NOTE: The following is a discussion on naming Japanese games within the database. Please refer to post 16, as it outlines the most current rules we decided on. The remaining topic is used as reference so people can see what was discussed, and there we some changes from my original post.
Original Post
This is a rather long post so beware!
There seems to be a lot of inconsistency among how Japanese games are named in the database, and the style guide, while helpful in some respects, could use some more information about how to go about doing this. An admin suggested that I make a topic about it to discuss how we go about naming games so it’s consistent and makes sense to everyone. Then hopefully the style guide can be updated when everyone is on the same page.
Here’s what the style guide says already:
Use the item's regional release title, written in the language written on the case, but in the Latin alphabet (the letters we commonly use). If the title is in Japanese, use the most recognized transliteration.
This definition seems a little vague, especially when there is more than one language on the case.
Here's the problem:
The game used in the style guide as a reference is Dragon Quest VIII. They use a mix of English and Japanese in the database title when naming it:
http://vgcollect.com/item/42695Dragon Quest VIII: Sora to Umi to Daichi to Norowareshi HimegimiHowever, Dragon Quest VIII has a full Japanese name on the case as well, so you could also argue that it should be the full transliterated Japanese name instead, according to the style guide, which would look like this:
Doragon Kuesuto VIII: Sora to Umi to Daichi to Norowareshi HimegimiBecause the example uses the first option, it would *appear* that English is given priority when it is on the case in conjunction with Japanese. However, this is not explicitly stated in the style guide. So I've seen games that are all over the place in how they're named. In addition, there are no examples that are all in English or all in Japanese either on the style guide.
So, I'm proposing that the guide be updated to say:
Use the item's regional release title, written in the language written on the case, but in the Latin alphabet (the letters we commonly use).
(Kept the same)+ All English words on the title game box are carried over to the title used in the database. Any Japanese words that are not in English as well on the box are transliterated. (Whether it's part of the title like DQVIII or the whole name of the game)
This method makes sense, because:
1.) We’re still using the title that’s on the box, and maintains the integrity of the name of the release. If the game is written with Japanese, it should have some iteration of Japanese in the title.
2.) It still makes it somewhat easy to search for things as some games will still have English in the title.
3.) It makes things consistent among all games, as we’re not deciding which language to keep or ignore on the box or which title is most recognized.
4.) It's generally what the games in the database are like already, so we don't need to change much
I’m going to put some examples below in a separate post, what do you think guys? Does this make sense? Post your thoughts and put some examples of games that we should look at. I want to hear what you guys think because there's probably something that I missed
