The new download page is awful
Posted: 23 Aug 2010, 15:02
I just re-downloaded Spring and noticed the new downloads page.
My very first impression was total confusion.
I could see the installer link halfway down the page but before it really sunk in (due largely to the poor choice of OS icons) my eye was drawn to a bright green box that says:
If you just want to get ready to play, you want this:
Games Downloads
Ok, so I want to "play". Click it.
So instead of going to the time tested main installer I now get a choice of:
Gundam RTS
Kernel Panic
Spring 1944 (Outdated!)
* The first link goes straight to a win32 installer with no further explanation of the game.
* The last link is marked outdated (it actually isn't).
Then it gets worse. Below that I read:
"For more Spring games, check out the Games page. Please note that some of them will require you to have the engine installed in order to work, as well as some maps, as they don't come with their own installer."
So I have 4 choices, none of them with descriptions. One of them outdated and one pointing to yet another page of choices.
Next I have an option to download lobbies. One is not cross-platform and both come with the main installer anyway. Again no explanation of why I need either.
I also have something called 'rapid' again with no explanation except it's for "advanced linux users".
I have a final choice that apparently requires me to go back to the page I just came from to get the "engine installer".
Is it just me or is this totally fucked?
Now I know it's a wiki but before I go and get into an edit war with the people who created this page can I please have some discussion / consensus here on what we're trying to achieve.
If the aim is to get new players this page is FAIL. If the aim is to get people playing other games/mods this page is FAIL. If the aim is to totally confuse newcomers to the point they don't even bother it's WIN.
And for the record,
this is how it's done.
PS. I know there's an effort inside the community to move towards every game having its own installer but if this is how it's going to be done I have to say I'm totally against it (and this is coming from a potential game author). Has enough discussion really been put into:
a.) The extreme difficulties of maintaining cross-platform installers for each and every game when the engine itself struggles in this respect.
b.) The sheer duplication of effort and resources required to download and install multiple games via independent installers.
My very first impression was total confusion.
I could see the installer link halfway down the page but before it really sunk in (due largely to the poor choice of OS icons) my eye was drawn to a bright green box that says:
If you just want to get ready to play, you want this:
Games Downloads
Ok, so I want to "play". Click it.
So instead of going to the time tested main installer I now get a choice of:
Gundam RTS
Kernel Panic
Spring 1944 (Outdated!)
* The first link goes straight to a win32 installer with no further explanation of the game.
* The last link is marked outdated (it actually isn't).
Then it gets worse. Below that I read:
"For more Spring games, check out the Games page. Please note that some of them will require you to have the engine installed in order to work, as well as some maps, as they don't come with their own installer."
So I have 4 choices, none of them with descriptions. One of them outdated and one pointing to yet another page of choices.
Next I have an option to download lobbies. One is not cross-platform and both come with the main installer anyway. Again no explanation of why I need either.
I also have something called 'rapid' again with no explanation except it's for "advanced linux users".
I have a final choice that apparently requires me to go back to the page I just came from to get the "engine installer".
Is it just me or is this totally fucked?
Now I know it's a wiki but before I go and get into an edit war with the people who created this page can I please have some discussion / consensus here on what we're trying to achieve.
If the aim is to get new players this page is FAIL. If the aim is to get people playing other games/mods this page is FAIL. If the aim is to totally confuse newcomers to the point they don't even bother it's WIN.
And for the record,
this is how it's done.
PS. I know there's an effort inside the community to move towards every game having its own installer but if this is how it's going to be done I have to say I'm totally against it (and this is coming from a potential game author). Has enough discussion really been put into:
a.) The extreme difficulties of maintaining cross-platform installers for each and every game when the engine itself struggles in this respect.
b.) The sheer duplication of effort and resources required to download and install multiple games via independent installers.