Release Dates

[The T]

Something that's been bothering/confusing me is Release Dates. Most release dates I'm seeing input are North American (or flat out wrong); but the North American release date is rarely the first region the game was released in. If we only have a single Release Date field, it should probably be the single first release date, regardless of region.

If this isn't to be the case, we should have separate fields for different regions, and ideally the app would have options to select a region, or to automically choose the first-most date.

[neil9000]

2 minutes ago, The T said:

Something that's been bothering/confusing me is Release Dates. Most release dates I'm seeing input are North American (or flat out wrong); but the North American release date is rarely the first region the game was released in. If we only have a single Release Date field, it should probably be the single first release date, regardless of region.

If this isn't to be the case, we should have separate fields for different regions, and ideally the app would have options to select a region, or to automically choose the first-most date.

The database is based on US release and naming. Other region info like alternate names are available, but the priority is essentially English language and specifically US biased. Not that im arguing with you as im actually UK based myself, but it is what it is. Maybe it can be expanded in the future but when we started the database it was 100% US based. If games are only released in Japan or Europe they are still allowed on the database, but if a game is released in all regions then it is the US version that takes the centre stage here.

[The T]

That's really unfortunate, as it makes sorting by release date within the app useless. Games would no longer be sorted in the order they were actually released.

What would we need to do to get this corrected?

[CriticalCid]

1 hour ago, neil9000 said:

The database is based on US release and naming. Other region info like alternate names are available, but the priority is essentially English language and specifically US biased. Not that im arguing with you as im actually UK based myself, but it is what it is. Maybe it can be expanded in the future but when we started the database it was 100% US based. If games are only released in Japan or Europe they are still allowed on the database, but if a game is released in all regions then it is the US version that takes the centre stage here.

Actually, that isn't true. The rules are pretty clear on this. I remember that we had a few discussions about this back when we first established the database rules and the result was that the earliest release date is the best compromise.

With that said, I admit that there are tons of US-based release dates in the database. I'm not sure if it's just a remnant of the old TheGamesDB data, which was the base for the LBGDB, or if some people making up their own rules again and just put the US-region dates in there because they personally prefer it…

Screenshot from the database rules:

[neil9000]

13 minutes ago, CriticalCid said:

Actually, that isn't true. The rules are pretty clear on this. I remember that we had a few discussions about this back when we first established the database rules and the result was that the earliest release date is the best compromise.

With that said, I admit that there are tons of US-based release dates in the database. I'm not sure if it's just a remnant of the old TheGamesDB data, which was the base for the LBGDB, or if some people making up their own rules again and just put the US-region dates in there because they personally prefer it…

Screenshot from the database rules:

Then i guess im mistaken, (i wasnt around here at the beginning, so its likely), but naming has always i thought been US based, so if we are using US names but then using say Jap release dates then that doesnt seem like a good idea either to me. Im probably missing something though, we did use to have a google drive database rule set, but i believe that left when Brad did?

[The T]

That explains it. Guess I'll keep submitting away my corrections.

[CriticalCid]

7 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

Then i guess im mistaken, (i wasnt around here at the beginning, so its likely), but naming has always i thought been US based, so if using we are using US names but then using say Jap release dates doesnt seem like a good idea either to me. Im probably missing something though, we did use to have a google drive database rule set, but i believe that left when Brad did?

I'm sorry for the confusion. My post was only referring to the release dates. As for the names you are 100% right. Now that LaunchBox 11.3 and upwards uses the game title based on the region of your ROMs it even got messier as the publisher, for example, can also differ between regions in a lot of cases. So yeah, it’s just a compromise which could only be solved by adding region-specific data fields.

Yeah, we had a Google doc for it but since then Jason added the rules to the database itself. When you add a new game you have some info-symbols next to every field which tell you the rules for said field. Here's the screenshot again, showing you what I mean:

[neil9000]

35 minutes ago, CriticalCid said:

I'm sorry for the confusion. My post was only referring to the release dates. As for the names you are 100% right. Now that LaunchBox 11.3 and upwards uses the game title based on the region of your ROMs it even got messier as the publisher, for example, can also differ between regions in a lot of cases. So yeah, it’s just a compromise which could only be solved by adding region-specific data fields.

Yeah, we had a Google doc for it but since then Jason added the rules to the database itself. When you add a new game you have some info-symbols next to every field which tell you the rules for said field. Here's the screenshot again, showing you what I mean:

Ha ha, well that shows how much i upload to the database (i have done enough to be moderated there, not that i do) i have never noticed those tool tips, thats my bad i guess for pulling from the database but no submitting to it to often. 

I feel though if we are allowing region names we should also allow region release dates to match them?

[The T]

I went to the "Add New Game" page, and it just gives me "Name" and "Platform"; I don't want to type in fake data in just to get to the next page to see more info, so those tool tips aren't easy to get to...

This is veering off the original topic, but to best help me in adding info, I'm curious about the Game Type field, what it defines "DLC" as; ie, are all download-only games DLC, or is that primarily for something else?

Consider adding these tool tips to the game edit pages...