- Get Safari on Mac working again (Safari on Windows works fine).
- Make the interface snappy, or at least not slow. I feel your pain - my development machine has all kinds of debugging stuff turned on, and the game drags. As a band-aid, I will add a setting that cuts the score list down to size. I propose that, when this setting is turned on, the score list will show only the top five + your team & members + at least 5 players just above and below you + any players you have marked. Please suggest alternatives / variants in the comments!
Oh! I almost forgot to mention: a few hours after last night's transition, all seemed to be going well, so I went to bed. A half-hour later, network access to the server was cut off for about three hours. The server itself was fine, but nobody could reach it. Argh!
21 comments:
I still haven't been able to get into the game to play at all. A couple weeks ago I was able to a couple of times, but then went back to the old version, which I like much better. Is there any way to reinstate the old version while still working on the bugs on this new one? I miss playing!!
I used to be able to find out who found a word, by moving the mouse over that word in the "Word List for Last Round". That doesn't work any more.
Evan, I have been using Weboggle for years. I am sorry to say this because you have obviously put a lot of work into it, but I really, really, REALLY don't like wordsplay. I don't like the way it's organized, I don't like *having* to log in every time I play, and there are all kinds of problems like hover-over text not working properly. I know some of these can be fixed, but some you seem to intend to keep. The interface is poorly designed, I am sorry, but it is way too busy. You probably think you are providing lots of features for people, but really it's just confusing. Google is by far the most used search engine; take a cue from them and realize that less is more.
As it stands, I'm prolly not gonna use Wordsplay.
~Cynthia
Evan, if there is any way we could go back to WeBoggle again, we would surely love it, we miss it sorely! Just don't like the setup on Wordsplay, and it is not as easy to get into it to start playing quickly. The flashing that happens when we type in a wrong word is distracting too! We know how much you have put into it though, and we thank you for your efforts.
One thing i noticed is that if you mark someone as a friend, they are no longer marked as a friend the next time you log in. overall i think its a good site.
Ok, I really like Wordsplay. The problem at the moment seems to be that I can't get to the game. I don't know if there are just too many people playing for me to get to the site or if something happened to the server again, but I haven't been able to get to the site for about a half hour (and I really really want to play!). I don't want to add to the people who are raining on your parade because I actually think that Wordsplay is much better than Weboggle and I think everything you've done is an improvement. I've only had problems since you shut down weboggle. Guess I'll just keep trying.
Evan
Thanks for the wordSplay -I love it and WEbboggle.
I know you have kinks to work out. It is working well on my end and except for those that can't get it running at all, I think many just freak out about change.
Good job - the only thing I would love to change is the name....now to just find the perfect one to replace it. :)
~jen
I can get into the game and guess words. The correct words appear in the "Word List for Last Round" section, but my total score shows "No Words Guessed" so I don't get added to the list of players. What's wrong?
Sincerely,
I LOVE POPE JPII!!!!
jen wrote "many just freak out about change"
Um, no. In fact I and others have liked a lot of changes Evan made to Weboggle.
This particular changeover, though? Not so good. The new site doesn't follow basic usability guidelines. I'm not freaking out, I'm just not much enjoying the new site.
well I AM almost freaking out, and disapointed, and frustrated etc etc cause #1 back when you said try beta i did and it didn't work for me so thank god i could still just do regular weboggle. So I did. Then yesterday - my god was it only yesterday? it seems eons ago - WEBOGGLE was no longer there! When I go to it the url instantly changes to "wordsplay" but the screen is blank. Tried it numerous times. No loading, nothing. It finally occurred to me to google weboggle and eventually i found this discussion. I guess the good (?) news is it didn't simply disappear, but the BAD news is you made it go away on purpose. Why? Why oh why can't we just keep the old one? I don't want complicated - i just want to play. And i also would be willing to pay if thats what you need but please oh please oh please can't there be a way to NOT have to sign in? Its such a pain in the ass, its like having to ask permission before you play. Anyway, like everyone else, of course i appreciate you efforts, but basically, for me so far, these developments suck.
Evan, thanks for your years of work on webboggle. I can see the potential of the new format, but at the moment it really is pretty clunky. I know I'm not the fastest typist who plays, but somehow i outpace the server and lose the last 15 to 20 words I type each game. Good luck on curing the clunkiness. I'll be back.
I greatly prefer the old WEBoggle interface too, Evan.
In the most recent WordSplay versions (which I've tested a few dozen times on all kinds of computers and from several locations around the world, with and without proxies), I've resized the screen, rearranged the panels, etc., and still find the "optimal" display hopelessly cluttered. It's much too hard to visually and mentally focus on the puzzle itself. Even with resizing the box and increasing/decreasing screen font size, the proportion of letters to box size is distractingly skewed. Usability is *seriously* absent, and because the game information is dispersed across the screen almost haphazardly, it's impossible to process it quickly and efficiently while playing. As others have said, all of this translates to "no fun." And having to sign in is a huge PITA, btw, especially for those of us on multiple machines, and/or those of us who purge cookies daily.
Anyway, I've been testing the beta versions since they were first available, and I guarantee that my consistent negative reaction isn't a case of resistance to change: I typically switch among three or four different operating systems in the course of a few working hours, run dozens of different software apps simultaneously via multiple monitors, etc. Adaptation to new layouts is no problem for me. But such adaptation presupposes a well-designed interface, and as many have complained, this new one definitely is not.
Latency and slow response can be corrected, but the design defects can't, I'm afraid. Overall playability, on a scale of 1-10, is around a 3-minus in WordSplay, or maybe even just a 2-plus. With heavy-duty input from a professional designer and/or a UI worker, some of your effort on this project can probably be salvaged. Otherwise, sorry to say, no amount of tweaking is going to render this game playable: its design is just plain wrong.
Along with everyone else, I appreciate the time and work you've put into this, Evan. I've been waiting to post feedback, hoping for major design changes/improvements to happen, but it doesn't look as if those are in the works, so on the off-chance that my opinion is of any use to you, you now have it. :-)
I'll check back in a few months just in case....
I have to agree with most of the comments about the usability of the new game. That's only based on the few times I played it about a month ago. I quickly changed over to the old game again, as I found the new one very distracting with all the displays, even after moving and resizing the gameboard, etc, and not at all user-friendly. I LOVED the old version- very simple and speedy.
My main problem now with the new game? I can't play! I go to the website, and all I get is "contacting server" no matter how long I leave it going, hoping it will load. I miss my favorite waste of time!
I have to say I love Wordsplay! The design is so much better than Weboggle! If people find the screen too cluttered, they can close any windows and even the sidebar so they only see what they want to.
Thanks for helping me with my problems a few weeks ago with Norton. I'm sure you were really busy, so thanks for taking the time to answer my email and patiently help me.
Hi!
I started playing Weboggle in 2007 and really loved it. I was pretty clueless about the changes that were in the works, so I was pleasantly surprised by the big update we got with the new year.
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I love playing this game in whatever form you provide it. I really appreciate your taking the time and effort to give something to the world that so many people enjoy. Thank you!
PS... so far, I have not encountered any kinks while playing.
Please please please go back to the old system. It is extremely difficult to find out how you did if you are a team because the next game starts before you can find it. And I really do not
need to know what I did as a individual highlighted. I would like my team score highlighted.
Just wanted to leave you a big THANK YOU for all your hard work.
I'm having additional problems not mentioned in other responses - My score is frequently lower in the list than in my score box, by several points.
Also, could you allow the guess box to record words we've typed in but aren't actually on the board? (used to read "not on board") Sometimes I don't realize the typo until I look up at the guess box and see "not on board", and then I can quickly remedy it by typing in the correct word. Now I can't remember everything I've typed or tried to.
Finally, if you can fix the slowness and delays, my team and I would find it more fun. But it takes so long to load scores, and then the next game starts before we've found ourselves!
We are also having a 2 to 10 point discrepancy between our "guesses" box score and the final score. (As in, not as many points!) Is it because the server halts the input of words before the final seconds run out? Still missing WEBoggle terribly!!
Hi Evan,
As a fellow gamer, developer and designer (for 25 years!) I'd like to share some thoughts.
First, as others have said, I appreciate the significant efforts you've put forth on this game. Most people don't understand how much effort and dedication it really takes. I do. Thanks.
Next, on the topic of the old game vs. the new game. There are obviously different schools of thought, but there is a very easy way to let things sort themselves out without upsetting your user base, which is apparently very vested in what you've built.
Just keep innovating, bug-fixing, asking for user input and doing all the things you are doing, ==> but keep the old version active while you do so!! This is really important!
There are a lot of good additions you've made, and others that some people don't like. That's okay. Just keep moving forward (hopefully), and make announcements on the old game page about updates to the new game and encourage people to try it.
You will know when you've really made a better alternative when people just stop using the old game on their own accord. Until that comes naturally you will only upset people when you take away what they know and are comfortable with. People don't like to have the carpet pulled out from under their feet, so to speak (myself included - doesn't work on Safari!). If you think about it, this is really the most logical answer -- unless running the old server is somehow costing you more money or something like that.
One last thing. As a designer, it's important to consider that not everyone actually -wants- a better mouse trap, or a better widget. More features are not always helpful (although I think you've done a pretty good job with the new version). Very often, people just want something that works, is very simple to use and they are comfortable with. That's how the iPod took over the portable MP3 player market. It's not wrong, or bad, it's just life. :-)
Good luck, -rusty
Hi Evan, I love the new wordsplay. I do think 45 seconds is enough, however, 60 deconds gave me enough time to let the dog out and then later to let her back in. You are brilliant. Keep up the good work. JHJ
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