Site Feedback

Site Update:

User Games
- New Multi List mode called "Intersection" that only displays games that are a part of all selected lists.

Quick Add - Collections
- Fixed a bug that allowed you to attempt submitting to an empty list. You will now be prompted to add a name to the Collection.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on Intersection option. Thanks!

Seems nice. Couple of use cases I have are "Retried + Backlog" to look at games I would reconsider playing, "Completed + Backlog" for games I technically beat, but might want to play extra content or DLC of.

I also have a list tab of games regarding sequels/prequels of games I've completed but only the ones I own are in my backlog so now I can see only the ones I own. A difference option in that case could be kind of cool so I could see the ones i don't own at the moment.

I can also see it as a good way for kind of tagging games, but I'd rather that be it's own thing for filtering rather than dedicating a list tab slot to becoming a tag.
This also made me think it would be cool to have filters in general. I guess we already have that with "Isolate my Games" (I kind of forget this is a thing), although I feel like it would be nicer to have those options directly in the list view, and that would be nice to use on a particular list, rather than all my games (like if I want to play a game of a certain genre, I only want to see the games in my backlog, not the ones i completed).

Also, when I was typing the message above, I clicked on the search bar and then close, only to realize my message was gone. Feels weird because I'd only expect that to happen if I navigate out the edit page.

Could some system where you can see games made by the same/similar developers/publishers? Pretty sure you can set it up so it can automatically detect if some string is found (i.e. EA -> Electronic Arts; all games with EA or Electronic Arts as publisher are categorized automatically and you can look at the list separately)

Sounds a bit obscure, but doable

Could some system where you can see games made by the same/similar developers/publishers? Pretty sure you can set it up so it can automatically detect if some string is found (i.e. EA -> Electronic Arts; all games with EA or Electronic Arts as publisher are categorized automatically and you can look at the list separately)

Sounds a bit obscure, but doable

.

Could some system where you can see games made by the same/similar developers/publishers? Pretty sure you can set it up so it can automatically detect if some string is found (i.e. EA -> Electronic Arts; all games with EA or Electronic Arts as publisher are categorized automatically and you can look at the list separately)

Sounds a bit obscure, but doable

+1

Website layout request: Lock the top pane of the website
even when you scroll down, or at least make it reappear when you hover your mouse over the top of the screen. I've noticed lately that I'll often be posting in a thread and want to do a quick game search or take a look at something on my profile to reference in the post but I always have to scroll up, search for the thing, then scroll back down to the post in progress. It's only a minor inconvenience and I'm not sure if it's even possible but I think it would be a nice little QOL addition.

EDIT: Just thought of another feature request, multi-quote. This would allow people to effectively reply to multiple people's posts in one. The way it works now is to select quote on someone's post when you want to reply to them and then either make separate posts for each person you want to reply to or putting @ followed by that person's username (which doesn't actually tag them, maybe another feature request) and then quoting their post manually. I know AVS Forum supported this feature when I used them a few years ago, it's very handy when you want to reply to multiple people without clogging up a thread.

I noticed some inconsistencies regarding genre tags.

1) There are a bunch of games with a genre tag of "Car combat" instead of the currently used tag "Vehicular Combat." I applied the proper genre to some edits I have submitted earlier, but there might be more titles that need changing it, so it would be nice if that could be fixed across-the-board instead of case-by-case basis.

2) It's a small thing, but some games have the "Vehicular Combat" tag spelled with a lowercase c in combat for some reason. E.g. Blur or Twisted Metal 4. They still appear when using the filter though, so it's not a big deal. I assume they appear because the string of the text is the same, but when I click to edit details of those games, the tag is not in the approved genres.

Site Update:

User Games
- New Multi List mode called "Intersection" that only displays games that are a part of all selected lists.

Quick Add - Collections
- Fixed a bug that allowed you to attempt submitting to an empty list. You will now be prompted to add a name to the Collection.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on Intersection option. Thanks!

LOVE IT, thank you so much :)

I was happy I got a response, and saying my idea was actually good LOL.

And then to see it implemented already, thanks again!

Site Update:

HowLongToBeat: The Game
- Completing a game will now add an entry to your activity feed with a score and link to play.
- Playing a Random or Custom game will link to the version played.

HowLongToBeat: The Game
Scored 123/300 on Daily Challenge!
35 Secs Ago

Hello, could you please add a way to get the list of all completions? I want to filter out replays and I am confused by the "Length By PlayStyle" graphs - I dont understand how completions are divided into playstyles and why are there 3 bars for each (minimum, average/median, maximum? Or maybe those are quartiles?), calculating a proper distribution myself would make a lot more sense. This is probably not something that many website users would care about, so adding a method to the https://howlongtobeat.com/api seems optimal. If there is already an api method for this then please enlighten me, I didnt find any documentation and only know about api/search

Hello, could you please add a way to get the list of all completions? I want to filter out replays and I am confused by the "Length By PlayStyle" graphs - I dont understand how completions are divided into playstyles and why are there 3 bars for each (minimum, average/median, maximum? Or maybe those are quartiles?), calculating a proper distribution myself would make a lot more sense. This is probably not something that many website users would care about, so adding a method to the https://howlongtobeat.com/api seems optimal. If there is already an api method for this then please enlighten me, I didnt find any documentation and only know about api/search

Since speed runs aren't charted, the 3 bars respond to Main, Main+ Sides and 100% in that order per range. They are grouped according to an average based on all submissions.

The graph is just another way of displaying the chart from the main game page, minus the polled and median figure.

I noticed recently that the Vectrex isn't listed as a platform. I feel like it should. Might not have been in stores long, but it is a pretty iconic 80s console and apparently still has a big homebrew community.

Anyway, I request it being added.

- Matt

For that matter (and since the platform request thread disappears from the front page almost immediately) please add Fujitsu FM-7, since mine arrived last week.

Two quick comments:

1. Do people use Steam times or in-game times for HLTB? I recently beat Assassin's Creed 2 with 100% completion, and my game time listed in the AC2 menu is 33 hours whereas the Steam time is 49 hours. Usually the discrepancy between those is small in most games, as it typically accounts for just menu times and deaths and such. But with AC2, it's a huge 50% difference. I'm not sure why. Which time should I use?

2. The search field on the mobile site doesn't seem to recognize apostrophes. When I'm on my iPhone and I search for "Assassin's Creed", the second I hit that apostrophe, almost all the search results disappear. Strangely, the first Assassin's Creed game shows, but none of the others do. This happens on both my iPhone and iPad, but not my Windows PC. Is something wrong with apostrophes, or were all the Assassin's Creed sequels inputted into HLTB using a different character?

Two quick comments:

1. Do people use Steam times or in-game times for HLTB? I recently beat Assassin's Creed 2 with 100% completion, and my game time listed in the AC2 menu is 33 hours whereas the Steam time is 49 hours. Usually the discrepancy between those is small in most games, as it typically accounts for just menu times and deaths and such. But with AC2, it's a huge 50% difference. I'm not sure why. Which time should I use?

2. The search field on the mobile site doesn't seem to recognize apostrophes. When I'm on my iPhone and I search for "Assassin's Creed", the second I hit that apostrophe, almost all the search results disappear. Strangely, the first Assassin's Creed game shows, but none of the others do. This happens on both my iPhone and iPad, but not my Windows PC. Is something wrong with apostrophes, or were all the Assassin's Creed sequels inputted into HLTB using a different character?

1. Different users will handle that differently. Some use Steam time, others in-game timer, some time their game session themselves, either with a watch, an app or the HLTB timer. Some will use combinations of these. I time my gaming sessions with my smartphone, then add the time to the game using the HLTB timer.

2. For what it's worth, I cannot replicate that behavior (desktop pc, firefox). When I type assassin' (apostrophe at the end) I get all Assassin's Creed games in the search results.

edit:
I would claim that typically the in-game timer is preferable over Steam as I assume Steam continues counting in situations when in-game timer won't (menu open, toilet break, food break, other interruptions). If you can remember to time meticulously the "best" results will be achieved using your own timer. Although "best" in this case means only most accurate for yourself. I guess most users on HLTB use either Steam or in-game timer and so your time and the printed times on HLTB would deviate stronger from each other in that case.

I’ve noticed sometimes a lower score will get placed above higher scores

Since speed runs aren't charted, the 3 bars respond to Main, Main+ Sides and 100% in that order per range. They are grouped according to an average based on all submissions.

The graph is just another way of displaying the chart from the main game page, minus the polled and median figure.

Thanks for clarification. Although having "replay" separation and being able to calculate the distributions would still be great

Just a slight gripe I've had with live service games on this platform, is that you're allowed to give a "completion time" when the game is still releasing new story content every other month. I feel that for live services (Final Fantasy XIV, Zenless Zone Zero etc.) completion times should only account in shape of separate content bits released overtime (marked as DLCs) and the main page should somehow reflect that it's not truly complete-able yet

Not sure what would be most optimal here - just a note, or replacing "completion times" with something else, i.e. "spent time by players" or idk

I found an odd bug today.
Going from another user's profile page to my own profile page through the link on top of the page falsely populates my "Currently Playing" section with a game from the other user's "Current Playing" section. It only happens to me from this specific user's page with this one specific game (Iris and the Giant)
I was able to replicate this in Vivaldi (Chromium) and Mullvad browser. So, it seems consistent.
I was trying to find another user with that game in the "Currently Playing" to see if it would behave the same there, but couldn't find anyone.

Here is a video to show what I mean:


- Matt

Just a slight gripe I've had with live service games on this platform, is that you're allowed to give a "completion time" when the game is still releasing new story content every other month. I feel that for live services (Final Fantasy XIV, Zenless Zone Zero etc.) completion times should only account in shape of separate content bits released overtime (marked as DLCs) and the main page should somehow reflect that it's not truly complete-able yet

Not sure what would be most optimal here - just a note, or replacing "completion times" with something else, i.e. "spent time by players" or idk

There is an option when you edit a game page's details that can be ticked to select "combined stats" where it basically marks the title as endless and combines all stats as they are non-distinguishable. That might help?!

I’ve noticed sometimes a lower score will get placed above higher scores

looks like it might because it's calculating a percentage from the scores and then rounding it out?
not sure, but the ones that swap seem like they would be rounded to the same whole percentage

Just a slight gripe I've had with live service games on this platform, is that you're allowed to give a "completion time" when the game is still releasing new story content every other month. I feel that for live services (Final Fantasy XIV, Zenless Zone Zero etc.) completion times should only account in shape of separate content bits released overtime (marked as DLCs) and the main page should somehow reflect that it's not truly complete-able yet

Not sure what would be most optimal here - just a note, or replacing "completion times" with something else, i.e. "spent time by players" or idk

In a similar vein, would it be possible to stop people from reviewing games or marking them as playing or complete before the release date?

In a similar vein, would it be possible to stop people from reviewing games or marking them as playing or complete before the release date?

I think a set period before release date makes more sense. Games are sometimes available before release due to leaks, early shipments, reviewers etc.

looks like it might because it's calculating a percentage from the scores and then rounding it out?
not sure, but the ones that swap seem like they would be rounded to the same whole percentage

That is the case, I'm working on a solution to resolve this but it's part of a bigger update to move logged in user's results into the database instead of locally per device.

I think a set period before release date makes more sense. Games are sometimes available before release due to leaks, early shipments, reviewers etc.

That's a fair compromise, maybe 2 weeks before release date or something. I'm pretty sure nobody on this site is playing Assassin's Creed Shadows right now though.