The Next Project(s)

[Belgarath]

I agree 5 is a good number for the front page, but yes I'd like to see a seperate and more comprehensive stats page, and to reduce server load only have it update once a day rather than dynamically updating.

[TraderJake]

Okay status update.

So, bad news kids, neither Arcades nor memorabilia nor magazines will be the next database. However, there will hopefully be a new database. In an attempt to increase uniformity and conistency in the databases the next database will be manufacturers, developers, and publishers. We hope that this improvement will make life better in terms of consistency, and we could have some neat pages regarding the aforementioned publishers, one that is much more in depth than say at IGN. This change also means that the developer, publisher, and manufacturer fields would all be tied in to this system. So, if you guys want to start a discussion on what this database needs, I'd really appreciate it.

[Tan]

In an attempt to increase uniformity and conistency in the databases the next database will be manufacturers, developers, and publishers.

Distributers should be there as well, not as big as the other three but sometimes the biggest differences in a game come from who distributed it within each sub-region.

Here's a few of the fields I think should be present to get the ball rolling:

name - company name (obviously  )
previously known as - prior to name changes (could possibly link to other pages if say Squaresoft and Square Enix are 2 separate pages.
subsidiary of - if owned by another company i.e. AM2 owned by Sega
based out of/address - where the headquarters or office is located, address etc as well as global HQ if part of a much larger company i.e. Ubisoft Montreal HQ and also Ubisoft global HQ which is in France.
website - official company website
year - the year the company was founded. maybe year closed as well if applicable.
history - company foundings
games accredited to/credits - what they've developed, published, distributed or made.
hardware manufacturured hardware and/or peripherals made

If somehow possible stats on how many listing have their name associated with in the database we have would be neat, as well as images of some kind (logos, company headquarters etc,). One I'm not sure how we could do is employees. They change so often it may be impossible to keep track of them and stay up to date. Though maybe a notable employees past and present could work.

[Belgarath]

I agree with all of Tan's suggestions, and distributors is definitely a must.

You might also want to have their country of origin as well and also known sublabels, like Psygnosis also had a Psyclapse label, and then there's budget labels etc etc.

[Izret101]

games accredited to/credits - what they've developed, published, distributed or made.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That seems like just adding the same content to the website but in a new place.

I think maybe notable titles or sleeper hits or something would be better than a list of all their titles.

Or even the number of titles they are currently accreddited to in our database.

[Fuyukaze]

Had another idea to share.

1.Something I dont remember ever seeing on any site is a field for info on game save size.  Not every game saves the same and some take up more space on harddrives and memory cards.  Not sure if anyone else would want one more field in the database to enter numbers into, but figured maybe it'd be one more way to distance ourselves from the ordinary database of others.

2.As strategy guides could be considered both a mag and extra media concerning a game, what if we simply added scans of them (just the front and back people) to the database as extra media for the titles in question?  I'm not sure if there's a limit to how much can be considered extra content for a game but figured this would atleast help take care of any problems concerning guides.

[TraderJake]

games accredited to/credits - what they've developed, published, distributed or made.

It may show up on a page somewhere, but it definitely will use the games and hardware database to get that information rather than you manually having to enter it.

[Izret101]

Thats what i had meant sorry if i was unclear...

[TraderJake]

I should mention that this thread and your suggestions are critically important. You guys really should make requests if you want something improved or new for the submissions system.

That having been said, today marks the first day of coding for the next project. The first thing up is writing the scripts that will allow a true image search to work.

[OatBob]

Would an extra field for ISBN numbers be of any help to anyone?  I know these are used for books, but sometimes see them listed on games and other software items (it's usually printed just above the barcode).

The only hangup with these is that they're somewhat long to type in for searching or submitting purposes, and not every game has them listed.

[Tan]

Would an extra field for ISBN numbers be of any help to anyone?  I know these are used for books, but sometimes see them listed on games and other software items (it's usually printed just above the barcode).

The only hangup with these is that they're somewhat long to type in for searching or submitting purposes, and not every game has them listed.

I find older games, especially PC ones tend to have ISBN numbers. Nice thing about them is that you can still look most of them up and gets google results as well. I'd be nice if somehow a field for this was available during an edit or submission, but woud only show up on the page if it was used, hidden if not. UPC's would be great the same way.

[TraderJake]

So I've decided to do something risky.... I now list almost everything that is on this whiteboard seen below.
[img width=700 height=525]http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=8.0;attach=1698;image[/img]

So yeah, uh, you know my game plan... ideas, thoughts? Yeah, you can help determine the future of new additions (not related to the collection tools).

[Tynstar]

An edit like on a game/ hardware page for the staff would be awesome if it is possible.

[TraderJake]

You mean those submit info links on hardware / games pages?

This is circuitous, but if you click those links and then change the link in the address bar from submitinfo to [INSERT NAME OF THE STAFF SCRIPT HERE] you'll get the right script.

[Tynstar]

Boy am I blind. Thanks