Author Topic: The War on Bundles  (Read 653 times)

tripredacus

The War on Bundles
« on: January 03, 2018, 12:40:27 pm »
The term "bundle" is, 76+% of the time, a retail marketing or fan term. As such, it should not be used on an item title or alt-name on a VGCollect entry. If a retailer has advertised a particular item, special edition or whatever, using this term, this can be noted in the description field. I was asked to try to fix this naming issue in the DB and I was able to shrink the search results from 26 to 6 pages. Just some points on this particular subject, as well as some other observations that I had working in the db.

1. Some games have the term Bundle in their name.
Racing Bundle on PS2:
https://vgcollect.com/item/89008
Prototype Biohazard Bundle on PS4:
https://vgcollect.com/item/113251

2. Xbox and some PS3 NFRs in EU use the term Bundle Copy or Bundle Product.
Forza Motorsport 3 (Bundle Copy) Xbox 360 [EU]
https://vgcollect.com/item/119298
Fable II / Halo 3 (Bundle Copy) Xbox 360 [EU]
https://vgcollect.com/item/123235
FIFA 12 (Bundle Product) PS3 [EU]
https://vgcollect.com/item/91447
Sega Superstars Tennis (Bundle Copy) Xbox 360 [EU]
https://vgcollect.com/item/105975

The use of this term in an item title should only be to differentiate the item from another in the same category so there should not be a naming collision. There are some unknowns to me, as there seems to be a bunch of Xbox 360 double packs in the EU that have the Bundle Copy mark on the front that may not actually have standalone releases. Such as this Gears of War / Gears of War 2 release:
https://vgcollect.com/item/117858

3. There is no info in the style guide for naming accessories.
Should they be named as games or as hardware? The Hardware heading in the style guide talks strictly about consoles.

Sony PlayStation Move Bundle - Sports Champions (PS3 Accessory)
https://vgcollect.com/item/23330

The term bundle could be removed from this title still, but this game matches the naming convention we use for consoles. [NA] not present in the title as all of the "Move Bundles" in the DB are NA releases. Here is another item that follows the hardware naming rules:

DreamGear Dual Glow Sabers 3in1 Bundle - Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels
https://vgcollect.com/item/39277

Then there are the items that prominantly feature a game and not the hardware. This is quite common even in older releases such as the PS2 GunCon 2 game packs, Lethal Enforcers and the DDR games.

Rock Band Rivals - Jaguar Bundle [NA]
https://vgcollect.com/item/135464

4. There are many accessories in game categories
I had started doing it about half-way, to move Accessories out of the game category, but some are still left. And remember I was only looking at entries with the word bundle in search results. We do not put consoles in a game category, even if it contains a game, so we should not put accessories into the game category for the same reason. The above Rock Band Rivals is correct now, but all the DJ Hero 2 turnables are in the game category, ie:

DJ Hero 2 - Turntable Bundle (Xbox 360) [NA]
https://vgcollect.com/item/21718

This is the case for a lot of items, moreso in modern game categories. For example, many Wii games came with Wii Remotes but are in the Wii category. They should get their TLD put onto them and moved into Accessory.

5. Consoles should only have the term Bundle in the title if the word is on the box, and only to avoid a naming conflict.
The style guide already says how to name consoles, Manufacturer Console - Set Name/Game. There is no reason to add Bundle onto this name as it is not needed. Even the case where some consoles (PS3 and PS4 it seems) do use this term on the box itself. Xbox and Gamecube consoles seem difficult as their boxes are quite generic but we can take these on a case by case basis.

6. Limited Run retail listings have a single entry on VGC.
See other hot-topics such as Collector's Editions coming with all the extra stuff separate from the game box. This "appears" to also be the case with Limited Run sets, where they are offered as a single order on their website, but you end up receiving two different things. Since I do not own any of these or have seen what they look like out of the shipping box, I decided not to do anything with them. If they are indeed two separate items, they should not have a combined entry in the DB. If the two things are say... shrink wrapped together, then it is ok.

Astebreed - Soundtrack Bundle (PS4) [NA]
https://vgcollect.com/item/122221

Here is an example of a game being sealed to an additional item, an artbook. This picture was hard to find, but it shows the item was indeed originally packaged in this manner and as such is fine to have a single entry.

Game of Thrones (with Artbook) PS3 [NA]
https://vgcollect.com/item/92182

I leave this Limited Run issue to you guys who are big into those games to hammer out amongst yourselves.

Other categories I didn't both with and there are entries in Guides, Swag and digital categories.

7. Console sections are a MESS.
We all knew this already. I hate to look into those categories because I have my memories of doing nothing but looking up PS2 consoles for 3 months. It will have to be worked on eventually, telly is working on the Gamecube section so if you want to tackle a project like this you'll have to pick something else! :p

telly

Re: The War on Bundles
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2018, 03:13:22 pm »
Luckily the vast majority of the GameCube consoles say "Pak" on the box, so it hasn't been that bad yet...  :-X
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