Argo review - "It's a frickn zombie movie.."

Think about it. 

The whole beginning. Zombies at the gates, they break through! Zombies at the windows! Zombies on the roof! 

The "I'm going out to reason with them"... "argh! let me back in!" bit. 

The holed up somewhere with zombies at the gates. Complete with decoy zombie. 

The "you went outside, are you crazy? They could see you and then we'd all be dead!" bit. 

The bit where they try and fit in to a crowd of Irani... I mean, zombies, by pretending to be 'one of them', including the one character who refuses and thinks it's suicide. One zombie notices them, which causes the others to notice and come after them! 

The 'zombies don't talk, they just grunt and scream to show there's no reasoning with them' (no subtitles for most of them help with that). 

The driving through thick hoards of zombies really slowly with them clawing at the windows (why did they do that anyway?). 

More zombie fitting in scenes at the end with some boss zombies, then the hero's escape, but behind them the zombies are still chasing and waving their arms despite it being obviously futile. 

ETC 

Are you kidding me... It's a frickn zombie movie..

Apple are 'winners'

So, Apple 'wins' their 'battle' against Samsung.
Phones are like TV's now. Once it gets to be JUST SCREEN, what else can you do? No TV manufacturer sues others because their TV looks the same. Phones ALL LOOK THE SAME, because people only want screen. There's no room to put random lumps and curves anymore.
As for the interface... they have to be kidding. Of the hundreds of layers a computer has, developed over hundreds of years by COLLABORATION (alien concept to Apple), they sue over the most pissweak of the layers... the look of the fucking program launcher..

I've got one of these on my shelf. It's from 2002. Look familiar? THESE guys should be suing the shit out of Apple. "OOOHH But my iPhone looks so much cooler" <- Fuckwit. That's not the issue. They had ROOM to put extra buttons and shit because the batteries etc were huge. If they COULD have had just screen back then, they would have. Jesus Christ.. what morons were on the Jury? Do tech law suits have some kind of prerequisite for knowledge OF technology at all?
Apple, I like your stuff, but people only like you because you're just like that cunt of a kid that everyone only pretended to like because he was rich and had cool toys. Moral of the story is just FUCK OFF and be happy with your billions and billions and billions.

Windows 8 tweaks

Ok, I think Windows 8 is pretty good generally. BUT (isn't there always) there's just 3 things I desperately want them to change

1. Default the mouse mode to exactly the same as touch. ie Left flick drags the view with inertia just like touch. Consistency is vital. EVERYONE does this at first before they realise it's inconsistent with the touch interface and they have to drag the old nasty looking scroll bar (also please kill the ugly little arrow buttons). Plus it wouldn't stop you from using the horrid scroll bar.

2. Rearrange tiles with the RIGHT mouse drag action. Right mouse is for optional advanced actions and rearranging shouldn't be the default left mouse action! Right click would still work as is. Plus this would allow left mouse flicking to work. This is also more consistent with the touch mode as rearranging isn't the default (long press is essentially the same as right mouse)

3. The store app lists should show more information! Please don't copy the iPhone appstore because it's only like that due to the small screen and we're on a huge one. You're showing something like 30 apps on a page with NO useful info! Make it 10 apps and include the start of the text description at least (See this post for a mock-up).

One other superficial tweak
This would help with the 'where the hell am I?' syndrome I felt when navigating programs

• When opening an app, zoom the whole page in on the tile. Don't just do a pointless flip animation on the single tile you clicked. This visually shows you where you are going.
• When going back to start, zoom out from running app. These 2 give you a mental map of where you are. Plus it's consistent with the further zoomed out level of rearranging groups
• This zooming consistency also opens up an alternative multitasking window where you could basically zoom out and in to other apps.

How to fix the AppStore and Android Market - part deux

This one is shorter! Thank my newly aligned chakras. This specifically deals more with malicious/fake apps and the fact the Play Store has no vetting process.

* Don't forget to star these ideas at the official Android site (top left, click the very hidden little star)
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=21582 <- This idea

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=21096 <- Developer subscriptions
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=21098 <- App list improvements

Problems

• Actual malicious apps which could steal your info, make expensive calls or are just simply fakes to grab some cash get released immediately on the marketplace. These seem to take a long time to be removed. Too much time in fact. I've seen fake famous games actually in the top lists for multiple days and fake programs with 50,000+ downloads.
• Google don't want to/can't hand vet every app.

Solutions

Community vetting: Like a jury.

• You should be able to set yourself as a vetter in your profile (ties into the beta tester idea below).
• You get sent a few random new apps a day
• They would show up in the same place as app update notifications and/or as a special column in the market app.
• Regardless of what they cost, if you rate them or object to them you get to keep it as encouragement.
• You don't get to choose which app to vet. To discourage only vetting cool looking apps to get them free. No new apps appear until you finish vetting the existing ones.
• The number of vetters are automatically calculated based on a previous rating numbers/new app demands/number of registered vetters metric.
• You can rate/object them BEFORE you install if it's obvious. If you rate low or object it's automatically removed/not installed.
• If Google receive even a few 'this is harmful' or very low ratings from vetters it's taken down automatically for a Google employee to hand vet, regardless of the positive rating from vetters (to avoid gaming the system). Which would hopefully also quickly ban the entire developer and their other, probably crap apps.
• The app would not go live on the market until a certain number of vetters vote.
• This should happen almost immediately due to the massive number of Android nerds like us :) 
• A cool down period of a day would allow the app to go live even if no-one vetted it.
• New, unvetted apps that make it anywhere near the top lists should get priority and be sent to many vetters immediately.
• If Google hand vet the app and it is deemed good, ANYONE who objected gets banned from ever being able to vet or beta test again.
• All apps previously vetted get deleted.
• Their account can be monitored for any more suspicious activity. Just rating an app low wouldn't do this (as it may not work).
• A BIG warning comes up when a vetter sets a harsh objection. It should describe the type of things that objection is for. NOT that you just think the app is stupid. Some objections might be exempt, like 'crashes' and would not popup a warning.
• Vetters tagging the app as broken could have their handset stored in a database so the developer could fix the issue. New users could be warned until the app stops breaking on their particular handset (see 'beta tester' idea below to avoid this)
• New vetters are warned apps may be malicious! So Google doesn't get in trouble :) Still, this is better than the general public getting it.
• New objection catagories! I presume 'spam, malware, virus' aren't categories so it doesn't scare 'normal' people. Ok, only show these if you are a vetter.
• New catagories could be 'pirated app, fake, spam, crashes, forces user to skip 15 minute refund period, unreasonable permissions (BIG WARNING HERE, as most people don't understand why apps need certain permissions (like AdMob stuff).
• Should updates need to be vetted? It would be reasonably easy to submit a non-spam app, get it approved and update it with crap. Even without vetting updates it'd still be vastly better than now since to pass the app would actually have to do something useful and would stop all the fakes which is most of the problem.
• Popup warning for normal users on install
• The marketplace should automatically warn the user on purchase/install when the app has a high number of low scores (NOT the average), plus multiple objections logged, plus that it hasn't been vetted by anyone yet.

And finally..

• Allow the general public to set 'only show vetted apps' in their market app. This is especially good for anyone giving a phone to their kids/mum (a filter for apps with a high 1 star ratio would be nice for the same reasons). If anything I think the default should be to only show vetted apps.

Haha, it was still super long, tricked you, loser.

How to fix the AppStore and Android Market

edit: I've submitted 3 of these points to the Android dev center, go there and star them for me if you agree (top left, click it)

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=21582 <- Community vetting

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=21096 <- Developer subscriptions
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=21098 <- App list improvements

Well.. 'fix' is a strong term, especially when you're talking about the AppStore, since I imagine it as a huge pulsating fleshy mass which excreates money directly into the mouths of the Apple horde (who all have spider bodies of course), but I digress (I do that a lot... Digress is a cool word eh?)

Now as far as problems go, most apply to both (or any online marketplace), but the Android Market is my main focus here because it's a free and mostly unmonitored.

Problems

• Finding good apps.
• Rubbish apps. Designed to just suck the buyer in and hope to get enough sales from the cool icon.
• The top ten syndrome. Basically no-one can be bothered to click 'next' and just buys what everyone else buys on the assumption that it must be decent. Which of course results in 3 ultra rich publishers and everyone else programming in a skip bin, eating dog food and washing it down with their own urine.
• Developers having to self market. Every. Single. App

Solutions

• Developer Subscriptions/Blocking

Being able to subscribe to a developer. This is my most wanted feature with a similar premise to why people love subscribing on YouTube. YouTube is entirely based around subscriptions and it would translate well to developers. Imagine NOT being able to subscribe on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc. THAT'S how important I believe it is.

• You only need to find one good app from a classy dev. From then on you'll get a nice stream of new apps to choose from, without having to trawl through the top lists as much.
• Rarely released quality apps from indie devs won't get forgotten in the 6 months it takes to make another one.
• Getting new apps from devs you already approve of will lower the crap ratio.
• The dev will know how much of a following they have and be more reluctant to release crap due to the risk of unsubscribing. Encouraging QUALITY over quantity.
• Other people will know the general quality of a dev from the ratio of subs vs blocks which should be publicly visible.
• The top ten effect will be lowered as more people get new apps that are brand new and unadvertised, pushing new quality apps up the ladder much quicker.
• Blocking a dev who pollutes the market will make people happy, allow proper apps more space, allow others to avoid them completely etc
• Most importantly though, the block to sub ratio could be used by Google/Apple to semi-automatically detect devs who should be kicked off the market.
• Small quality devs will be able to compete with massive advertising budgets once they get a decent following (see YouTube for this)
• Makes total sense for magazine publishers (This is done, but with no 'notify' option, only permanent pay option!)
• Allow devs to better know their audience and perhaps offer bonuses/exclusives for subscribers
• Feel more personally involved with devs. eg You might be more inclined to buy other apps by the same dev if they are good at updating/customer response etc
• Caters to niches much better than standard top lists (have you EVER cared about the YouTube front page?). eg I personally would subscribe to anyone who makes music apps, giving me a customised list of apps I actually might want.
• The sub rate vs downloads vs blocks could be used as a much better metric to determine 'hotness' and trending. Downloads don't mean the person actually liked it. It just means they got sucked in by the pretty icon or by how many OTHER people downloaded it. Hence the 'this game is terrible, how did it get in the top list?' vicious cycle

• How it could work
• Subscriptions could show up the same way updates do now and in the same list. Much like 'updates' and 'installed' apps are separated now, just add 'your subscriptions'. Ie you get a notification about a new app, or simply be able to display all new subs like YouTube does now.
• Advanced version could be to just auto-buy or one tap buy any new app by the dev. Like magazines do now. Careful!
• Also allow hiding? Maybe the dev is ok, they just make things you're not into, so you wouldn't want to negatively impact a non-nuisance dev if you wanted to clean up your store a bit.
• In Android there's a dedicated developer section to put a big subscribe button in! Perfect! It'd be better right up the top NEXT to the developer name though.

Problem

• App preview lists in their current state aren't worth having. An icon and the app name give almost no indication as to the content or quality of the app and people shouldn't be expected to open every app description, therefore, they need to be replaced with something more descriptive. Worse, they encourage bad decisions from users and put them off using the Market.
• People make decisions in seconds, they WON'T go into full app pages if the icon and name doesn't appeal. This is NOT healthy for the users, the dev and Android!

Solution

• Here's a mockup of a potentially better app list (I'm not an artist so it could be better, but you get the idea)

• (also see link at the top for a mockup)
• Make the list more of a mini version of the full app page.
• Allow at least double the space in the list. Android market puts 2 apps side by side and only allows a single icon. This is pointless and only encourages overly literal names and super obvious icons which never show the actual app.
• Show normal lists more like the featured list does. This alone would help a lot.
• At least dedicate one app per row, maybe even double height (like the larger featured apps have)
• Show the first screenshot, plus the beginning of the description text and the star rating/price.
  • At least 2 actual screenshots would be nicer (see attached mockup).
  • In fact, why not cycle through all shots? Then the developer could arrange the shots to show a simple gameplay progression, giving a much quicker and better indication of the content without fully going into the app page and then playing a video.
  • The dev should be able to select an area in the full screenshots that is displayed as the thumbnail (see attached mockup). This allows the relatively tiny thumbs to be more indicative of the actual content and allows devs to highlight features without sacrificing the fullscreen shot. Have two selections for compressed app list dimensions and full app description page.
• Don't show the icon at all, it's meaningless and uses very valuable space. The dev can put the icon as the first screenshot if they want it.
• In landscape/tablets use the whole row width to show more screenshots and description text. Why not? Scrolling is easy, bandwidth is not a problem if you're considering downloading multi-megabyte apps. Load the text first so quick perusing is possible. Scrolling through the existing list and downloading icons is a pointless step.
• These things would much better indicate the type of app it actually is and let the poor dev give it a decent name as the description text could start explaining the type of game it is (if it's not obvious from the screenshots)

Problem

• Reporting problems. It's mad there is no decent way for users to report problems. This causes devs and users to get frustrated with the whole idea of apps, especially Android.

Solution

• Beta submission
• Allow devs to set their app submission as beta. Allow users to show beta apps.
• This would help enormously with testing. Especially in Android. Imagine getting feedback from many obviously keen users who understand that it's a test version and to provide feedback.
• This stage could also collect handset data as beta testers would agree to it.
• Allow the dev to swap to non-beta status on new submissions
• *TRICKY*. Beta status apps could be immediately visible to beta testers WITHOUT going through approval. This would speed up fixing problems on Apple devices massively. Not really a problem on Android. Also it'd give a kind of official way of getting unapproved apps
• Better feedback!
• Have the feedback button automatically go to something like an automatically created Google group or something like qato for REAL feedback with dev responses.
• At least have the 'report a problem' include handset info for devs.
• Catagorised comments. To help with rating pollution.
• Type of comment FIRST (defaults to 'rating')
• Comment
• Comment types (user can fill out multiple sections if they want)
• Rating (only appears if 'rating' is selected, not 'problem' etc
• Technical issue. Users phone model and stats are sent to developer! Ask user. (SD space left, mhz, cpu/gpu model, ram, number of other active apps, everything that could effect the app). Do NOT allow rating to be counted if this section is active.
• Some preset ideas
• Won’t load at all
• Crashes during operation
• Small problem
• Too slow/unresponsive
• etc
• Suggestion
• Database/Stats of phone models/configurations and their average ratings/tech issues
• Tech issues mainly. Should highlight hardware that fails a lot more than others.
• Auto crash detection
• Apps on Android need to auto submit a crash vs success report to something like a google doc so the dev can clearly see the make and model of a phone that doesn't work 
• This could be restricted to beta testers.
• During non-beta this could be accessible to the public
• This would force hardware manufacturers to fix problems as their handsets could be shown to be unable to run as many apps as others
• This would encourage people to upgrade when they can see their handset has problems

Small improvements

• (Done) Video is by far the best way to get a good idea of the app and is worth more than any screenshot/text.
• So. Put the video as the first screenshot (showing the first frame, doubling as a screenshot). The video should be front and centre.
• Allow inline auto-play of video when on wireless. Option to do it on 3g. Look at Steam for this, it really helps.
• Randomise the top 100 apps (at least) once a day so people get to see new obviously good apps. Since anything in the top 100 would be as good as anything else.
• Helps with the ‘long tail’ syndrome and encouraging people to check the store regularly.
• Randomise for each phone instead of universally? I think so. This would help people find quality apps that other friends haven’t, helping the recommendations and discovery.
• Developer/User voted recommended specs. If many people can’t run an app a new user is warned that it may not run well/at all on their device/os version. It shouldn't be up to the dev to block handsets as there's literally hundreds. Crowd source it.
• This tyes in with the auto-crash reporting of bad handsets
• Music CREATION sub-category. It's really hard to find them as the list is totally polluted with loads of crappy ringtones/music players/radio/remotes. I know in Android there's 'media' and 'music' which tends to separate a bit, but it's obviously not clear to devs what to mark their apps.
• Just use thumbs up/down and do a youtube style up/down comparison.
• (Done) Averages don’t work, but at least show the little graph like on the market website once inside the app page on the phone.
• User voted catagories
• Allow users to set what they think an app should be marked as. At a certain threshold it could be swapped or at least eyed by a real person for recategorising.
• (Done kindof) Forum/google group/G+ account auto-created
• This would help push G+ nicely and give it the necessary community apps/devs need
• Per app or per dev?
• Comments system now is really useless and frustrating as you see misinformation and no way to reply.
• (Done) At least allow developer to add one nested reply to comments.
• Comments
• In app rating/comment API
• Allow comment WITHOUT rating. To report problems without ruining ratings
• Use youtube as the official video/comment/rating for an app? It already has everything needed. Like/dislikes, comment, conversations, replies, video responses etc
• Standard filtering stuff. By language, age rating etc
• and finally... WHY IS SEARCHING SO TERRIBLE. You're Google! (Appstore isn't any better)
• You win a prize for getting this far.. psycho

Google+, Scooters and Waves

Hmm, so Google+ eh? Well it's ok. Seems fine, does the job. But, it would though wouldn't it. Chinese knockoffs of iPods are FINE, they work, some are even nearly as good, but that doesn't mean they should exist.

Here's my main gripe. You have a successful product, you want your own successful product which does a similar thing. You copy said product. This bit is fine, without 'inspiration' nothing would progress, we'd literally be inventing the wheel everytime. The bit that's annoying is when you copy EVEN THE BAD BITS. I can just hear the execs insisting that every aspect be copied, just in case. The difference between success and failure on paper is so small that people get paranoid. Case in point is the comments in the + stream. Why on earth would you copy Facebooks when we've had better comment systems in play for DECADES?

No replying to replies. Facebooks comments encourage pithy 'conversations' since it's not possible to follow a few streams involving multiple people. The annoying thing is Google already do better comments in nearly all their other products. Yes, I know people will argue that complexity was what made Google Wave fail. IT DIDN'T. The implementation of that complexity is the trick. Having a structured, tabbed comment section would allow actual social interaction and conversations to occur, realtime. No Huddle required. People understand this, it's not 'weird'. The very first few posts I viewed had people constantly asking 'how do I reply to people?', an actual Google rep answered 'you don't. You can +1 them though'. REALLY?

Now onto Wave. I swear this is relevant.. Ok, as a product Wave is shit. I use it all the time, but it's shit, I admit it. No-one seems to mention WHY it's shit though. Google's Wave CLIENT, the interface to the Wave engine, is terrible. Really bad, I could go on (for many pages), but I won't. Why they ever associated the two together I'll never know. Here's how I see it, it's the ultimate car, it does everything, but the wheels are square.. FIX THE WHEELS. Don't declare that "cars don't work, people didn't accept the idea of cars, they didn't know what to do with it, therefore we've decided to go back to making scooters and never again mention this car joke again". Moving? HAHA I Can move on my feet, what a waste of time, LMAO etc.

So what am I getting at? Google reinventing everything everytime is what I'm getting at. Wave failed because it wasn't used in a needed or wanted niche. Hell, people don't even know what they want until you show them.. slowly. It was the backend of a killer app that didn't actually exist. Sure techie people still use the hell out of it, but unless you can attract the 14 year old market it's doomed. So why didn't Google use the Wave technology in Buzz? In GMail? In Google groups? and especially, in Google+? It was done, it worked, everything had been thought out and perfected. It worked brilliantly and now we're back at scooters..

Stick Wave tech in the structure of Google+ somehow. Convert the existing comments across to wave, or if you must, add another seperate section like Huddle and it'll be a massive hit. Genuinely better than FriendFace, or FaceOff or whatever that thing is. Imagine a stream and decent comment section with live updating? Genuine realtime interaction and it'd be fun. That alone would be totally worth moving the comments to a Wave engine and the beauty is no-one would even know it was Wave. Then gradually Google could release a new gadget every now and then, similar to the really cool live inline gadgets from wave. Enable them to be added into the main stream, like little games, interactive maps, todo lists etc, all that cool Wave stuff that people loved. I understand why Wave failed, it gave you everything all at once, but was awkward in the extreme to manage. This is why people are raving about Huddle, Sparks etc etc, even though each is nothing compared to what Wave could do, they are easy to try, easy to understand, easy to FIND (Wave client was a pain like that). People need to get used to new things, much like a kid getting 100 presents at Christmas, they just don't or couldn't appreciate them all. But fish them out and they love it.

Please bring back Google Wave in Google+. Restrict it, hide it, whatever, just don't reinvent the square wheel when we should be moving on.

Here is the epic tale of my first foray into.. "Games for Windows - LIVE!"

:edit: looks like they're revamping this on Nov 15th. In which case the current GFW should be taken down immediately or a huge notice put up because people have no way of knowing that. I'll do another post when the new one appears. I'll keep this up as a warning to the current GFW team ;)

Here we go, what started as a few notes turned into a rant. I couldn't stop. If you're insane you should follow along. I was hoping GFW was good, so I got a bit annoyed..
Bullet-pointed for my pleasure

First the website
*Here's the archive.org version since they removed the original completely
http://web.archive.org/web/20101002040039/http://www.microsoft.com/games/en-US/index.aspx
*Original site www.gamesforwindows.com

First impressions of site

• Random. Is this where I buy stuff? It looks like it is
• But wait, there's a 'Download' button sitting in a mess of graphics saying 'get the most out of your live games'. What does that mean? What IS the GFW Live client? Is it like steam? or a multiplayer thing just for Live tagged games? MSN?
• 'Deal of the week' design looks like a cheap late night commercial. EVERYTHING MUST GOOOO!!!
• The scrolling thumbnail thing is pointless, it just cycles through slightly bigger thumbnails
• Clicking one takes me to a product page with random graphics advertising GFW Live stuff again. Why?
• 'Buy now' right, that's clear I guess, but wait
• 'Games on Demand' in a random font and colour mix with a random clip-art icon
• So we've got 'Games on Demand. Launch Games for Windows Live to get Games on Demand.' also, why did the woodchuck chuck when the woodchuck could chuck wood? That is terrible writing and design. After all that I still have no clue what it means. Do I click it? What about 'buy now'? Isn't 'games on demand' just another way of saying 'download'??
• So... 'buy now' and the 'games on demand' stuff take me to the same page. Why?
• The 'LIVE! Games ON Demand' page
• Ok, so there's software involved.. So I CAN'T buy games off this site? Why even advertise and show product pages if I see all that in the steam like client?
• "Get Tinker for free and access Games on Demand with Games for Windows - LIVE."... WHAT is tinker and would you please stop saying 'Games ON Demand, Games for Windows LIVE'. That has to be the least catchy and overly committee designed tag line ever.
• Honestly, just looking at this page, this SINGLE page, has this, "Games for windows, Games, Live, about GFW, LIVE Games ON Demand, Games for Windows LIVE, access Games on Demand with Games for Windows LIVE, ..or Games for Windows LIVE account, download the free Games for Windows LIVE client, ..you can do with Games for Windows LIVE!, the XBOX LIVE terms, *LOGO* Games for Windows, msn games, LIVE terms"
• Look at that... I don't usually bitch but someone HAS to kidding with that right?
• I click the 'create gamer tag' MASSIVE button.
• err what happened? I'm in a totally and utterly different website with completely different graphics. I don't have an XBox so I've never been here
• Abort!
• I click 'download client' button
• Ah a page that has a clear layout... wait the download window popped up over the instructions. Shouldn't the instructions go on the previous page?
• Anyway, I'll download it I guess... ah, are we living in dos 8.3 days again? What is going on with the filename? How is a normal person meant to know what that is or find it later on? 'gfwlivesetupmin'??
• The instructions are wrongish anyway, you don't have to go to the start menu, because the app auto starts
• ah HAH. 'Tinker' is a game..
• Back to the main menu I go
• So I've got 'Games'. I click, the menu doesn't change to indicate what page I'm on and the graphics aren't lined up right and why am I here?
• Wait.. 'Games on demand' submenu popped up under Games. So Games is a button AND a pulldown.. which both do different things.. It doesn't popup on mouseover, only AFTER I click it.. I'm on Opera.. *Moves to Firefox to test* same *moves to ie9* woah, popups work on mouseover but they massively misaligned
• Oh god. It takes me to a Games ON Demand page with ANOTHER list of games in a totally different graphic design style that doesn't even fill the same vertical space as the last page. Different sized header and everything
• Another link to the download client page after a big unclear paragraph on what "Games for Windows - LIVE Games on Demand" actually is..
• 'LIVE' button
• Orange borders for some reason. Rambling description of what LIVE is. So it's like MSN with scores??
• :( ANOTHER list of games thumbnails in yet another graphic layout.
• Pulldown 'Join LIVE'
• D: the gamertag/download client page again
• Pulldown 'Get the client'
• DD: the same page AGAIN! Wait.. this time it's just the download button, no gamertag button..
• Pulldown 'Regions supported' I'm in Australia so I'd better check otherwise this is massive waste of time
• Hmm, different graphics again except this time the LIVE logo is MASSSIVEE. Yet another spiel about how great LIVE is. Why?
• Anyway 'view a comprehesi...' etc etc SHOW LIST would do..
• NO! Another different website... oh and it's totally broken "Ooops! What happened to this page?"
• 'Hardware' button. 'hardware'? Since when do MS do hardware? Ok understandable page although it takes me away from the GFW page. Open a tab. Also the links and 'Microsoft hardware' button takes me to the same pages.
• Pulldown 'hardware' and 'windows pc scout'
• Man, it's taken me to the same page as what was linked all over the main button page. Why have them at all?
• 'DirectX'. Why would a normal person click this? They don't know or care what DX11 is. Hide it until they need to know
• Doesn't have pulldowns, just when I was getting the hang of things ;)
• Flashes up 'You're being redirect...' cutoff
• Ok, standard DX11 advertis... no... NO, you CAN NOT be showing me ANOTHER list of game thumbs in *ANOTHER* graphic design?? Did someone go through every web template there is? Is this 1996? Where is the little 'under construction' digger gif?
• 'Forums' no pulldowns again
• Jeez, massive spiel again, just take me to them and whats with the clipart at the top? ANOTHER header style separate from the blank gray header
• Oh happy day. A COMPLETELY different designed page with totally different menus, graphics and layout
• Terrible forum software which makes it look at first glance to have only 100 posts
• The usual stuff that noone cares about (number of users etc) is separating the recents from the topics??
• I'm not going through this, needless to say a quick look at 'blogs' showed nasty windows icons of random sizes with unmasked backgrounds
• Oh Jesus Mary. I clicked the 'Games' menu here and it takes me back to the original games page.. ETC
• 'Community', hang on.. wasn't I just IN the community section? With people talking and blogging and stuff?
• It's getting insane now. ANOTHER bunch of games thumbnails. HOLD THE PRESS, you can't click on them!
• The 'visit forum' button again and another spiel about how great LIVE is?? Oh and the forums button is a different colour and style to the REAL forum button
• MORE stuff about how great GFW is
• Next pulldown is... 'forums'??
• I'm being punked aren't I, I'm on TV right now..
• 'About GFW' AND pulldown 'About games for windows'.. yes that's right, they go to the same page
• ANOTHER spiel about the endless virtues of GFW LIVE
• OTHER RANDOM STUFF

First impressions of App

• Nothing like the website in design or function. The buy section is nothing like the website at all. The screenshots page looks and works nothing like the webpage. Good start
• Expanding app, didn't expand content. Don't have an expand button if it doesn't do anything
• Clicking on Dead rising 2 removed me from all context
• There was a dead picture link
• I don't know what '160 @' means for the cost. Presumably it's MS points? I haven't tried this before and I really shouldn't be expected to know. Sure I'm acting a *little* bit stupid but I'm just playing devils advocate.
• I clicked 'download' (Isn't that Buy?) and nothing happened. Took a while to see the tiny little spinning wait icon in the top left corner. Not consistent with OS and the wait graphics and text look nasty.
• Then it asked me for my contact information. Didn't I just click download? Isn't that what my Live ID was for? Why am I still surprised at random pages coming up after the website?
• Picture preview
• I clicked GTA4 picture, it opened an undragable window, which clearly has an Win 7 style header with cross. This isn't dragable but the main app is, which doesn't have a header?
• Nothing happened. No pictures loaded, no thumbnails. I could highlight and navigate the incredible invisible thumbs though
• Video preview
• I clicked a GTA4 video. The audio was too loud, the audio slider icon is unclear. The actual audio slider has no border/backing. You can't click the audio slider anywhere in it's range unlike the video slider. Consistency
  
• The fullscreen button has no loading UI or any UI at all. No idea if it's still caching or why the stuttering was happening. It didn't fill the screen either
• The video player boarders aren't sized to the video
• Where are the ratings/reviews/'users who bought this also bought this' type stuff? Whats the point of this app if it provides nothing over a normal webpage? 'Normal' not meaning the GFW site naturally..

Download attempts + Confusions/Duplications

• Marketplace = All Games = Home = Downloads. They could all mean the same thing.
• There's a home button ON the home page. Brilliant
• Clicking on Dirt 2 demo
• *3* download buttons.. 3. All different of course
• The word 'Free' and $89.95 randomly placed on the same page, no real differentiation between the demo and full. Do I get $89.95 for free? Bargain! and yes, that's how much games cost in Australia. New they're up to $120, because 1's and 0's are so hard to ship here..
  
• Why is this there? "Sort By: Release Date | Best Selling | Title"
• Clicking all of them didn't do anything and why would I want too seeing as I'm on a specific game page?
• I Clicked 'Game Manual' which then proceeded to open my browser and start downloading a 3 meg file. No indication what was happening. Then the PDF finally came up on page 6
• Indicate that something is separate to the app. Via colour, popup, icon. Something
• I clicked 'download demo' and it took me to another page to verify my ID. Why? I'm already logged in, it's just a free demo, so why?
• This page looks totally different to the rest of the app. Different colours, different graphics (green strip placed wider than everything else). Deja vu...
• It asked me for my contact information again. For a free demo download? AFTER I've logged in AND confirmed my password? Why?
• I HAVE to type my physical address and phone number? For a non physical download? Why?
• Then it made me type in a credit card. At this point I stopped. This is for a *demo* I can get anywhere with no questions asked. I know why they are doing it, but you need to encourage use of this app first.
• Oh, also on this page the 'Skip', 'Next' and 'Cancel' buttons were squished into a tiny scrolling window with 'privacy statement' header. Also 'skip' AND 'cancel'? Aren't they the same?
• Ok, so I didn't quit (I can't stop!), I clicked Skip and it turns out to be the skip for the credit card thing
• At this point the thumbnail was broken and I get 'confirm purchase' stuff. For a demo..
• Now it congratulates me.. they're patronising me at this point I presume and it doesn't show me the download, just a link.
• I manually go to the downloads and it says in the description 'Download the stunning demo for Dirt2!'. Um.. do I have to start over?
• The download screen DOES work across the expanded app. Unlike everything else. So my 'pause' 'cancel' buttons are right over to the right
• Why do I care about the publisher/release date etc etc? Just show the top part and have the rest expandable
• There's no back button when I went here. Wait, on second look it's grayed out so much it's nearly invisible.
• I finally click the 'home' button, which turns out to be exactly the same as 'marketplace'. Naturally
• After the demo finished downloading I have to click 'Install'. Why can't it just default to auto installing?
• Oh.. it didn't install. It INSTALLED the INSTALLER. *NOW* I click the normal 'I downloaded this from a normal website so why did I download it in this app' install procedure. No indication if I've got enough harddrive space obviously.
• 10 clicks later, success! And it only took in total around 20 pages and at least 100 odd clicks to get there. No exaggeration.
• Guess what.. I spoke too soon.. You can't actually launch the demo from the app. The 'downloads' page is just that, what I've downloaded. I have to go to the bog standard program files start menu to run it. Which of course makes the app utterly pointless. It's like I've just watched a film and at the end it was all a dream..
  

UI/Graphic design issues

• Buttons
• Light blue on light gray? Very hard to read. Different design to the main page buttons/colours which are fine (white on shaded blue)
• Some buttons aren't buttons, but also pulldown. There's no indication or differentiation. eg I clicked on 'My Account' which did nothing, unlike the website where EVERYTHING seems to be a button even if it doesn't make any sense.
• The highlighted dotted square doesn't line up to the buttons
• Back button ABOVE section menus?
• Header
• Isn't standard Win 7. Takes up loads of space for no reason
• 'Points balance' has this little circle icon next to it. Why? It looks like it should be clickable
• 'Settings' has a large prime location button. Because everyone wants to change their download location 5 times a day. Put it with the small options up the top right
• The screen sections have no separation. It looks like everything is placed randomly and every different page looks like it's been designed by a different person and/or template robot.
• Use some subtle colour blocks to better highlight related/unrelated areas
• 'More details' button has random slanted edge unlike every other button.
• The 'game demos' 'full games' disc icons aren't clear at all. If you have mouse over them to know what they are, they don't work as a 'thing'
  
• 'Games for windows' header
• It's inconsistent with box art
• The rounded border is random
• While I'm here, can we please minimise the GFW box art? Make the text much smaller keeping the logo and don't fill the whole top of the box, just stick to the top left area. It looks tacky and ruins the box art.

And finally, can't we just get rid of the 'Live' part? That's like saying 'Colour TV!!!' on an ad..

That was TOTALLY worth it I'm sure you'll agree.

Cameron Bonde
www.kartsim.com
www.maschinesimulations.com
octamed@gmail.com