Please Review These General Site Guidelines

[Tan]

I think we should spend some time discussing how we can increase consistancy within the database. In lieu of the guidelines that are being written vigilance within the staff needs to be at it's peak.

Some of these things have been discussed before so I'll add them here as well as they apply.

1. genre Everyone should do a database search for breakout. I use this one as a easy example of how we need to address Genre classification, which will apply to both hardware and software for new games as well as old. For games with more than one title it may change but even just the breakout titles alone have 3 different genres for the same game. Some of the odd ones are left over from before we had a drop down list to choose from.

2. UPC, Part numbers. some discussion have already taken place as to how to bring order to these. Should we use spaces, slashes, dashes etc to separate numbers or letters that sort of thing.

3. Publisher, Developer Square, Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., Squaresoft is an example we already have in the database. Since it is a searchable field i think we need to work on getting these in order as well. The stranger the name the more varied the variations of it people wil use which means the bigger chance of missing games in searches. Same applies for the Developer field as well. Keeping in mind company name changes, partnerships, regional differences etc.

4. Controller Standard Controller, Dual Shock, dual analog etc. Many variations exist for controllers. We need to nail down some boundaries here, maybe on a system by system basis.

I know this may seem like a lot of work but really it's not. A staffer can edit 10 pages in 5 minutes, a team a whole sub-section or system in less than a week or two. I edited 8 games I found within my own collection in mere minutes. The importance of this will only increase as the site becomes bigger, more staff join and our reputation grows. Once we establish a few working guidelines for consistancy we can have an ongoing thread for any gmes/systems whose info is in question or a staff member is unsure on how to proceed.

Try going into your collections and sorting them by genre or by publisher, you'd be surprised by how many variations there are. Or pick one of the bigger collections on the site and sort by genre or publisher, and see some of the odd standouts that can easily be edited.

Feel free to add anything I've missed and ask questions, I'm sure we'd all like to see plenty of feedback on this as it will only make our database that much better and professional.

[Belgarath]

What is needed is a database of publishers and developers etc., much like how mobygames works, then when a person puts a name in, a list of matches appears which the user can pick from.

It's the only way to have uniformity

[Izret101]

No spaces in UPC - and / only if they are part of thye code.
Sony games as an example of an acceptable -

As for unifying developers and publishers.

The original final fantasy wasn't made by SquareEnix just as the newsest wasn't made by Square. Publishers/developers  names shoulda appear in our database as they did on the game when it was released.
Thats why we have EA, EA Games, EA Sports, EA Sports Big, Electronic Arts, etc, etc

The same goes for Midway, Capcom, Sony, Konami, Universal, Take2/GS(Global Star Software)/Rockstar/2k/2k Sports and many other pub/dev groups that generally get lumped together.

If what you meant was getting rid of instances like EA(correct IMO) vs. E.A. and Acclaim(correct also) vs Aklaim then ok that makes sense and i am all for it

[Tan]

If what you meant was getting rid of instances like EA(correct IMO) vs. E.A. and Acclaim(correct also) vs Aklaim then ok that makes sense and i am all for it

Exactly. Companies change names all the time and I think we've got a good handle on that, It's the Square Soft versus Squaresoft ones we have to work on. Or the Bioware versus Bioware Corp. (proper) ones as well.

We should also encourage the addition of ISBN numbers as well, I usually add them as part numbers but I'm sure some people may think that information isn't relevant or useful to this site.

[St0rmTK421]

We've never had a true set of standards of how entries in the database should be entered, and this was fine when we were a small site, but now that our database is getting to become pretty prominent, it's come back to bite us in the butt.

We should have had guidelines long ago so that these differences wouldn't be a problem, but since a lot of information on the site is from before we started talking about standards, there are a lot of inconsistencies out there. 

The most important step right now is to stop the bleeding and make guidelines to ensure that no more problems are added into the database.  Once we have guidelines, the problems should be contained and we should be able to start correcting them.

As Keith said, correcting shouldn't take that long if we all work together.  Even if you don't have the 5 or so minutes to correct flawed games, at least make a note in the items to be fixed thread so that you or another staff member can correct it later.

[Speedy_NES]

A quick response to the varying publishers...what about creating a database of publishers as a dropdown list?  This way members can click on the dropdown list, then type the first one or two letters to get to the publisher...this way there would be no inconsistencies.  We can still separate EA from EA Sports, and Square from SquareEnix or whatever it is called now.  It will take a while in the beginning to get all the developers and publishers in a list, but it shouldn't be all that bad.  I'd be more than happy to go through all the NES developers for starters.  We can then create a thread here and/or on one of the public forums for publisher/developer submissions (or make a script so that when a new publisher/developer is used in a new game submission or game edit, the reviewer [staff member] can verify the addition and the publisher/developer will be added to the publisher/developer database/list).  What do you guys think of that?

This should also make it possible to make the publisher/developer clickable, which would then list all games released by that developer/publisher (some other sites have this and it's quite useful...not sure how hard it would be to program this?). 

[TraderJake]

Oh, we can do that, and we can also do a developers list. Such a thing could even be developed into it's own databases.

[Belgarath]

Didn't I already say that?

[Tan]

I'm not sure if we need a drop down list but a database does sound cool.

With a drop down list we'd still need a "other" blank, it would have to be constantly updated and people will still confuse similar names or misuse old ones for new games and vice versa.

Imagine a drop-down list this long for each submission, yikes. 

A few ideas on the database. We could have Developers and publishers' pages with the games they have been involved with, history of the company, notable accomplishments, addresses, websites, awards won, employees etc etc. Maybe even corporate logos as images when possible.

[Belgarath]

A dropdown list is a good idea, but it has to be an intelligent one, say it kicks in after typing a few letters and shows a list of possible suggestions.

The way HOL works (amiga database of which i'm also an admin) is each entry field has a little search box next to it, so for example you type in core, click the search box and a little window pops up with with a list of matches, you click the one you want and it fills in the field.

[Izret101]

Oh, we can do that, and we can also do a developers list. Such a thing could even be developed into it's own databases.

I am thinking this sounds like a no guys

There are just WAY to many publishers out there to make the dropbox a feesable idea.

Never mind in the US but the fact that these lists are world wide and cover all gaming platforms including PC makes a list of developers and publishers over the years probably 1/4 as plentiful as the number of games we would be adding lol

[Tan]

I've already begun removing the spaces from between UPC's, and have done 15 so far. I encourage staff members to pick a system and plug away at it and post it here so others know.

Maybe we should mention no spaces for UPC's in the submission FAQ as well, but otherwise keep an eye on new submissions.

I'm working on the Xbox 360 right now and I'll do the Xbox next.

[Tan]

Finished editing the UPC codes for the 360 (all regions), will start the Xbox section tomorrow. Feel free to pick a system and plug away. 

In case your wondering, there was 47 spaced UPC's in the 360 section and it only took 10 minutes to do them. 

Also in case you question the validity of this keep in mind that spaces in the UPC codes screws up database searches which although isn't a search field for members it is for us. So if it's to become a searchable field later on better to clean it up now than later.

[Speedy_NES]

Regarding the UPCs, won't removing the spaces make certain UPCs alike that would otherwise be different?

I.e., some barcodes have an extra number on the left and/or on the right.  If one game or item were to have a barcode "1-23456-78901" it would look the same as an item with the barcode "12345-67890-1" when removing the spaces/dashes.  However, IIRC, the first 5-digit number resembles the company, and the second 5-digit number resembles the particular item/model, and the last 1-digit number is occasionally used for revisions?  I'm not 100% positive on that, but if that is the case, then removing the spaces/dashes would make it seem as tho two items are identical from the same producer and the same model whereas they could be completely different (incase we ever implement a script for creating a UPC etc from numbers in the UPC/barcode field).  Wouldn't it, in that case, be wise to use dashes or something rather than putting the numbers together?  What do you guys think?

[Tan]

Regarding the UPCs, won't removing the spaces make certain UPCs alike that would otherwise be different?

Using a simple 12 digit number is as much for member convienience as it is functional as a search field. Right now we have two types, and since the search function recognizes spaces in between searches are hit or miss at best. We needed to set a standard so the whole database can make use of barcodes/UPC's. I've added at least 200 UPC's of my own to the database with spaces in them, but since that type was only used by a minority even I had to agree it was for the best.

I think it'd be better to have 3 or 4 search results which include the one your looking for than turn up nothing at all.