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News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:26 Oct 2013, 14:45
by gene
We already have a German thread for this topic, but I am interested on your (non German) thoughts.

Has anybody here heard of The Internet Game Database?
They seem to be working on a new game database for quiet some time (have a look at their Facebook entries) and will begin with a closed beta phase shortly.
Looks interesting for me but I doubt that they will have a highly comprehensive approach as we have in mind.

Re: News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:26 Oct 2013, 14:49
by Ultyzarus
Yeah, I applied for the beta phase. I'll see if it matches with what I want, and it might give us new ideas, too...

Re: News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:26 Oct 2013, 15:42
by MZ per X
gene wrote:Has anybody here heard of The Internet Game Database?
I must admit that I'm not really interested in new commercial or semi-commercial projects any more, which is why I didn't sign up for the closed beta. I will take a look when they open up, and search for good ideas that we didn't have, yet. :)

It's not that there's a shortage of other new contenders.

Re: News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:26 Oct 2013, 16:18
by Rola
It wouldn't hurt to repeat here what was listed in "Alternatives to MobyGames" thread, but this time viewing it as the strengths and weaknesses of Oregami competitors, and what features you can learn from them.

Because of the closed nature of their test, I've learned about IGDB existence only recently and I have no knowledge of their approach, scope etc.

Re: News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:26 Oct 2013, 18:17
by hydr0x
MZ per X wrote:It's not that there's a shortage of other new contenders.
Or existing ones ;)

Re: News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:28 Oct 2013, 23:52
by Rola
I was about to start listing other projects here, but I see you are already doing this: http://wiki.oregami.org/display/OR/Similar+Projects

Re: News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:29 Oct 2013, 20:20
by MZ per X
Yes, we did quite some research in the beginning to get an idea of what's out there. It's a bit outdated by now, but I translated the introduction for easier understanding, nonetheless.

Re: News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:30 Oct 2013, 16:34
by Rola
I'd suggest spending some time on it. Very useful when you'll finally be inviting users (maybe even converting from other projects), to counter their arguments "oh, but I like GameFAQs, why should I join Oregami?". I'll bet you've seen such answers on other forums. In this example you'd quickly rebut "GameFAQs only collects FAQs, it's very poor at anything else".

Re: News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:30 Oct 2013, 16:43
by Ultyzarus
Rola wrote:I'd suggest spending some time on it. Very useful when you'll finally be inviting users (maybe even converting from other projects), to counter their arguments "oh, but I like GameFAQs, why should I join Oregami?". I'll bet you've seen such answers on other forums. In this example you'd quickly rebut "GameFAQs only collects FAQs, it's very poor at anything else".
"But GameFaqs also has the release dates and covers for the different regional releases!"

Their dates cannot be verified, and they don't cover all the Country-specific releases or even the different variations except for some budget releases. :P

Re: News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:30 Oct 2013, 21:15
by Rola
Even if it was whole in English, your list is hard to read - and could use few crucial comments regarding each website.

Here's how I would do it. Comments welcome.
Only when comparing features we suddenly realize what certain databases lack (say, UVL has next to no credits!).
Only in forum threads like this I am pointed to new projects, otherwise I'd probably miss them (I've never heard about OGDB before you told me about it).

Re: News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:30 Oct 2013, 21:41
by Ultyzarus
Much easier and faster to read indeed.

Re: News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:30 Oct 2013, 22:05
by gene
Rola wrote:Here's how I would do it. Comments welcome.
This is indeed a better representation.

Could we transfer such a representation into our wiki?
Some of the "details" we have in our page are missing in your version, I would appreciate that we do not lose any information if we optimize the representation.

Re: News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:30 Oct 2013, 22:46
by Rola
Want to help me expand it then, Ultyzarus? You seem to like to analyze things :)

I've started doing such comparison at least half a year ago, to explain people the differences. Of course in order to show how MobyGames is superior - never did I expect to consider Moby's a dying project... :(

Let's focus on multiplatform databases first. Maybe we could eventually add the biggest platform-specific sites - they don't offer competition (limited scope), but their structure/features may be interesting to compare.
Of course skip small websites.

If you're looking for reference alone, there's a list of websites we used at MobyGames (started by MultimediaMike), but it's private.

gene wrote:Could we transfer such a representation into our wiki?
Some of the "details" we have in our page are missing in your version, I would appreciate that we do not lose any information if we optimize the representation.
I was about to PM you with this suggestion, asking if it's technically possible to cleanly import it.

What did I miss? I only skipped number of screenshots, but you can squeeze that somewhere. I hope everyone found that things like licence text are in comments (those triangles in cell corners), because they'll break the table otherwise.

Re: News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:30 Oct 2013, 23:18
by Ultyzarus
Maybe checking how fast it expands would be a goo criteria, also how many people actually run it (how much users can actually contribute).

For instance, RetroCollect has a nice array of games, and it focuses on the different releases, but it expands slowly, and the user input is done only (or almost only) through the forums. Even contributing cover scans is done through url links in the forums. Also the covers presentation is not really organized. It is a very nice site for collectors nonetheless ;)

Re: News and information about other online game databases

PostPosted:30 Oct 2013, 23:49
by Rola
Ultyzarus wrote:Maybe checking how fast it expands would be a goo criteria, also how many people actually run it (how much users can actually contribute).
Such information would be useful (not just current size, but also growth rate), but harder and more time consuming to obtain (I've only added founding year). Also: how would I squeeze it into this table?
Yes, it's important to mention not only the technical aspect of contribution, but how the process works (say, does my edit appear instantly?).