I'm a relative newcomer to the GS team (6 months plus), and it's been a long time since I've worked on a site launch as big as the new GameSpot redesign. And never have I worked on a project where we had such a passionate and vocal user base. It's been a little weird to hear such energetic feedback on a project so early and so frequently.

While the feedback we are getting is overwhelmingly positive, we know that some of our users are going to dislike the redesign, either because they have legitimate gripes (which we most definitely listen to), or because change is hard and it's not fun seeing something you were comfortable with become a little foreign.

It's like going to sleep and someone moves your alarm clock in the middle of the night. Is it still there? Yes. Does it do the same stuff it's always done? Yes. It's just in a different spot, and that alone is enough to make you freak out in the middle of the night when you roll over to find out how much sleep time you have left.

But in this case, it's like they moved the clock to put new batteries in it. We were hitting some walls on the old site that we couldn't get around so we had to tear them down. Things have changed since 2005, and it was time to start fresh. We did the best we could to maintain some consistency, but our overarching goal was to create a new foundation on which to build for the next several years. Change is hard, but if we didn't reinvent ourselves every so often, we'd be gathering dust next to a 3DO in some basement. If Madonna continued making music like Lucky Star, she'd be opening for Andrew Ridgeley on his Holiday Inn Lobby Tour.

There are so many great things about the new site - content moved up the page, a much-improved video experience, easier-to-find content, a gorgeous new image carousel on the home page and platform hubs, the mini-feed, etc. - and I hope those don't get overlooked while everyone adjusts to the new location of the New Blog Post button. A lot of work and craft has gone into the site; everything was done for a reason.

Thanks again for all your feedback throughout this process. We wouldn't be where we are without your passion, your dedication, and your eagerness to voice your opinion, even when you tell us we're stupid, ugly, and/or smelly. Heck, if you hadn't told me I stunk, I would've forgotten to put on deodorant before my date last week. Thanks to you, she slammed the door in my face at the end of the date instead of at the beginning. Woo hoo!