What is TheSixthAxis? A gaming website? A community? An outlet for our often sadly vapid, rumbling trains of thought? We don’t really know – we never really have. Nobody put us here to change the world, nobody ever told us what was right and what was wrong, and nobody helped steer our path. We just did what we thought was right, talked about what we wanted to and got excited every time somebody dropped us a comment.
That notion, that sometimes misplaced will, has spurred us on now for over six years. For me personally, getting feedback of all kinds was a pointer that we were doing something right, and that, as a diversion, a hobby, a part-time evening job you couldn’t ever get out of, the website offered a channel for creativity and a way of communicating – or at least trying to communicate – what I (and we) thought about games.
And so, 2013 brings change to the site. There’s a new design, there’s a renewed focus on PlayStation, there’re shifts and switches in terms of those that bring you the content. Blair will be taking over editorial duties on the site, for example, and later this week Alex is disappearing to paint pretty pixels for Just Add Water. There’ll be new faces too, whom we’ll introduce gradually so as not to scare the ducks.
TheSixthAxis might be a gaming website. It might be a community. It might be an outlet for its writers. But it’s also a collection of like-minded friends, and that will continue to be the case going forward. Exciting times are ahead, and with the next generation of consoles around the corner we wanted to ensure we’re placed to continue to cover them in the way we’ve always done, but with more emphasis on videos and that all-important opinion.
So, what’s new? The video above hopefully explains what we’ve been doing for the last few weeks. We hope you enjoy it, and here’s to the next six years.
tsa.
leeroye
What is with the advert bar at the top of every article, it blocks off the first two lines of text until you close it.
DuffyBox
I think I’ll be using the vertical blog view, it harkens back to the earlier TSA site designs and there’s almost no clutter, which I love. I have a few other minor gripes (I really dislike how all the commenter names are fully uppercase. Why was this done? Surely emboldening the names is enough to emphasise them.) but other than those it’s still a lovely looking site. Congrats guys!
Alex C
Uppercase gone!
DuffyBox
Now that is magic! You know, every single time I’ve seen a commenter raise an issue like this on TSA, yourself or a colleague steps in in no time at all and just fixes it without a second thought. This astounding level of user interaction is something I’ve only ever witnessed on this site and it’s one of the reasons TSA is and will remain my favourite gaming news site.
Top stuff nofi, I’m in awe. Really. <3
Alex C
Wierdly I think most of the comment styling was ported over from the previous design. Wasn’t it uppercase then? :)
Lyts1985
Still all in uppercase Al, at least on the mobile version… It didn’t bug me until I read this comment though lol.
Must echo Duffy’s sentiments too, incredible site, great people, fantastic articles… s’all good :-)
DuffyBox
It wasn’t like that for me before, it’s been the way it is now for as long as I can remember. Again, thanks for fixing it. :)
John Malcolm
WTF? Why bother?! It’s confusing, too busy and plain just wrong.
OK, so you may have designed it for poseurs who access the internet every minute of the day on their mobile phones, but those of us who read the site on a COMPUTER…
Well, you get the point.
Alex C
Mobile skin was secondary. We spent over a month making the desktop version, and a weekend doing the mobile version after everything else was done. Sorry you don’t like it.
DuffyBox
If you think the regular view is too busy, try out the blog view at http://www.thesixthaxis.com/vertical/
Personally I like both views but in my opinion the blog view makes it slightly easier to keep track of what you’ve read versus what’s new :)
seravok
I like it! Clean look and the new logo really nice
colmshan1990
Well done to all on their promotions and new jobs!
Nice new look for the site as well, I look forward to getting lost in TSA again!
quinkill
Loving the new layout guys. Wasn’t sure when I first saw it but having watched the vid and played around it’s actually great! keep it up guys!
Kevling
Excellent work chaps and chappesses. Oh who am I kidding. Chaps.
Kevling
But in the interest of balance, not a huge fan of having to click once to expand a headline then again to open it. Especially on the ipad, as a “normal” double tap just zooms the page, so it kinda forces you to do a slow-motion double-tap, like an assassination directed by John Woo. That’s the only negative from me :)
Michael
Oh yeah, very funny, yeah. Make fun of the guy who came up with the name for the site. WELL, I WASN’T LAUGHING.
PS Sorry.
Michael
Also: the site looks fantastic on both mobile and desktop. Kudos to all concerned.
Ro6afc11
My first experience of the new design was the mobile version on my phone. I have to say it was pretty impressive and I’m not normally a fan of mobile versions of sites. Now tried the full version on a larger screen and it is certainly quite different. Shouldn’t take too long to get used to.
Incidentally, the firm I work for has pretty much the same acronym as TSA (I’m going to have to undo the auto capitalisation of that now aren’t I, somehow) all bar the last letter. I’ve already referred to TSA in error in emails etc. and can see that getting worse now :P