Need advice on my Gaming Community website.

[Chazlene]

Heya, I've been running an online gaming community for several years now with one of my old school mates, and in that time it's been through several changes in its design, me being the main designer.

This is how it looks currently: ATK Gaming Community

I made that version of the site's design almost a year ago, with a few minor changes since then.
However now that I've been studying Graphic Design at university this year, there's certain aspects of the design I've grown to dislike, such as the background being too complicated and distracting.

So I was wondering if anyone has any advice on what I should change to give the site a more professional appearance? Bear in mind though that I'm not intending to install a new web template or completely re-brand the community, I still want to keep the same logo, etc.

 

[dedwardp]

Not sure if it is just me, but on the right hand column the adverts etc are half sticking out of the black square that all of the content is supposed to be in?

Although the background could perhaps be seen as a bit complicated, I think it does feel suitable for the site generally.

I think the main thing that strikes me to change would be the overall content area - all of the different sections blend in to one with nothing to really segregate them and as a result it all feels a bit cluttered and it makes it feel awkward trying to see where to look first.

If all the sections were nicely and clearly separated without the same background and the right hand column wasn't sticking over the edge, the only other thing I would say is that from the "Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v4.0.0" down to the bottom of the page it doesn't feel right, feels a bit 'untouched' if you like.

Maybe see about arranging that section in to a nicer footer of some sort?

 

[Chazlene]

Not sure if it is just me, but on the right hand column the adverts etc are half sticking out of the black square that all of the content is supposed to be in?

Ah yeah that's just because someone posted some weird symbol thing in the shoutbox which has stretched the whole site.

Thanks a lot for the advice, we never considered making separate backgrounds for the content boxes, I'll suggest it to our admin