Redesigning and re-branding EN World

[Khan the Warlord]

I could never imagine a name change.

/me shudders at the thought of thinking that thought... er, you know.

But I do agree with Guardian -- awesome ideas.

 

[Number47]

Well, I didn't enter your site redesign contest, but now I think I may have to throw my hat into the ring. I will try to send you a link for a concept in the next week or two. Just a rough draft. Basically, I can show it better than I can explain it.

How do you like the name "20 Times"? Times as in a newspaper, 20 as in, well, you know.

It's either that, or Little Gnomeo's Funland.

 

[Sulimo]

Basically, I agree that the content has kind of become a little less focused and the site needs to be freshened up a bit (no offense intended, if any is taken).

Personally, I like the content being a little less focused. But then, I am a gamer who whilst likes 3e, am one who's interest spread a bit wider and thus I'm happy or would like 'Morrusworld' to spread its focus a little wider - off course it always should mainly focus on 3E. A bit like the 'old' Dragon where whilst it was mainly a TSR focused 'zine did go into areas outside that scope at times.

The same with areas that whilst arent strictly roleplaying, are related areas - SF / fantasy TV, film & books for example. Again I dont want to see MorrusWorld loose its main focus of 3E roleplaying, but this kind of thing can complement this well.

 

[Oracular Vision]

No name could be as good as
"The Last Homely House"...

please DON'T create more sublayers, human interface-wise, it is best to have three layers exactly, and that's pretty much what you have. I think the "Upcoming releases" could be on their own page with a link, that's not something that changes even every week...

I agree that you could have about three message boards, general, rules, and everything else...

Three is the number of the counting!

 

[mattcolville]

So, what we're possibly looking at here is, essentially, saying goodbye to EN World and creating something new and fresh from the ashes.

I was just thinking that you should do the exact same thing.

A: the community of ENworld has changed a lot since its inception, mostly due to the servers moving around and people having to 'start all over,' which—in my experience—people are only willing to do so many times.

B: Eric Noah isn't the guy who runs this any more, unless I miss my guess. So the EN in ENworld doesn't make a lot of sense, and never did if you presume the site is a D&D3 site, as opposed to Eric's personal site.

I think this is still the premire D&D site which, ipso facto, means it's the premiere RPG site. But I think it could be improved by A: changing the name to something that means "The premire D&D3 site," and B: consolidating the content on the front page. There's a shahitload of crap on there now and it's daunting to a new user. There are really three things the site provides. A: a community and messageboard, B: reviews and C: resources for D&D players. I'd try and stick with that. A front page that proivided new news and links to the reviews, resources, and messageboards.

Now, changing the name means alienating some prospective users who, looking for ENworld, won't be able to find it. But your old brand, ENworld, isn't strong. A new, strong brand will help you in the long run. The longer you wait, the more damaging it is to change your brand. Waiting this long, obviously, is bad but it's not as bad as waiting another year.

 

[Harlock]

Mr. Morrus, Sir,

Nostalgia being what it is to me, I'd prefer to keep the site name simple, or simply, the same. Maybe you could devise a new meaning for the EN part of it as another poster suggested. I have some marketing background and I know a wholesale name change dips severely into brand recognition as it were. But, a simple change that stayed true to the original would not deter too many folks. Also, if the URL can stay the same, and ENnies can be ENnies it helps you out, I should think.

As far as changing formats on the news page I am torn. I am used to how you have it set up. I get headlines right away. If it is about something I am not interested in I can simply choose to skim it or skip it, but most times, I devour it. Next you list WotC updates. Keeping with tradition, they started the 3e revolution and so many consider this the head newsmaker and I think most glance at it as a minimum. In other words, I dig the splash page. Headlines, then blow by blow what is going on all over the d20 world. This is the main reason I began to use your site as my daily jump into the WWW.

The reason I have continued to use your site on a daily basis is the community that is fostered here. I am a #dnd3e on chat.psionics.net IRC junkie. I consider most regular visitors friends and we talk a lot about our games and how to make them better. These message boards are equally important to me in that regard. I get more good information from these sources than from some of the books I have shelled out bucks for. And, that's the main reason I donate to you when I can. It's simply worth it for my games. So, I would like to see a greater emphasis placed on community news. I don't know how that translates in web design: bigger buttons, flashy colors, just more prominenet links? No clue, as I am not web saavy.

So, please keep up the good work. If at all possible, keep the name similar, even if you assign new meaning to it. Some minor reformatting of the splash page may be beneficial, but it's not too bad now. Please do something to impress upon people how important this community is, and that by getting bigger and more influential, we only make it stronger and a kind of place where publishers want to come and discuss with us our games. Because they know where the people are is where their money is. By doing this I think you can satisfy your own desire to freshen up and excercise a bit more control, continue to please your current fan base, and also, to hopefully encourage new and different people to become a part of this growing game and community. Best of Luck to you, Mr. Morrus, and thank you for such a wonderful resource thus far.

 

[Eternalknight]

I think changing the name would be a mistake. I've never been a fan of the name "EN World", but it is well known, having appearances in Polyhedron and (I think...)Dragon. Changing it would cause confusion.

However, should the name change occur, "D20 News" or something simple like that would be effective.

 

[ForceUser@Home]

My first instinct is to leave the name as-is. It may not be Eric's site anymore, but he's the guy who started it all and I think it's appropriate to give credit where credit is due. That said, you've done an immense amount of work for this community, Morrus, so if you did decide to change things I'd support that. My suggestions:

• Keep the color scheme. It's easy on the eyes.
• Go hog wild with consolidating the front page. Yeah, it's getting large, and streamlined is preferred.
• If you do change the name, I like short, flavorful titles, such as Dungeonworld or Dragonrealm.

 

[Eternalknight]

By the way, shouldn't this be in Meta?

 

[bing]

I’ve never had any problem with the layout or content of the site. What I do think needs to be changed is your marketing strategy. Looking at your site traffic, you could increase your revenues significantly by a few changes in how and where you display your banners. I have always thought that the number of clicks on banners was very low for the traffic you receive.
Just my 2 cents