Notice: Images sourced from MobyGames are now allowed

[foxhack]

A week ago, MobyGames owner Jeremiah Freyholtz announced that the site was in the process of removing watermarks from all their scans. On May 8, the site posted news that all watermarks from their cover artwork scans and screenshots had been removed, and their management has declared that images may now be used by anyone, in any way they wish.

So on that note, we will now accept watermark-less cover art scans from MobyGames. But I have a request...

Not many people here know that I worked at MobyGames for a few years, managing approvals for some platforms. I left several years ago to pursue other interests (and yet you see me here futzing around and helping out, go figure.) While both VGCollect and MobyGames share one specific feature - a way for people to track their game collection - VGC is more focused on that, while MobyGames' first and foremost objective is to document all video games ever created, via release info, screenshots, cover artwork, and credits.

So my request is, if you're going to use their images for your VGC submissions, give something back. Help them by submitting missing information such as credits, screenshots (if possible), product codes, game ratings, tech info, etcetera. You don't have to do this - but I'd like that. Come on, they're making your life easier by letting us use their artwork, the least we can do is help them out in return, ya know? Just be sure to follow their rules about things - we're pretty lax about info down here, but they're not. You don't have to do this. But if you can spare the time, help 'em out. Kay? Kay.

Oh and please use cover artwork that matches your item. Don't just grab a random box shot and use that as your art.

[atarileaf]

This is great news. So many obscure images I've searched for have only had mobygame results which were watermarked and unusable.

[tripredacus]

Oh man, all that work I put in finding good pics, taking pics, cropping etc... was a waste of time! 

Oh well, this is good news, especially for many of the international variations which are difficult to find good pics of except for on MobyGames. 

[fazerco]

Or do as i do, and use your own scans 

[atarileaf]

Or do as i do, and use your own scans 

Not always possible, hence the reason people do image searches for obscure items and being frustrated when the only real hit is watermarked.

[fazerco]

Doesnt matter that much, but they should use the right image (so no PAL game into the NA part), or just no image.

And i gave MG some scans, lets see if they accept them.

[foxhack]

Doesnt matter that much, but they should use the right image (so no PAL game into the NA part), or just no image.

You'd be surprised at what kind of stuff gets added with new entries here. Euro art on NA stuff, physical art on a modern PC digital release, FAKE artwork from cover sites (which is fine if you're making your own boxes, but why submit them here?!) I spent a lot of time deleting images.

[desocietas]

Good thread, Foxhack.  I think it's important to take the time to appreciate the great information we can find at Mobygames, and that's really interesting that they're opening up their images for all to use.  As much as I wanted to steal their images before, it was the work of their dedicated users that gave us an image at all to refer to for obscure variants.

Thanks for the reminder about remembering to give back to Moby; I will definitely make an effort to see what I can do the next time I'm there.

[retromangia]

I think all new submissions should require a picture!  NO Picture... NO Love!  


Who agrees?

[campercarl]

A week ago, MobyGames owner Jeremiah Freyholtz announced that the site was in the process of removing watermarks from all their scans. On May 8, the site posted news that all watermarks from their cover artwork scans and screenshots had been removed, and their management has declared that images may now be used by anyone, in any way they wish.

[desocietas]

Just wanted to mention that I started contributing some images to MobyGames, and they've been really nice about any issues I may have had.  Good site and source. They're still missing some things, but it's a solid source for more user-created info on games and nice details on various parts of a game package.