Amiibo & others listings

[soera]

That's kinda why I suggested having a subcategory for each brand. For example if we had an Amiibo category we wouldn't have to add the word Amiibo to the end. We could have an entry Bowser - Super Smash Bros. and Bowser - Super Mario Bros (or whatever that new series is called). In either case we should have some kind of outline on the official style sheet on how to proceed with these NFC figures.

The majority of our users are not forum regulars. They will most definitely search for the word "Amiibo" when looking for them. It has to be included.

As much as I agree with the tossing of the regions for the figures, like soera was saying, there's some ppl who want to collect the different region packages. I could care less personally.
On a similar topic: I keep seeing people use region brackets on console accessories like controllers. Controllers for the most part will work anywhere. The only difference is the packaging.

You yourself explained what I was saying. Interactive figures are just like controllers. They will work anywhere and the only difference is the packaging.

[soera]

I definitely agree w/ subcategories. I don't think it would be too involved to separate them into Amiibo / Skylanders / Disney Infinity.

With that comes Amiibo (NA), Amiibo (EU), Amiibo (JP), etc ... one for every single region, one for every different game. Its overkill. I still stick with what I said that its already too much to have each region for interactive figures as they are identical once opened.

[soera]

SSB is only the initial game that Amiibo are going to be accessible on and as such, no reason to include the name. I cant imagine anyone is going to look for them by typing in "Super smash bros Wii U Amiibo Mario" and instead just searching "Amiibo Mario".

Now they have the game name in the title in parentheses and I'm wondering if that's the new policy or if a staff member just accepted the edits without discussing it since they all appear to be title edit submissions by a fairly new user. That leads me to my next question, something I've been wondering for a while: how many staff members are there and who are they? Does each person have a specific role? I've been visiting the site on and off for years but have no idea if the full staff is listed somewhere on the site. I realize some have admin in their forum profile, though I'm not seeing a way to pull up all the forum users (and perhaps sort by their profile title).

I will say that I did not accept the edits. I can see a little bit of why they were done (why Nintendo decided to release yet another form of Mario/Bowser/Etc for another game is mind boggling and as such they are different figures with different poses and different compatibility).
Staff members. Matt is the top dog followed by Scott. The rest of us are admin who do things like merge topics, approve edits, etc. There is no one who has their own section other than Matt and Scott. The edits come to us on an additional section and the list is limited in size on what is available so that the first ones must be accepted/rejected before we have access to any others. So to wait for someone who is in charge of one area to accept theirs so that I could access whatever my area was is not feasible.

[pacpix]

I accepted those edits as it seemed like a logical way to differentiate between the Amiibo variants of the same character, and as Soera said we cannot just leave it for another admin to address.  I guess that raises the question though, how exactly do we want to address the variations?  I am fine with the parentheses method personally, but not sure how everyone else feels about it.

[karyann]

they are different figures with different poses and different compatibility.

From what I know, they will all have the same compatibility, but can only hold the data of one game at a time. I would compare that to Skylanders from a same generation but with a different variant, I guess (like Molten Hot Dog or Phantom Cynder which do the same thing as Hot Dog or Cynder, but look different).

I still stick with what I said that its already too much to have each region for interactive figures as they are identical once opened.

For what it's worth, I agree too that figures are all the same once opened. Would it be a good idea to revert to a "universal" category "Interactive Figures" without a region, and just add the "cover variant" for a region in the title?
For example, Pikmin 2 and the Canadian cover variant:
http://vgcollect.com/item/2233 and
http://vgcollect.com/item/35107

Except it would be NA/EU/JP/whatever. Just my two cents / idea on the subject.

[argyle]

OK, I'm resurrecting this bad boy.

Now that interactive figures are in full swing and we're dealing with 4 full-fledged brands (amiibo, Lego, Skylanders & Disney) having them all lumped together looks extremely cluttered when browsing my collection - not to mention it defeats one of the main purposes of keeping my collection here, which is making it easy to *quickly* look & see what I already have. So I would like to re-address the topic of sub categories for each of the major brands. Looking back over the thread, I see that regions was one of the issues why this wasn't done but I don't see why you can't have one without the other. If someone REALLY cares about specifying what region their figure is from then that's what the notes field is for, right?

So what are everyone's thoughts on this a year later? Is there any logical reason at this point not to create sub categories?

[desocietas]

Sub-categories sound fine to me, breaking them down into the 4 franchises or whatever. Did anyone have an issue with denoting region in the title, similar to what we do for other items?

[argyle]

Sub-categories sound fine to me, breaking them down into the 4 franchises or whatever. Did anyone have an issue with denoting region in the title, similar to what we do for other items?

Well it was brought up that it would overly complicate things, especially considering that the figures are identical across regions once they're removed from their packaging. I am neutral on that point, I can see both sides of the issue.

[desocietas]

Sub-categories sound fine to me, breaking them down into the 4 franchises or whatever. Did anyone have an issue with denoting region in the title, similar to what we do for other items?

Well it was brought up that it would overly complicate things, especially considering that the figures are identical across regions once they're removed from their packaging. I am neutral on that point, I can see both sides of the issue.

True, I can see that. I personally keep all my amiibo in its packaging, so it's obvious to me, but it's a good point about them being the same once opened.

[badATchaos]

... it's a good point about them being the same once opened.

Same with most controllers. lol

I can understand wanting to differentiate western Super NES games from Japanese Super Famicom because the packaging is drastically different in most cases. Amiibo on the other hand has practically identical packaging worldwide. The only change being language and maybe a couple bundle varieties. I can't speak much for the other brands though.  As with controllers, they're more or less all the same out of their packages, and region free too.

I would not be against the idea of compacting all the Amiibo into one comprehensive subcategory. At the same time I can sympathize with the more ADHD collector who has to keep the regions divided.

[Flashback2012]

Nice. I've been waiting for this subject to resurface. 

As someone who's put a decent amount of work into the Interactive Figures category, I would LOVE to see sub-categories for each of the major lines. As far as how complicated the sub categories get, I don't think it's really necessary to break it down by country like most of the other categories are.

Instead of this as subcategories like this...

Amiibo Figures [EU]
Amiibo Figures [JP]
Amiibo Figures [NA]

I think it would be easier if we did something along these lines where the figure entries themselves denoted their origin...

Rosalina & Luna (Super Smash Bros. Series) (AU)
Rosalina & Luna (Super Smash Bros. Series) (EU)
Rosetta & Chiko (Super Smash Bros. Series) (JPN)
Rosalina & Luna (Super Smash Bros. Series) (NA)

I would think this way it's less complicated and no more annoying than dealing with something like this...

Mortal Kombat X
Mortal Kombat X - Limited Edition
Mortal Kombat X - Deluxe Collector's Edition
Mortal Kombat X (Greatest Hits)

Me personally I would break down the section down like this

Interactive Figures
Amiibo Accessories (for things like stands/displays/carrying cases/etc)
Amiibo Animal Crossing Cards
Amiibo Figures
Disney Infinity Accessories (for things like stands/displays/power discs/playsets/carrying cases/etc)
Disney Infinity Figures
LEGO Dimensions Accessories (see above)
LEGO Dimensions Figures
Pokemon Rumble U NFC Figures
Skylanders Accessories (stands/bags/playsets/traps/special items)
Skylanders Figures & Vehicles

[pacpix]

^
I kind of like that idea.  Part of the point of VGCollect is listing every variant, but I can see the argument of not wanting to break down the interactive figures into multiple regions.  Denoting it in the title would ensure that the variations could still be added to the site, while keeping the amount of interactive figure categories relatively small.

[desocietas]

Ah, I did recall one thing about the regional differences as some figures are only available in packs while available individually in another region.

If I'm not mistaken, this was the case for KK Slider, no? In NA, he's only available in the 3-pack while his Japanese counterpart is available as a single pack.

While, yes, they might not be different once you open the package for either, there might be collectors like me who keep their figures in their boxes as a collectible and having the regional variant would be useful.

Also, Flashback, I like your breakdown a lot

[rayne315]

So I have a question regarding region of open amiibos. Isnt their text on the bottom of open amiibos bases to that can give you a rough idea of where they came from?

[karyann]

Me personally I would break down the section down like this

Interactive Figures
Amiibo Accessories (for things like stands/displays/carrying cases/etc)
Amiibo Animal Crossing Cards
Amiibo Figures
Disney Infinity Accessories (for things like stands/displays/power discs/playsets/carrying cases/etc)
Disney Infinity Figures
LEGO Dimensions Accessories (see above)
LEGO Dimensions Figures
Pokemon Rumble U NFC Figures
Skylanders Accessories (stands/bags/playsets/traps/special items)
Skylanders Figures & Vehicles

You have my vote on this. I find it pretty useless to separate regions into their own category, and I do agree that simply specifying it in the title is clean enough for them.

These categories sound pretty complete to me.