VGCollect Site Stuff => News => Topic started by: matt on July 03, 2012, 11:52:47 pm
Title: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: matt on July 03, 2012, 11:52:47 pm
Hey all,
Just pushed out a small update. We have added a new "Alt-Title" field to the item pages. This will help solve our issue with localized titles vs. original language titles. The regular title field will still be used for the English title and the new field will be used for the original language title or "also known as." At this point this new field isn't searchable but this will be coming soon, along will our new search engine.
Thanks and let me know if you have any issues with it. Scott will be updating the style guide shortly to reflect this change.
Matt
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: foxhack on July 04, 2012, 12:05:47 am
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: htimreimer on July 04, 2012, 12:29:46 am
this site is getting better ;D
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: foxhack on July 04, 2012, 12:34:25 am
So it's barely three days into the month and I already have like 300 edits.
WHY DO YOU ABUSE MY (almost) OCD LIKE THIS
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: jcalder8 on July 04, 2012, 01:07:16 am
I would say this is a great addition to the site! It may only be a small update on your end but to the usability of the site this will be HUGE once the new search engine comes out!
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: htimreimer on July 04, 2012, 01:21:58 am
So it's barely three days into the month and I already have like 300 edits.
WHY DO YOU ABUSE MY (almost) OCD LIKE THIS
lol ;D
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: scott on July 04, 2012, 03:24:04 pm
I like the Alt-Titles. The only thing I wonder, what if a game never was released in English and we don't have a English name to put in the Name field?
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: foxhack on July 04, 2012, 05:21:28 pm
... you don't add an alt title, then?
:P
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: amauriel on July 05, 2012, 11:42:32 am
Good. Then all my Japanese names are good...unless they do something crazy and add Japanese Language support rather than just Romanji. Then MY OCD will kick in.
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: htimreimer on July 06, 2012, 01:18:52 am
Good. Then all my Japanese names are good...unless they do something crazy and add Japanese Language support rather than just Romanji. Then MY OCD will kick in.
hay amauriel can you add japanese names to the pc [JP] i am at my uncles house and his computer do not read japanese ;D
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: jcalder8 on July 06, 2012, 01:54:07 am
If there are multiple alternative titles how should they be separated? I have just been using commas.
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: matt on August 01, 2012, 10:29:27 am
Quick Update: There is something wrong with the encoding of these titles so we've had to clear out some of the submitted ones. I'm looking into a fix but my time has been extremely limited lately.
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: kimimi on September 25, 2012, 04:30:21 am
Sorry to be difficult (and possibly stupid) with my first post but I've got a question that I've not been able to find an answer to re: Alt-Titles.
I own the Japanese MVS version of Last Blade 2, but it's not listed so I need to add it to the database. How does the naming system work?
As I'm sure you know, the options are -
Name (English name)
and
Alt-Name (Original language title or 'also known as')
By "English name" do we need to enter "The name this game goes by when it's sold in English speaking territories" which would make the correct entry here "Last Blade 2", or does it mean "How you would write the name of the game using English characters", which would make the correct entry "Bakumatsu Roman Dai Ni Maku..."?
I've got the same sort of confusion with the Alt-Name field (sorry!); do you want the original language title written in English (Bakumatsu Roman Dai Ni Maku...), the original title as it's originally written (幕末浪漫第二幕...), or would the "Alt-Title" be "Last Blade 2", as the game I'm specifically trying to list is called "Bakumatsu Roman Dai Ni Maku...", and the alternative (Western) title for this game is "Last Blade 2"?
Sorry for the trouble!
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: matt on September 25, 2012, 12:07:56 pm
Sorry to be difficult (and possibly stupid) with my first post but I've got a question that I've not been able to find an answer to re: Alt-Titles.
I own the Japanese MVS version of Last Blade 2, but it's not listed so I need to add it to the database. How does the naming system work?
As I'm sure you know, the options are -
Name (English name)
and
Alt-Name (Original language title or 'also known as')
By "English name" do we need to enter "The name this game goes by when it's sold in English speaking territories" which would make the correct entry here "Last Blade 2", or does it mean "How you would write the name of the game using English characters", which would make the correct entry "Bakumatsu Roman Dai Ni Maku..."?
I've got the same sort of confusion with the Alt-Name field (sorry!); do you want the original language title written in English (Bakumatsu Roman Dai Ni Maku...), the original title as it's originally written (幕末浪漫第二幕...), or would the "Alt-Title" be "Last Blade 2", as the game I'm specifically trying to list is called "Bakumatsu Roman Dai Ni Maku...", and the alternative (Western) title for this game is "Last Blade 2"?
Sorry for the trouble!
Thanks for the questions! This field is giving us all sorts of issues right now so I'm afraid that we may not have the answers but we should probably discus it with the community. I've got some strange encoding issues going on that is storing the titles incorrectly and messing everything up. I'm hoping to resolve this soon.
The intent of the alt-title field was to essentially create another searchable field for English speaking users. Most users area simply search for Rockman or Final Fantasy and are not going to be able to find it if we use a Japanese char set. Then again a lot of these titles don't releases in English areas...
So what do we all think will be the most usable method? Thoughts?
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: kimimi on September 25, 2012, 12:25:33 pm
Thank you for the reply :)
I can only offer my own suggestion as to how I feel it would work best -
(Using my previous game as the example)
Name - "Bakumatsu Roman Dai Ni Maku...". This is the name of the game written using the English alphabet
Original Name - "幕末浪漫第二幕...". This is the name written in it's original language
Alternative Name - "Last Blade 2". The name the game goes by in other territories.
To use US release Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky as an example that's the other way around (a US title with an alternative Japanese name) -
Name - "Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky"
Original Name - "英雄伝説VI 空の軌跡FC"
Alternative Name - "Eiyuu Densetsu VI: Sora no Kiseki FC"
So I suppose the main thing for me would be to differentiate between "original name" and "alternative name". I'm hardly up to speed with how this place works though so this post may sound ridiculous and/or unworkable :)
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: disgaeniac on September 25, 2012, 01:38:08 pm
Hey there, Kimimi ;D
Fancy meeting you here 8)
Welcome to the site, and, for those who don't already know Kimimi...we are lucky to have this poster here with us!
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: disgaeniac on September 25, 2012, 02:12:49 pm
Bleh --Double-Post-- :-\
Regarding the question (and, somewhat along the lines of Kimimi's suggestion); I'm thinking this:
How about if we had 3 columns/entries?
And, to avoid causing any confusion concerning 'original', alternate', and/or 'foreign language' entries...make it something like this...
A). "English Title":
B). "Foreign Language/Foreign Characters Title": (Be it Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc), and
C). "Romaji/Romanized Title":
Seeing as I don't know anything about the technical-side, practicality, and/or feasability of making something like this actually *WORK*...would this even be do-able?
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: kimimi on September 26, 2012, 01:24:34 am
Thank you for the compliment! :D
Your labelling system is much clearer than the waffle I came up with, I think I could list my games easily with that system :)
The only other possible suggestion I would make would be to allow multiple foreign and romanized names. To use another arcade game I own as an example - "Knights of Valour 2: Nine Dragons" has a total of four alternative official titles depending on the region the game was released in (Japan/Mainland China/Taiwan and lastly a generic Asian release).
Again I have no idea how much work would be involved in implementing this so feel free to ignore if it's too much :)
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: turf on September 26, 2012, 09:12:56 am
I don't have anything to do with the running of this site, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
If you have that many Alt Titles, I would suggest using the comment field. I would say list it by the title of the North American release (assuming you are in NA and the game was released here) and use the alt title field for the most popular title outside of North America. Then, anything else you might want to put in the comment field.
This is just my suggestion. If you go to adding too many fields, Matt's job is going to get really really complicated.
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: kimimi on September 27, 2012, 01:41:39 am
What's the best thing to do for the time being then? I've got about two hundred Chinese & Japanese PC games that need listing! :D
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: disgaeniac on September 27, 2012, 09:46:30 am
What's the best thing to do for the time being then? I've got about two hundred Chinese & Japanese PC games that need listing! :D
I'd say, send a pm to Matt asking him.
I know that I've read that he's been very busy lately --and-- maybe he hasn't had the time yet to see/address/answer this here for you.
I guess that it couldn't hurt if you also sent one to Scott...
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: kimimi on September 27, 2012, 11:27:50 am
Well if they're busy the last thing they need is some woman pestering them about something that everyone else seems to handle just fine, there's no rush ^^~
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: disgaeniac on September 27, 2012, 12:00:43 pm
Well if they're busy the last thing they need is some woman pestering them about something that everyone else seems to handle just fine, there's no rush ^^~
Meh...maybe just save adding those games for later, and start out by adding your more 'traditional' games 1st...that should keep you occupied for a good year or two; right?! :o
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: kimimi on September 27, 2012, 12:24:30 pm
I suppose I could add some things... I just wanted to get it all in "neatly", rather than adding little bits of everything from all over the place - I'm easily confused! :D
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: foxhack on September 27, 2012, 09:07:12 pm
Well if they're busy the last thing they need is some woman pestering them about something that everyone else seems to handle just fine, there's no rush ^^~
What am I, chopped liver? :P
You should add the games. Just use the transliteration of the Japanese name for the main title. Once the alt-title bugs are fixed then you can add the others. I cleaned up the NeoGeo CD JP database this way:
http://vgcollect.com/browse/neogeocdjp
I used the English transliteration of the Japanese title for the main display / searchable name, then added the most common English title as the alternate. -Please do not- add Japanese-region games with the US title as the main name since that would just confuse people searching for the US versions.
If you have other questions feel free to PM me or reply here.
Title: Re: UPDATE: Alt-Title added to game
Post by: kimimi on September 28, 2012, 04:31:01 am
Will do! Sorry for all the trouble - I'm going to finish my coffee and then get started :D