Game note has been reduced..why?

[xevious1974]

Hi,

I noticed that for a lot of games the game note has been changed.

I had some good descriptions and now they have been reduced to very simple description...

I make only 1 examples but there are a lot:

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Bound by Flame id 20606

Bound by Flame is an action RPG set in a fantasy universe. The player controls the mercenary Vulcan who protects the lands against a siege by the seven ice lords and their minions. He starts as an experienced fighter in the game, but early on he messes up summoning a fire demon and instead becomes possessed by it. This introduces a duality that forms the backbone of the game, as he can either attempt to restore his humanity or give in to the possession and embrace the powers. This change is guided through his actions, either helping villagers or working against them, and not only leads to visual change - either restoring the human form or slowly transforming into a fiery demon - but also to branching story paths with multiple endings.

The game offers three skills trees (fighter, ranger and pyromancer) each with their own abilities. The fighter path stresses melee combat with swords, axes and warhammers. Vulcan is able to chain together attacks into combos and also needs to dodge and parry incoming attacks. Ranger introduces a stealthy path, for instance offering twin daggers to sneak up from behind or spells that for instance slow down time for enemies. Pyromancer delves into the fire powers of the possession offering all kinds of spells, explosives, traps and weapons enhanced with fire. The skills are divided into four tiers: novice, amateur, expert and master - narrowing the choices with each new tier. All of the paths lead to an ultimate ability. While fighting it is possible to switch stances between warrior and rogue. The game offers a selection of companions and includes weapon crafting with various modifiers.

Rather than an open-world RPG, it divides the game world into smaller hubs, one for each chapter, offering freedom to explore and do quests in any order until the entire hub is complete, and then moving on to the next chapter. A mini-map is the bottom right corner helps navigating areas.

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Bound by Flame id 20606

You are a mercenary possessed by a flame demon in a desperate world ravaged by seven Ice Lords. In this RPG where every choice counts, you will have to choose between unleashing the powers of the beast within and rejecting its demonic influence.

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Why? there are space problems?

If this change has been accepted I suppose there is a reason to simplify and trivialize.

Just to know

 

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by xevious1974

[Nixx]

As a side note, i prefer long description too.

[xevious1974]

Another case:

Batman Arkham City: Game of the Year Edition

 

I HAD:

Batman: Arkham city is a third-person open world action adventure game. This Game of the Year Edition contains all of the DLC released for the base game, new maps, playable characters, and skins.

Batman: Arkham City builds upon the intense, atmospheric foundation of Batman: Arkham Asylum, sending players flying through the expansive Arkham City - five times larger than the game world in Batman: Arkham Asylum - the new maximum security "home" for all of Gotham City's thugs, gangsters and insane criminal masterminds. Featuring an incredible Rogues Gallery of Gotham City's most dangerous criminals including Catwoman, The Joker, The Riddler, Two-Face, Harley Quinn, The Penguin, Mr. Freeze and many others, the game allows players to genuinely experience what it feels like to be The Dark Knight delivering justice on the streets of Gotham City.

 

NOW we have:

 

Get Batman: Arkham City and all DLC for one low price with the release of the GOTY Edition!

 

Batman Arkham City: Game of the Year Edition Details - LaunchBox Games Database (launchbox-app.com)

 

 

What is ruining the details?

It is the same that appear on steam, and while offering a discount. It is awful.

Who want this new description?

[Rlad]

I can understand people removing release year, genre etc because we already have those information categories but i don't know why you'd do this. The 'About this game' is on the page if you scroll down, which is literally an overview. 🤷‍♂️

 

[xevious1974]

I'm experiencing the same situation as when I was trying to add the hacked Retroachievements rom.

I stopped to update the DB with useful roms for RA players...ok, I'll do it locally.

Now we have reduced the game notes, no one knows who is doing it.

Is this okay for everyone? I do not think so

I think that in the long run anarchy cannot be the right path.

Anyway... in this situation I don't like to help build a better DB, I'll do it locally.

Does LB want it?

...

It's quite stressful

[CriticalCid]

Does this only affect PC games? If yes, I would guess that it might be related to the recent database changes where Steam IDs getting added to PC game entries. It could be the case that during this process some metadata gets automatically replaced with data pulled directly from Steam.

Do note that I have absolutely no insight on what’s actually going on and I might be completely wrong about this. It’s just my personal assumption based on this thread:

https://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/76724-metadata-not-loading-for-game-already-in-database/

 

We would need to ask @C-Beats for a proper confirmation. But if that’s the case than I wholly agree that replacing already existing game descriptions with advertising blurbs from the Steam store is not very ideal.

[JereBear]

I moderate quite a bit and haven't seen any overviews being shortened.

[xevious1974]

Hi guys,

thank you a lot for your replies!

I also thought about some direct link to steam. And that should explain because JareBear have not seen any description change request.

I have seen to appear the STEAM logo link in the database. I think that could be usefull and I hope that can help to monetize something...maybe.

In this case, anyway, LB DB should take the long game description.

I could check which games are changing, I have some yet to check. 

Maybe we can have a better DB.

 

 

BUON NATALE to all

[xevious1974]

On 12/23/2023 at 5:29 PM, CriticalCid said:

I would guess that it might be related to the recent database changes where Steam IDs getting added to PC game entries. It could be the case that during this process some metadata gets automatically replaced with data pulled directly from Steam.

I have checked games that have changed in my collection and I can confirm that are all related to STEAM

Apsulov: End of Gods Details - LaunchBox Games Database (launchbox-app.com)

Beautiful Desolation Details - LaunchBox Games Database (launchbox-app.com)

and others...I can add if anyone needs

What is interesting is:

Bound by Flame Details - LaunchBox Games Database (launchbox-app.com)

I have updated it at november '23 and it has the STEAM description. But now on Games DB we have the old description and game ID is changed (from 20606 ro 19983)

 

Now I explain why I have seen this changes. I simply updated my windows games list (update metadata and media, does not replace) and when finished I checked my Windows platform to see if any new games were found, I have a lot of blank.

And what I have seen? Some games, that I already have, were doubled. A new entry appeared next to the old one, with a different description, same image and new badge on it (like gog, installed, version and joypad). I was curious and choose to keep only the newer but while I was checking the difference ...I have updated it again yesterday and again new entries...

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by xevious1974