Thread for New Landing Page Comments

[Amarie Ancalimon]

Comments on the new landing page as described here:
http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=24072

[Blue Hasia]

easy to ready, i like that the playable races are easy to find right away. so many mmos make it hard to find what races you can play as. also good to see the free to play is out front and in big letters also.
my one criticism is the background to me seems like their is to much going on and is taking my eyes away from the content on the page.

[Trust]

Much improved over the current one.

[Xanthia]

Looked at the the site and I have to say it's very colorful- like eye candy. ^^ I like the little feature where you can place the cursor on the different races and get a little information about their stats- particular useful I think for new players when is comes to deciding on what they are going to be. Easy to find and they are all right there on the same page.

The only thing I have a little problem with is the "Free to Play" button- more specific the way it's worded. Old and maybe returning players will know that you actually have to pay to play if you want to have all the options available to you like races, plots, etc etc. But I think it's a bit misleading to new players who will see it. They might automatically associate the "Free to Play" sign as all of this (on the webpage you see before you) is free.

Then either two things happen- they either create a non human character- go through the free trial- only to realize this game isn't actually free - in which case you risk losing them cause they feel they have been mislead (nice way of saying "lied to"- not intentionally of course).

or- they are smart enough to actually click on the button and read the actual details of what a free account is- only again to realize they've been mislead into thinking everything in the game is free. (and that's if they understand it, we've seen time and time again people still not understanding what a free account allows. Maybe want to edit that page that describes the free account to make it more clear... Atleast put in some indication that you have to pay if you want certain things...but that's just my opinion.)

This is just purely my opinion but I think I would change the "Free to Play" to "Payment Options". Atleast then it's an indicator to players that yea there is a fee of some sort. If they are serious about wanting to join the community they'll probably think "Well....lets see how much it costs first". Then on the other page just list the different payment options, detailing what each account provides- and if you really want to make the "free play" option a feature- just boldface it. People eyes are naturally drawn to words like "free" in bold, they won't miss it. And if anything it will make them happier cause now they know not only is it cheaper than they expected-but they can actually play for free if they are willing to not have certain things (these things being detailed on the page).

I don't care really that those dragons skins aren't actually available ingame- nor that peds outfits depicted on the webpage for the most part aren't that cool (some of them also not being ingame)- But when it comes to money- I think it should be clear, open, and truthful with no "fluffing" up to make it look more attractive. But this is just my take on it.

[Raptress]

I'm not sure whether or not to suggest that the video not autoplay itself. On the one hand, some people find it annoying when videos start playing themselves, but on the other, the video is pretty much the only thing on that page other than the background and links to other pages. Perhaps the video could be on a timer and start autoplaying, but not immediately when someone navigates to the page.

In light of the fact that the only real content on the page is the video, perhaps a few paragraphs of text explaining what Istaria actually is might be of benefit. I'm not sure what the Google "blurb" says or if it's been updated, but I know if I saw that page with nothing on it but video and no real idea what Istaria was, I might not even realize it was an MMORPG until the video got to a point where it said so. All I know about the game at first glance is the races it involves.

I realize the FAQ button likely has all this information, but I think at least some of it needs to be right there on the front page where it will be seen without clicking an additional link because some people are only going to look at the front page to gauge their interest before moving on.

I personally often like to read about what something is before I start watching a video. Further, pertaining to that first point, I prefer to watch videos at my leisure.

Points that I think ought to be covered in text on the landing page:

• PvE-only MMORPG
• Players can own a real piece of the game world with plots and lairs
• In-depth crafting system; most gear is player-made
• Perhaps point out that the races in that picture are actually playable? Nothing except the video says that those races are playable, rather than simply "in" the game.
• Multi-classing
• Any other points that are in the video ought to be in text as well.

So I guess my biggest point is: provide all the information in the video in text as well. Not everyone wants to watch a video just to find out what a game is about. For me, watching videos comes after my interest has been piqued.

Edit: after seeing Xanthia's post, I realized that you actually can mouse-over the races.. I think it's worth pointing out that I did not notice this. Maybe an actual notice that one can do that should be added.

I also agree with her points on the whole free to play thing. Looking back at both the landing page and the download page that again mentions "Play for free!" it is actually fairly misleading. It's not until almost the bottom of the download page that I see anything that might suggest that Istaria is not a completely F2P game. Specifically, the word "trial" and the limitations on the actual F2P account.

The fact that this really is a subscription-based game doesn't necessarily need to be on the front page in huge letters, but it almost feels like the web site is actively trying to hide it from the reader.

[Chasing]

Okay 10 min look at the page

1. Page Title - Needs to be "Istaria MMORPG - Free to Play as a Human" or similar
2. Background - As already mentioned its too 'busy' and detracts the eye to the background rather than the foreground. There are also colour clashes between the buttons and the background.
3. Meta Name = "keywords" - Looks much better but there is repetition of words in there, such as 'Dragon', only need to say it once unless you are putting in variants.
4. Meta Name = "Description" - Really badly setup. It has been keyword stuffed which is a. not its intended use, b. a black hat technique which will get you banned or penalized by the search engines (they will see it).
5. Alt tag missing on video
6. Title tags missing on all the buttons
7. I would add to each race description (from the JScript popups) "Available as Free to Pay" or "Available as Trial", to differentiate.
8. The video isn't sufficent to sell the game (I've mentioned this before) you need text or bullet points to outline key points and unique selling features. Not flash/java/images/videos etc.

[Dakoren Ironhand]

*shrugs* due lack of time I wont put a more detailed post up here now, but will later..

Roughly said, this site looks worse. I really hope this wont be used. It kinda makes it look old fashioned.
However, I do like the background image being used. Looks cool.

[C`gan]

Why is the second s in sslik not capitalized on the popup sheet for them?

[LOVWYRM]

Totally agree to all what is said here.

[Darkwing_Duck]

Looks very nice! I like it! and easy to use. ^^ I say go for it!

[Kesqui]

My professional opinion, as someone who works in web design and SEO...

1. There is very little machine-readable text on that page. For that matter, there's very little easy-to-read human-readable text on that page. For the love of little pickles, <h1>Istaria - Chronicles of the Gifted MMORPG</h1><h2>Play as a Dragon - Try for free for 14 days</h2> or something similar. Headings, headings, headings. They're important for landing pages.

2. Title: Needs to specify what the site is - i.e. if someone uses a search engine, this is the link they see. This should say something like "Istaria - MMORPG with player dragons and free to play options."

3. Meta Description: A SHORT paragraph about what the game's about, not a list of Google Adwords adverts. This paragraph is what generally displays under the search engine "title" link. Something like "Istaria is the only MMORPG where you can be a dragon. Build your lair or home with a complex crafting system in this PVE online game - try it for free for 14 days. Play for free forever as a human character with 19 crafting classes and ** adventure classes to master"

3. Meta keywords: Online dragon games, mmorpg dragons, yeah, fair enough, "cool online game" really isn't going to go anywhere... add in "free to play mmorpg", "free trial mmorpg", "player versus environment mmorpg" ...

4. Javascript and search engines don't get along amazingly well. The page's text content is nearly entirely in JS - there needs to be some plain text on there that doesn't require javascript to be switched on in order to see it.

5. Video onLoad play=false. I HATE when sites hijack my speakers and blare music at me without warning. I want to choose when I play the video.

6. "Free to play" button looks like the game-as-a-whole is free to play, all inclusive - as previously mentioned - not "free to play as a human" or "actually it costs money to play a dragon for more than fourteen days." When there's REAL free-to-play (nickel-and-dime microtransactions) games out there, calling this subscription-based game a FtP on a landing page for new players isn't a good idea.

7. The hover buttons for the right nav (BTW: left nav is probably better - eyetracking studies show people look across the top, then down the left side, and barely skim the middle) look a bit old-fashioned. I'd actually move them to a top navigation, with a slightly more modern appearance, then put a text blurb in the right-hand area.

8.The site is not valid XHTML, and invalid code = less search engines can read it. http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=ht...Inline&group=0

9. Minor one... don't list stats, list lore. The numbers are pretty meaningless to someone who's THINKING about playing.... give them a hint as to the storylines that await them!

I like the following, though:

1. The character race bar at the bottom is pretty cool - nice to see what you actually get to play, which the original site doesn't have. Let me click on each of them to see a PAGE for content rather than a JS hover, and I'll be a happy bunny.

2. I quite like the background. Sure, it's a little "noisy" but it's eye-catching and vibrant.

[Shian]

An easy way to fix the busy background is to highlight only a few things on the page. Or cut down on the colors. Maybe by using a patina filter on the green, one of the two dragons and every other screenshot at the top, it will feel less distracting.

As others have said, there needs to be text to read about the game on the front page.
As a general rule, I don't view videos when I'm looking for games. I go for facts outlining mechanics and other parts of the game I'm interested in as videos are often misleading and/or uninformative.

Also, do not have the video autoplay. There is nothing worse than being scared out of your wits because you've opened the FAQ in a new tab and have no idea where this strange noise is coming from.

I really like the mouseover popups and the list of all player races right there to see and get sucked in by.

[Khosadan]

I agree that the video should not auto-play. I loathe music/video that starts automatically, since I usually have multiple tabs open at once and MP3s going, so if something starts randomly blaring from a webpage it generally gets closed immediately.

I think the saturation of the colors could be reduced a bit, too.

In general I agree with Kesqui's points.

[Kesqui]

3. Meta keywords: Online dragon games, mmorpg dragons, yeah, fair enough, "cool online game" really isn't going to go anywhere... add in "free to play mmorpg", "free trial mmorpg", "player versus environment mmorpg" ....

And now that my supper isn't burning...

Meta Keywords need to appear in the body text of the page in order to be considered valid.

[Guaran]

It's a step in the right direction for sure.

I like the background art!

I like that the video autoplays. I do think perhaps a newer or better quality video should be used tho. Really liked the part with the plot starting empty then buildings shown. Good way to get land ownership across. Edit: Watching it again, I think the main thing with the video is it looks like when portions were recorded, there was frame drops every few seconds, giving it a bit of a jerky feel. If you can smooth it out then it would be fine.

The "Free to Play" button perhaps should read: "Free Play Option" which takes you to a page briefly explaining that a free play option has some restrictions, list the restrictions: 1) Restricted to a single Human character. 2) Cannot own a plot or lair.
And have the download link right there.

I like the Races bar and the mouse-hover info. The "Attributes" portion of the mouse-over data is probably un-neccessary tho. Starting stats have little effect on gameplay. So it can be simplified a little bit, or perhaps a brief history of the race in it's place would be better.

[Ming]

I agree with the stuff everyone has said but I have another issue as well.
The gnome you have in the race line up. She doesn't even look like a gnome. Not one I've ever seen on Istaria. She has a pinched face and her **** look like something from a 1980s Madonna video. Give me a break.

[Holth]

Very nice design, however I have to agree with many of the points already made.
Make the movie clip not autoplay!
Make the mouseover for the races display lore.
Make the "Free to Play" button say "Free to Play Option". Add a second button that says "Subscriptions Option".

One thing that I personally don't like is the dragons in the background. The one on the left appears to be breathing fire while flying. Very misleading as you cannot fight in the air. Also dragon heads are what distinguishes one from another. Both dragons are twisted so that their heads do not display to advantage. Turn or tilt the one on the left so the head is silhouetted against the background. Dragons are the drawing point of this game. Display them prominently! Maybe add another dragon standing on it's haunches breathing fire in the lower left corner.

Thaalia of Order

[Vahrokh]

Definitely a step in the right direction. Even the auto-play video, it's usually awful but the particular setup seems to mesh it well in (like in some movie home pages).

What I'd review:

- Utter lack of textual information. People with accessibility problems AND search engines hate that, you'll get spidered a lot less than you should.

- Knowing what Google's representative said in the last public appearance, I am fairly sure the massive blurb in the meta content is either ignored or penalized. Google wants to find meaningful textual content, the keywords and other meta spammage has been deprecated (since everyone was doing that).

- A subset of that text could instead be put in a sort of rolling quotes css + jquery effects. Possibly with a tiny icon used as "bullet" of each quote. This would immediately make the content SEO worthwhile and kind of play as background info for the readers.

- Background is nice but imho too much colorful. Either put css shadows under video and buttons or make the background it a bit less obtrusive on the real assets you want to show off.

- The gallery is fantastic but at the end of EACH info popup, add a "More info / lore" button / link. People love rich lore, expecially in a game where they won't be catched by the (lack of) gorgeous new graphics and lack of popular features like PvP, instances etc.

- The dragon face imho is a bit too dark, the features too plain, the look of a "nice smiling country guy" instead of a fierce or even evil being. NO HORNS???

- Clicking on gallery - I sincerely hope it's temporary. Otherwise google for "Wordpress NextGen gallery", then click "screenshots" for an idea of what the average player expects to see.
In any case, using the forum would not be so bad if only the forum graphics would not need an update since 2004. Expecially the most important asset (the logo), it's mashed with a quite "five minutes work transparency gradient" that does not impress the perspective new player a lot.

- I'd have made the social network icons a bit larger. Maybe added 2-3 other of the prominent social sites.

- The Istaria Logo in the splash page is important. Yet, despite the glow, it appears a bit insignificant and partly covered by the video frame. I'd have put it a bit more up and maybe on top of a little bevel, to create an adjective surface.
The logo with the dragon head HAS to stick imho.

[Blue Hasia]

I think with the background for me the dragons and the zombie can stay, but its the open sky that draws my eyes away. The open sky is like a giant vast empty landscape that goes on forever

also as other pointed out the auto play on the video i agree i font like it when websites take over my speakers.

[Milandra]

Really good looking

Here are my 2cc:

-What about adding Virtrium's logo on the left ?
I guess it would look better that the current footer.
Also, add a link to Virtrium's website.

Other than that, previous topics cover my suggestions.

Keep on the good work !