Why are "my games" now sorted in a different way?

took me like 2 min to find the game i was looking for :/

If you sort by time since last turn, wouldn't it make more sense to put games close to boot on top instead of somewhere in the middle?

Edited 1/10/2015 10:17:12

^I agree with both latnox and timinator. Let us hide the boxes we don't want, and either sort the games by nearest to boot time or creation date. I like boot time better, cause it puts the most important games at the top. Creation date is also good, because you get a feel for which games are at the top and which are at the bottom. I'm sure sorting the games by last turn taken has some merit I'm just struggling to see it. Maybe add a sort option? Maybe not.

Also, someone up there said the big black dot was better than the small black dash to see who the game was waiting on. I agree.

Overall, I really like it. Like the past game feature. Like not seeing declined or host removed games. Love the settings at a glance icons. I always knew the forums were here, but never used them, and now I probably will because I'll see them all the time.

However, I do agree with semicedevine and raucze. Complicated is great for me, but not great for everyone. I want this game to stay. You've worked so hard making this game and keeping it running without selling in game advantages. I can't think of a solution to this one.

I like the idea, but hate how it was done. Personally I like the old dashboard a lot. It is very light yet very informative https://www.warlight.net/Dashboard

You should put everything into tabs and make the new dashboard customizable. Personally I would also like to see or have a direct link into ladder information. And a button to join RT ladder is a must if you plan to keep it alive.

Also think about what kind of information is relevant. Do we really need to see who commented on a forum post and how long ago? Do we really need so many settings icons?

Ok,so the dashboard may be useful to some people,but to me is WAY too clutterred and full.The thing i really really dont like is that you removed the "Active games where im not eliminated" setting in My Games.That setting showed really nicely all the games i was in and actually playing.All the current options for My Games are rubbish,My Games are spammed with games where im booted/surrendered and its extremely hard to find those 10 freaking multyday games in wich i play.

Pls re-add the "Active games where im not eliminated" setting in My Games.
Dont make changes if they wont help.

Edited 1/10/2015 11:39:39

I think the new dashboard is actually an improvement overall, but does suffer from two main drawbacks:

1. It's not customizable
2. The design of the games menu is worse than before; too cluttered, hard to read

If these two things are worked on, I think the next version of the new dashboard will be loved by most.

The design is tricky... it's easy to identify a bad design but difficult to implement a good design. Trial and error might be a good idea here... try moving around some of the new elements in the games lists, try making the map images bigger (thus increasing the space between rows), do we really need to see the boxes with all those player colors, etc.

Overall, I think this update is a good step forward, so long as things continue to iterate and improve. Thanks Fizzer!

Edited 1/10/2015 11:58:07

I like the new dashboard, congrats on your effort WL team.

I would suggest minor font for the titles/sub-titles in the right boxes, and more space between the left and the right boxes.

First impressions are it's too bright cluttered and ugly.

There is also no option to show less '-' a minus option. After you click show more '+' you are stuck with that unless you reload the screen.

You should place the Refresh button somewhere on the top of the page, near the My Games box

the only thing im really sore about is losing the filter "active games where im not eliminated" (or whatever it is called). now i have to sift thru all the active games that i declined or was eliminated from. very tedious.

the dashboard is really ugly though. it makes this site look cheaper (imo it never looked great, but why make it worse?)

Nice improvement! Although, games should take more of the screen, and the Design Maps sub-tab is mostly hidden by the player's right tab. Anyways, I hope to learn all game icons :)

The new dashboard is completely awesome! I love the next game button!

First of all i welcome the transition from Flash to HTML.
This makes it possible to tailor the site to my needs using browser extensions such as Stylish, GreaseMonkey, etcetera. (As a side note: tables for layout are really vintage.)

For the remainder of this post i will try to voice my concerns and point out the problems i perceive.
This should not be seen as critique on the work done, but as honest feedback which can be used to improve the overall site.

My biggest concern is that pages such as "My Games" and "Open Games" are going to be replaced by the dashboard page. Traditionally a dashboard is used to provide an overview of the status of different sections of a system. As such, a dashboard has a different goal than specialized pages, which means replacing these specialized pages with the dashboard will lead to a changed user experience.
Also, it is harder to add functionality to a dashboard page than to a specialized page since the space (above the fold) is limited. A dashboard is all about providing an overview, meaning less is more. Every added feature increases the complexity of a dashboard. On the other hand, adding a feature to a specialized page is a lot easier: as long as the features on that page are cohesive it will feel natural (It is more nuanced, but i will not go into information architecture here).

It looks like this transition is not well thought out. I think it would help if you created personas for the site and did some story mapping. People use the site in different ways and as a result they have different needs and expectations. Creating a one-size-fits-all solution will be a very daunting task.
I, for example, play only real-time multiplayer games these days. The only things that matter to me are an overview of open real-time games, creating games and playing them. I have no use for a dashboard, or notifications, or a button to go to the next game. For someone who plays mostly multi-day games notifications and an easy way to go from one playable game to another might be essential. Some value the social aspects more and are active in a clan and participate in the fora. The added value of the dashboard for any of these type of players is hard to see; in all cases they are presented with more irrelevant information which results in a worse signal-to-noise ratio than the previous situation.

Finally, most problems i see are related to consistency, visual hierarchy and attention to detail:

• Why are the headers of the sections "Tournaments", "Recent Blog Posts" and "Forum Posts" center-aligned, and those of the sections "My Games", "Promoted Games" and "Open Games" left-aligned? Why do they have a different font size?
  
  
• The links to show all forum posts or all games are placed inside their corresponding section, but the link "See past games" is placed outside the "My games" section?
  
  
• Margin and padding can be improved in many cases. There is barely any space between "Open Games" and the buttonbar "Multi-day | Real-time | Both". The flat icon overlaps the 3-d effect of the button it sits on. There is no space between the game name, the squares representing the number of players and the icons of the game.
  
  
• The style of the refresh page button differs from the rest of the page.
  

Like i said: i welcome the use of HTML.

*UPDATE*

After playing with the dashboard yesterday i concluded it is not for me (i tweaked it to my liking using Stylish).
After reading some threads it looks like there is not an entire team behind this game / site, but more like 1 or 2 developers. Feel free to PM me if you need some extra hands.

For the coming changes: it might be worthwhile to discuss them with the community before the work is started.

Edited 1/11/2015 11:52:22

This is awesome I can now open multiplayer on my phone, click on a game (thumbnail of a game) which will then open in the warlight app I love that. Next game button is equally brilliant.
The New dashboard would need more filters imo, including filters for open games.
The refresh page button is unnecessary imo, everyone know how to refresh a page->no need for it

I don't like that Warlight is suggesting I take my turn in games I am stalling. BACK OFF! I do like that it tells you how many players are in the RTL so I don't have to go there to find out no one is playing.

I'm personally not a fan of this update. This is taking one step forward, but taking five or so steps backwards.

The new dashboard looks way too clustered, and really does not appeal to the eye whatsoever. My main problem is that the dashboard is supposed to solve problems, but instead causes more. The current filters available are way too simplistic, and don't show the games I want to see.

The "Active games where I am not eliminated" filter needs to be added back into the system before I can like this update whatsoever. All current filters show too many games, or no games whatsoever. Also, the tickbox for saving filters as defaults isn't working. I've tried it multiple times already, nothing seems to be working whatsoever.

To summarize: Dashboard looks way too clunky, doesn't show what I need it to show at all. Current set of filters don't show the games I want it to show (*Active games where I am not eliminated), but instead shows games where I have been eliminated for months now, or doesn't show any game whatsoever.

Short comment to update.
Nice idea of update but its not comfortable to my eyes.

is there a legend somewhere to describe what the icons under the new games mean?

I agree with Aerburne.

This is taking one step forward, but taking five or so steps backwards.

Too cluttered, poorly designed as the rest of the people said. There should be an option to make whichever Multiplayer tab you wish to be default, I'm making it a habit to quickly press my games/open games. Speaking of which,

DO NOT GET RID OF MY GAMES! DO NOT GET RID OF OPEN GAMES!

If anything, get rid of Past Games and Dashboard. I think the effective solution to the Multiplayer dashboard is to make it include single-players games ongoing and recent finished ladder games, and make all this optional. Past Games, that's not such a major problem, just move it right a couple of tabs, it has no priority over my games nor open games, and I think most will agree.

It changes things. I don't like it. I'm going to insult you for improving this very enjoyable free game in a way that is not exactly what I would have done if I were you.

(I am going to bitch about something though, I don't understand why you had to remove the "active games where i'm not eliminated" option. Oh and...yo mama...something something...I'm not very good at jokes. Sorry. )

Things I like:

- Time and settings icon.
- Next game button.
- Map of the week.
- html.

Things that can be improved:

- More filters for games. Right now all the games with unread chat appears, even if you surrendered or the game finished o_O If possible improve the filters, so you can combine them, for example:
+ One option for only active games
+ One for unread chat
+ One for it's my turn
+ One for I didn't surrendered
etc but no "games where I am active and have unread chat", separate the options have more possibilities :)
The ideal would be to be able to enable each game individually but I guess this would be more difficult.

- Show/hide buttons for each part (my games, open games, coin games, forums info, blog info...)

I think that's all for now :P Thanks for keeping working on the game.

Edited 1/10/2015 16:00:49