A letter from the Editor-in-Chief: The future of Shacknews

You might notice a few changes here at Shacknews. Let's talk about them.

Launch Embed
91

You might notice a few changes here at Shacknews.

For as long as video games have existed, they have been inextricably linked to technology. From the advent of dedicated graphics processors to the boom in mobile devices, tech helps define where and how we play. Shacknews has itself expanded from a Quake fan site to one that covers the breadth and scope of the video game industry. To match the pace and rapid evolution of this industry, we're changing once again by expanding our focus to the technology that drives it forward.

When you see something you like, let us know. When you see something you don't like, tell us why. We're always listening.

The video game coverage you know and love at Shacknews isn't going anywhere. We'll still offer news, reviews, analysis, and opinions of games themselves, just like always. Now, we'll also be covering emerging technologies as they relate specifically to gaming. When we publish a piece on new technology, you can be assured it will put the spotlight explicitly on how it could enhance, augment, or shake up your video game experiences.

You'll also notice some changes to the staff. As of this month, I will be serving as Editor-in-Chief. Steven Wong has moved to a Managing Editor position. We're also welcoming new faces to the crew. Daniel Perez has joined us and will be writing news and features. Josh Hawkins will be contributing news and guides. Finally, we'll be publishing features by outside writers with other perspectives, to broaden our focus and reach.

We have one more influential voice here, and it sets us apart from most video game sites. The Chatty community is our invisible partner, and you helped shape this place from its inception. The influence continues, as we've already made decisions and substantial changes based on your feedback. As we look toward the future, we want more from you: more feedback, more engagement, more critique. We formulated the podcast to revolve around you, and we want to apply that philosophy to the site at large. When you see something you like, let us know. When you see something you don't like, tell us why. We're always listening.

We're excited to ring in this new era of Shacknews, and we hope you are too. If you have any questions, comments, feedback, or otherwise, let us know in the Chatty thread. I'll be answering everyone I can.

PS -- Please visit our new About page to learn more about our incredible team at Shacknews.

Editor-In-Chief
Filed Under
From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 6, 2014 9:55 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, A letter from the Editor-in-Chief: The future of Shacknews

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:02 PM

      This looks shit hot!

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:03 PM

      This looks really nice.

      One minor flaw, it seems the font in the article sidebar chatty floater doesn't support em dashes.

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:05 PM

      I promised to answer questions, and I intend to! It's pretty late here--apparently relaunching a site is hard work--but I will attempt to get to all of them tomorrow.

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 9:44 AM

        The site looks really nice thx !

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:07 PM

      Understanding furiously

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:07 PM

      This looks amazing. Whoa.

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:08 PM

      This really looks clean, fast, and nice! Awesome upgrade so far! Video was well made, too, and made me more excited to come here too often!

      However, I reserve the right to complain about something minute and totally inconsequential later!

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:09 PM

      I like the format and everything, but man that new logo needs work. Maybe taper it at the bottom or something so it actually looks like a shack instead of a hollow box. Put a doorknob on it, that kind of thing.

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:11 PM

      Definitely happy that the new Shacknews is here. Up next -- Chatty, and we're going to do it with EVERYONE. (you dirty minds)

      Honestly, it's a big project, a big conversation to have, and we're going to the community to plan out the feature set with everyone. We'll outline what we want and then go to design and dev...but first thing is first, let's celebrate the next truly big step for Shacknews. Congrats everyone.

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:11 PM

      I'm A PIRATE!

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:12 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:12 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:16 PM

      Congrats Steve! Although I do wish I could see the complete Chatty thread at the bottom of articles...

      • reply
        October 6, 2014 10:27 PM

        Chatty is a redesign on its own, and it will be done with the community.

        • reply
          October 6, 2014 11:16 PM

          Be very gentle with the chatty redesign please. It really doesn't need too much. Though the PRL could be done away with...

          • reply
            October 7, 2014 6:44 AM

            Or at least the limit set higher. I get having it to backstop the occasional spammer but the limit is probably lower than it should be.

          • reply
            October 7, 2014 7:04 AM

            I think it needs more than you think. But most of it is behind the scenes, mod tools, etc. But it definitely needs more than little work I think.

            • reply
              October 7, 2014 10:41 AM

              I'm sure there's plenty that could be done on the backend, but I'm talking about the part of it we all interact with (well, all us non-mods). It works pretty damn well as is and really only needs a few bug fixes and maybe better integration with some of the more popular addons (like the tags). Don't need the core comment system changed. Don't need to add stupid shit like the ability to edit posts, or signatures. Don't need to change the black background. That kind of thing.

          • reply
            October 7, 2014 7:10 AM

            Bring back first post. I think the daily posts to reply to foster community a bit more.

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:20 PM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        October 6, 2014 11:29 PM

        We went through a crazy experimental stage in college. Everybody was doing it.

        The summer was sort of a time of testing out different things and finding our new voice. Both writing those pieces and hearing your responses really informed a lot about what we're doing moving forward. For example, that piece showed us that humor is not really our forte! We meant it as a funny little thing, and it ended up bombing, so now we know, and knowing is half the battle.

        To the point of getting quality tech commentary up, Daniel has a history in tech writing and we have a few other freelancers on-tap to lend their expertise.

        • reply
          October 7, 2014 12:06 AM

          Ya, that really needed an Alice O'Connor voice to it. I think she might have been able to pull it off.

          Wish y'all could get her back.

          • reply
            October 7, 2014 6:15 AM

            We light candles by our Alice shrine every night but no luck so far.

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 12:05 AM

        the man with the briefcase commented (really, went on quite the entertaining gripe) on his twitch when that came out. He was not pleased, either. He also intimated that writer has since left the building.

        Ya, I really don't have much to do with my time, do I, to know all this? Kicked the girlfriend out and I am still trying to figure out what to do with my time besides drink at night and watch internet videos.

        His twitch - www.twitch.tv/armyoftechno

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:20 PM

      Yeah that looks really good, Is that your STREAMING SCHEDULE under the main banner? nice

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:20 PM

      Weird how this site went through 2 redesigns in a few months.

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:21 PM

      damn, this shit is awesome. Can we change the chatty purple to the blue of the shacknews logo? Other than that, well fucking done!

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:21 PM

      Nice look!

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:23 PM

      I really like the new design, and it's so refreshing to have a website that utilises my whole monitor and doesn't look designed for 1024x768. It's like the future!

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:26 PM

      I like the new look. The one minor criticism I have is that my eyes automatically kind of skip over the news entries with no picture next to them, I think they're just a bit too small without the pic.

      • reply
        October 6, 2014 11:31 PM

        That's a product of the conversion from the old design to the new one. We can go back in and put images in some of the old articles, when we have time, but in general those will just scroll to the bottom.

        We do, however, have the ability to set a story without an image and have it appear that way on purpose now. We'll probably use that for smaller, quick news items that we don't want to take up too much space.

        • reply
          October 7, 2014 6:46 AM

          Yeah it allows you to get more content on a single page.

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:32 PM

      The "CHATTY" button, rather than "COMMENT" on articles might be confusing to new comers.

      • reply
        October 6, 2014 10:36 PM

        CHATTY STAYS FOREVER, Browns Win!

        • reply
          October 6, 2014 10:53 PM

          I mean this button, not the header bar.

          http://chattypics.com/files/this_nae7jqoixl.png

          If that stays CHATTY, maybe put a comment count there to hint that it is for comments.

          • reply
            October 6, 2014 11:08 PM

            'CHATTY' sounds like they are actively branding the name. 'Comments' just sounds like a typical bullshit section that no one really reads.

            the man with the briefcase knows what he is doing it seems!

            • reply
              October 7, 2014 12:08 AM

              I can see that. Drop in a comment count in the box, in that case.

              • reply
                October 7, 2014 3:47 AM

                Sounds like a good compromise.

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:35 PM

      Going to sleep now. Def check out that video -- you guys have some photogenic peeps on staff. ;)

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:37 PM

      Oh, and check out the new About page. It's actually updated! Joe Stasio, Patrick Lucas, Joe Tirado...rock stars on this launch. http://www.shacknews.com/about

      • reply
        October 6, 2014 10:40 PM

        that's a lot more people than i thought!

      • JT legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        October 7, 2014 8:16 AM

        So it seems like Robert Workman no longer with us?

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 10:44 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 11:00 PM

      I like the design, though the logo not having a shack in it seems a little off to me.

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 11:00 PM

      Haha RC Cola and Scotch, keeping the tradition alive

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 11:15 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 11:17 PM

      Looks great guys! Great to see a fresh look here!

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 11:18 PM

      Arrrr!

    • reply
      October 6, 2014 11:47 PM

      I really like the look! Congrats guys!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 12:37 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 12:43 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 12:52 AM

      this is awesome, the shack is alive once more!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 1:25 AM

      Looks pretty great except the header that has been mentioned a bunch already

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 1:33 AM

      very, very nice. love the touch with the dark alternative header for the chatty.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 1:34 AM

      I'm aroused awwww yeahhhhh

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 2:00 AM

      Loving the new look. Colour palette and new logo is fucking awesome! Great job guys.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 2:08 AM

      This looks pretty awesome. Nice work, newshack.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 2:23 AM

      You pronounced GIFs wrong :D

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 2:29 AM

      Congratulations, Steve! And nicely done.

      This is the prettiest Shacknews has looked in a very long time too.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 2:32 AM

      This has an overall thumbs up from me, good work peoples up in ShackHQ!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 2:57 AM

      Thanks for the hard work

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 2:57 AM

      It looks great, love it!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 3:16 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 3:25 AM

      I really have enjoyed Steve on the shacknews podcast and I am really happy to hear he is editor in chief! Congrats!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 3:28 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 3:34 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 3:39 AM

      Wow... the Shack cleans up good! Congratulations to everyone on their hard work.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 3:51 AM

      Indeed, much cleaner design than that interim one. And clickable images! lol

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 3:58 AM

      I'm confused by this new design. Where do I go to find out about Grim Fandango?

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 3:58 AM

      Great work. Looks fantastic and sounds good too. I"ve said it before, but it's wonderful to see ownership investing in the brand and trying to bring this thing back to life. Best of luck!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 4:08 AM

      sorry, looks horrible.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 4:12 AM

      maybe this was asked already, but what are the chances we can pick a black background scheme, similar to the one here in the chatty, to be shown on Shacknews homepage and news page etc.?

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 4:13 AM

      There's no logout button?

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 4:29 AM

        have to hit "Settings" then it's one of the tabs next to email settings etc

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 4:43 AM

        IF YOU LOG OUT OF MY WEBSITE AGAIN I WILL KICK YOUR ASS

        - sTeve Gibson

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 1:03 PM

        No one escapes from Shacknews

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 4:18 AM

      Shacking without a Lamp for the first time in years... this is scary. Hold me

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 4:26 AM

      WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?!

      Look, I haven't even had my coffee yet. You can't just - ooh, the logo gets bigger on roll-over... and the New Comment button does a li'l thing now, hahaha...

      <5 minutes later>

      Wait- I was gonna bitch about something. What was it again?

      Oh yeah. THOMW, why doesn't the * L O L ' D * button do a cool thing when I roll over it?!
      I mean C'MON...

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 4:30 AM

        speaking of the comment button effects, i dont really like the slide out / in thing. would it not be better if it sort of just lit up, like Reply does?

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 5:26 AM

        Why don't you roll over and die? : ThomW

        • reply
          October 7, 2014 8:01 AM

          I thought you were dogpiling me, which I thought was funnier. Missed opportunity. ;D

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 4:30 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 4:32 AM

      Tomorrow's Shacknews today!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 4:32 AM

      Sooo much better.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 4:45 AM

      Love it, but will miss the purple

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 4:46 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 4:50 AM

      I believe I understand, thanks for asking so nicely.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 4:53 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 5:27 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 5:42 AM

      I see. I see.

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 5:48 AM

        hey I missed your return to posting (although I did enjoy shooting your BF4 avatar repeatedly)

        • reply
          October 7, 2014 7:13 AM

          -_-

          It was a quiet return. I need to do a giveaway or two to make up for lost time.

          • reply
            October 7, 2014 7:20 AM

            I think if briefcase man ever returns back to Ohio we should consider a Ohio shackmeet. As long as ramen is on the agenda.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 5:46 AM

      Very exciting news! It's really awesome to see so much being invested into the future of Shacknews.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 5:51 AM

      Nice!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 5:55 AM

      I love the enthusiasm, keep the momentum up! Site is looking great.

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 6:03 AM

        Yea I think that is what I find most refreshing and promising as well. Glad someone who really seems to care and has some vision for where they want to go is running things.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 6:08 AM

      This is the classiest iteration of Shacknews ever! I'd even be a fan of having the Chatty area adopt the themes of the main page. Simply outstanding!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 6:10 AM

      Shack is really messing with Safari on my Macbook today. Weird visual glitches and at least 2 full system crashes while browsing. Chrome seems fine.

      Like the design, dislike the docked header but overall I think it looks good.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 6:12 AM

      This is absolutely terrific guys. Love the redesign and i am encouraged by the new direction.

      Keep it up!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 6:13 AM

      I go to the front page today and it looks like a GameCube. Late Night Consoling has finally taken over the Shack!

      I WON!

      Kidding, kidding. Site looks great. Good luck. :)

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 6:23 AM

        In this thread: all the people I miss.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 6:55 AM

      This is a really awesome new visual design. good work guys!

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 6:57 AM

        Oh wow I love the new sidebar thing with comments, in articles.

    • JT legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      October 7, 2014 7:02 AM

      What are we calling this update? GnuShack 2.0 ??

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 7:09 AM

      I LIKE IT.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 7:11 AM

      Man, it looks so nice! I feel like I should take my shoes off. Great, great, work!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 7:31 AM

      A suggestion for these type of automated posts: Could you put the subject first then the credit? It would make it flow better mentally when looking at posts.

      A letter from the Editor-In-Chiefe: The future of Shacknews posted by Steve Watts


      Destiny Review posted by Foo Bar

      etc.

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 7:36 AM

        +INF'D

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 7:38 AM

        Yes, this would be great, and really more content that highlights the personalities and peculiarities of each of the staff would be awesome

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 9:33 AM

        That makes sense to me. A Chatty Insight posted by iamgoat. etc.

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 9:45 AM

        +1 to this

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 7:36 AM

      This is an incredible upgrade. Super impressed with everything about it good job!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 7:37 AM

      Looks great! But there's a problem. I'm not sure what's going on with Grim Fandango, or which platform I'll be able to play it on, too.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 7:51 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 7:53 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 8:01 AM

      I have always appreciated Shacknews and their straightforward approach to game news. As long as you keep doing what you're doing and stay away from the non-gaming opinionated shlock that Kotaku and Polygon put out, you'll be good.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 8:13 AM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 8:30 AM

        I like to think we're pretty lovable.

        I think that sort of approach is inevitable in this day of streaming and social media, but especially with a staff our size. We try to inject a little personality into our news coverage, but much more of it will come out with the other kinds of coverage we do. Videos, streaming, podcasts, etc.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 8:30 AM

      This looks great, way to go Shacknews team!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 8:30 AM

      Uhh, guys this site is AWESOME. NICE JOB!!!!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 9:01 AM

      Looks good guys! *applause*

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 9:20 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 9:20 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 9:23 AM

      As a glorious Lamp master race member I have guilt. :(

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 9:27 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 9:39 AM

      Damn. Site looks really nice. Well done. Much better than whatever the hell the revision prior to this was.

      Bug: I'm running FireFox 32.0.3 on Win7 and the front page features that drop down are going behind the ads https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62071274/shackAdProblemFFox.jpg

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 9:46 AM

      The site looks really nice thx !

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 9:47 AM

      Site looks almost unusable now. I hope it dose not stay like this. Please go back to how it used to look.

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 9:50 AM

        examples?

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 9:58 AM

        This has to be a fake troll. What makes it unusable? If anything its a lot more useable.

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 10:01 AM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 2:11 PM

        Ralph, pls change back site

        no

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 2:26 PM

        Whaaaat? Aside from the scrolling taskbar at the top of the chatty (and the logo depending on who you ask) this redesign is fantastic. Everything about it feels more useable and clean than it did before.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 9:57 AM

      I no longer understand.

      Actually, really impressed with the site. Took me a couple of seconds to make sure I typed in the URL correctly.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 10:00 AM

      Does the deal part of the website require another account to sigh in?

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 10:01 AM

      I really like it! Great work!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 10:06 AM

      Nice stuff, it doesn't look like garbage anymore. That was a rough couple of months with whatever that design was.

      The new logo reminds me of the N64, hehe.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 10:23 AM

      I like the new design, but now the chatty doesn't resize properly for my portrait mode monitor that I do all my shacking on. Everything is too wide so i have to scroll right/left to read posts and click the reply button.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 12:50 PM

      Overall a pretty good change.
      Opening multiple shacknews tabs now works a million times better than before, and it has a cleaner and more profesional look, just to point 2 of the many good things this new design has.

      On the bad side, i really liked way more the way the chatty was integrated before, you just read the news and you naturally were introduced to the chatty as you scrolled down.
      And i think that really was a good thing since it really encouraged people to post and keep the comunity thiving, specially for the lazy type of person (count me in that category xD).

      And well, it looks good with all that white at first impression, but a darker colour would be much more easy on the eye for reading all the news of the day, but that has an easy fix on your end if you feel like it ^^.

      But as i said, overall you did a marvellous work :).

      Also YIIIAAAARGH! lets have a bottle of rum for shacknews.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 1:04 PM

      Huge improvement. I'm so relieved Gamefly no longer owns the site

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 2:11 PM

      I'm finally able to update my email account! It was still linked to my 14-year-old university account.

      • reply
        October 7, 2014 2:16 PM

        Is there a way to tell what email account your shack account is linked to? I have no idea about mine.

        • reply
          October 7, 2014 2:26 PM

          the page only told me after i updated the account.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 2:20 PM

      [deleted]

    • ECO legacy 10 years
      reply
      October 7, 2014 3:41 PM

      Congrats to Asif and the entire Shack crew on the relaunch! Looks great. It's been a long time since I've been involved with the Shack and with GF long behind me. Really pleased to see Steve and Ozzie still here. Great guys both. They deserve a site worth their talents. Props, respect and best wishes to the Shack. -- eco

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 4:57 PM

      This post has caused me to reload shacknews into a webbrowser. I'm impressed, great article.

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 5:10 PM

      This is pretty sweet. I'm going to use my browser to visit the shack now!

    • reply
      October 7, 2014 11:52 PM

      cool stuff.

    • reply
      October 8, 2014 11:17 AM

      Is it just me, or is the shack becoming less black, more white and pulling a Michael Jackson minus the kids thing with each update?

Hello, Meet Lola