Comments on: How Not To Make A Video Settings Menu

By: Octavian

Octavian — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:56:05 +0000

My Crysis Warhead goes smoothly(really smooth) on

GAMER
!600×1200
Aliasing 0x

By: Hulk Hogan

Hulk Hogan — Fri, 08 May 2009 00:54:21 +0000

Grandma
Mom
Yo Momma
Cats in Space

By: Crispy

Crispy — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:02:57 +0000

@Deuteronomy
“Crispy are you serious? In my humble opinion the only stupid people are the ones that can’t decipher the meanings behind some rather simple menu options.”

Yes, I am serious. When it comes to giving information, the difference between a good designer and a bad designer is one designs for himself and the other designs for the player.

The only thing that saves the list of options in Warhead is the fact it comes in a drop-down menu that, logically following, is either ordered from highest to lowest or is ordered from lowest to highest.

Take all of these options and instead of putting them in a drop-down menu (i.e. in some sort of order), write them on pieces of paper and give them to the test subject. If 99% of users cannot work out whether ‘Gamer’ is supposed to be higher than ‘Enthusiast’ then you have a poorly designed list of options. Obviously this is not what you need to do in real life, but your design should be able to withstand such hypothetical tests and emerge as functional as it needs to be.

But even then you have a massive drawback on the ‘Mainstream’ option. You see, all of the options except ‘Minimum’ are comments on the user themself, not on their hardware (this is exactly what Alec was getting at). A user may regard themself as ‘mainstream’ but be unaware their PC can actually handle the game at settings as high as ‘Gamer’. Ignorance on the part of the user undermines the intended message. This means they may miss out because the designer hasn’t taken into account how different types of users will approach the menu. It means this user will get a worse experience from the game, not because their hardware is incapable of a better one, but because the options menu is fundamentally flawed such that it can be interpreted to give information other than what is intended. If he then goes on to tell his friend not to buy the game because the graphics weren’t as good as he’d hoped for, a lack of catering to the user will lead to a lost sale – all because of a badly-designed menu.

By: Alec Meer

Alec Meer — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:40:02 +0000

No-one’s actually confused, happy people.

By: Simon Jones

Simon Jones — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:26:29 +0000

There seems to have been a sudden influx of YouTube-educated teenagers to RPS. I wonder where they’ve come from?

By: nightwayne

nightwayne — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:30:49 +0000

[I AM VERY ANGRY ABOUT SOMETHING I READ ON THE INTERNET ABOUT VIDEOGAMES]

By: Rabbitrunner51

Rabbitrunner51 — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 06:58:21 +0000

What do you expect form EA Games? TBH, i just hate that company so much i wouldn’t wste my money nor time buying thier games,which alot of lately are using the worse malware ‘secure rom’ devices ever made. Now thier trying to get us to buy thier games on a rental basis, put with with meriad of patches,secure rom, and all that atrocious advertising malware to boot. Will someone PLEASE give us a break here. ( ?????)

By: Real Horrorshow

Real Horrorshow — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:03:00 +0000

@Deuteronomy:

Exactly.

By: Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:14:25 +0000

Crispy are you serious? In my humble opinion the only stupid people are the ones that can’t decipher the meanings behind some rather simple menu options.

Alec you need some new material badly.

By: EmmJay

EmmJay — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:44:24 +0000

How about a new setting called “Hopeless Optimist”?

By: Crispy

Crispy — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:08:58 +0000

Real Horrorshow says:

RPS readers sure do like to make mountains out of mole hills.

I mean seriously, how big of a deal is this? I can’t begin to tell you how much I don’t care that Very High is now Enthusiast. It’s completely irrelavent.
If they can’t take care of a video settings menu properly, that’s evidence enough that I don’t need to play this game. I don’t give money to stupid people.

By: Dick the Ace

Dick the Ace — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:56:13 +0000

I think that the “enthusiast” really means that you’ve actually bought that game and not leeched it from p2p…