VGCollect Forum
VGCollect Site Stuff => Video Game Database Discussion => Topic started by: khaz on April 06, 2014, 09:12:02 am
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The Disney games in the database have an inconsistent naming convention. Some of them start with "Disney's", while the others don't, sometimes for the same title on different platform! (Search for Aladdin and The lion king for examples) What is the consensus?
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Basically whatever it says on the box is what it should be titled as.
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I wish there was an inner-cover indica, like on a comic. It would eliminate any confusion. But I totally understand what he's saying. And "what's on the box" really doesn't help the situation. Many times it will say "Disney" above the game title, but I personally think that's just because they want to stick the Disney logo there for it being a Disney a product, and it's not intentionally supposed to be part of the actual game title.
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When we first started, I figured it should have been "Disney's Aladdin", "Disney's Lion King" and such. But now I look back and think "We never call the NES games "Disney's DuckTales", it's just "DuckTales"."
So I'm really leaning toward the idea of dropping Disney from the titles.
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What do you think about Tom Clancy's?
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Not to add to the confusion, but some of the Genesis games (Beauty and the Beast) don't even say Disney or Beauty and the Beast on the spines. :-X
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I usually go by what's used on various sites like Wikipedia or the official game sites.
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Yeah I could understand and agree with dropping Disney.
What about Sid Meier or Tom Clancey?
Oh god than there's John Romero's Daikatana. haha "John Romero's about to make you his b*tch."
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And that's where the double edged sword comes into play...
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What do you think about Tom Clancy's?
Game Stop employee here. This is a topic of interest to me. As a collector and someone who obsessively alphabetizes things it drives me crazy that games in a series or family aren't standardized within our (GameStop's) system. Tom Clancy is a perfect example. Games like Hawx are in our system as "Tom Clancy's Hawx" and Tom Clancy's Hawx 2", but Rainbow Six Vegas and Vegas 2 do not have the TC in front of them. To make matters worse, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1 and 2 do not have the TC but Ghost Recon Future Soldier does, so it's not even standardized within the same series! That's my GameStop rant of the day...
On my shelf the Tom Clancy Games are all together but my Disney games are not. All the Tom Clancy games have a solid color spine and say "Tom Clancy's" prominently so they look good together. Disney has a longer history and variety and a looser affiliation with some of the games.
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Here is my take on it (basically fits what Scott said). If the game is generally pronounced with that word, then it should be there. Ill use the Hawx game for example. If its normally called Tom Clancy's Hawx, it should at least have the Tom Clancy part in the alternate title. Tony Hawk games almost always are pronounced with his name on them so that is how they should be filed.
Disney games are, almost without fail, said without mentioning the word Disney so we should remove the Disney part from the main tag. If you want to add Disney to the alternate title, do so.
If you guys get bored and want to send in edits on these, Ill approve the changes.
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Here is my take on it (basically fits what Scott said). If the game is generally pronounced with that word, then it should be there. Ill use the Hawx game for example. If its normally called Tom Clancy's Hawx, it should at least have the Tom Clancy part in the alternate title. Tony Hawk games almost always are pronounced with his name on them so that is how they should be filed.
Disney games are, almost without fail, said without mentioning the word Disney so we should remove the Disney part from the main tag. If you want to add Disney to the alternate title, do so.
If you guys get bored and want to send in edits on these, Ill approve the changes.
OBJECTION!
See here (http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/walt-disney-games). And here (https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/vAgFN3JS12eDiQzJoCm9X7c00EaCzn-X).
I still say we go with the official titles as given by the publishers. Including the Disney word.
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Chicken Little I would argue with you ... Ive never heard anyone call that cartoon Disney's Chicken little. The infinity game Ill give you. Its one of the few that Disney is always mentioned when someone talks about it. Just like Disney Universe. But a lot of those ones in that list dont even list the word Disney in them. Pirates of the Caribbean, WALL - E, etc.
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Its sort of like the same thing with Activision. They literally put there name above every title they released yet when you think of Call of Duty, does anyone call it "Activision's Call of Duty" ?
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Its sort of like the same thing with Activision. They literally put there name above every title they released yet when you think of Call of Duty, does anyone call it "Activision's Call of Duty" ?
Activision doesn't use that in their copyright notices in their site. Activision itself doesn't call it "Activision's Call of Duty." Where the heck did you see that? It's not the same situation at all since Disney uses the "Disney's" thing in their movies and TV shows. It's a brand (especially with titles that are just one or two common words) and they have to add that as their copyright thing.
You can't just go all or nothing. Some games use the Disney's title and some don't.
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I usually go with whats on the side of the box.
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I didnt say all or nothing. That was never mentioned. I said if its mentioned in the actual pronunciation, then it should be listed (such as Disney's infinity or Disney Universe) but games like Duck tales, Chip and Dale's, Kingdom hearts, etc the Disney part shouldnt be listed. It gets too complicated then and all cluttered up which in turn creates multiple unnecessary listings for games.
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Bumping this really old thread because I just ran into this issue again. Dreamworks does the same thing as Disney in putting their logo above everything. I submitted an edit for the Wii version of Monsters VS Aliens that is listed as Dreamworks Monsters VS Aliens (and it's the only platform out of the 50 that game released for that's listed like that, fwiw) and it was shot down. Any way we can get this added to the style guide to help cut down confusion? I agree with the "if the brand is not normally used when referring to the title" rule, and I defy you to find someone who calls that movie "Dreamworks Monsters VS Aliens". :P
I'm re-submitting the edit btw. ;)
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The use of Disney's as a title prefix on this site sets a precedent concerning how games are to be named. As noted elsewhere, the Disney's prefix is always on the title logo. So if we are to use this naming convention, it must be used in all cases and not just Disney items. As such, Dreamworks Monsters vs Aliens is how the name should be displayed.
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It isn't a precedent because a ton of Disney titles are NOT listed that way. And if you do a search for Monsters vs Aliens you'll see that every single other platform entry omits the "Dreamworks".
Anyway, I figured if I kept submitting it whoever was rejecting it would look here eventually. ::)
EDIT: No one in their right mind would look for "Dreamworks Monsters vs Aliens" when looking for the game in their library. Not only that, but the Dreamworks is clearly just part of the logo because it's barely legible.
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"whoever was rejecting it" is not really meaning that there is just one person who is rejecting an edit. There are quite a few of us that look at the edit queue, and different people during weekday vs weekend, etc. I came to this thread after seeing the edit just to post.
Also, I also think that we need to determine the proper way for these titles. I have posted some ideas about it before. For now, we should use complete titles as shown on box front if possible. Until we have a set rule in the style guide, I will reject any edits that remove valid title information, based on that guideline. But of course, since there is no set rule as of yet, I am also not about to go and edit all the db entries to put in their full titles.
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I still maintain that it's not part of the title at all, but since I'm not an admin I obviously have no say. Not worth my time arguing it further, I'll just leave these here:
https://www.amazon.com/Monsters-vs-Aliens-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B001PKHRSW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471275460&sr=8-1&keywords=monsters+vs+aliens+wii
http://www.gamestop.com/wii/games/monsters-vs-aliens/73723
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsters_vs._Aliens_(video_game)
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It's something that's been brought up in the staff forum as well and a consensus hasn't been reached yet. The style guide needs a revamp in general, so I'm hoping this topic will be addressed in the new revision.
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I still maintain that it's not part of the title at all, but since I'm not an admin I obviously have no say. Not worth my time arguing it further, I'll just leave these here
We are not in disagreement about the titles. Being an admin doesn't mean that we get to make up the rules as we go. This site is for everyone, so we would try to get input from everyone before making a decision. Of course, some people will feel more strongly about things than others, and not everyone can agree on everything, but we will try to make it so everyone can be happy if possible. So you definately have a say in how things are done.
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So you definately have a say in how things are done.
Tripredacus is definitely right about this. We're a community-driven site - without our users, the database would be nothing! Many of the admin are active in the forums and see requests and concerns and definitely keep these in mind when looking at how things can be tweaked/improved/clarified.
If anything, if search is indeed searching through alt-titles properly now, that might also assist with the naming convention decisions.
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Bumping this really old thread because I just ran into this issue again. Dreamworks does the same thing as Disney in putting their logo above everything. I submitted an edit for the Wii version of Monsters VS Aliens that is listed as Dreamworks Monsters VS Aliens (and it's the only platform out of the 50 that game released for that's listed like that, fwiw) and it was shot down. Any way we can get this added to the style guide to help cut down confusion? I agree with the "if the brand is not normally used when referring to the title" rule, and I defy you to find someone who calls that movie "Dreamworks Monsters VS Aliens". :P
I'm re-submitting the edit btw. ;)
It's not just Disney and DreamWorks but companies like Nickelodeon as well as well as games in the Tom Clancy universe. I was the one who submitted the change in the name to "DreamWorks Monsters VS Aliens" and I believe the reason I did was because to fix the spelling of DreamWorks (I believe the original listing had it as "Dreamworks"; I also fixed the vs. to VS). I saw that the Alt-Name field was already populated with Monsters vs. Aliens so I figured someone had already covered the base in regards to the whole "Correct Whole Title" and "Popluar Referred To Name" for that entry. :P
Incidentally, I went through Wii [NA] a little while back to fix it up as I saw lots of entries lacking front box art. Of course, it wasn't so simple to just add in box art, if I found other fields lacking info, I would try my best to hunt down the information and put it in. In the process of fixing entries up, I got hung up on a couple of titles that had company names in the title or other such text. Trip can attest to this as I was pestering him over the naming conventions of the Wii Last Airbender game. ;) He basically told me the same thing in that it's not set in stone within the Style Guide but the entry's name should reflect how it appears on the box. I felt that was a satisfactory answer and left it at that. Of course I haven't been back to fixing up the Wii [NA] section (the urge to fix up sections comes and goes :P) so I can see how it would look off-kilter if some of the DreamWorks games employed the full title whereas others did not.
I'm glad this came up though as I wouldn't mind a clarification added to the Style Guide for these titles. I would love to see the game listed as it appears on the box but at the same time I'm in agreement with you that no one really goes around referring to the game with the company moniker in front. One solution might be to state in the style guide that the name the game appears as in the database is how it is popularly referred to and then change the the wording for the Alt-Name field to something like Alternate Name/Full Title Name or whatever.
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So it is made aware, this is what I think about the matter:
Game titles should be the common name. So Duck Tales and not Disney's Duck Tales. Rainbow Six and not Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.
Then have additional name fields for
- Full game title if different (as shown on box front)
- Spine title if different (a lot of games have different spines vs front names)
- Alt title (as it exists today)
It would solve this problem, as then each entry would have a place to put those 3 types of info (game front title, spine title, common title) that everyone always battles over. But maybe someone else will have an idea of how to do it, and if they do they should post about it too.
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Sorry guys (esp. tripredacus), I've been ill about completely unrelated things today and I think I let it out here a little. :-\
I wouldn't be hanging around as long as I have been nor be as involved as I try to be around here if I didn't like the community & think everyone was pulling towards a common goal.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback. I agree that "commonly used name" should win out. One of the main things I use the db for is to see if I have a game or not already when I'm at a store (I use the app quite a bit). And I would not think to look in the "D's" for Monsters vs Aliens, so I'd be likely to buy it again. Y'know, if we hadn't had this big discussion about it because it will probably stick in my mind now. ;)
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Sorry guys (esp. tripredacus), I've been ill about completely unrelated things today and I think I let it out here a little. :-\
I wouldn't be hanging around as long as I have been nor be as involved as I try to be around here if I didn't like the community & think everyone was pulling towards a common goal.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback. I agree that "commonly used name" should win out. One of the main things I use the db for is to see if I have a game or not already when I'm at a store (I use the app quite a bit). And I would not think to look in the "D's" for Monsters vs Aliens, so I'd be likely to buy it again. Y'know, if we hadn't had this big discussion about it because it will probably stick in my mind now. ;)
this is vvvv true and is something that people should take into consideration... it's pretty common for those of us using this site or the app to check for when we buy games... for people like me with only coming up on 300 games, it isn't so hard (my only confusion comes from when i owned a game, then sold it and forgot to rebuy), but for t hose with 1000+, it becomes problematic.
this site is not simply a show-off tool, it's an organisation tool for us... on the go or otherwise. even for minor things (ie, someone who buys a second bookshelf for games... which will be me soon lmao, but they decide to organise and use this site to help them organise those shelves faster than stacking in alphabetical order on their own)... then the wrench of DREAMWORKS blahblah or DISNEY blahblah is tossed in there but they'd never fucking call it disney/dreamworks blah blah but simply blah blah.
i mean, ultimately, it depends on what this site is really supposed to be used for, i guess?
but i imagine it would also just save admin time because then you guys don't have to deal with 100 fucking duplicate entries because someone didn't realise [game] was listed under DISNEY'S [game]
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this is very true and is something that people should take into consideration... it's pretty common for those of us using this site or the app to check for when we buy games... for people like me with only coming up on 300 games, it isn't so hard (my only confusion comes from when i owned a game, then sold it and forgot to rebuy), but for t hose with 1000+, it becomes problematic.
this site is not simply a show-off tool, it's an organization tool for us... on the go or otherwise. even for minor things (ie, someone who buys a second bookshelf for games... which will be me soon lmao, but they decide to organize and use this site to help them organize those shelves faster than stacking in alphabetical order on their own)... then the wrench of DREAMWORKS blahblah or DISNEY blah blah is tossed in there but they'd never fucking call it Disney/DreamWorks blah blah but simply blah blah.
i mean, ultimately, it depends on what this site is really supposed to be used for, i guess?
but i imagine it would also just save admin time because then you guys don't have to deal with 100 fucking duplicate entries because someone didn't realise [game] was listed under DISNEY'S [game]
I'm closing in on 5K items so having access to this site remotely is a Godsend to help me figure out what I do/don't have. The ole memory doesn't work as good as it used to and even with the help of this site and a personal spreadsheet, I still find myself picking up dupes now and again. :P
Anyway, Trip basically outlined what is probably the best way to fix this...
So it is made aware, this is what I think about the matter:
Game titles should be the common name. So Duck Tales and not Disney's Duck Tales. Rainbow Six and not Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.
Then have additional name fields for
- Full game title if different (as shown on box front)
- Spine title if different (a lot of games have different spines vs front names)
- Alt title (as it exists today)
It would solve this problem, as then each entry would have a place to put those 3 types of info (game front title, spine title, common title) that everyone always battles over. But maybe someone else will have an idea of how to do it, and if they do they should post about it too.
Though that way would mean mucking with the code of the site to add additional fields for data entry. Not being a programmer, I have no idea how arduous an undertaking that would be but simply put that really would solve the naming conventions for games like these as well as the issue in this thread: http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,7602.0.html (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,7602.0.html)