A New Era Beginning Soon at OS...

Feature Article

Submitted on: 03/31/2017 by Chris Sanner

A lot has changed since we launched the current framework and design for Operation Sports back in 2007. Sports gaming has changed immensely and so has the framework from within which the web operates.

Social Media, for starters, became a huge runaway success and in many ways took over our forms of communication. Video has become the new 'it' thing, to the point many content experts say videos are the new blog.

How we access the internet has changed too. We've gone from a desktop/notebook oriented culture to a mobile device oriented culture. In fact, when OS launched the first version of its current design in 2007, over 80% of our users accessed the site via a Windows or Mac based device.

Today, 75% of our audience accesses the site via Android and iOS.

How we built the current OS in 2007 wasn't always going to be compatible with this new reality and indeed it isn't -- but getting to a more modern point has presented itself with several technical challenges. However, after many months of hard work, setbacks, and more hard work I'm proud to announce we are launching a new Operation Sports in the coming weeks which will be modern, responsive, and easy to browse on any device.

The new site design will feature a responsive browsing experience, which means no matter what device you access OS on -- it'll look great.

Also we'll have more modern fonts, bigger pics, easy to embed social media posts, and an easier to browse experience when searching for content.

Editorial Changes Also Coming

On the editorial side we are also making some very big changes.

First, we are no longer going to be doing scored reviews starting immediately. The reasons for this are immense, so let me lay out some of our thinking on this.

When we started reviews back in the early 2000s, a game was released and that was the game you had a year later. There were no content add-ons or patches. In fact, a single score could encapsulate the whole experience. Today that is no longer the case, as a game can change dramatically even just a month after release.

An option we debated but ultimately decided against was a changing score system. While this initially made some sense, at the end of the day we knew this wasn't going to be an elegant or easy to understand solution. Single scores were already confusing enough and having multiple scores for a game or one that changes regularly was going to add to that. Coming up with a perfect system was ultimately impossible.

Instead what we are going to do is commit to better, more comprehensive coverage of all aspects of games while at the same time making sure we have a way to denote the must-buys of our genre. In that way, when we feel a game is a must-own we plan to give it an Editor's Recommendation seal to let OS'ers know we feel a game is truly a step above and worthy of your time.

Otherwise, we plan on critically assessing games throughout their life cycle and giving buying recommendations as usual. This includes patches, DLC releases, and other changes.

Another change we plan on implementing in the coming year is a lot more multimedia. From Podcasts to Videos, we understand this is how most people want to access content and that's something we plan to really help provide and point out throughout the genre. If you are a video creator or podcaster and want to make sure we are highlighting your material, e-mail me at [email protected].

We want to both produce and highlight the very best our community has to offer.

We're also looking at the mobile gaming space. There are hundreds of sports games offerings here which we haven't quite been able to cover with the same zeal as the rest of our genre. We want to change that going forward. If you are someone who plays a lot of mobile sports games and want to perhaps write on the space we're very interested in talking. E-mail me at [email protected].

Lastly, e-sports is a big deal. We understand it. We're assessing what we can do in this space to help promote the best aspects of it. This is an area we certainly want to give some careful thought towards about how we cover it and perhaps participate within it. Again, if you have an idea or want to pitch something in that arena to us, you can e-mail me at [email protected].

We are so pumped for the future of Operation Sports. This site has helped millions of people better their sports games experiences over the years. This next year will be our best yet, and I can't wait to see where the new design takes us.

We're dedicated to sports gaming, and can't wait for a great season!

Member Comments

# 21 jct32 @ 04/01/17 08:41 AM

I just logged on today, was gone all day yesterday and thought this was a really subtle April fool's joke.

I feel like a fool looking at the post time now.

# 22 sirwoodz @ 04/01/17 01:58 PM

I hope this new era includes less sensitivity from the moderators. i've been on here for a decade now, and only get on here a few months out of the year honestly - but in that small amount of time i see more locked threads and banned users for very small infractions. Loosen up a bit fellas.

# 23 RogueHominid @ 04/01/17 04:00 PM

Happy to see a more mobile-friendly site for those who browse that way. I almost never access OS that way, but I'm in the minority there by a long shot, so I'm happy the majority gets a site tuneup that will help them enjoy OS on the go.

I'm not at all interested in e-sports getting any attention on OS. I tend to think that while e-sports can be fun for some and are certainly lucrative for developers, they tend not to conduce to the improvement of sports gaming for sim gamers. If OS is deliberating on what to do with e-sports on the site, and if a fuller commitment to coverage of that area is not already a fait accompli here at OS, I'd throw in my .02 in the form of a plea to keep that stuff out of here.

But again, I'm happy for the mobile upgrade, and I'm happy for the increased video content for those who want to see OS writers and other staff in that medium.

# 24 iLLWiLL @ 04/01/17 04:44 PM

Change is needed. Why I am still greeted with this large MFL Mutant Football League image to an article of a game that -- for me, personally -- I care absolutely nothing about? How old is that article anyway, 2-3 weeks old? It's way past stale.

I do like the idea of more videos; however like most people have said, I do prefer silently reading the content and obviously it's faster to get the information that way than to have a video load, and either wait for or fast-forward to the information you are looking for.

Overall, looking forward to a fresh new look...

# 25 Bigg Cee @ 04/01/17 06:47 PM

I can't wait to see what happens!

I hope I can still make my fight night threads looks sweet.

Also finally we're getting rid of the number rating next to your name. It's worthless if it's broken and no one else can rank up. I want my number higher then a 0 but can't since it has never worked for me.

# 26 ffaacc03 @ 04/01/17 09:34 PM

Change is always welcomed ... then again, as long as you guys keep the text articles, all will be fine with me ... even more, if you do some video or podcast based article I would really appreciate some text along with it, like a summary or something alike.

# 27 SportsGameGod @ 04/01/17 10:31 PM

So in other words go to Metacritic for reviews and go anywhere else for coverage of games since everyone thinks they have present things exactly the same.

# 28 The Senator @ 04/02/17 02:12 AM

Can't say I like much of anything I read about this overhaul. I couldn't care less about social media, I access the site on my computer and never had a problem with that, I much prefer reading a good well written article over watching some video(I can read much faster than you'll speak, and can multitask easier that way), and I feel that when it comes to sports games, e-sports hurt our genre much more than it helps, in terms of providing a solid, realistic "sim" approach.

I always thought that one of the best aspects of the OS community is that we're generally in agreement that we want to see our games reflect the sports they represent in as accurate a way as we can get without compromising the gaming experience. E-sports generally move away from that and take away many of the real aspects of the sport to replace it with a sterile "fair" environment to foster big money matches, with Madden being the biggest example. Anything that takes away from the purity of the stick skill gets purged from the game, like botched snaps or penalties away from the ball.

I digress however, as an old school user of the site who peruses the articles on my PC, I just don't see much good coming for my experience, and I'm sure I'm not alone here. All I ask is that people like me are considered in this change, too.

# 29 RaychelSnr @ 04/03/17 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Senator


	Can't say I like much of anything I read about this overhaul. I couldn't care less about social media, I access the site on my computer and never had a problem with that, I much prefer reading a good well written article over watching some video(I can read much faster than you'll speak, and can multitask easier that way), and I feel that when it comes to sports games, e-sports hurt our genre much more than it helps, in terms of providing a solid, realistic "sim" approach. I always thought that one of the best aspects of the OS community is that we're generally in agreement that we want to see our games reflect the sports they represent in as accurate a way as we can get without compromising the gaming experience. E-sports generally move away from that and take away many of the real aspects of the sport to replace it with a sterile "fair" environment to foster big money matches, with Madden being the biggest example. Anything that takes away from the purity of the stick skill gets purged from the game, like botched snaps or penalties away from the ball. I digress however, as an old school user of the site who peruses the articles on my PC, I just don't see much good coming for my experience, and I'm sure I'm not alone here. All I ask is that people like me are considered in this change, too.

I'll restate what I said earlier in the thread: we're looking to add aspects to the site not take anything away.

Nowhere in this announcement are we saying we are replacing text content with multimedia or sim content with e-sports -- the desire is to add it on top of what we're already doing. If anything, our new CMS and more modern architecture on the backend is going to greatly enhance/enable our ability to deliver even more text-based content as well.

# 30 spoofrice11 @ 04/05/17 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ggsimmonds


	I understand the reasoning and need for the change(s), and I get that it may be the right move for you guys, but I don't like most of these changes. My personal opinion: 1. That image makes OS look something like a clickbait nest. Not sure why, layout just looks generic and cheap to me. 2. I always prefer articles over videos. Now more videos doesn't mean fewer articles right? 3. A little nervous with mention of e-sports.

I agree. Not sure I will like these changes.

This is my favorite site to go to for video games. Hopefully it's not messed up because some people check it on their phones. I think looking at internet stuff on a phone is dumb if it's not something you have to check.. It's hard to see and it's so much easier to do things on a computer.

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