How can we contribute to the Launchbox Games Database? Beta & Moderator Signups!

[DOS76]

How different are the ratings and could we figure out what a certain rating in PEGI would be equivalent with an ESRB rating and still be able to fill in the data. Or maybe like an Asterisk to signify that it is PEGI without having to have a 2nd rating system taking up space in the data.

[FistyDollars]

DOS76 said How different are the ratings and could we figure out what a certain rating in PEGI would be equivalent with an ESRB rating and still be able to fill in the data. Or maybe like an Asterisk to signify that it is PEGI without having to have a 2nd rating system taking up space in the data.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_European_Game_Information#Age_ratings The ages are similar but different enough that I don't know if they'd correspond directly in a meaningful way. Plus, a PEGI 18 rating doesn't carry the same impact an AO rating does from the ESRB.

[DOS76]

How about a small code change LB so it would say ESRB/PEGI and users would just put in the value that applied. I really don't care one way or the other and if the code change to remove the whole line was added instead I wouldn't blink an eye. I'm just throwing out ideas.

[DOS76]

Would it be feasible to have people who are submitting their changes link the mods to citations of the proposed changes.

[Randalf]

DOS76 said Would it be feasible to have people who are submitting their changes link the mods to citations of the proposed changes.

I thought of that a few times yesterday, but the only question I had for myself was, are we going to call the link someone provides a credible source? We are verifying with our own resources (or what may come about from the guidelines anyways)

[DOS76]

When you say our own resources what do you mean.

[Randalf]

The resources when those guidelines come up anyways. I would believe we are right now using common sense and some of the examples mentioned yesterday for sites to use avoiding things such as guesses in our head, some random person making a website donkeykongisawsome.com and put on there it is a first person shooter game

[DOS76]

I see that I was just confused because none of those are our own resources I've been using Wikipedia, Giant Bomb, IGN but mostly Wikipedia but to be honest I didn't know about using the show options in there until someone mentioned it yesterday. I see what you mean about them citing some unknown website but I'm saying if they were to cite their sources from the same credible sources we are using this could save us considerable time in moderating.

[Randalf]

Good points, and those are things I thought of as well thinking this through my head. If that is what happens, then it happens, I don't see it being an inconvenience for sure. I been using what was listed, I used them as examples in the guidelines I offered to have written up. Only once I went to a social media site to get a tie breaker on a rating request. That site was of course, a verified page of the publisher of the game as some of the other better-known sites had no rating for it. Normally I don't like social media sites for some things.

[SentaiBrad]

If a game was never assigned a rating then we don't create a rating for it. If it was K+A then we assign it a K+A rating. If a re-release was assigned a rating then we assign the re-release a rating. My thoughts are that we're not here to rewrite history but to preserve it. We should include all of the rating boards, there are 3. ESRB, PEGI and CERO. All 3 should be adopted for region specific games, but we should not change anything period. Part of our job is to help preserve history not create it, except for creating history for preserving it... if that makes sense.

[Jason Carr]

Thanks guys for all the great feedback. I've created a separate ticketing system here for the LaunchBox Games Database: https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/issues/new Going forward, we'll use this for all bug reports, feature requests, suggestions, etc. I'll need to link to it on the site. Per ESRB vs. PEGI, I plan to add a new field for PEGI at some point soon. Then when you add or change a game, you'll be able to specify one or both. K+A did indeed get renamed to Everyone so we should use Everyone for that rating, as you guys have already concluded. Note that ESRB has a "Not Rated" option, so if you know for a fact that a game was never rated for ESRB (or PEGI once we add it), you can specify that. Otherwise, blank means that the data is missing. @CriticalCid, I just gave you moderator permissions. One more thing I wanted to mention, we will indeed be adding profile pages with badges, etc. I'm already tracking users' changes and moderations so once that stuff is in place you'll definitely get credited for your work and obviously you'll all have an advantage since you're getting started early. Obviously this isn't the biggest priority right now, but the LaunchBox Games Database is going to be much, much bigger than just a games database. I'm going to stop at nothing; we're going to add social feeds, friends, and much more. Long term I'm hoping it can become an incredible social portal for gamers.

[SentaiBrad]

No we should not rename K+A to Everyone. If it was assigned a K+A rating that is what it should be. Preserving history. The E rating didn't exist until a certain point. We should have both, K+A and Everyone, where Everyone is used for games assigned the E rating. Also, don't forget about CERO, we need that rating board implemented too.

[SentaiBrad]

For the record, Jason and I just talked about this: From a usability stand point, I totally agree it should just be E, saves confusion. My stance though is that we are building a Database based on old technology and software, meaning it is inherently Historical. If it is Historical then Historical accuracy and quality should be preserved at all costs. I do agree though that K+A could get confusing. What if there was an addendum for E. So E - Everyone* *E for Everyone used to be K+A - Kids to Adults before the date x-y-zzzz. Thoughts? Should we just keep E, do E and K+A or E with *?

[DOS76]

I love the asterisk idea keeps it simple but lets users that have a historical intrest know that it used to be something else.

[Jason Carr]

Sure, we can add the asterisk concept. That makes sense. Good idea, Brad. :)

[supermario56]

For multiplayer games besides the Max Players, could it be possible to add more information if the game supports simultaneous or alternate players, and have the option in LB to use this data as a filter like in MAME? 2P alt 2P sim 3P alt 3P sim 4P alt 4P sim etc.

[Randalf]

2 barrels up for the asterisk idea. I am all for preserving history too, my thoughts were just what they call it today, I know there is going to be published boxes with those K+A ratings too. I forgot about CERO though, all these systems should get together and be 1 system, but I am sure that won't happen!

[AladdinSane]

I'm interested in helping mod if you are still looking for people. I have a MLIS and my day job is working with product and eCommerce databases, so I might be able to provide some metadata and taxonomy perspectives if you need them. If nothing else, I can help validate and verify data. I'm very excited to see where you guys take this. This is something long needed in the gaming community.

[DOS76]

Any one see the Atari 5200 game Chicken that is up for moderation? Is this even a 5200 game none of the ROM sites I go on have it in their collection of games. I saw something about it being a XL port but is it an official game even? Okay after dong a little more digging I found this post on Atari Age that says it was a new ROM in 2009 and that it had been available on the 128 in 1 5200 multicart I am personally going to rejuct everything about it until we have our hacks, home brew and unofficial ports section going or until we have better established guide lines in what we need to do in this scenario.

[RogueBurger]

Hey, can I ask what the guidelines are / will be for foreign releases (like Japanese versions of international releases)? With all this talk about this db being the "most stable and accurate source for game data available", I hope that goes as far as to include a good system for foreign game metadata. I realize I might be in the minority in wanting region-specific metadata, but it would be nice if the option was there for those of us who would add and use that data. Personally, the things that are important to me are region-specific titles (at least the romaji in the case of Japanese games, but an alternate title with Japanese characters would be lovely too), release date (since this is very often different for international releases), the ability to have different descriptions or at least have somewhere to mention what differences there might be between releases, and different images for each release (box front and back being the most important to me). I don't know if this is on the radar at all for the db, but I just thought I'd add in my thoughts as someone who would make extensive use of and help contribute towards this sort of stuff if it were added.