Dec 29 2008
Muckbeast: Getting a few opinions from you all.
Who Reads Muckbeast?
By “you all”, I mean the few folks reading here regularly. I know I lost a lot of readers during October and November when I wrote maybe 1 or 2 articles tops. Sorry about that. Muckbeast gets about 150 unique hits per day, and I have no idea if that is utterly horrible or decent considering how new it is and how specialized it is. Regardless, I really appreciate those of you who read and especially those of you who comment. I find your feedback (mostly as players) very, very valuable in my own game design.
Tell Me Some of Your Preferences
I will fire off a few questions in rapid fire format:
1) What do you think of the new site theme? I think it is a lot more readable, even though it now lacks a fancy graphic at the top. It is wider, and the content is in the middle rather than left justified.
2) CAPTCHA: I hate that I had to enable this for the comments, but we were getting tons of spam. I’m considering turning it off again soon to see what happens. How much of a pain is it when entering comments to have to use the captcha field thing.
3) The “READ MORE” prompt. This is a tough one. I have heard that RSS readers do not get the whole article if you have a “click here to keep reading” link. I use it on longer articles so the front page of the blog is a little more readable (so you can see more topics on the front). I also wonder if it is a good idea to encourage people to actually come to the site and click on internal pages in order to keep my host happy (maybe he gets more ad hits that way, I don’t know). I don’t get paid anything for the ads here, but I do get paid by Today.com to write posts so I try to be sensitive to their needs.
4) Rate of Topics: Is averaging 1 per day enough to make you enjoy reading the blog? Is more topics too much? So far, we don’t have much discussion, so it is hard to tell if more topics would generate more discussion or if it might make it harder to discuss a topic.
5) Suggestions for improvement?
Are You Out There?
If you read this blog, please take a moment to at least reply to this post with a quick “I’m here!” I would like to know who is reading so I have some idea who my audience is. If you want to include any additional information about yourself in the response, feel free.
Thanks for reading!
I’m here! I was checking the blog less regularly when the post frequency dropped off, but still dropped by once in a while. Now there’s more reason to check often :). I’m a long-time MUD guy, so it’s interesting to hear from people whose experience isn’t solely in the graphical arena.
Theme: I didn’t find the old one obtrusive, but this one is definitely cleaner. A positive change.
Captcha: Meh. I expect some form of spam-screening these days, and it’s a minor inconvenience at worst. Definitely better than filtering through spam comment posts.
Rate of Topics: I’m sure between holidays and the relatively recent increase in post frequency, comments are coming at a slower-than-expected rate. Averaging one post per day seems fair enough, though 3-4 per week would be fine too. If you’re posting every day, breaking up articles into parts (like the ‘Nerfs…’ series) works pretty well.
It might get awkward if there are active discussions in more than 2-3 topics. Unless I’m missing something, the Recent Comments list shows only the five most recent comments (which may all be related to the same article). It seems pretty easy for discussion to get lost that way. The few Today.com blogs that I’ve seen all use that format though, so this is more of an observation than a call for change.
1) The new theme looks decent, and is very much readable.
2) A necessary evil. Sometimes it picks words that are hard for humans to read, but that’s only a minor inconvenience.
3) I don’t mind “read more” prompts, as long as the paragraph included in the RSS feed accurately describes the article. People rarely read web pages anyway, so by providing those links you’re actually doing them a favor.
4) Personally, I prefer quality over quantity. I read a whole lot of blogs and newsfeeds, and I prioritize them according to the insightfulness to make sure that the time spent reading them is as “productive” as possible. Some people do post for the sake of posting, and that sometimes results in kneejerk responses, flamebaits and even plain old trolling. And their blogs being reassigned to the “filler” category.
1.) The site theme is very good, especially for widescreen notebooks. Left-aligned blogs are horrible to read at 1440×900, you are basically reading them with the left eye. I like your new design.
2.) By all means, keep Captcha. Though Hirvox is right, some words are really hard to read! The one I see right now is undecipherable at least for me. Tobold http://tobolds.blogspot.com/ uses a similar system that is more convenient.
3.) I use google reader and the iGoogle gadget to inform me of new blog entries, as I often do not browse from home. Actually, a lot of people do NOT use RSS readers. They visit the site directly OR surf to it over the link in their RSS readers. I personally do not know anyone of my friends who uses a RSS Feed other than that of Internet Explorer, and there people also use it much more as a link list than anything else.
4.) I prefer to read quality topics. There is nothing worse than uninspired blog entries. But you are right, writing a lot, even if it is crap, usually attracts more readers. But do not ask me for hints how to promote a blog, I found your blog over other also very interesting blogs.
5.) Just keep on talking about interesting stuff.
I’m not here…honest. :p
1) I like the theme myself; a nice, clean design.
2) Yep…”necessary evil” about covers it. I’m about to have to make the same decision for LagORama, but I think I’m going with the math captcha at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/math-comment-spam-protection/ . There’s a lot less confusion over that one, and let’s face it…if they can’t tell me what 7+7 equals, I probably didn’t want to talk to them anyway.
Yes, that was mean…thanks for noticing.
3) I tend to post the full article to RSS, because most of the data I’ve seen indicates that the “read more” break in feeds turns off more folks than it entices. Plus, I usually have a few images/videos in each post, so they have to visit the site to see them.
4) One per day is about right; I’m about to get back on that track. I start LagORama with the “one post a day on weekdays” philosophy, and then had a couple of weeks where I couldn’t maintain it. In that period, my subscribers went up, proving my wife correct when she tells me that a little bit of me goes a long way. I’ve experimented over the last few months with everything from “once per week” to “whenever I see something good” to “Oh yeah, I’ve got a blog, don’t I?”, and my sub numbers seem to perform better with approximately two-three posts per week.
However, everyone’s mileage will vary…a blog (if done right) is a fairly personal thing.
5) All I can say is “keep it up…a good blog takes time to take off, like a 747 on an icy runway.” I’d say more, but I think my left engine just froze up mid-flight and my stewardess is pregnant.
I’m here. Reading through RSS. Don’t like the short feeds but yours appears to be complete so no complaints. The captchas are fine.
Thanks for the feedback.
1) Cool. Sounds like the new theme is better and more readable for everyone. Awesome.
2) CAPTCHA: There are 3 icons right next to the text entry box. The top one is two little arrows (they look kinda like an Ouroboros). If you click that, it changes the words you are given. I use it a lot until I see something that is immediately legible. I should note that I *HATE* Captcha. HATE HATE HATE HATE it. I feel like a hypocrite having it here. But I don’t really have any other anti-spam options here at Today.
3) Read More: It sounds like most people are fine with this, with some reticence about the quality of the part before the -Read More-. I will keep that in mind and try to use that feature carefully and appropriately.
4) Rate of Topics: I definitely agree with quality over quantity. It takes a lot of pressure off. I like taking about games, but we are super busy these days so I know 1 per day is something I couldn’t guarantee. But I also don’t want another 1-2 month gap between posts that results in having to start all over building up readers. I am not very concerned with building up some mega popular blog. I think my topic area is a bit too specialized for that, and I don’t really care about that. But I think it would be interesting for everyone if we had 100 or so frequent readers who occasionally added their own thoughts.
5) Any additional suggestions are much appreciated.
I’m here. Sort of.
The theme is great. I’d prefer a nice darker, desaturated blue over red, but that’s just me.
I can live with Captchas.
Read More is nice, since I can see more topics on the main page and browse accordingly. I don’t use anything RSS, though, so I can’t speak to that.
Write when you have something important to say and you have time. That covers why I read, and how to schedule for you.
Additional… um… I’d like to read about why you designed certain things in your games, but maybe that’s archived… I’ll look.
This has to be the most frequently requested topic. And yet I keep thinking deep down nobody cares about how I designed a specific game feature. Maybe I need to listen better, huh?
I wonder what kind of features from our game(s) in particular people are curious about?
I just checked Tobold, and he has some 3000 Visitors and 2000 RSS readers per day. There is proabably some overlap, I am still surprised that there are so many people that use RSS Feeds/readers. I never got into it.
The point of using an RSS reader is that you don’t need to visit the site every day to stay up-to-date. If you’re just following a few sites, the time saved is negligible. I currently follow 646 sites, and checking whether there’s anything interesting to read still takes only a few minutes.
I read through Google Reader and it does cut off at the jump. But if you put enough to capture my attention or interest, I will click. You’re not the only one who does this, so while I would prefer to read it all in one spot, the teaser is usually enough to get me to decide if I want to actually read it.
I’m fine with the Captcha, as well. It’s decidedly better than spam.
On topics, you seem to have an interesting variety that often causes me to want to read it. I certainly don’t have much to -say- in response, so the lack of comments should definitely not be an indicator.
Lurkers ftw.
(I also would love to see some explains on why you created certain features. I love hearing the “Why I did…” or “what prompted me to…”, but I’m kind of nosey that way!)
1) Don’t care much. Both worked fine for me.
2) Not a problem here or anywhere else. If you get spam I say go for it.
3) I read it here, so I like the fact that you don’t spam the main page.
4) I would rather have fewer topics that we discuss for longer than having a topic a day. 2-3 topics a week but keep the discussion going.
5) I started reading here because I am a long time player of your game “Threshold RPG”. I have played WoW and a few other MMO’s as well so the more generel MMO topics catch my interest as well.
I would love several posts on one topic where you look at how different games have solved something, how you have tried to implement it, speculations on what work and so on. Topics could be: RP, How to attract players, Big/Small events, Making people feel special, Quests, Leveling systems, Deatheffects, Making repeditive stuff fun (all MMO’s are repeditive if you play enough but some of it you do because it’s fun and some is done because of some kind of reward).
1: You still have the ‘Recent Comments’ side-bar so I’m happy. The current layout is working fine.
2: Captcha is a less than a minor annoyance, and only an issue when I must comment. I don’t have any problem with it staying indefinitely.
3: The current layout is working fine.
4: I’m just fine with two of your Indignant-Journalist/Bartlesque “how is this so popular?!” articles, and possibly a review once a week. Your reviews can be much more insightful and unique then the average blog(which are on par with Youtube comments).
5: My only suggestion would be a single game review on a regular basis. And by review, I mean your insightful critique and analysis, communicated to video game lay-persons. I also played (and loved) ThresholdRPG and genuinely value your opinions. I’m with Peter, and I would enjoy seeing more articles on how you design quests, handle non-combat player classes in an MMO, or why games inspired from colleges in Denmark suck.
This is the only game related blog I read, keep it up.
Cam, regarding your designs, I’ve got to admit that I haven’t played your games. (I know, for shame…) I’m just mostly interested in picking your brain about how and why you go about designing things when you’re in control. Your second-guessing of other designers is interesting, and I share many of your sentiments. Having done some design work myself over the years, I’m naturally curious how others do things, not just how they react to things that have already been done.
Witchkiller: I’d love to write more reviews, but I don’t have the time to play a lot of new games. It is a huge bummer, since gaming is my favorite hobby. But I will keep that in mind and try to remember to review the games I *do* play.
Tesh: It is so weird that people give a crap about why I designed something the way I did. But everyone seems interested, so I think I’ll write something up on that topic for my next blog post.
The weird thing is, as I think about it, all I can think about are all the things I feel I did wrong. I don’t think I am a negative person, but it is my design mistakes that haunt me more than anything.
I’m of the opinion that so long as the quality keeps up, such supernumaries such as page layout are completely up to you.
The captcha is a necessary evil, (By the way, visit www.ifyouactuallygohereimgonnalol.tk TO INCREASE YOUR PENIS SIZE!) and as others have said, I don’t think anyone will be too miffed about it.
Hey Tim, either your link or your use of the “penis size” phrase triggered spam control and I had to approve your comment.
BTW, where is the button that adds Muckbeast to the RSS Feed list? I just had to add it manually to my RSS reader. Yeah, I finally decided to use one.
DOH! I forgot to add that widget back when I changed things around. I fixed it. It is now near the top of the left hand column.
Thanks for noticing that, Longasc!
I’m here. Thanks for stopping by my site as well.