Digital games and box text plagiarism

[tripredacus]

The Style Guide has conflicting rules for digital games and box text.

    The Box Text is the synopses that is on the back of the game packaging. This should be written into this field, and no other notes, or descriptions. If the game is a download title from services, such as Steam, XBLA, PSN, GoG.com, etc. Then the synopsis would be found on those service's official pages.
    The Description field should be notes about the games packaging variants/ pack ins/ collector's edition details. Or trivia about the games release, such as if it is a launch title, last title, a very limited release,  etc. This should not be filled with store descriptions describing the gameplay or hyping up the title. Plagiarizing descriptions from other sources will not be tolerated and will be deleted.

and

Digital games lack a traditional box, and so they also lack box text. In this case, we can use the description text from the source as the box text. For example, if I were to add The Simpson's Arcade Game to the database, the box text would be the summary that is listed on Xbox.com.

There are two issues.
1. That no box text should be entered because it can be found on the official site, or you can put the official description into box text.
2. That plagiarizing descriptions from other sources will not be tolerated, therefore the description as it appears on another site is not allowed on the entry.

[ignition365]

I'm gonna go ahead and say that if copying the text directly from the website is considered "plagiarism" then the act of copying the text directly from the box of a physical game is also "plagiarism".

BTW the definition of plagiarism is

the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

We are in no way claiming this text to be our own.

[tripredacus]

We are in no way claiming this text to be our own.

There is nothing to say we are not. I am referring specifically to this as a website issue, not as a general copyright one. Copypasta from another website, in its entirety is known to effect search rank, among other things.

Copying text from a box is a different matter. We clearly indicate that this is text from a box. When it is a digital game, we do not indicate this is text from another website, nor what that website is. It is allowed for a website to take in whole a block of text from another website if it is cited as such. So a digital game would not say "box text" it would say "game description from steampowered.com" or whatever.

Digital games also have a problem where their descriptions can change over time, or be removed entirely. The text on a box can never change. I don't think we need to try to keep the digital game entries up to date with the correct description that is on another website. Instead perhaps in the future, box text can not even be an entry field for a digital game, and instead you can put a link to the store that game is located at instead.

Maybe some other ideas can be put here, aside the plagiarism thing, I think it is the wrong word in the style guide, but it means to take the content from another website, and you are right, there is not a way for us to pretend someone here actually typed it themselves. Unfortunately, the internet doesn't work that way, it is implied that all websites own the content they create unless specified otherwise. You see this all the time when a website gets in trouble.

So we need to determine if we are allowed to use description from another website for a digital game (the plagiarism thing) and if we are supposed to be using Box text field at all (the rule conflict).

[ignition365]

Claiming plagiarism on a cataloging system compiled of group sourced information of factual data is a really unlikely to happen let alone go anywhere.  As it is, the term "box text" implies that the information is sourced elsewhere.  But I agree that the term is inaccurate for digital titles.

On the one hand you could replace the "box text" info with a link to the site, but if the site goes down or the listing removed, having a "backup" of the information is preferential.

Could also use the "description" field as a place to cite sources?  Or put the source information at the bottom of the "box text" entry.  Kind of like a quote.

The other obvious option is to put a disclaimer on the website stating that it's all info is group sourced information.

[rayne315]

you could copy/paste the description as well as put a direct link in the description of where you got it. even if it changes over time you are still citing the original location it was pulled from.

[desocietas]

IMO, it's a bit nitpicky as the description field's mention of plagiarism was more aimed at preventing people from taking info from things like press releases and commercial sources that tend to "hype" up a game. We want the description box to be very factual and more about details that help identify the particular variant. I personally don't think it should be used to reference anything else but the game itself (so I'd rather it not be used to cross-reference the box text field).

I understand and agree that the "box text" for digital games can change often, especially on platforms like Steam, so if we really want to be picky about it, we can include some sort of in-line citation.

For example:

You are bread. Your mission, become toast! Take on all hazards to deliciousness as you head on an epic adventure in one of the the toughest games ever baked. All of the game modes (including Bagel Race) are now unlocked so there's sure to be something to suit everyone's taste! (http://store.steampowered.com/app/327890/, retrieved March 29, 2017)

This, of course, is a lot to ask of folks, imo.

[tripredacus]

My personal feelings are that for digital games, Description should be for where the game is available from (if in the general category), if the game is not available anymore, what controllers or hardware it supports, languages, etc. Then the Box Text can be the short description from that site's game page. Like for Steam, there is a short description under the small banner on the top right.

But either way, URLs should not be in either field.