes we make (we work on a lot more than this, srsly), but rather a list of changes that will directly affect or be seen by our members.

• Fixed the "See all latest news" link on the homepage, which was sending you to a 404

good job. keep up the good work.

The "Autoplay Next Video" thing in the old site really annoyed me, but this new method is great. Keep it up. :)

is there a way to just, like, permanently turn off autoplay? i really am not a fan of having to worry about closing pop ups to stick to a page *after* the video is over. the old system had a way to keep autoplay gone forever, but i haven't spotted such a feature on the new one.

Better late than never, I've added in some screenshots of the new look for Stacks!

@BrunoBRS: We don't currently have a way of deactivating this forever, but it's something we'll be adding in later on.

new stacks look good. as far as i can see the only missing feature is adding a game for a specific platform or a specific release. for example, i want to add the pc version of deus ex: the fall to my wishlist. but, when i add the game, it shows up as being already released in 2013, because it was released for ios already. or, i want to add final fantasy X/X-2 HD, and because it was released in japan already, the same issue again.

but since this is only a minor issue, it's all good. maybe a suggestion for a later update though :)

I'm wondering if there are any plans on letting us delete a score we've given to a game. The previous design had a reset option, which would completely remove the score. Will this be possible in the future? I'm asking because I would like to delete all the scores I've assigned to games over the last year.

Yes, but it is cumbersome. I did it a while back and I don't remember exactly, but you have to go to user reviews. Show ratings, and apply filter. Click on one game that comes up, then you will find a delete button, along with an edit button and a flag button. Obviously, click on delete and the rating disappears.

@LarkAnderson: It's Wednesday, Lark. Stacks?

I doubt anyone has been awaiting the new stacks more than I have, but I would rather have a fully functional Stacks system than one that hasn't been fully tested for bugs. From all the updates that Lark has been giving us, I gather it is nearly complete, and I've been awaiting that with bated breath, but I'll say take all the time you need... A couple of weeks, a month even, to give us a fully field tested stacks.

On a different note, I was wondering about a feature. In the old library system, we had the option to save different versions of the games. For example, take GTAV, which came out on the PS3 and X360. We would have the option to add either version (or both) to our wanted list. The same thing goes with the I own it list. I hope that option is made available to the new stacks, but from Lark's description, it doesn't seem like it. I would hate to lose the detail of which console version I want the game in, with the update. I hope this gets addressed.

@anarayan: Well considering this site has now had six months to get them fixed, I wouldn't start criticising users for running out of patience. Particularly when communication between staff and the community in general and the speed at which fixes are being rolled out has been this atrocious.

Either release the stack update or stop giving deadlines you can't meet.

@anarayan@Starshine_M2A2: Sorry guys, I've updated the OP to say that it'll release "when it's done" so as not to set expectations that we could conceivably fail to deliver on for this.

In short, we found some additional usability issues during testing, and so as to make this less confusing and just plain better, we're making some further adjustments to the UI, which means my screenshots are now out of date.

Sorry this keeps slipping, but we really want it to be right! I'll update here (or in a new thread on Friday) with additional details as they're ready to share.

@anarayan: Right now, there's no way to control which platform version of a game you're adding to a Stack, and that won't change with this update. This is, however, something we're going to be changing in a future update for the default Stacks (Games I Want, Games I Own, Games I've Played, Games I'm Playing, Games I've Finished).

@LarkAnderson: Thanks Lark. I'll check back in another six months...

@LarkAnderson I've just seen the new stacks are up and appear to be working as intended. Good job.

Pity we still cannot add games if they are not part of the GS database. :|

@s_h_a_d_o: @

Yeah that sucks. Apparently GameSpot may lumping games like expansion packs, dlcs and add ons into the same gamespace as their original title so that might be why you're not finding certain titles. But you're right, I'd prefer if we still had that option.

There are also a list of minor flaws still to fix as well - incorrect game titles, screenshots from other games appearing in unrelated gamespaces ect.

Will right up a list of errors as I find them and create a thread.

Just did some stacks perusing. It's better. Nice work GS. On the other hand, in the games I own stack, none of my ratings show up in the "my rating" column. I know that I've rated those games, and when I go to my ratings section of my profile, all of my ratings are there.

Could we get a way to organize a stack by platform? You can do it by rank, game title, release date, etc. but not by platform. Please add.

@GeminiEntity: There's still a lot of work being done on notifications. Its a really significant set of changes, so it'll be another week or two likely until we see performance improvements and fixes.

@s_h_a_d_o: You'll always be restricted to only be able to add games that are in our database, but it should be very, very complete. As @Starshine_M2A2 points out though, all DLC and expansion packs are now organized under the parent game (i.e. Captain Scarlet and Her Pirate's Booty is considered part of Borderlands 2), so maybe that's the reason why you're unable to find something?

In any case, we will be making a change in the future to fix it so you can add individual game releases (i.e. the UK collector's edition of Dark Souls II for Xbox 360 or the US version of the Left Behind DLC for The Last of Us for PS3) to your core, default Stacks.

@beutlich99: We'll likely be adding this in for the default Stacks once we add in the ability to add individual releases to them (see previous post).

Try searching the GS database for...

• Satellite Reign
• Ghost of a Tale
• Tangiers
• Bloom: Memories
• The Mandate
• Sui Generis
• Proven Lands
• Cradle
• Limit Theory
• Path of Shadows
• Gorogoa
• Framed
• Foiled!
• Rivet Wars
• Subnautica

... the list goes on.

@s_h_a_d_o: Ahh, I see. Yeah, our games database is not particularly well-geared towards indie titles unless the Edit team here has covered them. That said, you can request games be added to the DB through GameFAQs (we share with them) if you'd like to add those to your Stacks.

In the meanwhile, I'll pass this list onto my data team to add in, but if you have any additional ones, you can submit them to GameFAQs. Thanks!

@LarkAnderson: Just adding to @s_h_a_d_o 's post that there are a number of mistakes regarding expansion/dlc titles appearing as the parent game's title. For example, Battlefield 2 is showing as Battlefield 2: Euro Firce. Likewise Warcraft III Reign of Chaos is listed as The Frozen Throne. Also, Warcraft Orcs and Humans isn't in the database at all.

Lastly, 'Aliens Vs. Predator working title' is clearly not it's correct name.

Independently developed they may be, but many of those I listed are hardly 'under the radar' in gaming circles (as any editor worth his/her salt would know).

Let me proffer a counter-proposal (to obviate the need for me to log into yet another site and do your work for you)... how about you guys make an effort to synchronise your database with that of Giant Bomb? Many of the games I mentioned appear there, and you are now supposed to be working under the same [corporate] umbrella after all.

:|

Ugh, five months later and I still feel like a guinea pig for this site.

@s_h_a_d_o: Generally speaking, if we're not directly sent assets from a game developer/publisher for the game, we aren't actively covering the game, and the game isn't released and available on either Steam or Desura it's not going to be in our database, and a GameFAQs submission is the fastest way to get it added.

That said, we'll consider ways to import games created on Giant Bomb, though that's its own can of worms.

Worms or not, that would be great - ta for the consideration.