Game titling

[Ultyzarus]

2) Having a title show up according to user preference is a good idea, although I wonder about games that haven't been localized and such. Should there be a title display hierarchy in the user preferences? Wouldn't that be a bit much?

I also had issues with how MG handled these, but only in some cases (Final Fantasy IV and IV that became FFII and III because of this stupid rule). Otherwise it seemed to work fine, but would even be better with one title per region / language if it applies to the game (especially between the PAL vs NTSC titles). But I think having a title show up on the main page is a must XD

1) Title variations should be there if it's official, such as the romanization issue: we have an official romanization, but have alternate ones if there is an official source for it (I have seen a Japanese game that had two or three different romanizations for the same word (only applies to made-up words btw)) or if the displayed title can be interpreted like the ARR:FFXI case. I realize that the misspelling issue would normally be fixed by a good search engine...

[Ultyzarus]

I have an idea for the "Main" Title issue:

Have all the official titles continually scrolling horizontally (with adequate spacing between each) at the top of the main page.

[Rola]

continually scrolling

Please, no.


Original release title should be used as main title.

Have those user's profile options:

* display non-Latin scripts as transliterations (default: ON) - for Kanji, Cyrillic, Hebrew...
* display user's country localized titles first (default: OFF)

[MZ per X]

2) Having a title show up according to user preference is a good idea, although I wonder about games that haven't been localized and such. Should there be a title display hierarchy in the user preferences? Wouldn't that be a bit much?

If we decide to avoid a main title, we need this hierarchical approach. It may be more work in implementing this, but we'll save us a lot of discussions about which title is the main one.

But I think having a title show up on the main page is a must XD

The main page is just another location where a title is shown.

1) Title variations should be there if it's official, such as the romanization issue: we have an official romanization, but have alternate ones if there is an official source for it ... I realize that the misspelling issue would normally be fixed by a good search engine...

Yes, variations would only be entered into the database if they've been used somewhere by the developers / publishers, so we can assign them later to a R if necessary.

Have those user's profile options:

* display non-Latin scripts as transliterations (default: ON) - for Kanji, Cyrillic, Hebrew...
* display user's country localized titles first (default: OFF)

I'd rather go for a hierarchical fallback, as in the user can decide which title to show first, then fall back to different titles. For example, I could tell the database to always show a German release title first. then fall back to a UK title, then North America. This is complicated, I know, but if done right, it will vastly improve the user experience.

[MZ per X]

So I adjusted the data model to include title variations, and re-added the possibility to link titles to a release (Connection 31 in the wiki). Thanks all.

[idrougge]

The way with a display hierarchy is exactly the way I foresee it, and the only workable alternative to MG's "always American title as default". If my locale is sv-SE, I'd expect the title to be displayed by preference of Swedish title>> European title>> UK title>> world title>> English title>> original title.

By implification, this means that there is no default title for a game, for the only other way would be an even more biased Mobygames approach (say what you want, at least it is consistent).

[idrougge]

I have found one complication. Some less-regulated systems with several manufacturers have one game available under several titles. Case in point: http://www.digitpress.com/video-game-gu ... meid=32771

This means that a free-text field for title type is probably necessary, in addition to the standard fields.

While it may be possible to establish that "Alien Invader" was the original title, the title "Alien" can only be classified as non-original title or, using free-text title, as Polybrain title.

That is, unless we are content to classify it as re-release title.

[MZ per X]

That is, unless we are content to classify it as re-release title.

I'd rather go for that, as one release must be before the other.