The problem is that the web site needed a redesign, and it needs to fit certain corporate goals such as recruitment. It needs to be the primary vehicle to recruit new players, and it needs a modern layout (flexible, scales with browser, takes advantage of new Ajax and CSS techniques, etc.), and it needs to be tied into the new Drupal management system that's going to be deployed. So, I doubt they can "just go back". In fact, I can almost guarantee they'll shut off old.lusternia.com at some point.

I'm really surprised there aren't more fans of the new gods blog. http://www.lusternia.com/blog/

Personally, I hate the new website so much I don't even read the blog. I'm sorry, but if that's an example or modern website design then I'm a fluffy love bunny carebear who gives hugs and spreads joy to all the little children of the world. I doubt their attempt at going corporate and 'selling' the game to new players is going as well as they hoped, especially with that website.

I was trying to find the blog a few days ago and I couldn't find a link to it on the site.

I didn't say that the existing new site is a platonic ideal of a site, rather than you can't just have an old site with a fixed width that uses tables and the like and not appear behind the times. I agree with the criticism that the navigation is flawed. Midkemia is an example of a more modern site design standard. The core goal is positive, the execution is negative. The key problem right now is that it seems everything is designed to sell first and some basic information architecture has not been followed--that's not the way to develop the site--you need to make sure you are on top of your mission statement, and SEO is a tool, not the primary purpose of a site. I agree with that criticism.

I'm simply pointing out saying "change it back to the way it was" is unlikely to be an option.

I'm not proposing that a switch be made back to the old website specifically (although the navigation was pretty good for the abuse of tables), but the current site feels insulting. Regarding the bottom line, I feel that Lusternia could attract more players (and more people to buy credits) with a better design, so it'd be a profitable investment.

That's not the trap I had in mind.

I've known many a novice who sound like miffles

We're at 24 signatures!

Is it just me... or did the web site change again?

And get even harder to find anything?

It did change again. Everything is lumped under Game Info now. You have scroll down to find stuff. =_=

The type got smaller, the front page got less informative, and the Elder War links are STILL broken.

Yep, it's worse.

On the upside, there are now only three (four, if you are logged in) places to click PLAY ME on the front page. That's a small reduction.

IRE, please, hire someone who knows what they are doing.

As a new player, I've been trying to use the website to find useful maps and historical information. Unfortunately, this has been made nigh-impossible for two reasons:

1) Clicking on a large map's scaled down form to see the full (readable) version leads to "Page not found."
2) The entire History page is also missing.

Is this a recent development? Haven't seen anyone else mention it.

Also, I'm not fond of the website's actual design, either. Why can't it be more like the sites for Imperian and Achaea? Both are very well-organized.

I've never been able to actually find anything useful on the new website, so I don't know if specific sections not working now are new or if it's been like that since they put it up. If you can, try checking old.lusternia.com...some of the links there still work, and it's a lot easier to navigate.

I looked for maps on the old.lusternia website also, and it led to broken pages for me as well. Luckily, someone supplied the full realm layout map for me, which was enough for me to get around.

Thank you very much for sharing this!

I highly advise using http://old.lusternia.com . You see, someone decided that it was time to redo Lusternia's website. What we got was the crap you've discovered. The thing is ugly, unhelpful, and doesn't work. There are only a few things you would need www.lusternia.com for that are not on old.lusternia.com . You will be much happier using the old website.

We're trying very, very hard to get the webmaster to look into the problems with the new website. Unfortunately, our cries, emails, and petitions fall on deaf ears. We get no responses to to our suggestions, and when changes are made to the website, they actually make the website worse.

We too wish we could have kept the old website, the one that feels like the other IRE websites. Lusternia's new website is an abominable experiment gone very, very wrong. It's supposed to draw in new players, but as you have pointed out, it is incredibly un-newbie friendly. It's a disaster.

So hopefully, the webmaster will see this and realize that, since the website has been broken for MONTHS now, maybe it is time to fix it.

I thought there'd been a major redesign. I remember I was browsing through the IRE games some time last year, and I actually did make a character for Lusternia before I got involved in Achaea, and that old site is the one I remember seeing.

I just can't fathom how IRE, who seem to listen so well to their players usually, can let their website stay in a state of disrepair like this.

Yeah, it would be one thing if the website worked and they said, "Tough, we like the new design, deal with it."

But, it doesn't even WORK. And we've told them it doesn't work. And the last changes they made to the website were 1) Eliminating the useful information on the front page (bad) 2) Fiddling with the font some (good), and 3) Mashing all the info pages together (bad). It's a joke. It really is.

Are you sure that the website designers are listening?

I'm dubious.