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Importing game metadata a bit racist?


adam1972

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Just caught this beauty while showing my young son Mike Read's Computer Pop Quiz... Does it really matter what race is represented?  What color?  Is that a factor in what I should be placing as a value of some kind when looking up game info?  I would've imagined this would've been the last thing anyone would care about when just trying to play a quiz game...  I know I'd be offended if it said (all representing brown/mexican people) as if has any bearing on anything... c'mon now lol
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Edited by adam1972
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I mean pre-emptively searching.. for example "representing white people " so I can just delete any racial references/opinions from popping up.  I just want the game info.. not really wanting to have to deal with racial/political/societal opinions/content when someone goes to play a game..

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Well you'll have to be more specific about what you mean by "Pre-emptively searching" because that is awfully vague.

I don't think the description of the game is malicious in it's intent. It's just describing what is in the game and games of that era, especially early computer devs just used pictures of the people around the office.

Now, you can either suggest a change to the DB or just change it in your LB.

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If so inclined, you can always open up the individual platform XML files under Launchbox\Data\Platforms where the notes data are stored and search accordingly for whatever is you don't want to see (making backups of original XMLs first..but don't store backups in Data directory).  After that, you would need to not import/update anything notes related, or your curated data will be overwritten with the user DB provided information.  Or, use the bulk edit wizard and nuke all notes completely and update however way you wish.

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Thank you @sundogak! :)  I can at the very least look for those terms and find the games that have those racial political opinions added to them.
@Lordmonkus, I don't understand how stating that one wishes to "search the game database for specific terms (in my case terms in game info scraped from mobygames that aren't even from the original dev)" to be vague at all.  So without the knowledge if which games have the scraped info I am unable to edit or request to make any changes until someone plays the game and finds it by accident.
 I also don't presume that it was made with malicious intent.  Yet I also (literally on a daily basis) find the current state of racial politics to be nauseating to the extreme, especially against Caucasians.  That's something I come to gaming to get away from.   I don't go looking for brown people in my games (nor do I teach my children to) because I'm Mexican.  Unfortunately most of these public databases are susceptible to carrying racial opinions that I would rather not have introduced into a hobby that is better off without it.   The fact that devs from back in the day took pictures of folks around the office is a good thing.  When I worked at Microprose in Alameda CA. back in the 90's they went around and asked for volunteers to have their pics taken for Falcon pilots.  The last thing I want to see is someone at Mobygames point out that the majority of characters are white as if it's a bad thing.  That shouldn't matter in any game.   So the Moby editors are pointing out that only whites are represented is either a good thing or bad thing..  BUT why should it matter?
Sorry if I sound aggressive about it, I don't mean to come off that way, I just detest race getting brought into things that should have absolutely nothing to do with it.   I never met a dev that went into making a game with any racial intent and so would like to find a way to find that content and remove it before it ruins a good time gaming with someone's racial views.

Edited by adam1972
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