Entering Canadian versions of games?

[snakes]

I live in Canada and a lot of the games I'm adding may be Canadian versions. Should I not enter UPC or item codes in case they're different from the US release? The categories on this site only have a North America and not US or Canada so what do I do there? I assume it's safe to still enter box text cause it likely is the same between both regions. Looking for some guidance. If it doesn't appear to be region specific I'm going to enter all the info. As an example I compared my copy of Ocarina 3D to the one entered here, the UPC codes are different.

I don't think it makes sense to enter both a US and Canadian version as two separate entries on the site, but maybe if there was a field for Canadian and US, or also Mexico under the UPC and item code, that'd solve the problem. Or would it be possible to enter multiple codes in the same field?

[tpugmire]

I'm by no means an expert on this, but I know a lot of Canadian NES games have different box art.  Also, the item numbers are different.  Good questions though.  We will have to get some of the other admins in here to discuss this.

[snakes]

Virtually all box art is the same except for the back will usually have both english and french. The rating icon on the front will have both. Spine I think is usually only in english for games. I'm not worried about cover differences, I'd only add all-english ones for anything I'm adding. I don't think games usually if ever put the french title on the front. With movies they often do though, on the front and spine.

[scott]

We are trying to list games from every region. It's not so much being redundant as being accurate. Since the bilingual games are technically a Canada only thing, they receive their own region. We currently have a listing for NES [US] for all NES games released in North America and NES [CA] for the bilingual games released in Canada.

Also, I know some modern games have been released on the 360 in the States with both French and English on the box. As far as I am aware these are identical to the games released in Canada, thus they would be listed as Xbox 360 [NA].

[snakes]

I see now that there's a Canadian section for NES, but how do I enter Canadian games for other consoles or should I even bother?

[scott]

If there are specific Canadian releases, @matt will have to add a category for them under each console/ system. We should prolly make sure to add Australian releases to the lists as well, considering Australia has their own releases and ratings board, etc.

[matt]

@snakes

If they are unique releases just let me know what you are adding and I'll add the appropriate category for you. Our goal is to have a unique entry for every release and if the Canadian releases are different than other NA releases, we'll want to list them appropriately.

Thanks for all the submission!

[snakes]

Yeah our releases are different, like I said we have covers with french and English and then sometimes a unique game id or UPC code. I came across this while adding PS2 games but I just looked back at some older stuff and this wasn't happening with Gameboy, GBA, PS1, or N64. Those all appear to be English with a US or USA in the game id. If you want to be thorough you're gonna have to add Canadian categories for a lot of the newer consoles. I'd say start with PS2/Gamecube era and onward. I personally don't have any games older than the 4 systems I listed above so I don't know about games older than these.

It might be easier to keep the categories the way they are now, for example PS2 NA, and then create a drop-down field within the submission form for US, Mexico, Canada. I think that'd be the way to go. If you wanna get into stuff like different regions in Europe that'd also help there too. Just a suggestion, I didn't mean to come out of the blue and start telling anyone how to run their site.

[matt]

Oh I appreciate all feedback and suggestions so please keep them coming! I want as much community involvement as possible with regards to the future of the site.

I'd like to see a few examples of these Canadian releases before I decide how to handle them. I was under the impression that the current gen systems all had NA releases that covered the entire continent. If this isn't the case we will have to give them their own listing as well as change the NA listing to US. We strive for accuracy and thus want each game to have it's individual listing. Eventually we may come up with a way to group games be region but for now an individual listing in a proper category will have to do.

[snakes]

Here's an example: http://www.highrescovers.com/wp-content/uploads/covers/God-of-War-III---R1-Canadian---Cover-Cover-2029-85.jpg

All our modern system games look like that.

[snakes]

While you're listening to suggestions, I think there should be a genre for Action-Adventure. Here's a blurb from wikipedia on the differences between adventure, action, and action-adventure. I think they're different enough that all 3 should have their own genres on this site:

Action-adventure is a hybrid genre, and thus the definition is very inclusive, leading it to be perhaps the broadest genre of computer and video games. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve, with very little or no action. If there is action, it is generally confined to isolated minigames. Pure action games have gameplay based on real-time interactions that challenge the reflexes. Therefore, action-adventure games engage both reflexes and problem-solving, in both violent and non-violent situations.

[matt]

While you're listening to suggestions, I think there should be a genre for Action-Adventure. Here's a blurb from wikipedia on the differences between adventure, action, and action-adventure. I think they're different enough that all 3 should have their own genres on this site...

Here is a discussion on the upcoming genre updates: http://vgcollect.com/forum/discussion/104/genre-and-sub-genre