The Daily Grind: What do you like to see on MMO websites?

During my time with Massively and as a gamer, I've visited scads of official MMO websites. And I can say, incontrovertibly, that no two of them had the same features and focus. Some were extremely easy to navigate while others were almost indecipherable without the Staff of Ra to guide me. Some were more about flash while others were loaded with content. And some, to my never-ending dismay, still lack an RSS feed which I cannot fathom in this day and age.

But enough about my journeys -- I want to hear about your own thoughts on MMO websites. What do you like to see when you visit one? Are the aesthetics important to you, or are you more concerned with specific features? Are these websites more for first-time visitors curious about the game or should they cater to players looking for news and updates about their favorite titles?

For bonus points, provide a link below to (in your opinion) the best-designed MMO website!

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

Reader Comments (27)

There is a good reason why I find more and more focused on Massively as my mmo, website of choice. I like the lay out.

http://massively.joystiq.com/

My secondary source is mmorpg.com, though because of the dark background and the general lay out I find myself going there less and focusing on massively more.

@Celtar

should be "why I find MYSELF more and more"

Something along the lines of WoW Armory and the state of PvP on each server - who holds what along the lines of Mythic's old Realm War maps for Dark Age Of Camelot.

@MerseyMal

For offical web sites, I'd have to say that over all that Blizzards wow site is probably the best, due to their Armory. Your post reminded me of that.

im not really a fan of most mmo sites but i guess, if i had to pick one, I'd pick swtor for now. Not because of layout so much as i like the galaxy maps and other interative stuff.
But then again, it doesn't have the age of EQ or WoW, so who really knows what kind of mess it will be in a few years

Hmm there a reason why my post vanished? I mentioned that actually massively was my favorite mmo web site though I do use mmorgp.com at times as well. Though I don't like their lay out and color background.

-For bonus points, provide a link below to (in your opinion) the best-designed MMO website! Justin -

@Celtar

Ok that as odd, damn post(s) weren't there and now they are? I assume gremlins have gotten into the system. I always go back and check my posts to make sure they post and my original post and additional correction weren't there. Now they are. Doh! I am so confuzzled.

@Celtar It's something with the comment code. I've had it, too. Eventually it'll show up and stay there.

I want to see indepth descriptions for each class and race in the game. The number of MMO sites that don't have that boggles my mind.

Honestly, if a game doesn't have the time to tell me about it's races and classes beyond a single image and a single paragraph, I don't have the time to bother trying their game.

They need to have in giant bold letters on the front page "Changes Since Launch" and it needs to highlight all of the major changes to the game. It's a real pain to have to go searching through the forums for patch notes or a summarized list of changes from a willing poster when it should be the first or second thing I see on a game's Home page.

My favorite official website is the official Guild Wars wiki. I like the WoW armory quite a bit, even though WoW is firmly in my past.

Saddest website is the Warhammer Online AoR site. Realm War is long gone. The forum page is now just a cosmetic frontpage for Bioware's horrible forums. And they don't know or have the resources to update the news list on the front page.

@Taawa

If you count the GW wiki then I would agree. Very easy to use, has all of the information there, and nothing flashy about it.

I like WoW's website as well except for the colors they use. It can make it hard for me to read a lot of times, I find myself squinting quite a bit when I'm on that site. Other than that, it is well designed.

Well I think the WOW website is pretty good. It's not slow and I can easily find the info I'm looking for.

In contrast I really can't stand the way LOTRO's website is now since the changed it right after F2P release. It's slow and just feels bulky. I really dislike that they use Vbulletin software for their forums because as time goes on that particular software seems to have become worse.

I like it when you can read up on mechanics, classes, lore, places etc while your client/patch is downloading, the more detail, the better. Gets you all excited to start playing. :) Many websites do this of course but some of them fail to make a distinction between informing the viewer and advertising to the viewer. If that choice of words makes any sense to you...

Off the top of my head i think the old WoW website was good, it also featured fan artwork which i liked. I haven't been keeping up since they switched to the new battle.net design since i don't play any more so can't comment on that.

If you want to make me hate your website and visit only when i have to, you will have a site that ABUSES flash, like the old Age of Conan site with the entire page in flash... Ugh.

EVE Online's page has RSS feeds for a whole bunch of the different sections. I'm subscribed to the Main News Feed, as well as the DevBlog feed.

http://www.eveonline.com/feed/

What I would love to see on more MMO sites is actual GAMEPLAY footage. I want to know how the game plays and see if it's something I'm even interested in before I go downloading 10GBs of data to find a game that doesn't interest me at all.

@(Unverified) Also the EVEGate site is cool in that I can check and send ingame mail and whatnot without logging into the game.

Lastly, how the heck do I Verify? I can't find a link or anything.

Should be clear , easy to read and navigate. NOT bloated, no flash and heavy graphics pls.

Game Feature list , screenshots , ACTUAL gameplay videos, easy to decipher COMPLETE list of fees / business model explanation.

Minimum and recommended hardware requirements.

Nicely done and easy to navigate forum is a plus as well.

I want game news on the site and not buried in the forums. And I want an RSS feed that sends the news to my reader application, not just the title or the title and half of the first sentence. (That is you I am glaring at, STO. Go learn from EVE Online.)

What do I like to see? "FREE TO PLAY".

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The Daily Grind: What do you like to see on MMO websites?

Reader Comments (27)

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:03AM Celtar said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:04AM Celtar said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:05AM MerseyMal said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:14AM Celtar said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:05AM ijoemomma said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:11AM Celtar said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:12AM Celtar said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 11:26AM DeadlyAccurate said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:21AM Wispur said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:27AM MMOaddict said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:33AM Taawa said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:38AM juanele said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:37AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:38AM Dumac said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:39AM MrsAngelD said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:39AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 10:07AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 10:02AM smartstep said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 11:18AM Wilhelm2451 said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 11:40AM Ardra Diva said

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