Honestly, the work “kotaku” makes me think of “that fucking guy I know that’s always blathering on about some Japanese game where your mother was raped by a space donkey and now you are the sole, and androgynous, hope of the universe against the evil guy who must change forms 3 times before he dies.”
In other words, turnoff.
Now that I think about it, rename the site “Space Donkey”. That would be cool.
There is nothing in the logo/header that lets me know this blog is about games. Right now, it just tells me this blog is something about Japanese stuff for girls. Lose the pink, and put something graphic in the header that implies “games”. I’d change the name, too, but you’re probably stuck with that now.
I’ve been going around a few times a week as well. My few opinions are like the above: Keep it as a blog: commentary and bloggish. Keep some of the pictures and graphics down is size. It’s a pain to have to scroll forever just to see 5 different articles each with their own huge screenshot. I like the commentary that you have done and I say keep it up.
Matt:
I have always enjoyed your writing immensely, but don’t read kotaku because of the layout. The content is all sterling, and you seem to update often, but please god change the layout or force whoever is in charge of that to change it. Also, get rid of the flash.
Hey, Matthew. I thought you’d feel better knowing that Evil Avatar linked you on the Halo 2 release date break. (You might want to set up your site so that people can link to individual stories, the way most blogs do…)
It is. You can either click the article’s title (unfortunately, the Flash thing doesn’t change the cursor to indicate a hyperlink on any browser except IE, as far as I know), or the little green icon at the bottom of each article next to the green envelope.
Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. The need to scroll is just part of the blogginess and won’t ever go away, but everything else I’ll pass on.
MattG I know that in your two previous sites you have used both GD and a downloadable fonts. So why the switch to flash? Other than that, my experiences mirror Union Carbide’s. You weren’t updating often enough for my tastes or something, but now I’ll make an attempt to check it out more often.
Ugly site design.
Just did my daily Kotaku visit and noticed that as of today there’s a new editor. Not sure what happened there, but if his first two entries are any indication, you can now add bad writing to the bad name and bad layout complaints. The link to Gizmodo still works, so I guess the site’s not completely broken yet.
Yeah, uh, the feedback was not well received, I guess. Since editorial was the only part of Kotaku not implemented by the experts at the home office, it was obviously the most to blame, and I’ve been replaced with someone that thinks “ho” is a proper noun even in the absence of ukeleles.
Anyway, I am looking for full or part time work. You can contact me at [email protected]. My chief qualification is that I make an outstanding scapegoat-- but I also write obtuse jokes and have a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from a school with a horrible football team.
Damn, sorry to hear that you were let go. That really sucks.
Crikey!
Well that sucks. They didn’t even give you a chance. :(
Matt:
You’ve got my sympathy. As someone who was given the axe from a job for pretty much the same reason (gave important feedback that wasn’t well received by his manager, mainly because it pointed out all the errors of his manager’s ways – and was vindicated a couple of months afterwards when his former manager got the axe for multiple forms of incompetence) I feel your pain.
I’m more than happy to support you by never visiting Kotaku again. Your writing was the site’s major selling point. That’s one set of eyeballs they’ve lost due to this decision!
/Eph
Matt, your writing was good on Kotaku and when you guested for Gizmodo. Fuck 'em.
Matt’s writing was and is great. I’m sorry to see him go.
What the fuck? MattG was the only reason to put up with that site’s glaring flaws.
Who can we send email to? I want to bitch about this. The writing was the only good part of the site, and they fired the writer, instead of fixing all the broken crap. I want to give my feedback to the owners, and let them know that probably won’t be reading Kotaku anymore.
Yeah, what the hell? Content was great, site just needed a UI and branding overhaul.
Nick Denton is the boss, his email is [email protected], and thanks everyone.