This blog is a reponse to pokecharm's community "Call to Action."

I'll start by telling you why I joined Gamespot, why I continued using it, and how I feel about it now. I'll see if I can bring up any particular points through my writing.

Why I joined Gamespot?

Like a lot of other people I've come to know, I first came across this site when I was looking for some game cheats for a particular game that I don't remember. At that time, I was never a part of any other video game centered site, and all I would do was Google "[game's name] cheats" and pick the first search result. After that, my memory is unclear, as I don't really record my every instance of discovery. Basically, I found out that Gamespot provided, above all, video game news. From then on, I was a regular Gamespot visitor, but only as a guest. Finally, the uncontrollable urge to comment on news articles and videos and give thumbs ups/downs overtook me, then I joined.

What did I use Gamespot for?

Initially, Gamespot was simply my source of video game information. One big use I had for Gamespot was its reviews, particularly the offical ones (side note: wanting to rate a game was another reason for signing up). I always considered the user reviews whenever I looked into buying a game (I never walk into a video game store without some idea of the games currently available). However, as I got more familiar with the site, I started skipping the user review section all together. There was a severe lack of professionalism in the user reviews.

After I joined the site, I stumbled upon something that I never knew existed... my user profile. From there I discovered emblems, the ability to add friends, unions, and, of course, blogs. The first union I ever joined was a Pokemon fan club with a name I cannot remember. I quit that union soon after...because, at the time, I had no idea how I was supposed to participate in a union and its activities.

I'm not sure how it happened (might I direct you to my first blog?), but I gradually started blogging. I never really opened up other people's profiles, much less track anyone, but somehow people were finding me, and so I tracked them. Before I knew it, I was "Popular."

The last feature I started using on this site was the forums. This part of my memory is also unclear, but, as you might have guessed...I went to the forums, and my friends list grew even more.

How do I feel about Gamespot now?

Right now, I visit Gamespot to read other people's blogs and post mine just as much as I do to get gaming news. I've been continuously using this site for the same reasons outlined above. One of the biggest differences, then and now, is that I now trust Gamespot review scores much less. Then again, it all boils down to opinion. For the most part...mostly, Gamespot is fair with reviews.

One thing I hate about Gamespot is its unending plague of bugs and errors. Gamespot needs to slow down with the site features and look back at all these glitches...though that's not a very good idea with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and everything coming up in between for GS in the next months. Still, I wouldn't mind if Gamespot was shut down for two whole weeks if they promised no more glitches when the site returns.

The glitches include but are not limited to level freeze, HTML errors (when not using HTML!), buncheduptext (resulting from bugs relating to HTML), and missing emblems.

Something that needs to be changed is the method of giving out emblems. More importantly, we need a more efficient way of reporting emblem errors. I'm not happy with The Missing Emblems Thread in the technical issues board, not at all.

I'm currently missing the Here there be Pirates! emblem:

Not to mention the glitchy game collection emblems.

Those emblems have been marked glitched for a looong time now. Where's the progress?

Aside from the glitch removal, I also want better blog feature. For starters, why can't we embed YouTube videos into our blogs? I know we can use videos that have been uploaded to Gamespot, but...have you ever tried uploading a video? It's not a fun process. Uploading images is painstaking as well...why the long wait? Gamespot shoudimprove its image/video hosting services.

One last thig I'd like to add...

Now, a lot of people say that they hate the site since the last redesign. I disagree, I mean, it's just as accessible as it was before (community features discussed next). However, I absolutely hated the fact that we could not simply add games to our games lists without following the game. Also, we can't tag games anymore (well, you can if you go to the Answers page of a game, but what's point of doing that every time?).

The Community

While pokecharm's blog focuses more about the lack of community representation, mine is more about the general problems I have with Gamespot. I do agree though, that there needs to be a better site oriantation so that we get just as much informative news as we do entertaining user blogs. Have you ever heard of the Community Blog? If not, then that's one of the issues that needs to be addressed. The Community Blog is a blog that handpicks and previews user created content from the site. Things like blogs, user videos, and user reviews are all included. One option of solving the problem of meaningless user reviews is automatically pushing the reviews that get chosen for the community blog to the top of the list on that game's gamespace. Speaking of which, have you ever heard about the Gamespace Banner Union? You see those little banners in the middle of a game's page on GS? Did you know that those are made by GS members, not staff? It would be great if we could come up with other cool ideas for the community, just like the banner union.

I've heard a lot of people complain about the Soapbox being removed from the homepage. I actually had no idea that it even existed until I came across the soapbox emblem, the one you get when your blog is chosen for the soapbox. I don't recall ever seeing a link to the soapbox in the homepage...something is awfully wrong with my powers of observation...or my memory. It IS there though, under the Culture tab. Anyway, the soapbox should really have more presence on this site, as should the Community Blog.

Idea Time!

What if...we had a site to-do list, where we can put links of our favorite site features, in one convenient space, like in our profiles or in a tab in that row up there. Then the list would automatically update whenever there's something new with the particular feature. Basically, a "follow" button for a feed, but for things other than games or users.

That's all :)

Now's your turn.

Write a feedback blog with the title "Dear Gamespot"

make sure you mark the category as "Editorial"

OH! Let's not forget....

Ahem... :| We need an explanation for the above

EDIT:

I must add...

Gamespot, please, PLEASE, get rid of that NEW! sign next to "My Achievements"
It's been a while, it's NOT new anymore. Also, Fuse is not as new, either...