It’s time for a change. It’s time to do something different.
TheSixthAxis has always strived for quality and we’ve always worked very hard and made difficult choices to maintain our integrity. We haven’t always got it right but when we have erred we hold our hands up and we resolve to do better.
Last week’s hot topic in games media gave us cause to think about how we engage in our coverage and it reaffirmed our ideas and made us even more certain of the plans we had already put in motion to change our approach to covering videogames. At some point in the last few years, we’ve started to lose our way. We engaged in trying to make TheSixthAxis work like other games websites do. That’s not how we started out and it’s not really what we enjoy. So we’re going to make a change.
We’ve decided that we’re going to stop regurgitating the same little press-release news items that pepper hundreds of games websites around the internet. We’ll only publish a news story if we think it’s going to cause some discussion among our community, if we’ve uncovered something new or if we have something we want to say about it ourselves.
We’ll stop publishing things that PR teams and other websites tell us are news and we’ll start to publish things based on how interesting we think it is and whether we think that you, our audience, will be interested by it. That’s how TheSixthAxis worked when I first arrived here and that’s how we’re going to work again.
Let’s be clear: this is not a declaration that anybody else is doing anything necessarily wrong. We’re not condemning the sites that publish every press release they get sent. There’s a seemingly insatiable appetite for that kind of coverage and several websites do it exceptionally well. They draw large audiences and they make plenty of money. TheSixthAxis might draw a respectably sized audience but we don’t make very much money at all. So why should we spend all day every day grinding out the work we don’t enjoy – work which is almost identical to a hundred other sources and mostly to the greater benefit of PR departments – when we’re not getting paid to do so?
We want TheSixthAxis to be a hub for discussion amongst people who love playing games, a place for opinions to be shared. We’re going to focus on sharing our opinions with you and we hope you’ll continue to share your opinions with us in the comments sections.
Those opinions you’ve shared have led to the second reason for this message: we’re changing our homepage design again.
Back in September, we moved from a standard blog list with sidebars to a more modern tiled layout. While the feedback we received was generally positive, we think we can do better. We’ve spent the time since the end of September redesigning how the homepage looks and works and we think the new layout, which you should all be able to see now, allows for clear promotion of our features while presenting the stream of time-sensitive stories in a way which is clear to view and clear to use.
This redesign gives more space and more significance to some of the community aspects of TheSixthAxis, too. We want to encourage you to enjoy the unmatched community of smart, funny, considerate gamers that have gathered here. We want to encourage you to join in the discussion as much as possible and we’re looking into ways, in the future, to assist you in getting your ideas out to the wider TSA community. For now, you can always use the Forums as a platform to share your ideas. If you’re interested in getting words down in a more structured way, don’t forget that we’re always keen to take your Guest Writer submissions and we’ll work with you to help them meet the high standards we want to maintain for articles published on the front page.
The new homepage design also signifies another return to earlier principles for us. TheSixthAxis began life as a PlayStation 3 blog and although we now cover every platform and medium for playing games, PlayStation has always been our strongest area of expertise. We’re going to emphasise that fact a little more.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop covering other platforms. We’ll still discuss, preview and review the big games on Microsoft, Nintendo, PC and mobile platforms when we can. But we’ve always been strongest with PlayStation, both in terms of how much coverage we can give (most of our staff are PlayStation users) and in terms of how much feedback you give us. So we want it to be clear that, although we enjoy games of all shapes and sizes and on all platforms, we really know PlayStation.
Finally, the discussions surrounding these changes led us to the conclusion that we want to do more to help spread the word about other great videogames coverage. We want to be involved with other independently spirited outlets who share our passion for the medium and our frustrations at the stranglehold that large organisations have on the wider games media. Plans are at extremely early stages just now but we’re going to try to set up partnerships with some of the websites we trust and respect so that we can all share the unparalleled work that some of the smaller, independent sites manage to put out. It’s hard work being independent and maintaining high standards. Our reasoning is that it might be easier for us all if we help each other a little bit more.
We also want to emphasise the great respect we have for independent developers. We’ll be putting a little more effort into presenting the work we do around that particular scene in a way which is more enticing for casual visitors. We understand that it’s difficult to get the word out and we think that a lot of you, our audience, are missing out on some of the great games you could be experiencing simply because it’s hard for these smaller teams to be heard amidst the cacophony of wealthy publishers’ marketing campaigns and PR teams.
Many changes are already in place but there are still more to come in the longer term. Hopefully you’re excited by the direction we’re taking and hopefully you’ll stick around and help us find a fun, engaging platform for sharing our ideas and opinions about this interactive medium that we all love so much.
Game on.
Paranoimia
Liking the sound of this. Best of luck!
Origami Killer
Sounds good :) I shall start writing a few more guest articles then, always enjoyed it in the past :)
The Lone Steven
Excellent! I have stopped commenting a lot and probably only comment on a few articles so with any luck, i will be more likely to start a conversation in the comments/winding up Origami. I like the new layout and i shall get to work on some guest articles(read:stealing them from IGN and submiting them :p ).
Origami Killer
Damn!
The Lone Steven
Or steal them from you. :P And i meant comment more often. I hadn’t had any coffee when i commented here earlier. :-/
Would anyone mind if i advertised for PG tips whilst writing an article? As apparently, advertising for a company will get you mentioned in the major sites. :P
SpikeyMikey23
bollocks! Steven…. you comment on nearly every article I read…….. :P
The Lone Steven
STOP STALKING ME YOU WELSH PERSON WHO USED TO WIN EVERYTHING! :P
SpikeyMikey23
USED being a key word! I win fuck all these days!
The Lone Steven
:D About time you got off your throne and joined us in trying to win a comp. I think the luck of the Welsh has been outlawed and the luck of the erm.. people? have replaced it. Or just sleep with Teflon or Adam. :P
Forrest_01
I can’t say the coverage has ever bothered me up until now, as if it is something I am interested in, I’ll read & probably comment. If not, then I won’t.
That said, the fluff generally gave less room for opinion & even discussion in some cases (& has even led to a bit of moaning from some in certain situations), so I can’t see a more focused approach being a bad thing.
Keep up the good work fellas! :)
TSBonyman
Love the new look and the new ‘manifesto’ :)
TSA have i think had decent coverage and interviews of indies in the past but i’m happy to see more of that in the future.
Keep up the good work guys, it is appreciated!
kjkg
I’m a bit confused by one feature. It seems the recent stories aren’t the most recent stories. Or am I just missing something? See below for what I mean.
http://i.imgur.com/oauNb.jpg
Nice redesign though. I had just got used to last one (and started loving it despite at first being unsure) but this looks really quite sharp.
Forrest_01
That seems to be latest features & seems to be TSA driven articles rather than news pieces (reviews, weview, this piece).
I could be wrong of course, but i think thats intentional?
kjkg
Ah you may be right. I missed that. It’s because there are some that are in both sections.
Alex C
Yep, that’s the intention. Stuff that’s ‘featured’. And – ugh at those arrows in Firefox… Some tweaking to be done.
kjkg
And the adverts ;)
kjkg
Nobody commented on the adverts :( I was proud of that.
The Lone Steven
THE SICK BARSTEWARDS! *alerts the daily rags and goes over the top with a hate campaign aimed at that advert then sets fire to TSA*
kjkg
Wasn’t the responce I was looking for but still…
Peter Chapman
just saw your advert, did a little snorty laugh and made my dog jump.
Happy now?
kjkg
You have made my day!
mugsybalone
I noticed that you’d left Sage 50 open. Should you have been working at the time?
kjkg
Maybe :S
mugsybalone
Hey, I’m not judging :)
Nismo400R84
Well the site now looks a lot more organised and tidy .Now can you sort out the comment section on the mobile site . when people reply back it seems to put the comments in the order that they where enter rather than who as replied.
Roynaldo
Well done guys. A few changes since I gave my input a few days back and all for the better but what’s more important is your stance on what is worth your time (and ours). I have for quite a while thought the site strayed away from its roots little by little and now from what i understand you are clawing all that back.
I look forward to a more defined TSA with some more great discussion with the community.
PS Gold Star and a lolly for Nofi who must have sunk in the hours to make this happen.
Kaminari
More power to TSA.
I frankly disliked the previous reboot and kept going back to the simpler vertical layout. This second redesign is clearer and I can certainly learn to live with it.
But the two main reasons why I’m still visiting TSA are its PS-centric general orientation, and the usually remarkable quality of its investigative articles. I can now add to this list of reasons TSA’s journalistic integrity, which seems to be a rare commodity these days.
Keep up the good work.
Kennykazey
I like your new approach, but I have to be honest; the new homepage is a mess. There’s too much going on, it’s very noisy.
Peter Chapman
the left hand column is just a chronological stream of our stories – like the old layout pre-September (which is still there as /vertical). Everything else is only meant to catch your eye ;)
Kennykazey
That’s part of the problem, there’s too much catching my eye. The odd mixture of menus as you scroll downwards makes it all look cluttered. I don’t mean to be cruel, but I feel like you need some constructive criticism to make it more user friendly. I feel like if I was a new reader, the homepage would be overwhelming me.
Kennykazey
I don’t mind the chronological list, but you need to give the main section with the top articles more space, and perhaps add a couple more articles to it.
Bladesteel
Unfortunately I have to agree with Kenny.
The new layout does look good, but looking good and being easy to read isn’t the same thing. I think the biggest issue is switching “styles” to often on the page. As I scroll down the page i get:
1. Full width highlights switching between different articles.
2. Wide “latest article” plus the start of column on the right
3. Start of narrow column on the left, two columns in the middle: Wider column on the right continues.
4. Column on the left continues. Banner taking the place of the 2+1 other columns.
5. Column on the left continues, four new columns start.
6. All columns stop. Box with five elements, different width from the 1+4 columns before it.
7. Switch to 3 columns.
8. Leftmost column continues. The two others replaced by four narrow columns.
9. Everything stops, 5 equal width elements.
10. Three columns. Big picture articles, for one row.
11. Three columns continue, Small picture articles for one row. But articles get different heights.
12. Three columns continue, even smaller picture for two rows.
13. Three columns continue again, articles without pictures.
14. Leftmost row continues, other two rows replaced with box containing four narrow columns for two rows.
Maybe I’ll get used to it, but at the moment there is just too much going on and it’s hard to just scan through the front page. The chronological list is excellent, but I I were to go away for long enough for stuff to “fall of the bottom” of that list I wouldn’t look through the front page but go straight for the catchup page.
I’d suggest picking at most 3 different column layouts, and not switch between them nearly as much as you do now.
RudeAwakening
Yeah i have to agree with the lads here, i find the home page, even though it’s brilliant looking, is too busy. I find myself constantly clicking the catch up link to get the latest news than scrolling down through everything that is jumping out at me, even when im checking the site more than once in the day.
I just find that text list of news stories easier and quicker, your never more than two clicks away from any given article. Man that sounds so lazy, never really considered myself to be so lazy that more than two mouse clicks was exhausting!
Anyway i love that you guy’s are constantly striving to better the site and the community and i wouldn’t have it any other way. Keep up the great work.
Forrest_01
As Peter mentioned above, this may be more to your liking people;
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/vertical/
Bladesteel
@Forrest_01
Yes, that’s a lot easier to follow. Thing is I like each of the design elements on the front page, by themself, there are just too many different ones.
Roynaldo
These comments are also the same ones I initially mailed. Sacrifices in page space need to be made to make it much clearer.