> {quote:title=LittlestCthulhu wrote:}{quote}
> We've just posted a deluge of information on The New GameTap in the blog. There is a lot to take in, so over the next couple weeks I'll post some in-depth feature guides with more specifics.
>
>
>
> "
>The trade-off for all this awesomeness is that some GameTap Player features will not be available at launch, specifically: >leaderboards, Mac OS X support, challenge play, customizable controls, instant messaging, save states and some >personal playlists. Don

> {quote:title=mmmyeahright wrote:}{quote}
> You ... have already taken a big turd all over the player back in Xmas '07. We had it all gutted under the guise of lightweight blabla. Challenge games broke for 6 months. Now we're transforming into a cheap flash lookalike game site? And the best part is all the features that we have now- we won't have when you launch, but hey trust you it's 'better'? Better how? Show me the better part. I'm missing something because all you seem to be doing is putting a firefox logo on the top and killing the features that make gt fun.

In my defense the restroom was in use and I had like 3 Arby's "Beef N Cheddar" for lunch that day. As for the benefits, I listed some in the section right above the paragraph you quoted, I'll repeat it here just in case it was missed. I'll go into further detail of these features in later blog posts. I can't/wouldn't force you to see them as benefits, but to a lot of users (myself included) they are.

-A unified browsing, downloading, and playing experience
-Desktop & Start Menu shortcuts for every game
-Exciting titles from new publishers
-All arcade and console games play right in your browser
-Firefox support for in-browser play
-Manage your download queue and favorites in your browser
-Faster loading times
-Additional subscription options
-Simplified multi-computer use
-Better search and navigation tools
-New forum software
-Customizable avatars
-Improved parental controls
-Updated digital download store with a better selection and competitive prices

I'd wait until it's out to make such rash judgments. I'm still concerned though, mainly about how well the console and arcade games will run. They run laggy on the GameTap browser applet.

> {quote:title=BetaWolf wrote:}{quote}
> I'd wait until it's out to make such rash judgments. I'm still concerned though, mainly about how well the console and arcade games will run. They run laggy on the GameTap browser applet.


Really? I have no problems with the browser applet. Perhaps you should look for something clogging the lines or hand over a set of logs for someone to peak at.

Nothing is clogging the lines. It's not the loading, it's the gameplay itself. Compared to how smoothly they run on the applet, the browser has noticeably choppier animation.

> {quote:title=BetaWolf wrote:}{quote}
> Nothing is clogging the lines. It's not the loading, it's the gameplay itself. Compared to how smoothly they run on the applet, the browser has noticeably choppier animation.

I had this, it took me months to realize my dual monitor setup was the culprit. Are you running dual monitors too?

> {quote:title=LittlestCthulhu wrote:}{quote}
> > {quote:title=mmmyeahright wrote:}{quote}
> > You ... have already taken a big turd all over the player back in Xmas '07. We had it all gutted under the guise of lightweight blabla. Challenge games broke for 6 months. Now we're transforming into a cheap flash lookalike game site? And the best part is all the features that we have now- we won't have when you launch, but hey trust you it's 'better'? Better how? Show me the better part. I'm missing something because all you seem to be doing is putting a firefox logo on the top and killing the features that make gt fun.
>
> In my defense the restroom was in use and I had like 3 Arby's "Beef N Cheddar" for lunch that day. As for the benefits, I listed some in the section right above the paragraph you quoted, I'll repeat it here just in case it was missed. I'll go into further detail of these features in later blog posts. I can't/wouldn't force you to see them as benefits, but to a lot of users (myself included) they are.
>
> -A unified browsing, downloading, and playing experience

More marketing please.

> -Desktop & Start Menu shortcuts for every game
Unnecessary. Could have provided command hooks to the player exe to skip to a title.

> -Exciting titles from new publishers
We get these already.

> -All arcade and console games play right in your browser
I want to beat the stuffing out of real people who break into tears when I kanzenshou them.

> -Firefox support for in-browser play
Unnecessary. I don't need my bloated browser even more bloated.

> -Manage your download queue and favorites in your browser
Unnecessary. We had this before in the player.

> -Faster loading times
You trotted this out during the "Best Update Ever" '07 campaign.

> -Additional subscription options
Ah ha! Now I'm seeing it...tiered subscriptions incoming.

> -Simplified multi-computer use
How? Firefox weighs in at 56 mb on one tab. The gt client is 81mb. So, is the gt plugin + firefox < 81mb, and does 25mb of memory mean anything?

> -Better search and navigation tools
Of what? Is the search ring too hard?

> -New forum software
Withholding judgment here. Irrelevant to the player, though.

> -Customizable avatars
Irrelevant to the player, though.

> -Improved parental controls
Irrelevant to the player, though.

> -Updated digital download store with a better selection and competitive prices
Irrelevant to the player, though.


It floors me you've openly stated a bunch of brochureware and how you will be eliminating leaderboards and challenge matches, and I am the only one identifying how the best update ever- once again- is scaling back the product. Leave the player open please for those of us who don't need our google search field right beside Chun Li.

I would agree with BetaWolf that the games play more choppy in the browser. At least on my laptop. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it is running Vista with only 1MB memory.

1) Will Xpadder work with the new setup as well?

2) Will there still be a random button for the game search engine?

If i'm without the leaderboards and tournaments for too long I might get the shakes.

For Xpadder: I don't see why it wouldn't work, but I can try to confirm.

For the random button: Not at launch, but we like that button too, so we'll try to get it back soon.

> {quote:title=Goldenspiral wrote:}{quote}
> 1) Will Xpadder work with the new setup as well?
I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't.

> 2) Will there still be a random button for the game search engine?
Not at launch, but from what I understand it should be an easy update.

> If i'm without the leaderboards and tournaments for too long I might get the shakes.
I hope your health insurance covers that ;), we're anxious to them back up as well.

-Additional subscription options

What options will we have? Will current yearly subscribers like me keep all the current games and get new ones slower like they do at Metaboli?

Also any updates to the coming soon thread? Its the highlight of my gaming week and it is kind of stale right now...(Dark Crusade must be putting up quite a fight in the abysmal pit of encoding. My Orks so desperately wanna WAAAGGGHHH)

I'm curious as to how the transition will go once the current player dies. Will I have to transfer my game cache to a new location or will I have to re-download the games I currently have? I've had Gametap for ages and my download location is in the old C:Program Files\Gametap\ blah blah blah. Will I need to change this when the update hits?

I'm looking forward to the update, assuming I don't have to do a whole lot of work.

The update should be automatic, you won't need to redownload games you already have.

> {quote:title=westman_82 wrote:}{quote}
> -Additional subscription options
>
> What options will we have? Will current yearly subscribers like me keep all the current games and get new ones slower like they do at Metaboli?

I give that a 95% probability.

I have to confess. The Save states are important to me. I should hope they return SOON>

Well, I have to say I'm really let down with this change. I never liked to play games in my browser and now we are moving everything there?

I hate to say it but I agree with mmmyeahright's assessment. One park marketing spin, one part features I don't want, one part features that could be implemented in the current browser and an extra heaping of things not working right for an undetermined period of time just to round it all out.

New pricing options in particular, which sounds a hell of alot like marketing-speak for tiered-pricing, which will almost certainly mean paying more for what we get right now. I've been afraid of this exact thing every since the metaboli deal was announced. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I can't see you announcing any cheaper plan then $5 a month for a yearly and I can't imagine what else it would mean.

Another thing, will it work with google chrome? I'm guessing it's a big NO, considering the current games don't and you don't mention it - thanks for making me use IE (blech) or download firefox, despite not having any desire to do either.

I'm sure a lot of people spent a lot of time on all of this and I sort of hate to crap all over that but as a paying customer I have to say - no thanks, do not want, please reconsider this.

To those worried about the subscription plan changes, let me just jump in really quick to say that us moderators were briefed by staff about the upcoming changes, and they're not too drastic. As TheRedEye said a couple of months ago about any upcoming subscription changes:

[b]Whatever plan you are subscribed to right this moment is not changing. You're locked into what you have unless you decide to switch.[/b]

I use Google Chrome as well. It would be nice if Gametap would support that, but I won't hold it against them since nobody else supports it either, at least for the moment.

I'm all for more streamlining, If I never had to open a client again, I'd be happy.

> {quote:title=macnbc wrote:}{quote}
> To those worried about the subscription plan changes, let me just jump in really quick to say that us moderators were briefed by staff about the upcoming changes, and they're not too drastic. As TheRedEye said a couple of months ago about any upcoming subscription changes:
>
> [b]Whatever plan you are subscribed to right this moment is not changing. You're locked into what you have unless you decide to switch.[/b]

Of course, however that does not stop them from raising the price anyway.

For example - they keep charging legacy members $10 or $5 a month, depending on your plan. They then lower game releases to 1 per week and add a second tier which gets more (and better) games for $20 a month (or whatever). Technically they kept their word about locking in your plan, but realistically they raised the price on you. This is exactly what metaboli (minus the legacy members, of course) does - it's roughly $10 USD for the cheapy plan and $20 USD for the expensive one.

I expect this would count as drastic changes and so is likely not the case, but forgive me for not being excited over mysterious pricing changes with the situation being what it is.

Even still, I'd assume my core account would end up having to change the subscription to newer price points, yes?

So when is Mac support going to be out? 2 weeks when the new site launches? I was about to bite the bullet and sign up for a full year, but now what's the point? Ugh. I know I'm a minority and I know that I could boot into Vista, but its just not really worth it. Extremely disappointed.

You know truthfully ive only been a member for a short wile but ive been very pleased by the way this is run right now minus the crapy multiplayer connections i would think leaving things thay way thay are is the best option when you have a good thing especially when the upcoming changes could cause a drop in customers for what ever reason but thats just my opinion lol :)

> {quote:title=BurnedToast wrote:}{quote}
>
> Of course, however that does not stop them from raising the price anyway.
>
> For example - they keep charging legacy members $10 or $5 a month, depending on your plan. They then lower game releases to 1 per week and add a second tier which gets more (and better) games for $20 a month (or whatever). Technically they kept their word about locking in your plan, but realistically they raised the price on you. This is exactly what metaboli (minus the legacy members, of course) does - it's roughly $10 USD for the cheapy plan and $20 USD for the expensive one.
>
> I expect this would count as drastic changes and so is likely not the case, but forgive me for not being excited over mysterious pricing changes with the situation being what it is.

I would call that a drastic change, so no, that's not happening according to the information I've been given.

> {quote:title=Freyarh wrote:}{quote}
>
>Even still, I'd assume my core account would end up having to change the subscription to newer price points, yes?

The price you are paying now is the price you are locked in at as well.

Just to be completely totally clear again..
[b]Your current subscriptions are not changing, unless you choose to go to a new plan.[/b]