Style Guide Poll #3: Game Titles

[tripredacus]

Shouldn't this really vary on a case by case basis? Are you really going to call it DRX Mario?


If that's the case I'd like to change my vote because I figured at first the title should be what's on the spine, not the front cover. In retrospect I think I'd rather see the common name by trusted sources.

Or just keep it with the way it is now, a hodgepodge of the two. If it isn't broken, don't fix it.

Is there a way to change my vote? 

Using full title names, that game would be Dr Mario
Using common names, that game would be Dr Mario
We would not make it into Rx (actually ℞, aka Prescription Take) in either case, same as we don't put Open Center Black Star ( ✫ ) into Gal Gun, or the Underscore ( _ ) into Watch Dogs or the Commercial At ( @ ) into Idolmaster.

Vote changing has been enabled. Whether or not this resets the poll timelimit is to be seen, the forum doesn't say...

[ignition365]

Vote changing has been enabled. Whether or not this resets the poll timelimit is to be seen, the forum doesn't say...

Voting closes: August 09, 2018, 11:23:36 am

[tripredacus]

Ok then it didn't change it when I edited the poll.

[telly]

Even if it doesn't change Dr. Mario it will change other games in a similar fasion haha

[tripredacus]

Besides .hack, also "kerning" issues such as the Mega Man example, or the Mega Man X3 would use the superscript or be X Cubed for the releases that have a logo like that.

And to remember, this is for the database as it exists right now. Maybe some day in the future we will have multiple fields for names and the ability to choose which one we see when we log into the site. That would make this vote meaningless. It is a big deal for us right now because we only have 1 field to put in the name.

It also has nothing to do with your personal preferences for how you arrange games in your own collection wherever you keep it. There should be some separation between VGC and real life. I don't use either of these methods to sort my own stuff, I do what everyone else does. I use the spine title. I don't run my house like a database or regulated like a library system.

[ignition365]

I don't run my house like a database or regulated like a library system.

I try to because when I inventory, it's much easier if it's ordered the same as VGC.

[fazerco]

Just throwing it out here, what if 2 'trusted' sources use different names?

I would stay with the box, but be sensible about it. Dont overthink things what often happens when discussing it on fora.

[aliensstudios]

Shouldn't this really vary on a case by case basis? Are you really going to call it DRX Mario?


If that's the case I'd like to change my vote because I figured at first the title should be what's on the spine, not the front cover. In retrospect I think I'd rather see the common name by trusted sources.

Or just keep it with the way it is now, a hodgepodge of the two. If it isn't broken, don't fix it.

Is there a way to change my vote? 

Using full title names, that game would be Dr Mario
Using common names, that game would be Dr Mario
We would not make it into Rx (actually ℞, aka Prescription Take) in either case, same as we don't put Open Center Black Star ( ✫ ) into Gal Gun, or the Underscore ( _ ) into Watch Dogs or the Commercial At ( @ ) into Idolmaster.

Vote changing has been enabled. Whether or not this resets the poll timelimit is to be seen, the forum doesn't say...

Thanks for clearing this up and enabling poll change.

[hoshichiri]

As someone who's had trouble finding games on occasion due to spacing or punctuation differences, I'm for option 2- especially since it does specifically state exceptions are allowed, meaning we can tweak titles to be both unique and easily/sensibly searchable.

Having said that, I'd be OK with titles exactly as on the box, provided there's a way to train the search engine to recognize the common names/variants... for example, 'little big planet' & 'LittleBigPlanet' should produce the same results in search (perhaps in a different order, depending on specific titles.)

[tripredacus]

Just throwing it out here, what if 2 'trusted' sources use different names?

I would stay with the box, but be sensible about it. Dont overthink things what often happens when discussing it on fora.

We will need a place to record specific examples, perhaps we can make a thread someplace to put examples. Decided by staff or you guys, and then link to that thread from the Style Guide in the Game Titles section.

But I don't think we would need to go through the entire list to determine a consensus. There would be a heirarchy. We would have a general order, and a specific order. For example, Sega/Sonic Retro should be the priority for Sega games. Anyways, think of it like so (in general) :
If the game is on Mobygames, call it by the name they use. If it is not on Mobygames, then look on Gamefaqs. And go down the list.

However, it isn't to say that people will need to visit all of these sites to look up what to name their games before adding them. As you said, no reason to make it more complicated.

This scenario may not even present itself that often, as we have a large percentage of games already in the DB. It is more likely to come up with people updating existing entries.

[rayne315]

I changed my vote as well... after mulling it over for a while it makes more sense to be trusted sources than to be EXACTLY as written on the cover.

[tripredacus]

Less than an hour left!

[Flashback2012]

I don't recall voting but I'd go with Option 2. Titles on boxes are great but I would prefer consistency where things like all Mega Man entries were spaced like that instead of some being spaced and some being one word. If anything, it'd help cut down on all of those dupe entries that keep popping up every so often.

I used to be a stickler for the Disney and DreamWorks games having the name in the title but I've switched my outlook on that and when I submit new entries on games from those companies, I'll put the "Disney" or "Nickelodeon" as part of the alt-name. Again, it's to cut down on dupe entries and the information is still represented (and though there's always talk of adding fields, I'm not holding my breath anytime soon  ).

[telly]

So.. Where do we go from here? 

[fazerco]

So.. Where do we go from here? 

Everybody does his own thing again, and Trip is gonna fix it as it should be