VGCollect Forum
VGCollect Site Stuff => Video Game Database Discussion => Topic started by: gamingpenguin on February 14, 2015, 04:49:07 pm
-
Hello, I am new here so I just got a few questions. Sorry if these have been answered somewhere but I did try look :)
1) Am I allowed to add items that I don't own? I would like to help out with the database every now and then, But I don't know if we are only allowed to add items in our collection or the idea is to try add as many items as we can even if we don't own them?
2) I have added a few items that were in my collection and when I added them, I couldn't add a developer or publisher unless I edited it afterwards? So I was wondering if this is suppose to be like this or is it just me having the trouble? I don't want to keep adding new items and then changing the developer and publisher after and spamming the admins with it.
3) Why do games that start with 'The' not go in the T for the alphabet? I will use an example, The Sims 3 is in the S and that confuses me a little because I don't call the game Sims, I would call it The Sims so to me that should go in the T section? I am sure there is some logic behind it, but just a little something I noticed that bugs me a little is all.
Thanks for your time, I hope to help the site where I can :)
-
Welcome to VGC!
You can absolutely add items that you do not own...as long as you have all of the correct & relevant information for it; many of us 'contribute' to the site in this way ;D
The publishers & developers fields aren't working 100% correctly, as of now, and - it seems that you've already found the work-a-round for it; nicely done! ;)
Below, I've linked you to our "Style Guide" and - that should help you with your questions about things like the word "The" in a game's title + many other things 8)
http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,22.0.html
Enjoy your stay!!!
-
1) Yes, but double check if the item you're adding is already up in the database. We dont want more work for the admins.
- Follow the Style Guide for adding new entries - http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,22.0.html
2)Currently it's like that. We have just recently added the Developer/Publishers. In due time Matt will hammer these stuff out.
3)In the Style Guide from earlier.
EX from it:
Games that begin with "The" should be written like this:
Legend of Dragoon, The
Secret of Monkey Island, The
Legend of Zelda, The: Ocarina of Time
I dont have a exact reason of why we put "The" at the end with a comma but my guess is to make relevant games go together with the key title like "Legend of Zelda" rather than every single game go to the "T" section because of the word "The".
-
Thank you both for the quick reply and the information :)
I didn't want to come here and start messing things up for anyone, so thanks for clearing it all up for me. I look forward to helping the site, and I shall do my best to stick to the style guide and check to make sure the game isn't there, Don't want to add more work for anyone :)
I am sure the 'The' thing will still bug me but I will get used to it eventually :P
Thanks again its appreciated :)
-
Don't feel too bad about spamming us with edits; That is why we are here :). As long as you follow the Style Guide any contributions to the site are much appreciated.
-
It's standard in English to ignore the words "a, an, and the" when sorting things in alphabetical order.
-
It's standard in English to ignore the words "a, an, and the" when sorting things in alphabetical order.
^^ In other cataloging databases, like libraries, the software recognizes articles like "a," "an," and "the" and automatically "hides" them when items are arranged alphabetically. Keeping words like "the" in the beginning would make the T section difficult to look at -___-
-
1) Am I allowed to add items that I don't own? I would like to help out with the database every now and then, But I don't know if we are only allowed to add items in our collection or the idea is to try add as many items as we can even if we don't own them?
You dont have to own an item to add it to the database as its possible someone else may own it or will own it.
2) I have added a few items that were in my collection and when I added them, I couldn't add a developer or publisher unless I edited it afterwards? So I was wondering if this is suppose to be like this or is it just me having the trouble? I don't want to keep adding new items and then changing the developer and publisher after and spamming the admins with it.
It used to work and when we upgraded the system, a few things were missed/still being worked on. This will be fixed eventually.
3) Why do games that start with 'The' not go in the T for the alphabet? I will use an example, The Sims 3 is in the S and that confuses me a little because I don't call the game Sims, I would call it The Sims so to me that should go in the T section? I am sure there is some logic behind it, but just a little something I noticed that bugs me a little is all.
A, An, And, and The are mostly ignored on anything. Id hate to see the T section if we allowed "the" to be part of it.
-
Thank you guys for the help :)
I will still feel a little bad spamming the admins, but its good to know you won't mind too much :P
It also looks like I need to brush up on my English skills, I didn't realise the words 'a', 'an' and 'the' was ignored, but I can understand the logic behind it, so don't worry I won't add items that begin with 'the' to the T section. :)
It's good to see so many people replied to help and so quickly, was a little unexpected. Is there anything else I should know?
-
Thank you guys for the help :)
I will still feel a little bad spamming the admins, but its good to know you won't mind too much :P
It also looks like I need to brush up on my English skills, I didn't realise the words 'a', 'an' and 'the' was ignored, but I can understand the logic behind it, so don't worry I won't add items that begin with 'the' to the T section. :)
It's good to see so many people replied to help and so quickly, was a little unexpected. Is there anything else I should know?
I wouldn't feel bad about asking questions. Searching the forums might get you some answers as the site has been around since 2011 I believe, but sometimes forum searches don't find exactly what you want. Most of the problems with the game listings are from people who never step into the forums and read the style guide. They just add duplicates and or make title errors. That said, while I go along with the titling here, it's not entirely accurate and I wouldn't want you to assume it is proper English. As desocietas mentioned, some software can ignore articles and alphabetize properly on its own so you will see listings elsewhere that include the article at the start of a title but be alphabetized by the word following the article. However, there are many websites that will incorrectly alphabetize game titles by the article. What is odd about the titling here is sticking the article in front of the subtitle. You mentioned The Sims 3 in your first post and that would be Sims 3, The. Now if you were to enter a Sims 3 listing with a subtitle the VGCollect style guide asks that you write The Sims 3 in the same way and then add the subtitle (ex. Sims 3, The: University Life). To me that's odd, and I'm not sure what the thinking is behind that but maybe someone else can explain the reason for it. I'm not sure if I've inquired about it before and if I did it would have been more than three years ago, and my memory isn't good enough to remember. If you were writing out a list on your own and wanted to remove the article from the front you'd want to write Sims 3: University Life, The.
Although you got responses about the publishers and developers, I'd like to add that the drop down menu that appears when typing a company name isn't going to give you names that are 100% accurate. Those were added primarily by those of us submitting game titles a few years ago. Originally we could add companies when submitting games. Unfortunately, there are many variations on company names and there are also numerous spelling errors in those listings. So when you type a company you might see a few different versions of the same company and there might not even be the exact name you want. I'd recommend selecting the best possible answer since we cannot create new entries. I expect someone will eventually merge them all together correctly. It's a big project as there are many companies and the way it was handled from the start must have led to a huge number of errors. There is a thread where you can request for a company to be added but I'm not sure anyone is checking that yet as I've been waiting 10 days.
-
It's standard in English to ignore the words "a, an, and the" when sorting things in alphabetical order.
^^ In other cataloging databases, like libraries, the software recognizes articles like "a," "an," and "the" and automatically "hides" them when items are arranged alphabetically. Keeping words like "the" in the beginning would make the T section difficult to look at -___-
Wtf?!
You act like you work in a Library, or something; da noive!
You're lucky that we're related, little sis :P
-
Thank you guys for the help :)
I will still feel a little bad spamming the admins, but its good to know you won't mind too much :P
It also looks like I need to brush up on my English skills, I didn't realise the words 'a', 'an' and 'the' was ignored, but I can understand the logic behind it, so don't worry I won't add items that begin with 'the' to the T section. :)
It's good to see so many people replied to help and so quickly, was a little unexpected. Is there anything else I should*Need* to know?
Indeed there is!
Avoid soera! :P
1) Am I allowed to add items that I don't own? I would like to help out with the database every now and then, But I don't know if we are only allowed to add items in our collection or the idea is to try add as many items as we can even if we don't own them?
You dont have to own an item to add it to the database as its possible someone else may own it or will own it.
2) I have added a few items that were in my collection and when I added them, I couldn't add a developer or publisher unless I edited it afterwards? So I was wondering if this is suppose to be like this or is it just me having the trouble? I don't want to keep adding new items and then changing the developer and publisher after and spamming the admins with it.
It used to work and when we upgraded the system, a few things were missed/still being worked on. This will be fixed eventually.
3) Why do games that start with 'The' not go in the T for the alphabet? I will use an example, The Sims 3 is in the S and that confuses me a little because I don't call the game Sims, I would call it The Sims so to me that should go in the T section? I am sure there is some logic behind it, but just a little something I noticed that bugs me a little is all.
A, An, And, and The are mostly ignored on anything. Id hate to see the T section if we allowed "the" to be part of it.
-
Thank you guys for the help :)
I will still feel a little bad spamming the admins, but its good to know you won't mind too much :P
It also looks like I need to brush up on my English skills, I didn't realise the words 'a', 'an' and 'the' was ignored, but I can understand the logic behind it, so don't worry I won't add items that begin with 'the' to the T section. :)
It's good to see so many people replied to help and so quickly, was a little unexpected. Is there anything else I should know?
I wouldn't feel bad about asking questions. Searching the forums might get you some answers as the site has been around since 2011 I believe, but sometimes forum searches don't find exactly what you want. Most of the problems with the game listings are from people who never step into the forums and read the style guide. They just add duplicates and or make title errors. That said, while I go along with the titling here, it's not entirely accurate and I wouldn't want you to assume it is proper English. As desocietas mentioned, some software can ignore articles and alphabetize properly on its own so you will see listings elsewhere that include the article at the start of a title but be alphabetized by the word following the article. However, there are many websites that will incorrectly alphabetize game titles by the article. What is odd about the titling here is sticking the article in front of the subtitle. You mentioned The Sims 3 in your first post and that would be Sims 3, The. Now if you were to enter a Sims 3 listing with a subtitle the VGCollect style guide asks that you write The Sims 3 in the same way and then add the subtitle (ex. Sims 3, The: University Life). To me that's odd, and I'm not sure what the thinking is behind that but maybe someone else can explain the reason for it. I'm not sure if I've inquired about it before and if I did it would have been more than three years ago, and my memory isn't good enough to remember. If you were writing out a list on your own and wanted to remove the article from the front you'd want to write Sims 3: University Life, The.
Although you got responses about the publishers and developers, I'd like to add that the drop down menu that appears when typing a company name isn't going to give you names that are 100% accurate. Those were added primarily by those of us submitting game titles a few years ago. Originally we could add companies when submitting games. Unfortunately, there are many variations on company names and there are also numerous spelling errors in those listings. So when you type a company you might see a few different versions of the same company and there might not even be the exact name you want. I'd recommend selecting the best possible answer since we cannot create new entries. I expect someone will eventually merge them all together correctly. It's a big project as there are many companies and the way it was handled from the start must have led to a huge number of errors. There is a thread where you can request for a company to be added but I'm not sure anyone is checking that yet as I've been waiting 10 days.
I didn't realise the site had been around for so long, pretty impressive. :), I am glad I came to the forums, I don't like causing problems, So if I see anything incorrect I shall do my best to correct it. Thanks for letting me know its not entirely accurate, it's the first time I have came across items being in alphabet order but without using the word 'the', so to me the whole thing is a little odd. I have my games sorted so that ones that begin with 'the' are in the 'T' section, I can understand where you coming from with what you find odd about it, so you're not the only one :P, That being said it might seem a bit odd to me, but I can go along with it also. I will get used to putting 'the' in a different place eventually and if I don't it shall always be odd to me. :) I can't say that I noticed the different variations in the drop down menu, but I will keep an eye out for it, so thanks for the heads up. I will also check out the thread you mentioned :)
Speaking of the Developers and Publishers, I put a book up and the Developers and Publishers fields was there? Shouldn't Developer say 'Writer'?, because I put the writer in that field and I don't know if that was correct? Also there was a paperback, and hardcover version of the book so should it say 'name of book (paperback)' or 'name of book- paperback? Sorry for all the questions, but you guys have been a huge help so far :)
Thank you guys for the help :)
I will still feel a little bad spamming the admins, but its good to know you won't mind too much :P
It also looks like I need to brush up on my English skills, I didn't realise the words 'a', 'an' and 'the' was ignored, but I can understand the logic behind it, so don't worry I won't add items that begin with 'the' to the T section. :)
It's good to see so many people replied to help and so quickly, was a little unexpected. Is there anything else I should*Need* to know?
Indeed there is!
Avoid soera! :P
1) Am I allowed to add items that I don't own? I would like to help out with the database every now and then, But I don't know if we are only allowed to add items in our collection or the idea is to try add as many items as we can even if we don't own them?
You dont have to own an item to add it to the database as its possible someone else may own it or will own it.
2) I have added a few items that were in my collection and when I added them, I couldn't add a developer or publisher unless I edited it afterwards? So I was wondering if this is suppose to be like this or is it just me having the trouble? I don't want to keep adding new items and then changing the developer and publisher after and spamming the admins with it.
It used to work and when we upgraded the system, a few things were missed/still being worked on. This will be fixed eventually.
3) Why do games that start with 'The' not go in the T for the alphabet? I will use an example, The Sims 3 is in the S and that confuses me a little because I don't call the game Sims, I would call it The Sims so to me that should go in the T section? I am sure there is some logic behind it, but just a little something I noticed that bugs me a little is all.
A, An, And, and The are mostly ignored on anything. Id hate to see the T section if we allowed "the" to be part of it.
Why avoid soera? :P
-
THE SOERA exists solely to wreak havoc & spread chaos -
- imagine, if you will, a "5th Horseman of the apocalypse"...that has eaten, drained, & sucked out every last bit of spirit + strength of the other four...feasting on & growing stronger, baser, and more appalling with each and every last whisp of the other 4's life essence as he inhales & consumes all that they have - thriving & nourishing his own black soul - and then, far from satiated & content with what he has wrought...he turns, tilts his head to the side - chuckling to himself maniacally - and sets his baleful & depraved empty gaze on you. Alas! It is now too late :'(
It is written, and it is ever thus; look ye too deeply into THE SOERA - and THE SOERA will look back into you.
Oh, assuredly - the lone certainty is that, wherever he has passed...there will be naught but despair, desolation, and the shattered & fragmented remnants of flotsam & jetsom...the last & shattered rays of peace, hope, serenity, and all that ever was good, pure, innocent, benign, & white in the world left in his hellish wake...to know THE SOERA, is to know despair. :-\
...in a nutshell :P
-
I would imagine a million edits that the mods can choose whether to accept or not is easier and nicer for them to manage then making a bunch of dupe entries.
-
What is odd about the titling here is sticking the article in front of the subtitle. You mentioned The Sims 3 in your first post and that would be Sims 3, The. Now if you were to enter a Sims 3 listing with a subtitle the VGCollect style guide asks that you write The Sims 3 in the same way and then add the subtitle (ex. Sims 3, The: University Life). To me that's odd, and I'm not sure what the thinking is behind that but maybe someone else can explain the reason for it. I'm not sure if I've inquired about it before and if I did it would have been more than three years ago, and my memory isn't good enough to remember. If you were writing out a list on your own and wanted to remove the article from the front you'd want to write Sims 3: University Life, The.
The reason why "the" comes after the game and before the subtitle is so that the base game comes before all the expansions. For example:
Sims 3, The
Sims 3, The: 70's, 80's and 90's Stuff
Sims 3, The: Pets
Sims 3, The: University Life
vs
Sims 3: 70's, 80's and 90's Stuff, The
Sims 3: Pets, The
Sims 3, The
Sims 3: University Life, The
Hope that helps explain it!
-
What is odd about the titling here is sticking the article in front of the subtitle. You mentioned The Sims 3 in your first post and that would be Sims 3, The. Now if you were to enter a Sims 3 listing with a subtitle the VGCollect style guide asks that you write The Sims 3 in the same way and then add the subtitle (ex. Sims 3, The: University Life). To me that's odd, and I'm not sure what the thinking is behind that but maybe someone else can explain the reason for it. I'm not sure if I've inquired about it before and if I did it would have been more than three years ago, and my memory isn't good enough to remember. If you were writing out a list on your own and wanted to remove the article from the front you'd want to write Sims 3: University Life, The.
The reason why "the" comes after the game and before the subtitle is so that the base game comes before all the expansions. For example:
Sims 3, The
Sims 3, The: 70's, 80's and 90's Stuff
Sims 3, The: Pets
Sims 3, The: University Life
vs
Sims 3: 70's, 80's and 90's Stuff, The
Sims 3: Pets, The
Sims 3, The
Sims 3: University Life, The
Hope that helps explain it!
Okay. It doesn't seem too important to have the base game first but I'll continue to go along with it anyways :D Would probably be better to enter titles exactly as they appear on a box and create a secondary field used for the alphabetizing but that's a lot of work at this point, and as usual I don't know what programming challenges that would present. It would probably be near impossible to get all the non-forum users to fill in a second box as well.
Speaking of the Developers and Publishers, I put a book up and the Developers and Publishers fields was there? Shouldn't Developer say 'Writer'?, because I put the writer in that field and I don't know if that was correct? Also there was a paperback, and hardcover version of the book so should it say 'name of book (paperback)' or 'name of book- paperback? Sorry for all the questions, but you guys have been a huge help so far :)
I think publisher and developer go across all categories regardless of if they apply. Hardware also says developer/publisher though manufacturer might make more sense. In any case, I don't know what to tell you for books but they generally do have a publisher so that should work. The problem with using a writer's name is that it then creates a company entry as the name of that person. Author could possibly be mentioned in the description box. A staff member will have to weigh in on this one.
-
THE SOERA exists solely to wreak havoc & spread chaos -
- imagine, if you will, a "5th Horseman of the apocalypse"...that has eaten, drained, & sucked out every last bit of spirit + strength of the other four...feasting on & growing stronger, baser, and more appalling with each and every last whisp of the other 4's life essence as he inhales & consumes all that they have - thriving & nourishing his own black soul - and then, far from satiated & content with what he has wrought...he turns, tilts his head to the side - chuckling to himself maniacally - and sets his baleful & depraved empty gaze on you. Alas! It is now too late :'(
It is written, and it is ever thus; look ye too deeply into THE SOERA - and THE SOERA will look back into you.
Oh, assuredly - the lone certainty is that, wherever he has passed...there will be naught but despair, desolation, and the shattered & fragmented remnants of flotsam & jetsom...the last & shattered rays of peace, hope, serenity, and all that ever was good, pure, innocent, benign, & white in the world left in his hellish wake...to know THE SOERA, is to know despair. :-\
...in a nutshell :P
This is ... perfect! :D
-
THE SOERA exists solely to wreak havoc & spread chaos -
- imagine, if you will, a "5th Horseman of the apocalypse"...that has eaten, drained, & sucked out every last bit of spirit + strength of the other four...feasting on & growing stronger, baser, and more appalling with each and every last whisp of the other 4's life essence as he inhales & consumes all that they have - thriving & nourishing his own black soul - and then, far from satiated & content with what he has wrought...he turns, tilts his head to the side - chuckling to himself maniacally - and sets his baleful & depraved empty gaze on you. Alas! It is now too late :'(
It is written, and it is ever thus; look ye too deeply into THE SOERA - and THE SOERA will look back into you.
Oh, assuredly - the lone certainty is that, wherever he has passed...there will be naught but despair, desolation, and the shattered & fragmented remnants of flotsam & jetsom...the last & shattered rays of peace, hope, serenity, and all that ever was good, pure, innocent, benign, & white in the world left in his hellish wake...to know THE SOERA, is to know despair. :-\
...in a nutshell :P
This is ... perfect! :D
Thought ya' might like that ;)
I was thinking of going with something like...a
"the # of the soera";
like "Ask not the number of the soera, for it is a...human number; it's number is 666, or
"We want information. Information! But, I'm not a number - I'm a free man -and- my life is my own,
and wind it all up by
"Hallowing your name",
at "2 minutes to midnight", and concluding with
the soera being a
"Wrathchild" who's "Running Free"; commiting "Murders in the Rue Morgue and
all up & down "Acacia Avenue"...
attempting to become a "Powerslave"
but
dying as he lived - in "the Flash of A Blade...
as his "Wings turn to ashes...to ashes his grave"; so -
"if you're gonna' die, die with your boots on"; and finally...
"Revelations"
who can get the references & how many of them are there; hmm? :P
-
What is odd about the titling here is sticking the article in front of the subtitle. You mentioned The Sims 3 in your first post and that would be Sims 3, The. Now if you were to enter a Sims 3 listing with a subtitle the VGCollect style guide asks that you write The Sims 3 in the same way and then add the subtitle (ex. Sims 3, The: University Life). To me that's odd, and I'm not sure what the thinking is behind that but maybe someone else can explain the reason for it. I'm not sure if I've inquired about it before and if I did it would have been more than three years ago, and my memory isn't good enough to remember. If you were writing out a list on your own and wanted to remove the article from the front you'd want to write Sims 3: University Life, The.
The reason why "the" comes after the game and before the subtitle is so that the base game comes before all the expansions. For example:
Sims 3, The
Sims 3, The: 70's, 80's and 90's Stuff
Sims 3, The: Pets
Sims 3, The: University Life
vs
Sims 3: 70's, 80's and 90's Stuff, The
Sims 3: Pets, The
Sims 3, The
Sims 3: University Life, The
Hope that helps explain it!
Okay. It doesn't seem too important to have the base game first but I'll continue to go along with it anyways :D Would probably be better to enter titles exactly as they appear on a box and create a secondary field used for the alphabetizing but that's a lot of work at this point, and as usual I don't know what programming challenges that would present. It would probably be near impossible to get all the non-forum users to fill in a second box as well.
I can definitely understand that. Having "the" at the end isn't the most elegant way, but it's what we currently have to do since the database isn't currently able to detect articles at the beginning of titles and know to ignore them. If it did, the base game would still appear before all the expansions ;)
Otherwise, we do try to maintain the game titles exactly as they appear on the box. Hopefully one day, the database here will be able to handle words like "the" at the beginning of a title :)
-
I think publisher and developer go across all categories regardless of if they apply. Hardware also says developer/publisher though manufacturer might make more sense. In any case, I don't know what to tell you for books but they generally do have a publisher so that should work. The problem with using a writer's name is that it then creates a company entry as the name of that person. Author could possibly be mentioned in the description box. A staff member will have to weigh in on this one.
I see, I guess that's something that needs a little tweaking?, I will leave out the author for now and just add the publisher. Thanks for the reply :)
THE SOERA exists solely to wreak havoc & spread chaos -
- imagine, if you will, a "5th Horseman of the apocalypse"...that has eaten, drained, & sucked out every last bit of spirit + strength of the other four...feasting on & growing stronger, baser, and more appalling with each and every last whisp of the other 4's life essence as he inhales & consumes all that they have - thriving & nourishing his own black soul - and then, far from satiated & content with what he has wrought...he turns, tilts his head to the side - chuckling to himself maniacally - and sets his baleful & depraved empty gaze on you. Alas! It is now too late :'(
It is written, and it is ever thus; look ye too deeply into THE SOERA - and THE SOERA will look back into you.
Oh, assuredly - the lone certainty is that, wherever he has passed...there will be naught but despair, desolation, and the shattered & fragmented remnants of flotsam & jetsom...the last & shattered rays of peace, hope, serenity, and all that ever was good, pure, innocent, benign, & white in the world left in his hellish wake...to know THE SOERA, is to know despair. :-\
...in a nutshell :P
Haha, I shall keep this in mind, that was a good read :P