EsoTerrana voting changed to new thread

ngenius · Jan 23, 2004

Hello Fellow Gamers,

We have finally got a successful preview of the EsoTerrana campaign setting in the December 2003 Issue of d20zines. Please check the new thread at:

New and Modified EsoTerrana POLL

Details of the download can be linked from:
http://www.EsoTerrana.com

Sadly, this will be the last issue of d20zines dedicated only to d20 game systems.

The magazine will evolve into a more comprehensive gaming e-Zine.

However, we the designers of EsoTerrana, wish that members of the gaming community will support d20zines by downloading this last issue, and also pass comments, criticisms and remarks about EsoTerrana via our email contact.

The complete product will be published sometime in 2004.

Thank you.

ngenius · Feb 7, 2004

Nice Criticism by members of SeanKReynolds

Hello Gamers,

We received some nice insights and criticisms from Aelryinth on the Sean K. Reynolds message boards.

We are really grateful to those gamers that have offered their ideas to help us improve EsoTerrana.

You may view this brief discussion on Sean K. Reynolds boards below:

http://pub17.ezboard.com/fseankreynoldsboardsfrm7.showMessage?topicID=404.topic

Thanks to all the gaming community and especially the people running all these interesting message boards.

(ps. Please if you read this, also try to vote for us, positively or negatively).

MythosaAkira · Feb 7, 2004

ngenius said:
Details of the download can be linked from:
http://www.EsoTerrana.com

Just a comment on the website: Lose the animated graphics, especially the backgrounds. The bar at the top is distracting enough, but trying to read text that's on top of a background that's moving is hard on the eyes.

I don't really understand your "disciple-based" navigation system, either.

ngenius · Feb 7, 2004

Sorry, disciple-base nav system will change soon

MythosaAkira said:
Just a comment on the website: Lose the animated graphics, especially the backgrounds. The bar at the top is distracting enough, but trying to read text that's on top of a background that's moving is hard on the eyes.

I don't really understand your "disciple-based" navigation system, either.

Hello MythosAkira,

Really sorry about the disciple-based nav-system. It will soon be replaced with a more convenient one, so no need to worry about it though.

As for the animated backgrounds, you are the first person to really complain about them. We tried to slow the speed of the animation so that it is not noticeable and becomes more of a slow changing static background.

If we get more negative comments, we will change it, however, for now we may just adjust the speed to further slow it down.

Thanks for the advice, but we would also appreciate comments on the Prestige Classes and EsoTerrana world view.

MythosaAkira · Feb 7, 2004

ngenius said:
As for the animated backgrounds, you are the first person to really complain about them. We tried to slow the speed of the animation so that it is not noticeable and becomes more of a slow changing static background.

If we get more negative comments, we will change it, however, for now we may just adjust the speed to further slow it down.

I would bet there have been others who didn't like them, but simply left the site without saying anything. Simply slowing down the animation isn't going to make readability that much better. Nor is having a "busy" static background and placing text on top of it. The old standard of black text on a white background (or white text on a black background) may not be "cool", but it's effective...

To be honest, your's is the first website I've ever run across with an animated background behind text the visitor was expected to read. I've seen very few that had animated background graphics at all, but those usually had it outside of a box or table. Even then, it was distracting and annoying. A web site should focus on the content they want to present to the reader - not draw their attention away with swirling images or twinkling stars.

ngenius said:
Thanks for the advice, but we would also appreciate comments on the Prestige Classes and EsoTerrana world view.

To be honest, the presentation of the site (the things I've mentioned already) turned me off such that I didn't take the time to try to read anything that was there - I wasn't going to give myself a headache over a new prestige class.

I would also add that in addition to the odd "Disciple" menu, the elemental menu makes little sense to me as well - there's no real correlation between each element and the page they link to. I'm sure you can come up with some sort of explanation, but you shouldn't have to explain how to navigate your site to a visitor. If it's not clear to them when they're there, they're going to leave.

I hope I don't sound too harsh, I'm just trying to be honest and hopefully helpful. I'm just one guy, so you might want to solicit the opinions of other people as well.

ngenius · Feb 8, 2004

That was some serious criticism. Wow

MythosaAkira said:
I would bet there have been others who didn't like them, but simply left the site without saying anything. Simply slowing down the animation isn't going to make readability that much better. Nor is having a "busy" static background and placing text on top of it. The old standard of black text on a white background (or white text on a black background) may not be "cool", but it's effective...

...

I hope I don't sound too harsh, I'm just trying to be honest and hopefully helpful. I'm just one guy, so you might want to solicit the opinions of other people as well.

Thank you for your objective criticism even though it initially seemed more like a disintegration spell cast by a high level wizard.

Luckily for our SOMETime Channeler, being a cleric with high HP and Will saves, this interesting encounter was survived (though barely) and lessons have been learnt. We will reduce unnecessary accourtrements to our armor, but being clerics, we have to maintain armor in some form or other and the symbolic designs serve as mystical protection. As such, we have done our best to reduce the speed of the background animations but cannot eliminate them entirely, for that would mean the complete disintegration of our website.

The side nav-bars will replace the disciple-bars and will conform to standard nav-menus. But the elemental nav-bars were derived from the Tarot Elements:

FIRE (Wands) symbolizing the burning curiosities (news items and events),
AIR (Swords) symbolizing the sharpness of the human intellect (game mechanics, design and concept artwork),
WATER (Cups) symbolizing the emotional connection (links, message boards, chat rooms),
EARTH (Coins) symbolizing the material wealth (free or paid merchandise including downloadable parts from the Realms of Air).

Hope that others may not be so offended. Thanks for your ideas though.

(ps. Your banner, if you allows us to link, will be placed in Realms of Water).

MythosaAkira · Feb 8, 2004

ngenius said:
Thank you for your objective criticism even though it initially seemed more like a disintegration spell cast by a high level wizard.

I apologize if I sounded too critical, I was just trying to express an honest opinion. I figured that would be more valuable than not saying anything at all. I suppose I should have tempered my first post a little more; it's just that animated GIFs are a big pet peeve of mine

.

ngenius said:
The side nav-bars will replace the disciple-bars and will conform to standard nav-menus. But the elemental nav-bars were derived from the Tarot Elements:

It's an interesting idea, but I still think it will confuse people. People go to a website for quick access to information, and if they can't figure out how to get to it, they'll simply move on.

If you're not familiar with Jakob Nielsen's site, I'd recommend reading some of his columns for good information on user interaction with web pages (Nielsen is considered an authority on web usability). I'd recommend this site to anyone who maintains a web site, professional, personal, or otherwise...

ngenius said:
Hope that others may not be so offended. Thanks for your ideas though.

I wasn't offended, I just had a hard time with the site and wanted to offer an opinion. Again, I'm just one guy - I'm sure other people can chime in with other commentary, positive or negative.

ngenius said:
(ps. Your banner, if you allows us to link, will be placed in Realms of Water).

No problem - thanks!

V_Shane · Feb 9, 2004

you really need to re-word your pole, they seem not to really look for answers.

Is EsoTerrana a setting that interests you?

** Should read in two lines:
EsoTerrana does interest me
EsoTerrana does not interest me

Should EsoTerrana integrate fully with other Campaign Settings?

** Should read:
EsoTerrana would be ideal to integrate into any campaign
EsoTerrana should stand alone as a complete campaign

You have not formed an opinion or do not care

** Should read
I am only interested in core books
I am only interested in adventures

Such a selection would at least be useful in gleaning concrete info that is practical. Asking people if they didn't care is kind of moot since if they don't care they wouldn't have read your post in the first place. IMO goodluck! I'll come back when the poll has been changed