Improving the "Current Games" page of Running Game
Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 1:44 pm
IMHO, the current format of the page for "Current Games" (the one you reach if you click on "View Running Games") is ripe for revision, before we go on a major recruitment drive.
Main problems:
1) The last column, "Next Turn" must currently be a real turn-off to new visitors. Current games? At the time of writing, there are 19 games listed. 16 of them are listed as "Turn Overdue" (hardly an advertisement for an active site). Of the 3 that actually have hours and minutes as the entry, instead of "Turn Overdue", 2 are in fact finished, and the other is a practice game for Advanced Wok. We look dead and non-playing. More than is the truth, since Duel games may be "Due" but are never "Overdue".
2) The penultimate column. "Turn no.". Obviously it helps slightly to say how far on a game is. But it does nothing to tell you whether the game has moved on, worth viewing, since you last looked. Me, I scan down it, half-remember whether a game was at turn 3 last time I looked, and is now at Turn 4, so might be worth looking at for new progress. IF I remember what turn it was at last time I checked. This is a missed opportunity, as well as a pain.
SUGGESTION:
The current 8 columns are:
1. GM
2. Name of Game
3. Version (WOK Duel, Standard WOK etc)
4. Open to (All. all, all all and all)
5. Type (Normal, normal, normal normal and normal, etc.)
6. Status (Running, Paused, Finished etc.)
7. Turn No. (4.15,3 etc.)
8. Next Turn (mostly Turn Overdue; sometimes XX hours and YY minutes).
I suggest we disengage this screen from the "Games to Join" screen, since they have different things they can say and can drop.
Here, we can drop "Open to" and "Type", since they are primarily info for sign-up, and are not needed in "Running". It leaves space for another, more important column for Running Games. And are no great loss. And are nearly always "All" and "Normal" anyway! As a Running Game, any special nature eg. "Kor's X-game", can and should be captured in the NAME of the game, not requiring a seldom-used column in Running Games. IMHO.
We NEED a column that says "Last turn ran", with the answer being a date. So that we can see which games have moved on, take a look at the update, rather than trying to remember whether "Turn 4" means it HAS moved, or it hasn't, depending on your memory of this column lst time you looked.
SO, the alternative screen (for Running Games, not same for Games to Join) would have the following columns:
1. GM
2. Name of Game
3. Version (Standard, Advanced, Full Duel, Duel-Lite, Quartet, Qintet, Sextet, Special - why not build in these future options if you are re-coding the options?)
4. Status (Running, Paused, Finished etc., as now)
5. Next Turn (this a Turn Number, 3,7,15 etc.) Same as current "Turn No.", except that "Turn No." was always ambiguous as to whether it meant no. of last turn or number of next turn (The answer is no. of NEXT turn). "Next Turn" makes it clear.
6. Last Turn Ran. This is a date. It tells you when a last turn ran in that game. So you can more easily see whether anything has happened since you last looked, instead of having to memorise whether it was already at Turn 5 last time you looked a week ago ... Might take some coding.
7. Next Turn Due. As current "Turn Due", except that the answers will more often be Turn Due rather than Turn Overdue, since all Duels etc. will be listed as Turn Due rather than Turn OVERdue.
Technical and detailed. But the effects will be that everything looks less OVERdue, and newbs and vets can more easily see which games have had a turn since they last looked?
Han
Main problems:
1) The last column, "Next Turn" must currently be a real turn-off to new visitors. Current games? At the time of writing, there are 19 games listed. 16 of them are listed as "Turn Overdue" (hardly an advertisement for an active site). Of the 3 that actually have hours and minutes as the entry, instead of "Turn Overdue", 2 are in fact finished, and the other is a practice game for Advanced Wok. We look dead and non-playing. More than is the truth, since Duel games may be "Due" but are never "Overdue".
2) The penultimate column. "Turn no.". Obviously it helps slightly to say how far on a game is. But it does nothing to tell you whether the game has moved on, worth viewing, since you last looked. Me, I scan down it, half-remember whether a game was at turn 3 last time I looked, and is now at Turn 4, so might be worth looking at for new progress. IF I remember what turn it was at last time I checked. This is a missed opportunity, as well as a pain.
SUGGESTION:
The current 8 columns are:
1. GM
2. Name of Game
3. Version (WOK Duel, Standard WOK etc)
4. Open to (All. all, all all and all)
5. Type (Normal, normal, normal normal and normal, etc.)
6. Status (Running, Paused, Finished etc.)
7. Turn No. (4.15,3 etc.)
8. Next Turn (mostly Turn Overdue; sometimes XX hours and YY minutes).
I suggest we disengage this screen from the "Games to Join" screen, since they have different things they can say and can drop.
Here, we can drop "Open to" and "Type", since they are primarily info for sign-up, and are not needed in "Running". It leaves space for another, more important column for Running Games. And are no great loss. And are nearly always "All" and "Normal" anyway! As a Running Game, any special nature eg. "Kor's X-game", can and should be captured in the NAME of the game, not requiring a seldom-used column in Running Games. IMHO.
We NEED a column that says "Last turn ran", with the answer being a date. So that we can see which games have moved on, take a look at the update, rather than trying to remember whether "Turn 4" means it HAS moved, or it hasn't, depending on your memory of this column lst time you looked.
SO, the alternative screen (for Running Games, not same for Games to Join) would have the following columns:
1. GM
2. Name of Game
3. Version (Standard, Advanced, Full Duel, Duel-Lite, Quartet, Qintet, Sextet, Special - why not build in these future options if you are re-coding the options?)
4. Status (Running, Paused, Finished etc., as now)
5. Next Turn (this a Turn Number, 3,7,15 etc.) Same as current "Turn No.", except that "Turn No." was always ambiguous as to whether it meant no. of last turn or number of next turn (The answer is no. of NEXT turn). "Next Turn" makes it clear.
6. Last Turn Ran. This is a date. It tells you when a last turn ran in that game. So you can more easily see whether anything has happened since you last looked, instead of having to memorise whether it was already at Turn 5 last time you looked a week ago ... Might take some coding.
7. Next Turn Due. As current "Turn Due", except that the answers will more often be Turn Due rather than Turn Overdue, since all Duels etc. will be listed as Turn Due rather than Turn OVERdue.
Technical and detailed. But the effects will be that everything looks less OVERdue, and newbs and vets can more easily see which games have had a turn since they last looked?
Han