Goo Beta

Scott Hardie | September 19, 2008
I would prefer to let players discover the new goo game interface on their own -- oops, secret's out, go here if you haven't seen it yet -- but there are a few things that I believe need to be explained.

First, the negative: My webhost is still unable to even identify, let alone fix, whatever phenomenon is making the site disappear and reappear all night long. I've been working on my code for hours each night this week, and so this problem has been severely aggravating for me, changing one detail then waiting minutes to see how it looks, so I know it must be bugging you site regulars at least a little. Here's the additional problem: The new goo interface loads parts of the page using ajax, a technique that (to put it in lay terms) loads a new script for certain parts of the page depending on what the user clicks. When you see that "loading..." message, it's fetching another script to serve you content. But if the server goes offline at that moment, ajax return you nothing but white space, making it seem like the page is broken. If this happens, please be patient and refresh your browser until the site returns after a few seconds. I'm doing everything I can to help the webhost resolve this very annoying problem.

Now, the positive: This refacing of the goo game is only the first step in an upgrade of the site across the board. It mostly uses existing code, so I don't have to reprogram much, just lay it out differently and use new technology like ajax to make the interface more accessible. This site is well overdue for a new look & feel after two years. I'm going for maximum usability this time, with minimal clutter, and it should be obvious that I'm no web designer. :-)

Over the coming days, I'll fill in the last few remaining parts of the goo game that didn't get ported to the new interface (like the request-a-goo form), then get started on the other sections of the site, eventually porting everything to the new look. For a little while, it will be weird switching between the old look and the new look, but I thought it better to launch part of it now in "beta" form and enjoy its benefits rather than wait. Your comments, positive and negative, will be appreciated.

Scott Hardie | September 19, 2008
I'll let you discover some of the game changes for yourself, but one should be mentioned to spare you staying up late: New goos will now be published at 2am est instead of midnight.

Lori Lancaster | September 19, 2008
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | September 21, 2008
Okay, so it appears that the "feedback" link is suffering from "nothing but white space" syndrome... and I just wanted to suggest a new RB theme, if it hasn't been suggested or thought of already: rock relationships. Lots of spouses, former spouses and parent/children rockers out there.

Steve West | September 21, 2008
Oh, I second that one.

Scott Hardie | September 21, 2008
Lori: The captions by each person's name are randomly selected. The text for "location" or "profession" can look a little silly in a few cases, but I thought it was worth doing overall.

I'm working expanding the new shell to include links across the site.

Amy: The site keeps seeming fine and then breaking again. After trying for days, the webhost said they can't find anything wrong. The solution continues to be, find another goddamn webhost.

Thanks for the theme suggestion. So far, I've been wary of themes that require multiple cards to make sense, for instance a theme like "shared bandmates" – what happens if Nirvana shows up without Foo Fighters, or Poco shows up without Buffalo Springfield? The theme wouldn't make sense. But this feature is clearly right for the game, for these two ideas and more. I'll write some code to force it to choose family pairs; consider it on the list.

Goo Beta: So far, there's been little public feedback ... thanks Lori :-) ... and the private feedback has been negative, so I'm guessing reactions have been lukewarm or worse. So that I can work to improve it, what don't you care for about the new look & feel? Too plain? Too hard to navigate? Too abrupt of a change? Please speak freely.

For what it's worth, I've noticed that my site redesigns follow a pattern, alternating between light and dark versions. The white designs are meant to be clean and easy to use, while the dark designs are meant to offer more features spread out. I can't help but notice that the white versions have usually been unsuccessful while dark versions have been the most popular. I'm not opposed to throwing out the look and going with something more like what we have now, but I'm determined to keep ajax interactivity; I'll never build another site without it.

One player has requested guess confirmation for the goos. If I'm to restore it, I'd like to know whether more of you considered it useful. The feature was originally added to the game because players tended to paste their answers into the wrong goo on the page (I still maintain that typing your answer is smarter than pasting it), but since there's now only one goo on the page at any time, I figured it no longer served a purpose. Should it come back? As of now, the only things missing from the new GOO site are the goo request form and some player awards, both of which I plan to add tomorrow.

Aaron Shurtleff | September 21, 2008
My access to internet is limited to PSP right now, so I cannot use GOO game at the moment. But I will check it out when I get home. ;)

Steve West | September 21, 2008
Being able to navigate to other areas of the site without having to start over again would be nice. I still can see my answer after I've made a guess which is different and if anyone looked at my screen that also played the game, they would oversee the right answer even if unintentional. It's just visible. I kinda like the layout although incomplete. I'll reserve final judgement until it's complete.

Steve West | September 21, 2008
Everything goo related opens in a new window. Ok. That solves the navigation issue.

Erik Bates | September 21, 2008
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | October 4, 2008
I'm sorry not to elucidate with more feedback right now, but I just like the old format better overall.

Steve West | October 4, 2008
I'm compelled to agree at this point. There are still things missing from previous incarnations that are missing as of yet that I'm still anxious to see return. Did I miss a rule change annoncement? Are the goos live all round or do they expire? I can't tell and miss that feature of "recent" goos.

Scott Hardie | October 4, 2008
The goos are now live all round. I want to alter it so that once you solve a goo, it appears expired for you, so that you can see the answer and trivia. I started to do that but ran out of time; it's trickier than I thought.

Now that the server move is almost all done – just have to get the scheduled scripts working again so that I'm not manually publishing free RB cards and new goos at weird hours – I want to finish up the new GOO site. It's been a long, hard work week and I'm determined not to work this weekend, which should free up time for this. I'll post more then.

Steve West | October 4, 2008
I trusted that you were on top of everything. Thanks again for your efforts. Now give me a Presley!

Scott Hardie | October 4, 2008
Oh, and the weird large font on RB cards. I still have to figure that out.

Scott Hardie | October 12, 2008
I've tried for two weekends now to finish the new GOO site, and I just can't. I keep procrastinating, and that's a clear indication that on some level, it just doesn't interest me enough to keep working. I've learned to devote my energy to other things when that kind of procrastination sets in.

Something occurred to me: Steve & Amy are the two people so far who say they don't care for it (though I'm sure there are others), and Steve & Amy will both be at GooCon. Perhaps we could have a little workshop on how to fix the new GOO site? I build sites for a living, and sometimes that means brainstorming meetings where we list what each part needs to do and draw how we would have it do that and compare the results. Even if we don't go into that level of detail, I'm sure the new GOO site will be discussed at GooCon, so I'm tentatively holding more work on it until then, unless the muse suddenly strikes beforehand.

Russ Wilhelm | October 15, 2008
Now that some time has passed, the new format doesn't bother me so much, I've gotten used to it.

The menu navigation that the rest of the site has is sorely missed.

No expiration of goo's I have a love/hate relationship with. I miss not getting the explanations after a week. On the other hand, this solves the problem of there being times where you don't have access or time (vacations?) to guess at every goo before they expire, which is a definite plus. You are/were/will working on this issue so I can't complain too much.

All in all, it's not bad, just different, and takes some adjustment time.

Scott Hardie | November 2, 2008
By now, you've probably noticed the return of the "red" goo game. I appreciate the many comments that people sent me, positive and negative, public and private; you've all given me a lot to think about. I still intend to take the game (and the rest of this site) in that direction, but I need to get it right before I do. It was a rushed publication because I was short on time, and that didn't earn it any fans.

I will make the decision based on what I think is right for the game, but I'm curious about overall public opinion on the subject: Are you in favor of goos expiring after a week, or staying active until the end of the round? If you saw the answer/explanation/trivia after guessing, would that settle it for you? I've already heard from some of you, so here's looking for additional insight and/or more responses. I'm considering whether to continue this next round.

Amy Austin | November 2, 2008
Man, I really wish I had been at GooCon for this reason, too... much harder to form and present thoughts on the subject in this format -- so much easier to have open discussion and respond to others' thoughts "brainstorming" style.

Steve Dunn | November 2, 2008
I prefer for the goos to expire. I like there to be an incentive to stay current on the game. I dislike being constantly and forever reminded of the goos I've decided to let slide.

Samir Mehta | November 3, 2008
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | November 3, 2008
The value is in answer-sharing. Otherwise, I feel much the same as everyone else on it.

Sarah Kyle | November 3, 2008
I prefer when they expire. sharing is not good. I would like it to be the way it was last time that way even if you have friends or family that play you can't give them the answer until the end of the week if you got it wrong. It would really cut down on cheating and no one would think someone else is cheating