I would like to suggest browsing for games by their screenshot rather than their avatar. Most of the avatars do not depict the actual game, and many times I see a title that sounds interesting, only to click to its page, wait for it to load, and discover that the gameplay does not appeal to me at all. With browsing by screenshot, I can quickly tell if I might be interested in a game or not. Maybe it can be setup so that when you hover over the game's avatar, an in-game screenshot pops up. Or perhaps adding a few screenshots in the game's description section.
I mention all this because I'm tired of using Google Images and Youtube to figure out if I might like a game.
I do think their avatars are useful though, they act like a logo that you'll recognise anywhere. I tend to agree with you though some of the avatars don't depict the game very well. I like the idea of the screenshots of gameplay, but I also don't want games to lose their avatars, how about if they were combined? When searching lists of games you would see the avatars but if you hover over them a small pop up appears a bit like a speech bubble playing a mini slide show of some game.
Maybe it can be setup so that when you hover over the game's avatar, an in-game screenshot pops up.
+1, Good suggestion.
I was just looking to find back a game I'd stumbled across at some point, and it's very difficult indeed going by just those game logos/icons/avatars whatever you wish to call them.
...how about if they were combined? a mini slide show of some gameplay.
I have to agree, I think that's a solid idea :]. Some websites already implement this feature. When you hover over an image thumbnails, it will show different screenshots from the game or video.
But, a few problems are that every game would have to have screenshots taken, and most likely some recoding of the website. This means a lot of time to implement. Right now Armor Games is slowly, but steadily, rolling out a lot of new features, so who knows whats next?
Also, even though the game avatar may not be the most accurate example of real gameplay, Armor Games has a lot of things that can show you what the game is like before playing it. There are tags on the games, games are in categories, and the games usually have descriptions as well. That can be very helpful in determining what the game is like before playing it :].
