WoWDB Feedback

[FuxieDK]

I am Koper, one of the creators of WowDB.

I was wondering if the community had any input or feedback regarding the website, in particular:

• Is there a missing feature or information that you consider vital for a Wow database website?
• Is there anything you consider annoying to use?
• What kind of new filters, pages, or in general features you would like to have?

Any feedback in general is appreciated! I also wanted to point out that you can contact us at feedback@wowdb.com

One major issue: I can't make comments on my iPad.. It's simply not possible to "activate" the field to type the comment in.. YES, I AM LOGGED IN!

[HardCoder]

I am Koper, one of the creators of WowDB.

I was wondering if the community had any input or feedback regarding the website

I think:

Why have you bothered?

[chaud]

One major issue: I can't make comments on my iPad.. It's simply not possible to "activate" the field to type the comment in.. YES, I AM LOGGED IN!

What version of iOS does it have?

[MoanaLisa]

I think:

Why have you bothered?

I'll take a shot at that and I'm not even involved with WowDB. WowHead, while very good, isn't necessarily the be-all and end-all of game databases forever and ever. There are issues there--problems that have been unsolved for a long time--and it's fine that someone else wants to take a shot at it.

Clearly, if WowHead hadn't wanted to take a shot at it when back when, we'd still be on Thottbot.

There's always a better mousetrap. So provide something useful about where it comes up short. What does WowHead not do that you'd like to see happen either there or somewhere else?

[Theiea]

Ive been using WoWhead so long, I dont see a reason to change. Ive never had to go to a different site because I can find everything I need on WoWhead. The transmog pages Wowhead added is also really nice, since I change transmog sets fairly often.

Im also not a fan of the WoWDB color scheme.

[Tziva]

BTW, Bibi actually explained wowdb a few months ago:

Wowdb was created to replace db.mmo-champion.com which was created because Wowhead refused to work with us years ago and we needed it to run MMO-Champion. There is absolutely no way for a company as big as Wowhead/Zam/Tencent Games to work with MMO-Champion in the first place because it would require us to have access to absolutely everything they have, which is a pretty good reason to refuse.

The first goal was to provide better content on MMO-Champion compared to what we had with db.mmo-champion.com and we achieved that goal pretty easily. It also brought some competition back to the market and improved things indirectly for everyone, including people who use Wowhead. Competition is always good.

WoWDB is mostly a "hey let's see what we can do with this" project with no real goal. It's a 100% money sink for the company and even if we added an ad slot somewhere it would still be a pretty huge money loss. The main goal is really just to support MMO-Champion's news and make our life easier on this side.

However, I'm glad that some people/other major sites adopted it because it lets me work with smart minds that provide us with a decent amount of feedback and let us improve our database platform altogether (contributing to the success of gw2db.com for example) but I'm not really on a crusade to destroy Wowhead, otherwise I wouldn't have them listed as the most obvious link on every page you click.

Tl;DR mostly created for internal reasons.

That said, there's no reason why wowdb can't seek to improve itself and try to be better at than the alternatives.

[FuxieDK]

What version of iOS does it have?

v5.1.1...
I refuse to downgrade to v6.1, until Apple and Google shake hands and implement Youtube and Google Maps back in..

[Dibby]

WowDB doesn't offer anything that Wowhead can't currently provide. There's nothing inherently wrong with WowDB existing, as other people have vehemently posted. I think it's a good idea, in theory. It's good to have options.

But the issue is that, as it stands, it's more or less a carbon copy of Wowhead with less to offer. You have to ask yourself: "Can we do what Wowhead is doing, but better?" and if not, then provide something different. Because as it stands, you're doing what Wowhead is doing, but there's nothing different or better about it. And, as others have mentioned, it lacks a lot of the things that Wowhead provides (like comments).

Even if you were to get people commenting and uploading screenshots and all that, what reason would people have to use it over Wowhead? That's the thing you should figure out. If you can't compete with Wowhead, then do something different with it. Provide a unique service that Wowhead doesn't.

I will say that I like that the data itself is more accurate. I like being able to see the actual damage formulas for spells, for instance. Also, as others have mentioned, the layout needs a bit of work. The bright white color is a tad annoying, and the pages themselves seem a bit unnecessarily stretched out.

I'll be keeping an eye on WowDB, and any potential changes made to it. I just really hope you guys don't settle for a simple carbon copy of Wowhead. Strive to do it better, to make it better. Make it something people WANT to use.

[Deleted]

Comments on items are absolutely vital.

That's where wowhead has the edge for me personally. Not only does it show really old comments (and the patch that was live at the time of creation), it shows which ones are (still) relevant. There's both a bit of history, correct answers, coordinates for tomtom, etcetera.

You guys did a good job with the contest to get comments on items. I just feel that 99% of all those comments were placed on the actual items to be won.

Oh, and a dark theme is easier on the eyes. But ofcourse, thats really subjective. Might be a matter of getting used to.

One last thing that I really like from wowhead is the fact that if I looked up an NPC for instance, I can generally click a link or a map and have it show exactly where it is. Including tomtom coordinates. (Not sure if you guys also do that. If so, disregard these last few lines.)

[Recom]

A few ideas that could make me switch :
1) model viewer, this really is the biggest missing feature

2) theme selection or a basic dark theme

3) gear profiler, not a boring one like wowhead, a good one, easy to use, up to date at all times, with build in features such as :
- automated reforges (like the addon reforgelite)
- predefined profiles (for example there could be boxes that generate a list of useful gear of item level 476/496/509/522.....)
- loot source so you don't have to check somewhere else on the site
- stat summary
- hell even an armory import option so you can tweak your gear and change a few pieces
- easy geming (only propose the useful gems for your spec)
- easy enchants (see above)
- a lootrank kind of thing with predefined AND customizable stat weights

4) I don't know if it is possible but maybe make an addon like atlas loot which uses the data of wowdb such as drop rates or even comments. If there is a way to acces the db from within the game, you win.

[chaud]

3) gear profiler, not a boring one like wowhead, a good one, easy to use, up to date at all times, with build in features such as :
- automated reforges (like the addon reforgelite)
- predefined profiles (for example there could be boxes that generate a list of useful gear of item level 476/496/509/522.....)
- loot source so you don't have to check somewhere else on the site
- stat summary
- hell even an armory import option so you can tweak your gear and change a few pieces
- easy geming (only propose the useful gems for your spec)
- easy enchants (see above)
- a lootrank kind of thing with predefined AND customizable stat weights

What part of this does AskMrRobot not already do well? (Other than predefined profiles and useful gem/enchant selection)

[Pendragon]

I don't like it at all. The best part of WowDB is the Wowhead link.

[Deleted]

i like WoWDB for the reagent breakdown it has on items, thats quite handy, but otherwise theres no reason to use it over wowhead. i use wowhead because its older, im use to it and comments. every item, quest, npc on wowhead has comments basically which are really handy.

[dercaderca]

I use wowhead mainly out of habit. I've used wowdb a few times but the lack of comments is what really turned me off.

[Deleted]

@Koper:
sorry if I may be to blunt but for me WoWDB is like trying to invent the wheel a second time - the first wheel in this case being obviously WoWHead...
If curse guys wanna have a wow database go and buy wowhead but dont try to reinvent something that is allready existing.

PS: some mod said thotbott but didnt mentions alkazam wich was there at the start too - apart from the fact that it was a very bad comparison - you can argue what you want wowdb will never reach wowhead status cause wowdb wasnt their in the start.

[Zokudu]

One thing I think will help, at least for me, is if y6u had a WowDB link at the header of the MMO-Champ forum page. I always have the forums open and being able to click there, vs opening a new wowhead page would be awesome.

[Deleted]

I can't even access the website, I always get this error:



I never looked into it as I simply use Wowhead instead, but I prefer if I could see the gear links on MMO-champion news.

[Recom]

What part of this does AskMrRobot not already do well? (Other than predefined profiles and useful gem/enchant selection)

Well IMO this is exactly where you could make a difference. I don't like having to go to numerous different sites to get all the information I need. Not to mention askmrrobot only works with live datas, I'd like the option to "simulate" PTR gear.

Is it worth the effort ? I don't know, probably not since it's already available somewhere but in the current state, what part of wowdb does wowhead not already do well ? (Note : I'm not being sarcastic or aggressive here, just stating facts)

[Thiron]

Ability to apply stat weights when filtering would be nice. Even nicer if trinkets could have average proc stats calculated, but I don't think that's possible.
Excluding the comments of course, it's one of the most important benefits of Wowhead for me.

[chaud]

Well IMO this is exactly where you could make a difference. I don't like having to go to numerous different sites to get all the information I need. Not to mention askmrrobot only works with live datas, I'd like the option to "simulate" PTR gear.

Is it worth the effort ? I don't know, probably not since it's already available somewhere but in the current state, what part of wowdb does wowhead not already do well ? (Note : I'm not being sarcastic or aggressive here, just stating facts)

You might see if AskMrRobot has any interest in building a PTR version of their site or a flag to turn on PTR items/class changes. In theory that would be much easier than adding all of those features to the database.

I can't even access the website, I always get this error:

I never looked into it as I simply use Wowhead instead, but I prefer if I could see the gear links on MMO-champion news.

This is usually caused by your system time being set incorrectly.

One thing I think will help, at least for me, is if y6u had a WowDB link at the header of the MMO-Champ forum page. I always have the forums open and being able to click there, vs opening a new wowhead page would be awesome.

It is there if you visit the front page, but not on the rest of the forum. I can see about getting it added to the forum.

i like WoWDB for the reagent breakdown it has on items, thats quite handy, but otherwise theres no reason to use it over wowhead. i use wowhead because its older, im use to it and comments. every item, quest, npc on wowhead has comments basically which are really handy.

Are you mostly looking for comments on older things, or Mists of Pandaria entities?