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Topics - SilverBow

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16
Site Feedback / ESRB-RP Images
« on: January 24, 2016, 05:17:19 pm »
ATTN: Administrators

What is your protocol for dealing with posted NA game images with the ESRB-RP (rating pending) logo? To me they violate the rules, but I need administrative confirmation. Also, I would like all of you to be on board with this decision because, not so long ago, one of you rejected a correct image (and meeting all criteria) to replace an RP one. To avoid confusion, I'm just asking for a ruling and have no other expectations on this matter.*

Recently, I did an image audit for the NDS [NA] section and have a list of the ones that are either non-NA or RP. This was about 3% of the total, and of those, 64% were RP! I will post this list when you settle this matter. When I have time, I plan on doing this for other game types that I’m very familiar with.

On another subject, I would like to recommend that an optional-use field be added to the edit page that could be used by the item editor/creator to cite sources or reasons for certain data entries/changes. Of course this field would be invisible on the item’s display view. I hate having to use the Alt-Name field for this purpose, and because the actual comment is rejected (removed), it adds to my rejection tally. I don’t know, but you guys might keep track a user’s rejection count. Also, I believe a great number of users would appreciate such an addition. Speaking as a former (retired) programmer by profession, this change shouldn’t be difficult to implement.

By the way, does EVERY member of the VGCollect staff read every original post in this “Site Feedback” section? I often wonder about that.

Keep up the great work!

* sentence added after original posting

17
Site Feedback / My Ramblings About Game Titles & Other Things
« on: January 22, 2016, 09:37:41 pm »
There are so many incorrect game titles. After 5 years of researching the matter, these are the common source authorities I and others use to obtain the proper spelling and formatting of game titles. They are listed in order of decreasing reliability:

1. Publisher (your best source but time consuming or impossible sometimes)
    Game's Instruction Manual (sometimes listed INSIDE)

2. http://gamefaqs.com (I contribute to them also)
    https://en.wikipedia.org (info on just about every game created)
    http://metacritic.com/game
    http://ign.com (decades of data)

3. game's artwork (illustrators sometimes get carried away which causes errors, confusion and ambiguity)

4. http://amazon.com (careless naming but good source of release dates)

I know many of you use these sites because I find their distinct errors showing up in some game data fields. So far I’ve edited thousands of games, strategy guides and other items. When I’m not positively sure about something, I may check up to a half dozen sources before I enter and/or correct data. If I can't confirm, I leave it alone. I also back test data such as UPC barcodes and ISBN’s. Rarely, but sometimes, you’ll even discover an incorrect one printed on the artwork.

This is off topic, but here’s a tip about ISBN’s which are primarily used for books (e.g., strategy guides). Our Style Guide requires that they be entered with dashes. This is very difficult to do correctly because publishers have unique formats. Here’s the truly simple and quick solution: http://isbn.org/ISBN_converter. It coverts an IBSN-10 to ISBN-13 and visa versa into its proper format with dashes. Also, you can enter the number to be converted with or without dashes. It flags bad numbers too! ISBN’s are a powerful way to locate a book anywhere in the world.

While I’ve gone astray while writing this, I want to emphasize that UPC numbers are 12-digits long (USA, Canada, et al) and ISBN’s are either 10 or 13-digits. So many users have confused the two and put them into the wrong data field. By the way, ISBN-13 is just the newer format and both return the same result in a search.

One last pet peeve, and I hope an administrator reads this. So many users don’t know the difference between a game’s publisher and its developer. To add to all this confusion, sometimes there's a third party involved, called a distributor. I've seen some prominent sites mistakenly think the distributor is the publisher. Please, write a post to explain the difference or revive an old one if previously done.

That’s enough of my rambling. Kindest regards to all.

18
Video Game Database Discussion / Release Year field for PSP UMD Videos
« on: January 10, 2016, 08:06:05 pm »
For consistency, I would appreciate a ruling regarding the Release Year field for PSP UMD Videos. I recently had some rejections which are listed below. First of all, these are MOVIES. Which information makes more sense: the NA release date of the movie or the useless release date of the UMD? If this was a DVD movie collection, the answer would be obvious. While cleaning/adding to this section, I noticed some original creators understood this concept by adding the year the movie's theatrical release.

Rejections (Since their rejection and for even greater accuracy, I amended a couple of dates to reflect only the NA release year.):

    Ghost in the Shell (1996)
    Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
    The Dark Crystal (1982)
    Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001)
    Predator (1987)
    Men in Black (1997)

Furthermore, many movies are remakes with the same title. If the year is the arbitrary UMD date, how do we distinguish which movie it is, other than resorting to adding the year into the title?

Kindest regards,
'Grumpy' SilverBow

19
Video Game Database Discussion / The Confusing World of Editing
« on: January 09, 2016, 08:33:33 pm »
Recently, as I add entries to my collection, I've been getting rejections of some title (Name) changes. I don't understand the reasons for these rejections because I always use the generally accepted (world-wide consensus) representations of those titles. Furthermore, since I can't identify the person doing the rejection, I can't query them directly. As an example, yesterday I changed the PSP UMD movie title "Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal" to "Dark Crystal, The" which is the universally accepted way of listing by all reputable movie databases, retailers, reviewers, etc. In addition and in all honesty, how many people are going to enter the name "Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal" in a search as opposed to "Dark Crystal"? I thought one of our goals was to facilitate a system that uses common sense and reduces the possibility of duplicates. Need another example? The artwork for the movie UMD "Labyrinth" says "Jim Henson's Labyrinth", but I created it correctly as "Labyrinth". The reviewer hasn't gotten to that yet, and I'm holding my breath.

These unfounded rejections of some of my edits (10,000+ and many more to come) have just started occurring in the last week. My goal has always been to "smooth" out the data and make it more consistent while religiously following the Style Guide. Speaking of which, I've noticed that some long-time members don't adhere to or seem that familiar with this guide.

I'm writing this with the greatest respect for the Administrators, but darn it, now I'm really confused. Also, I'm never comfortable about writing, and I hope I don't have to do it that often. It makes me cringe and puts my stomach in knots. However, I do plan on drafting some proposals in the future, but only when I've completed entering my collection. It's taking a lot more time than I thought because I'm a stickler for detail and accuracy.

Best Regards,
SilverBow

P.S. Please don't make me write again.  ;)

20
Site Feedback / The Dreaded Forward Slash
« on: January 07, 2016, 10:12:29 pm »
Is everyone aware that if a search title contains "/", the search will fail? I suspect this has caused some duplicate entries. Are the programmers aware of this? Can it be rectified? Also, users should be alerted to this anomaly. Otherwise, the search engine is very good, especially if you just use key words or phrases, and then press [Enter]. Comments would be appreciated.

21
Video Game Database Discussion / Define "Launch Edition"
« on: December 09, 2015, 04:44:02 am »
I'm having difficulty trying to figure out what constitutes a "Launch Edition." Would someone please give me a definition. I've never seen this term outside of this site. When is a more expensive, non-standard edition considered a Launch Edition instead of, for instance, a Limited or Collector's Edition? Maybe a definition can be included in the Style Guide.

22
Site Feedback / Where to Submit Site Improvement Suggestions
« on: December 05, 2015, 07:09:10 pm »
I have two great ideas concerning improvements to Editing and Browsing. My concern is how do I get the attention of the relevant administrator. I already posted one suggestion long ago, but it went unnoticed. Any suggestion? PM or post?

23
Video Game Database Discussion / Genre Confusion
« on: November 19, 2015, 06:08:57 pm »
To Whom It May Concern (OR How Do You Direct a Message to the One in Charge of This Site?):

I've been doing quite a lot of entering/correcting of database items. I have to admit that I cringe each time I have to select the "Action" genre for an "Action-Adventure" game. Action-Adventure games comprise 19.2% of my collection. I know this because I have my own personally developed database. The only reason I can think of for denying the inclusion of this COMMON genre, is that it might cause confusion. While editing, I realize that there is already some confusion about game genres.

The most common "Action" subgenres are "Fighting", "Shooter", "Platformer", and some other niche categories (e.g., fast-action strategy).
Most "Shooters" are either "First-Person" or "Third-Person". Furthermore, since you allow "First-Person Shooter", why don't you allow the "Third-Person Shooter" subgenre? The latter, I believe are more common than the former.

It would be very helpful to have a section devoted to genre definitions. You may also want to include a subgenre tree. An excellent source of genre/subgenre explanations and descriptions is Wikipedia.

The last time I posted a message , it disappeared. I hope I have better luck this time. Can anyone tell me how to message someone in charge? Also, what is the "Feed"? How can I access an explanation of how this site works (if that exists)? I'm a newbie, and there doesn't seem to be many menu options. What am I missing?

I would greatly appreciate any help, but since I'm usually very busy, I won't be able to respond (if necessary) right away.

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