Redesign ConquerClub.com

[4myGod]

I see, now my links and such can get lost in the 30+ posts this thread already has.

From reading over these other replies in this thread. I am quite curious who "Lack" is and whether or not he visits the forums?

If others also want to change the design then let's do this shiz. What are we waiting for? It's only going to give the owner more money, I would only want 1 year premium accounts for me and my friends, which I think is pretty cheap considering what designers get paid.

It was mentioned by Mibi that the owner doesn't care about the potential of this website. If this is the case, why don't all these web designers and graphic designers build their own foe risk site? If you guys teamed together to build an awesome risk I would want in. This game is an incredible game that everyone I know loves. There is a TON of growth potential, and so far this site is the only site with a near monopoly on it, the other sites are just basic risk.

I don't care what happens... redesign/remanagement of conquerclub, or the opening of a new site. I am just a designer, and I want the game I am playing to be awesome. I also want to look at something that catches my eye every time I login.

Yeah I was on the site one day and that's all it took for me to be addicted, and if I am addicted to it, I want to be looking at something I like, so I decided to make something up.

they wont pay you to redesign the site... and i would much rather see them spend their time on new game types and important updates. instead of stupid graphical interface which doesnt effect the game at all.

That's fine, because as I mentioned, I am not asking for money.

I personally will most likely play the same game type and the same maps that I am playing now, so new game types will not effect me. With that said though, I am not fighting against new game types. Nor am I saying new Graphics are more important than new Game Types, however, there are many of us it seems who would like to see a change in graphical interface, whether it effects the gameplay or not. So there is no reason you should put down the things we want and say yours are more important ("stupid graphical interface"). We are all on this site, and we are all playing this game, every one should be entitled to their requests.

I don't care if I have been here 1 day or 1 hour. I am now part of this community as it is free to everyone, and I, with older members than myself are requesting a new design. I have spent my day making an idea I had, instead of just saying "get a new design." I was doing what I can, without getting paid, to help so it wouldn't require much effort on the owners part to make the change to a new design.

i think you mistook my statement of my opinion as an insult because it disagrees with your opinion. dont tell me to shut up and then talk about how you have a right to your opinion. we BOTH have rights to our opinions, lol.

and these statements are almost contradictory.

I would only want 1 year premium accounts for me and my friends, which I think is pretty cheap considering what designers get paid.

That's fine, because as I mentioned, I am not asking for money.

I didn't tell you to shutup there bud. Nor did I even imply it.

Like I said, I am not asking for "money." What I requested was premium accounts for me and my friends, which costs the owner absolutely nothing.

[Riazor]

I see, now my links and such can get lost in the 30+ posts this thread already has.

From reading over these other replies in this thread. I am quite curious who "Lack" is and whether or not he visits the forums?

If others also want to change the design then let's do this shiz. What are we waiting for? It's only going to give the owner more money, I would only want 1 year premium accounts for me and my friends, which I think is pretty cheap considering what designers get paid.

It was mentioned by Mibi that the owner doesn't care about the potential of this website. If this is the case, why don't all these web designers and graphic designers build their own foe risk site? If you guys teamed together to build an awesome risk I would want in. This game is an incredible game that everyone I know loves. There is a TON of growth potential, and so far this site is the only site with a near monopoly on it, the other sites are just basic risk.

I don't care what happens... redesign/remanagement of conquerclub, or the opening of a new site. I am just a designer, and I want the game I am playing to be awesome. I also want to look at something that catches my eye every time I login.

Yeah I was on the site one day and that's all it took for me to be addicted, and if I am addicted to it, I want to be looking at something I like, so I decided to make something up.

they wont pay you to redesign the site... and i would much rather see them spend their time on new game types and important updates. instead of stupid graphical interface which doesnt effect the game at all.

That's fine, because as I mentioned, I am not asking for money.

I personally will most likely play the same game type and the same maps that I am playing now, so new game types will not effect me. With that said though, I am not fighting against new game types. Nor am I saying new Graphics are more important than new Game Types, however, there are many of us it seems who would like to see a change in graphical interface, whether it effects the gameplay or not. So there is no reason you should put down the things we want and say yours are more important ("stupid graphical interface"). We are all on this site, and we are all playing this game, every one should be entitled to their requests.

I don't care if I have been here 1 day or 1 hour. I am now part of this community as it is free to everyone, and I, with older members than myself are requesting a new design. I have spent my day making an idea I had, instead of just saying "get a new design." I was doing what I can, without getting paid, to help so it wouldn't require much effort on the owners part to make the change to a new design.

i think you mistook my statement of my opinion as an insult because it disagrees with your opinion. dont tell me to shut up and then talk about how you have a right to your opinion. we BOTH have rights to our opinions, lol.

and these statements are almost contradictory.

I would only want 1 year premium accounts for me and my friends, which I think is pretty cheap considering what designers get paid.

That's fine, because as I mentioned, I am not asking for money.

I didn't tell you to shutup there bud. Nor did I even imply it.

Like I said, I am not asking for "money." What I requested was premium accounts for me and my friends, which costs the owner absolutely nothing.

Actually, it does, in a way. Giving you and your friends premium means you won't buy the premium you were awarded, so he missed out on some sales.

But that's not really relevant to the discussion. I for one would like an option, some kind of choice of skin. But if it wont ever arrive, im fine, because i dont dislike the current design. Its simply, easy and doesnt look too bad either. More options are good, but not completely necessary.

[cicero]

Guys, I'm going to repeat my request that we keep this on topic.
If the discussion continues it needs to be on the pros and cons of a site redesign.

Who pays who to do it and via what medium (cash/premium membership/bananas) isn't relevant to this thread. If you want to continue those discussions I'd suggest you do it via PM or, as I've already suggested, start a thread in General Discussion if you think it will be of interest to the wider Conquer Club community.

And, as an aside, when quoting previous posts please be selective in your quotes unless it genuinely serves a purpose to quote everything a previous poster has said.

Thanks in anticipation for your help.

Cicero

[4myGod]

I for one would like an option, some kind of choice of skin. But if it wont ever arrive, im fine, because i dont dislike the current design. Its simply, easy and doesnt look too bad either. More options are good, but not completely necessary.

I knew it would get lost in the posts. I had posted this as a new thread, however it was merged into this thread.

I created a design, that I was curious if people would be interested in implimenting:

Concise description: Dark Website Design

• Small Map: http://www.buthhomes.com/conquerclub.jpg
• Large Map: http://www.buthhomes.com/conquerclubbig.jpg
• Game List: http://www.buthhomes.com/ccdark-game.list.jpg

Concise description: Light Website Design

• Small Map: http://www.buthhomes.com/ccwhite.jpg

[wcaclimbing]

I for one would like an option, some kind of choice of skin. But if it wont ever arrive, im fine, because i dont dislike the current design. Its simply, easy and doesnt look too bad either. More options are good, but not completely necessary.

I knew it would get lost in the posts. I had posted this as a new thread, however it was merged into this thread.

I created a design, that I was curious if people would be interested in implimenting:

Concise description: Dark Website Design

• Small Map: http://www.buthhomes.com/conquerclub.jpg
• Large Map: http://www.buthhomes.com/conquerclubbig.jpg
• Game List: http://www.buthhomes.com/ccdark-game.list.jpg

Concise description: Light Website Design

• Small Map: http://www.buthhomes.com/ccwhite.jpg

I am a huge fan of those designs.

Nice and clean, smooth, and it looks much better than this dull green scheme we have now.

Only complaint is the colored box you put on the right side with the info about your score and games and stuff.

I'd vote for it. Makes this place seem much more powerful.

[azezzo]

want to fix the front page, its simple, put the real classic map on there and lets go back to using it, people search google for online risk games, i did and i chose the one that was the closest to the real thing, what we have now is a failed attempt to mimic it.

[Thezzaruz]

This site can't just sit here not updating just because the site owner is already making money and doesn't have any threatening competition. By the time he does have worth while competition it will be too late.

But the site is in fact updated all the time, not many weeks go by without some sort of change or amendment. And a lot of it is from suggestions that pop up here in the forum.

I don't care if I have been here 1 day or 1 hour. I am now part of this community as it is free to everyone, and I, with older members than myself are requesting a new design. I have spent my day making an idea I had, instead of just saying "get a new design." I was doing what I can, without getting paid, to help so it wouldn't require much effort on the owners part to make the change to a new design.

And ofc you have the right to an opinion even on your first day as a member but you also would do well to realise that changes won't be decided unnecessarily quick or without much discussion.

Also I might add that you haven't really suggested many specifics, mostly just a general request for a complete redesign. Come out with your specific ideas and let us discuss them and you'll have a much better chance to get any of them being done.
The 3 real ideas I've seen from your screenies is the game stat square up right (which I don't see much reason for but who knows), the moving of the sidebar to a topbar (interesting one, should need a thread of its own as there are some issues to solve with the idea) and the changing of the background colour (IMO not necessary but I wouldn't mind having the possibility to set a skin/theme in my preferences).

put the real classic map on there and lets go back to using it

So you just ignore the reason it went away?

[4myGod]

Ok well I understand the situation now. So I am going to try to point this conversation into the right place:

First to answer the last reply, my design has several changes to the website that I would like to see, however I won't mention them now. The idea is, we can make the site however is best, so if I post a design with changes I like, then someone else can say "well I like this and this..." then we can try adding that.

I was told before when asking "what are we waiting for?" that we were waiting for Lack. So the question right now isn't "how should the design look?" but, "should we have a new design?"

Ok, so pros and cons (from what I see, correct me if I am wrong):

PROS

• The website will attract more first time visitors to join AND stay.
• The website will look legit, so when we go paying for a premium account it feels like we are paying a company, not a single man. (It happens, I personally don't feel comfortable paying individuals for website services, it's not that I don't trust them, it's because I don't like that the person is making all this money to himself, if it's a company, I feel more like that company earned it and they probably have employees, etc... Don't judge me.)
• Members already using the website will be able to get what they want, whether it's more options in the interface or a simpler interface to use, or just an easier to look at and navigate color scheme.
• Other websites and people will take this website seriously.

CONS

• There are some members who have grown attached to the current design and for one reason or the other do not want it changed.
• Not everyone may agree on the same new design.
• Whoever the designer is, he/she may want to be paid.
• Some members also don't want the developer(s) of this site wasting their time on a design instead of bringing in new content.

As far as the cons go, I think we can fix the first 2 cons just by having an interface the user can choose from their settings. I don't see any way to do that except by copying the entire website for each interface. The reason is, the original olive green interface may not have the same features as the new interface. However, it is possible that you could just implement the smarty template system and completely separate your php from html. By doing this you just load different folders full of templates and css files for each interface option.

Now with that we could keep the olive green design for the old school guys who don't want a modern looking website, and then have the modern design for those who do. Now the default design would be whatever the members find more attractive, from what it seems they want a modern one, so I figure that will be the default for when a new person just joins the site, then they can go into their settings and change it to olive green if they want.

Now I have laid it out the best I could. Other members have given their opinions, so we just wait for Lack to decide.

If he wants a new website then we can create a new thread for the design of the new site. We can start by listing the designs I created and any other designs people may want, and we can discuss which designs we like best and what we might want to change in those designs.

We can't do anything until Lack gets in here, reads the posts and gives his response on whether or not he wants to go ahead with a new design.

[jbrettlip]

I was hoping we would keep the pink graphics...

[Thezzaruz]

First to answer the last reply, my design has several changes to the website that I would like to see, however I won't mention them now.

So the question right now isn't "how should the design look?" but, "should we have a new design?"

No the question is, what are your suggestions? Changes happens all the time around here so we don't need to decide that "a" change should take place. We need an actual idea/suggestion.

Ok, so pros and cons (from what I see, correct me if I am wrong):

Again, you try to discuss/get support for an idea that you haven't presented. How do you expect us to approve, disapprove or expand when you haven't even suggested anything yet? (that said I don't see any of the cons as big issues)

As far as the cons go, I think we can fix the first 2 cons just by having an interface the user can choose from their settings. I don't see any way to do that except by copying the entire website for each interface. The reason is, the original olive green interface may not have the same features as the new interface.

Ah so you want to change some features, good now we're getting somewhere. What features do you want to add/take away? (here you probably should expect a bit of resistance seeing as most features are community approved)

We can't do anything until Lack gets in here, reads the posts and gives his response on whether or not he wants to go ahead with a new design.

Actually it's the opposite. You don't need permission to suggest a change, you just need support and approval to have it implemented.


To jbrettlip:
The pink was nice (but a bit hard on the eyes though)

[4myGod]

Thezzaruz, please stay on topic. This thread is to discuss whether or not a complete redesign to the site should take place. If you re-read it, that's what it is about. I came up with a design in another thread and linked it here, in that other thread I was suggesting using this design, then my thread was merged with this one. So now what we are discussing is whether or not this website should have a redesign. If Lack decides that we should have a redesign, then we can start discussing what features can be changed.

4myGod wrote:If others also want to change the design then let's do this shiz. What are we waiting for?

You're waiting for the site owner to realise how right you are

It's all in Lack's field right now Thezzaruz. This topic isn't to decide what a redesign would consist of, though people have mentioned ideas, but rather if a redesign will happen.

[Hsur]

So...this is a question of whether or not the site should be redesigned? I for one say yes, a redesign would be a nice update to look of the site. Right now the site is functional, but IMO the look is a little stale.

[Thezzaruz]

So now what we are discussing is whether or not this website should have a redesign. If Lack decides that we should have a redesign, then we can start discussing what features can be changed.

I still say that you are discussing the wrong thing in the wrong way but I'll leave you to it. gl

[mibi]

lackattack is a "do not rock the boat" incrementalist and any changes that have any perceived risk will not be implemented in your lifetime. He does not post in the forums any more (twice this month) so I wouldn't wait around for a response.

It is unfortunate that the best thing for ConquerClub.com right now is some competition as this site has been in a protracted decline for the past 18 months.

If you wanted to create your own site, I suggest going forward. A small, agile Risk-based site, with a good foundation, could be functional for as little as $2,500. ConquerClub is a wasteland of opportunity, and it certainly would not be difficulty to yield much higher margins with little effort.

People are attracted to passion.

[mpjh]

A re-design would mostly have the same feel---it'd be more of a functionality redesigning---better streamlining essentially.


--Andy

Unless you can make it faster, don't mess with it. Old technician saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[hwhrhett]

Unless you can make it faster, don't mess with it. Old technician saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[mibi]

Unless you can make it faster, don't mess with it. Old technician saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

yeah that applies to toasters and toilets. But the internet is crucible for evolution and development. If you want to sling slogans how about this one, "you either move with the times or the times move you". Again, maxims are pretty irrelevant.

The 'if it ain't broke' saying may work for you as an end user, but it's a poor business strategy. As it stands, being that there is no apparent competition to ConquerClub.com, there is no motivation to tackle anything on the todo list. But what lack may fail to realize is that the competition is really extended to online gaming and the internet at large. And in this situation, modest growth bad, no growth is terrible, and shrinkage is just a shame.

Anywyas, this is just more bitchin to deaf ears. Have a good day.

[mpjh]

Sure, I worked for one of the top 50 corporations for 22 years. I watched as they spun in circles changing slogans, logos, business niches, etc. Eventually, they found that giving the customer a quality product that works consistently is more important than how you package it. Customers are not stupid.

Witness what is happening to GM, and gee they brought out a new product every six months, just couldn't produce a car that lasted more than 18 months.

Same thing here, if the product's quality is top notch, and it works, customer will come. So, if you want to "redesign" do it to make the product work faster in game play. That is why we come here. If you tack on a bunch of bells and whistles, and don't improve the game play, you are just pissing into the wind.

[Kaplowitz]

"If you change it, they will come"
I like that slogan better. If we have a crappy looking website, then the people who come to it will never sign up, and then wont even know that CC is fun. Besides, not only is your new design awesome, it actually DOES help the gameplay. It leaves much more room for the map (look at all that space!) and there are a LOT of awesome maps in the foundry that were deemed too big for the current design and were shot down.

[mpjh]

What "new design" are you talking about. The redesign hasn't even been launched yet.

[Kaplowitz]

I for one would like an option, some kind of choice of skin. But if it wont ever arrive, im fine, because i dont dislike the current design. Its simply, easy and doesnt look too bad either. More options are good, but not completely necessary.

I knew it would get lost in the posts. I had posted this as a new thread, however it was merged into this thread.

I created a design, that I was curious if people would be interested in implimenting:

Concise description: Dark Website Design

• Small Map: http://www.buthhomes.com/conquerclub.jpg
• Large Map: http://www.buthhomes.com/conquerclubbig.jpg
• Game List: http://www.buthhomes.com/ccdark-game.list.jpg

Concise description: Light Website Design

• Small Map: http://www.buthhomes.com/ccwhite.jpg

[hecter]

I much prefer the current design to those.

[mpjh]

Me too.

[a.sub]

actually i like the black one

[4myGod]

I much prefer the current design to those.

If Lack does decide to redesign it has already been brought up that there should be skins, so some people, as yourself could still use the current design.