Feldon 
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 5 years since EQ2Wire launched. To celebrate, it’s time for a fresh coat of paint and a little remodeling here and there. I hope you find the new site easier to navigate, and still easy find the wall-to-wall EverQuest II and EverQuest Next coverage you have come to expect.
This is just Phase One. Phase Two will see the launch of an EQNext site, with cross-posting capabilities, as well as a full live blogging platform. EQ2Wire and our EQNext site will be THE place to be on August 1st-4th as we provide full coverage of both games for the entire weekend!
Looks good so far,but a bit..pastel. Is there a way to darken the font on my end?
Look for a browser plugin named ‘stylish’. It allows you to customize the look of a website with just a few easy steps.
Love the dropdowns up top btw
Love it, esp the comments!
Looks awesome!
what happened to the adornment calculator, I been looking it seams to be missing
Under Wire Network.
ahh ok I guess I need more caffeine in the system yet. Thanks.
And it’s a direct link to the calculator!
Looks very nice 🙂
I love the redesign the added elf boob makes it a little more difficult to read at work. without people questioning my actions:) … /smirk
@taka – just make the window fit the center area then you wont get funny looks..
Looks great! I do have one sugestion though. Not sure if this is just me, but the Server Status page has a scroll bar, and it only hides one server. Could you make that window a little taller? Just a minor problem.
Just my two cents – it looks nice, but doesn’t not feel at all Everquest except for the picture at the top. Otherwise it feels way too modern for a medieval fantasy game.to me. It needs to be a little rougher and darker around the edges.
Also, not a real fan of the drop down boxes. It was always nice to come here, look at what I wanted to and then go over to the side and easily go to what I want. The drop down menus hide what you want to find from view and make it a bit more difficult to find things. All the web design theory I have come across is don’t hide things behind secondary links, drop down menus, etc. I could be wrong – maybe things will swing back to this type of thing. Still, not finding it attractive.
Still, it is very good work and looks nice.
The overall design of EQ2Wire has not changed much since August 2008. Originally the site was simply called FanFaire08 and I never planned for it to last more than a few weeks after Fan Faire as sites like Zam would pick up all the useful data. Then I eventually came up with the blue and red “Wire” idea and it stuck. I have tried over the years to bring on an artist who might be able to do some nice texturing like you are talking about, but I’ve had no takers. Are you volunteering your graphic design skills? 🙂
The only things that are now in menus that used to be on the side are Guides/Featured Articles and Links to other EQ2 sites. Categories and Server Status are still on the Sidebar.
Well, it’s all about the content, right? 😉
Please note, though, I did say it is nice – just not as easily navigable to me and not my cup of tea. Still, good work!
I know. Thanks. 🙂
I am testing it right now (on galaxy s3). Perfectly usable. Text is readable and it seems the comments can be published using the mobile interface as well by now (did not work 2/3 month ago.)
I didn’t know where I was at first! Somwhere with scantily clad elves, anyway…
Seriously, though, nice job in classing up the joint! It looks much better.
– The insta popup menu are annoying. Perhaps add a bit of delay until opening them.
– The fonts are huge compared to the old style. But that seems to be a common problem of modern web sites 🙂
– light grey text color on white background isn’t exactly user friendly, but for a short stay on the site probably ok.
– For my taste overall not an improvement, but not worse enough to keep me away. So keep up the good work. 🙂
Far too much white glare in the centre panel for those of us who are a bit photo sensitive – especially against the contrast of the black side panels when you scroll down a bit.
Wasn’t it you that fixed this problem for people when we complained about it on the official forums, Feldon?!
I will try some other colors.
No actually I replaced the light reddish-brown background with more of a yellowish-grey. It made the background LIGHTER.
I really like the new look. Thanks!
Nice work Feldon. Now I know where to take my javascript queries.
Tiny suggestion for improved mobile experience; add ajax refresh at bottom of comments to load without putting me back to the top of the page… or it it just my browser settings that does that?
HA!
I think you should change your button label from featured guides to just featured as most of the content is not guides but news…
Just my two copper worth
The banner at the top doesn’t link back to the homepage anymore.
Feels like the SOE forum changes…loss of function for supposed gains of “feel”.
Would prefer an option to return to the plainer, classic, original EQ2 Wire layout.
Auto-expanded links on the left were more prone to offer impulse/accidental discoveries.
Where did the Elf graphic come from?
Is it possible that reference to the source is under NDA?
http://hdwallpapersbase.com/everquest-wallpapers/
The upper background graphic is nice but going into the black it isn’t seamless on the sides, hard to explain, it cuts off. I think the background graphic would look better if maybe it went all the way down the page or maybe put some colors to blend. I have to strain to see the text fonts the light grey on the white is hard for me to read but then I am old 🙂 Otherwise I love it.
Just FYI, EQ2Wire has had a mobile theme for many years. You can activate it on your phone by scrolling down to the bottom and clicking the “ON/OFF” toggle for Mobile Theme.
I have made some adjustments to the colors. Overall text is darker, and the sidebar and navbar are all darker. The popup menus are light blue instead of totally white.
Thanks, Feldon. It doesn’t leap out and smack me between the eyes quite as badly now.
Congrats on the 5 years, May there be many more to come. Its been fun watching this site grow and expand, the last few years have been incredible
Thanks for all you do,
z.
Love what you have done with the site. I think it looks great. Thank you for all you do for us EQ fans! Thank you also, for listening to what we have to say, and having concern for that.
I notice how you try to respond to requests and adjust/compromise accordingly, and listen to what people ask for, even if not always able to accommodate. The efforts are very appreciated!
And cannot say thanks enough for eq2u, its a tool I use quite consistently… its a gem. I don’t know how I ever played eq without it!
I like the new look, although it’s taken some getting used to :). The only thing I think looks funky is the background image, since it has an image and then it cuts off to black. It’d probably look better if it faded into the black some, instead of having a definite line where the bottom of the image is
I know us girl gamers are in the minority, and not all of us even notice any more since we’re used to guys plastering scantily clad women every where.. but
a)I’m really not a fan of having boobs in my face when i load a webpage, and
b) that elf has a bigger ‘package’ than most of the guys I know….
I was hoping to alternate between girls and guys, but I can’t find a decent guy pic for EQ2. I guess I need to download Daz3D.
EQ2Wire Improvements:
XD Oddly enough, I tried starting a “show me your screenshots” thread on forums. There is some truly gorgeous art in the game itself just looking around. Thread is in Look and Feel, name of thread is “Poke’mon Snap! (or Kodak moments?) image HEEeeeEAVY”… unfortunately no one else has posted any screenshots. :\
Guess I’m the only goof ball that hits the print screen button every time something tickles my fancy… or at least the only one that posted on forums. XD
I like the new background images. It’s too bad you cant get maybe 4-6 more of them and then just put the image on repeat down the page, so that there isn’t a line going to the black background. 🙂 instead it just repeats the images after 4-6 lines of images. I do like them a lot better than the elf boobs though.