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[Narz]

Man the new Goko site sucks, I can't even get the tutorial to load properly.

At first I didn't like the Isotropic interface but it grew on me & now I'm very fond of it.

Anyone else having problems even getting GokoDominion to run?

Anyone else going into pre-emptive mourning over isotropic?

[gryph202]

That is the biggest promise Goko hasn't delivered on by-far as far as I'm concerned.  It was supposed to be this wonderful HTML 5-fueled multi-platform gaming experience.  And it's not.  I don't see that changing anytime soon.

[SirPeebles]

Neither of these two posts make any sense.

[Narz]

Neither of these two posts make any sense.

What don't you understand.

Anyway, I got Goko to work but I don't like it's style at all.

Also, how can I tell how many cards are left in my deck on there?

[Narz]

Also, how can I tell how many cards are left in my deck on there?

nm, on the bottom left.

[SirPeebles]

Well, the first post is about how Goko sucks because you can't figure out how to get it to run.  Less than half an hour later you get it to run, and apparently don't even know the basics of its interface.  I don't see how you can reasonably say that the website sucks when you are so inexperienced with it.  You even admit that you didn't like the isotropic interface at first either, but that as you gained experience with it you accepted it.  What was the purpose of that first post?

Then the next post, by a different user, appears to be agreeing with you on a point you never made.

And then two posts later I'm misquoted.

[Narz]

Well, the first post is about how Goko sucks because you can't figure out how to get it to run.  Less than half an hour later you get it to run, and apparently don't even know the basics of its interface.  I don't see how you can reasonably say that the website sucks when you are so inexperienced with it.  You even admit that you didn't like the isotropic interface at first either, but that as you gained experience with it you accepted it.  What was the purpose of that first post?

Then the next post, by a different user, appears to be agreeing with you on a point you never made.

And then two posts later I'm misquoted.

Well we can't all be masters of contribution like yourself. 

[Narz]

By the way, it wasn't that I couldn't figure out how to run it smart guy, it simply wasn't loading, the bar would fill & the page would not load.  Now it is working, not sure why it wasn't before.

[SirPeebles]

Look, I didn't mean to come across as insulting.  Goko takes a lot of criticism on this forum.  And a lot of it has been well deserved.  There is just no way that they should gone through with that launch last August.  But a lot of the criticism is misplaced.  That's bad enough, but what's worse is that the misplaced criticism can swamp out and devalue the legitimate criticisms.  Based on your questions here, it seems like this evening is the first time you tried using Goko.  You had trouble getting it to load, and declared that it sucked.  They have made a great deal of progress over the past six months, and their current product almost certainly doesn't suck.  Now, no single online implementation is going to be ideal for everyone, since we all have different preferences and tastes.  It's just like how some people will always prefer playing with physical cards while still others will never go back to playing with physical cards.

[Axxle]

Look, I didn't mean to come across as insulting.  Goko takes a lot of criticism on this forum.  And a lot of it has been well deserved.  There is just no way that they should gone through with that launch last August.  But a lot of the criticism is misplaced.  That's bad enough, but what's worse is that the misplaced criticism can swamp out and devalue the legitimate criticisms.  Based on your questions here, it seems like this evening is the first time you tried using Goko.  You had trouble getting it to load, and declared that it sucked.  They have made a great deal of progress over the past six months, and their current product almost certainly doesn't suck.  Now, no single online implementation is going to be ideal for everyone, since we all have different preferences and tastes.  It's just like how some people will always prefer playing with physical cards while still others will never go back to playing with physical cards.

The fact is that a *lot* of people are going to have first impressions... and then NO impressions since those first impressions are bad and they don't bother to check back.  This is an actual issue that posts like this highlight.

[werothegreat]

Look, I didn't mean to come across as insulting.  Goko takes a lot of criticism on this forum.  And a lot of it has been well deserved.  There is just no way that they should gone through with that launch last August.  But a lot of the criticism is misplaced.  That's bad enough, but what's worse is that the misplaced criticism can swamp out and devalue the legitimate criticisms.  Based on your questions here, it seems like this evening is the first time you tried using Goko.  You had trouble getting it to load, and declared that it sucked.  They have made a great deal of progress over the past six months, and their current product almost certainly doesn't suck.  Now, no single online implementation is going to be ideal for everyone, since we all have different preferences and tastes.  It's just like how some people will always prefer playing with physical cards while still others will never go back to playing with physical cards.

The fact is that a *lot* of people are going to have first impressions... and then NO impressions since those first impressions are bad and they don't bother to check back.  This is an actual issue that posts like this highlight.

...or people come to this forum, having played on isotropic, see all the negativity, and go in with pre-formed responses.  I've introduced a lot of friends to Goko so far, and only one of them complained about it, and he has ADD, so all the prettiness is distracting to him.  He wouldn't even play in real life.

[gryph202]

Since apparently my post didn't make sense to some, let me clarify:

I am not spending money at Goko.  At all.  Probably ever.  They promised their licensees a gorgeous multi-platform gaming experience, and I have not been able to get it to work at all on two of the three browsers I have tried.  Is that clear enough?  They told me I should be able to play from anywhere, and I can't.

[dondon151]

...or people come to this forum, having played on isotropic, see all the negativity, and go in with pre-formed responses.  I've introduced a lot of friends to Goko so far, and only one of them complained about it, and he has ADD, so all the prettiness is distracting to him.  He wouldn't even play in real life.

It is not wrong for people to expect more of Goko, and their reputation was tarnished in August when their attempted launch ended in disaster. People do not tend to forget these things. Even now that Goko has polished up and rectified most of their earlier mistakes, I wouldn't be surprised if the Dominion player base harbors a general sense of disgust towards Goko because there is really no way that the company should have survived. The only reason why someone else hasn't ousted them is because they're sitting on a pile of licenses.

I'd make a comparison of Goko to a mangy dog, but I suspect that the simile won't resonate with the users here because of our general fondness of dogs.

[ashersky]

The unfortunate first impression is that of a loading status bar.  Someone needs to hack in the dial up beeps and static to that screen, because that's the message it sends.  Slow.  Old.

It's like AOL or Netscape.  Only not hipster cool.

[Narz]

I agree 100%.  Loading bars give a bad vibe.  Especially when they fill up & nothing happens.  Kind of makes you want to punch the computer.  I'd rather just pay for Isotropic honestly.  I think Donald X should just keep both sites & charge for both but I know that'll never happen.

[Kirian]

The unfortunate first impression is that of a loading status bar.  Someone needs to hack in the dial up beeps and static to that screen, because that's the message it sends.  Slow.  Old.

It's like AOL or Netscape.  Only not hipster cool.

How many games nowadays don't have loading screens?  I can think of almost none that aren't text-based.  The loading time for Goko is significantly less than the loading time for, say, World of Warcraft.  Or Civ V.  Or Portal 2.  Or Starcraft 2.  Or 90% of the Flash games on Kongregate.  And so on.

Isotropic is a major outlier here.  Granted, and outlier in a great direction, but nonetheless an outlier.

[dondon151]

I think this forum needs a flashing banner that reminds us that Donald X. has/had no power when it came to making the executive decision of using Goko as the official online Dominion platform.

[ashersky]

The unfortunate first impression is that of a loading status bar.  Someone needs to hack in the dial up beeps and static to that screen, because that's the message it sends.  Slow.  Old.

It's like AOL or Netscape.  Only not hipster cool.

How many games nowadays don't have loading screens?  I can think of almost none that aren't text-based.  The loading time for Goko is significantly less than the loading time for, say, World of Warcraft.  Or Civ V.  Or Portal 2.  Or Starcraft 2.  Or 90% of the Flash games on Kongregate.  And so on.

Isotropic is a major outlier here.  Granted, and outlier in a great direction, but nonetheless an outlier.

That's the thing, I used to play WOW.  It definitely had a loading screen.  Multiple, in fact, like when flying across the ocean or going through a portal, etc.

But that was a computer program on discs I installed on a computer.  Console games have loading screens, because they are games on cartridges or discs, etc.  Goko is a website with a game on it.  So apples and oranges, to me.

Goko is a website with a game on it.  Iso is a website with a game on it.  In this discussion of loading screens, apples to apples.  Hence, not an outlier.

When your connection is slow, web pages take time to load.  But I have relatively fast Internet.  So no loading bars at google.com or dominionstrategy.com for me.  How about you?

Remember, I am looking at this as a lay customer.  I got a degree in creative writing, not computer science.  All I know is that to play dominion online, a loading screen is not required, it's a choice.  I go to a website and boom, it's just there, to play.  Or I click and watch a loading screen.

When the Goko iOS app comes out, I'll give it a shot and NOT complain about loading screens.  But for now, to John Q. Public, Goko is a website that takes forever to load.

[Kirian]

The unfortunate first impression is that of a loading status bar.  Someone needs to hack in the dial up beeps and static to that screen, because that's the message it sends.  Slow.  Old.

It's like AOL or Netscape.  Only not hipster cool.

How many games nowadays don't have loading screens?  I can think of almost none that aren't text-based.  The loading time for Goko is significantly less than the loading time for, say, World of Warcraft.  Or Civ V.  Or Portal 2.  Or Starcraft 2.  Or 90% of the Flash games on Kongregate.  And so on.

Isotropic is a major outlier here.  Granted, and outlier in a great direction, but nonetheless an outlier.

That's the thing, I used to play WOW.  It definitely had a loading screen.  Multiple, in fact, like when flying across the ocean or going through a portal, etc.

But that was a computer program on discs I installed on a computer.  Console games have loading screens, because they are games on cartridges or discs, etc.  Goko is a website with a game on it.  So apples and oranges, to me.

Goko is a website with a game on it.  Iso is a website with a game on it.  In this discussion of loading screens, apples to apples.  Hence, not an outlier.

When your connection is slow, web pages take time to load.  But I have relatively fast Internet.  So no loading bars at google.com or dominionstrategy.com for me.  How about you?

Remember, I am looking at this as a lay customer.  I got a degree in creative writing, not computer science.  All I know is that to play dominion online, a loading screen is not required, it's a choice.  I go to a website and boom, it's just there, to play.  Or I click and watch a loading screen.

When the Goko iOS app comes out, I'll give it a shot and NOT complain about loading screens.  But for now, to John Q. Public, Goko is a website that takes forever to load.

Goko.com is a website that happens to host games.  However, http://play.goko.com/Dominion/gameClient.html  is a game that happens to be hosted on a website.  Oddly enough, the former does not show me a loading screen.

Again, go to Kongregate sometime.  Every single popular game has a load time--usually just a few seconds, much like Goko.  This is exceedingly common with web-based games.  Certainly, the site is near-instant to load, but the games aren't instant.

And again, we're comparing to Iso, which is, as mentioned, an outlier.  What casual gamer is going to balk at a loading screen unless they've played on Iso?  They're accustomed to loading screens all over the damn place.  You are accustomed to not having a loading screen on Iso, but this is not the average web gamer's experience.  Even frickin' Farmville has a loading screen.

[Avalanchian]

This whole loading screen discussion is setting off my "trying too hard to attack Goko" alarm (I have set up some weirdly specific alarms - it's a quirk of wanting to be an engineer). I'm not saying that anyone discussing this doesn't have legitimate concerns about Goko. I have to admit that there are serious problems such as the lack of a useful or reliable automatch, the weird disparity between certain animation lengths, and the instability of the platform as a whole (which was a real problem when I first started playing, but is now almost never an issue for me). I do think that nitpicking about the choice of aesthetics for the very short loading screen at the start of a game is the very thing SirPeebles warned against near the start of this post:

But a lot of the criticism is misplaced.  That's bad enough, but what's worse is that the misplaced criticism can swamp out and devalue the legitimate criticisms. 

I don't think a single person on this forum doesn't want a good, affordable, online dominion platform. Hell, it's why many of the users are here in the first place. However, I think attacking small things like the loading bar is hardly constructive. I get that this is frustrating, but with so many other obvious targets for constructive criticism, why go for something so insignificant?

[ashersky]

This whole loading screen discussion is setting off my "trying too hard to attack Goko" alarm (I have set up some weirdly specific alarms - it's a quirk of wanting to be an engineer). I'm not saying that anyone discussing this doesn't have legitimate concerns about Goko. I have to admit that there are serious problems such as the lack of a useful or reliable automatch, the weird disparity between certain animation lengths, and the instability of the platform as a whole (which was a real problem when I first started playing, but is now almost never an issue for me). I do think that nitpicking about the choice of aesthetics for the very short loading screen at the start of a game is the very thing SirPeebles warned against near the start of this post:

But a lot of the criticism is misplaced.  That's bad enough, but what's worse is that the misplaced criticism can swamp out and devalue the legitimate criticisms. 

I don't think a single person on this forum doesn't want a good, affordable, online dominion platform. Hell, it's why many of the users are here in the first place. However, I think attacking small things like the loading bar is hardly constructive. I get that this is frustrating, but with so many other obvious targets for constructive criticism, why go for something so insignificant?

What do you think is more likely to get implemented first: a better loading screen or acceptable matchmaking?

[SirPeebles]

Ashersky, you say that cartridge-based console games have loading screens.  I don't remember those.  Could you give an example?

[Ozle]

Ashersky, you say that cartridge-based console games have loading screens.  I don't remember those.  Could you give an example?

http://www.gamesradar.com/gr-asks-why-do-some-cartridge-games-still-have-loading-screens/

[SirPeebles]

Which implementation is that screenshot from?  The original Super Mario Bros. for FamiCom / NES did not have a loading screen.  Is that from a cartridge based implementation?

[Ozle]

No idea, didnt recognise it myself!

I too wondered the same as you with the loading screen, as I couldnt remember any so just did a quick google.