Open Registry of Game Information 

  • tags / categories / groups

  • Talk about specific features of our upcoming online game database.
Talk about specific features of our upcoming online game database.

Moderators: MZ per X, gene

 #37451  by Rola
 07 Nov 2013, 00:10
No matter how you call them, they are very useful - just like genres - and allow for finding similar games.
The only feature I sometimes visit UVL for (otherwise quite empty).

Here's a MobyGames groups list I had compiled together with Indra.

Since your data model already handles game series, tags should be used for all other uses.
Themes (steampunk), gameplay features (recordable replays), historical periods (Interbellum), locations (Mars), vehicles/weapons (Supermarine Spitfire), technology used (iMUSE).

I beg you, don't use Web2.0 "tag cloud" presentation... "it's trendy!" but not practical.

Use some hierarchy /importance. UVL is a bit messy, throwing in major gameplay-defining ones with trivial technical aspects.

What MobyGames didn't implement was using groups in advanced search. Do this.

But make it better than UVL. How should I know how they call a given theme? Even if you offer a full tag catalog (and some way to see the latest tags), do include autocomplete for tag name when searching.

Even better: tags should have aliases, to help finding them with autocomplete. If the main name is "Airplane", searching for "aeroplane" should lead us to same tag. World War I = Great War = WWI = First World War

Creation of new groups was too slow at MobyGames - begging selected approvers to add them isn't the best way. On the other hand unchecked adding of tags by newbie users will lead to chaos and doubled tags.
Of course veteran users should have more privileges. Also certain types of tags should be accepted right away, say cars, vehicles, planes as in: (player-controlled) aircraft: Messerschmitt Bf 109
Only the "high-concept" ones should be discussed first on the forum.

Maybe - in order to save time - adding a low-level tag (player-controlled) aircraft: AH-64 Apache should auto-add Helicopter and Aircraft.
 #37455  by MZ per X
 08 Nov 2013, 16:50
Rola wrote:No matter how you call them, they are very useful - just like genres - and allow for finding similar games. The only feature I sometimes visit UVL for (otherwise quite empty).
Yes, game groups are a must-have, I think. :) They should connect games at release group level, as our RGs can be quite different from each other.
Cool stuff! While on one hand we need to think separately about genres and gameplay concepts / variants (I have a crazy proposal for a new kind of genre system ready in the German part.), I, on the other hand, think that the game group facility should be used for much more than your list suggests, with tech specs and rating systems coming to mind immediately. Please note that I'm only talking about the technical concept here, it's clear that the user won't see rating systems as only being a "game group" later on. :)

The first thing to think about would be the number of hierarchy layers we would need. Your wiki list seems to suggest three (Controllable vehicles ---> Aircraft ---> A10 Thunderbolt), but when I think about all those tech specs, and complicated rating systems, maybe we need four?

When I read...
Rola wrote:Maybe - in order to save time - adding a low-level tag (player-controlled) aircraft: AH-64 Apache should auto-add Helicopter and Aircraft.
...we seem to need four layers (Controllable vehicles ---> Aircraft ---> Helicopters ---> AH-64 Apache). :) Or let's just implement subset relationships between game groups, which would allow indefinite levels of hierarchy.
Rola wrote:Since your data model already handles game series...
It doesn't ? It handles add-ons, but not series. But I think that game series shouldn't be handled using the game group implementation. Instead, we should implement something similar like UVL does with game relationships, as in two games being linked to each other with a relationship type like "prequel to", "sequel to", "port of", or similar.
Rola wrote:I beg you, don't use Web2.0 "tag cloud" presentation... "it's trendy!" but not practical.
I really have no opinion on this, never used a tag cloud. :)
 #37513  by Indra
 18 Nov 2013, 13:35
The genre/ game group concept it a tad messy. We've had internal fights about these for years in MG and it's still messy. Primary reason is because we have different reasons as to why we want them tagged and those reasons have never been fully addressed.

Identifiable Reasons:
1. Categorizing Gaming Convention.

Because other people do it, not entirely sure why they do it, but since they do, we should do it too! Which is why stupid categories such as action-adventure pop-up.

2. Marketing Jargon.
Because the marketing department needs to identify mentioned game as something eye-catching. It's an adventure! It has action! Which is why stupid categories such as action-adventure pop-up.

3. Search Engine.
The primary purpose of categorization under any branch of science, is to search for stuff based on identifiable parameters. My primary philosophy has been to allow users to search for whatever gaming fetish they have with surgical precision. And since taste is subjective, what may be interesting to you may not be interesting to others und vice versa. Thus, everything should be categorized.

This is the part where I meet resistance.

Some argue that not everything should not be categorized. I suspect they are basing this based on their subjective tastes. If the porn and anime industry has come up with peculiar tags, I see no reason why peculiarities in gaming categorization should not be identified either. If a user wants find something based on a certain parameter, they should be able to do it. That's it.

Some arguments against it (too many groups) agree with. Though, for the wrong reasons:
1. Cluttered
In MG, we only have four major categories. Genres, categories, perspectives, and game groups (none for tags). I'm seem to be major contributing factor as to why MG has a lot of game groups (especially game-feature related - certain individuals in the past have complained as to why MG has so many game groups). Proposing my own personal preferences (I have hundreds of game group proposals) while constantly approving other people's stuff.

Example #1: http://www.mobygames.com/forums/dga,2/dgb,4/dgm,180922/
Example #2: http://www.mobygames.com/forums/dga,2/dgb,4/dgm,107127/
Example #3: http://www.mobygames.com/forums/dga,2/dgb,4/dgm,145093/, etc.
Yes, I have a game group addiction problem.

However, the reasons for cluttering is not really because there are two many game groups, it's because (a) technical limitations (b) no framework. Both of which are connected. For the most part, game groups in MG were created just because someone proposed it. Several years later, I noticed how many game groups overlapped with each other and had no title standard (e.g. Warcraft universe, warcraft series, warcraft licensees). Creating game groups was easy, removing them was technically difficult.

Eventually we got around indirectly to categorize them a bit: Game Engine, Gameplay, Theme, etc. Still overlapping in several areas, but it was a start. You'll also notice that any other gaming database that has attempted to group games haven't even begun to categorize them properly yet.

2. Hierarchy
As mentioned in previous posts, one attempt make sense of the mess is to establish a hierarchy system to identify parameters. Also the concerns of game groups have been addressed, I also have concerns regarding genres.

Proposed Hierarchy
Though not necessarily in any order, my idea of a framework may look like this:

See also: http://www.mobygames.com/glossary/genres Yikes, what happened here?

A. Genre
Genre (Primary): The main genre of the game.
Genre (Secondary): Supporting genres that compliment the primary genre.
Genre (Tertiary): Other identifiable genres not predominate enough gameplay-wise.

Genres (at least in MG) does not really help users to find stuff. Especially for hybrid games that have more than one genre. I have however noticed, that no matter how many sub-genres a game has, there is always a primary genre i.e. where primary gameplay occurs. I would seriously recommend any gaming database to come up with better definitions, as the one's that gamers use are technically and intellectually incomprehensible. The adventure genre for one is a source of all gaming categorization problems i.e. adventure does not literally mean adventuring.

B. Perspective
Dubbed Perspectives and Viewpoints in MG. Which is incomplete, as MG only has four: 1st-Person Perspective, 3rd-Person Perspective, Isometric, Top-Down. Which should be categorized into sub-categories:
First Person: Traditional First Person, First Person Text (for Interactive Fiction games). Also many variant first person viewpoints not identifiable.
Third Person: Isometric, Top-Down.
Not identified: World view. Isometric and top-down also has been problematic due to various angles.

C. Time?
Real-Time, Turn-Based, Semi-Real Time, etc.

D. Sub-Genres.
e.g. Puzzle-Solving, etc.

E. Etc.

---

So game groups basically is everything not categorized enough to go into that earlier category. Hence an official template to gather an identifiable parameter if you will. Then you have tags, which is even less categorized. So basically the hierarchy would look like this:

Level 1: Genres
Level 2: Sub Genres (and perspectives, etc.)
Level 3: Game Groups
Level 4: Tags

Or something like that. A hidebox may be appropriate for game groups and tags, for the purposes to avoid cluttering and additional reasons where game groups and tags may warrant as a spoiler not obvious from the first few minutes of gameplay.

---

Well, just on the top of my head. :p
 #37514  by Ultyzarus
 18 Nov 2013, 14:10
The adventure genre for one is a source of all gaming categorization problems i.e. adventure does not literally mean adventuring.
When I first got a game sent back to me because I checked the 'Adventure' genre, it mind-boggled me. When I actually read the genre description, i was like "How does THAT define 'Adventure' ?? To me, an adventure game would be a game in which the protagonist set out to go on an actual adventure (Mario, Zelda, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and the likes). Most games with a level-up system (because I'm trying not to use the term 'RPG') would also be adventures in my opinion...
 #37515  by Indra
 18 Nov 2013, 14:47
Well considering the 'term' adventure coincidentally came from a game called Adventure. If the game was originally called Bouncing Boobies, history would be more interesting. Problem is, our brain pattern recognition software identifies parameters based on personal experience. Asians are annoyingly dumb when it comes to identifying RPGs which to them either means Diablo or an MMORPG for example. So if your first game was Diablo, then that's your personal definition of an RPG.

Hell, it took me years just to figure out that not every game with character development does not make it an RPG. Also why Diablo is considered a role-playing game, while you role-playing as Guybrush Threepwood playing a pirate isn't considered a role-playing game.

The gaming culture isn't exactly the smartest bunch of people around. Just check out the flamewars at any random RPG thread on the net.
 #37516  by Ultyzarus
 18 Nov 2013, 15:14
Indra wrote:Well considering the 'term' adventure coincidentally came from a game called Adventure. If the game was originally called Bouncing Boobies, history would be more interesting. Problem is, our brain pattern recognition software identifies parameters based on personal experience. Asians are annoyingly dumb when it comes to identifying RPGs which to them either means Diablo or an MMORPG for example. So if your first game was Diablo, then that's your personal definition of an RPG.

Hell, it took me years just to figure out that not every game with character development does not make it an RPG. Also why Diablo is considered a role-playing game, while you role-playing as Guybrush Threepwood playing a pirate isn't considered a role-playing game.

The gaming culture isn't exactly the smartest bunch of people around. Just check out the flamewars at any random RPG thread on the net.
And that's why we must redefine what each genre means for such a database.
 #37518  by Rola
 18 Nov 2013, 17:17
I'm not sure if we should discuss genres in this thread - while technically at the database level they'll be handled just as tags/groups, talking about them opens a new can of worms (with "is Diablo a RPG?" etc. as mentioned).


@Indra, please note than Oregami already considers using Vedder's genre proposals:
http://wiki.oregami.org/pages/viewpage. ... eId=688149
...so no need to repeat that MobyGames approach is outdated.


If we're creating a new system, then I'm all for allowing hundreds of groups/tags, just as UVL has.
See, I asked for moderation in adding them only at MobyGames, because of its bottlenecked procedure/limited manpower and no hierarchy in presentation.

If important tags go clearly first and maybe even highlighted (engine: iD tech 1 versus iMUSE sound engine, both from "Technology used" section), and "obvious" tags (M1 Abrams tank) are created/added by veteran editors without the need for approval (Indra, remember how long it took to see those boss key games listed? and I've submitted dozens on day one) then I don't see a problem with having numerous tags.
 #37526  by Indra
 19 Nov 2013, 01:16
Well, of course we should discuss genres. Genres are just game groups that have reached a prominent number of games. Hell, if we manage to categorize sub-genres and game groups correctly, there one day would be no need for the vague and over-generalized genres (i.e. action, adventure, strategy, etc.). No even sure if quantity should be the common denominator on when a game group should be promoted to a sub-genre.

---

Oh, goody. I just hope that each game has one primary genre though. Unless someone is able to point out there are games out there with two or more equally composed genres. It's not much of a biggie, I just feel that when a game has more than one genre mentioned and a database doesn't give a clear distinction of its primary genre, then the database doesn't really know. i.e. my irrefutable argument as to the difference between the action-adventure genre vs. action+puzzle solving. Action-RPG you say? Yeah marketing jargons, bite me.

http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/diablo-variants
It's called an action-RPG when gamers have no idea what they're talking about. Only reason why Diablo variants isn't a sub-genre is because it's called Diablo variants. Oh, so that description is what people mean by action-RPGs? Riiiiight.

---

Well of course game groups at MG suddenly became hard to approve. I quit remember? Or else none of those aircraft and automobile groups would have gotten through. Hell, the cannibalism game group I proposed still haven't been approved since no one bothered to submit it. :p

Though if we want to do this correctly, every new idea should start at the tag level and will work it's way up to sub-genres, once we've figured out what category they should be in.
 #37527  by Ultyzarus
 19 Nov 2013, 01:28
I want a tag for games where the controls aren't clear and that different combinations result is different moves called 'Senseless Button Smashing'.

But seriously, are there specific tags/groups you would like to propose?

Maybe we should try selection one game (or series) in particular and define all the possible genre tags?
 #37528  by Rola
 19 Nov 2013, 11:45
@Indra - of course we need to discuss genres, but I say it should be done in a separate thread, as genre debate is huge.
Those generic genres are needed, for searching forgotten games (where you narrow down the features to get a list of possible titles) ...or statistical research ("were there more platformers made in the 1980s than now?").

@Ultyzarus - just like Indra I have dozens ideas for tags, just click the first link in this thread for a sample. That list and what I said here is enough to build tag structure, I see no point to write anything more here before Oregami database goes live.
 #37530  by MZ per X
 19 Nov 2013, 14:21
Rola wrote:@Indra - of course we need to discuss genres, but I say it should be done in a separate thread, as genre debate is huge.
I second this. Technically spoken, genres are game groups, no doubt, but this discussion is too important to be hidden here. :)

I opened a new thread for this issue with the basics in it.
 #37532  by Indra
 19 Nov 2013, 14:42
Ultyzarus wrote:I want a tag for games where the controls aren't clear and that different combinations result is different moves called 'Senseless Button Smashing'.

But seriously, are there specific tags/groups you would like to propose?

Maybe we should try selection one game (or series) in particular and define all the possible genre tags?
I wish we were that coordinated, unfortunately from my personal experience the best possible strategy when it comes to the upcoming mess of game groups and tags is coordinated chaos: go berserk and create whatever suits your fancy and filter them slowly. Though keep in mind that if technologically available, tags should be optionally kept hidden just for the purposes of not cluttering up stuff.

We're still going to fight among each other when it comes to scope/overlapping/titles/what should or should not be tagged, but that's to be expected (hell, I still hate Rola's use of the term Historical Conflict as a category name as by definition it doesn't allow fictional settings to use that category).

Again, as Rola said mentioned in the first thread, a tag/game group system is only as good as the search engine. Since I'm a technological retard in this regard, the only assistance I can offer is quality descriptions that would make corporate lawyers cringe in envy.

---

If the MG forums are too cluttered to see, here's a list of some of the game groups I've proposed, that have descriptions, and that have been indefinitely ignored (these are only my proposal, there a few dozen more by others not listed here):

Gameplay Feature: Aging
Gameplay Feature: Military Rank
Gameplay Feature: House Ownership
Gameplay Feature: Marriage
Gameplay Feature: Divorce
Gameplay Feature: Games with civil titles
Gameplay Feature: Head shot or Headshot(?)
Gameplay Feature: Anatomical Targeting
Gameplay Feature: Electronic Targeting
Gameplay Feature: Monster Capture (which was stupidly combined with monster training)
Gameplay Feature: Monster Trainer (which was stupidly combined with monster capture)
Gameplay Feature: Monster Farming
Gameplay Feature: Monster Splicing
Gameplay Feature: Monster Evolution
Game Feature: Character Development - Training Based
Protagonist: Electronic / Household appliance
Gameplay feature: Importable characters
Gameplay Feature: In-Game Password Protection
Gameplay Feature: Achievements
Gameplay Feature: Bestiary
Gameplay Feature: Encyclopedia
Gameplay Feature: Kill List
Gameplay Feature: Crime
Gameplay Feature: Mounted Combat
Gameplay Feature: Decapitation
Gameplay Feature: Finishing Move
Configurable Multi-Window Interface
Game Feature: Day / Night Cycle
Game Feature: Upgradeable Anatomy
Game Feature: Gender Selection
Games with castle building
Games first-person crossbow/archery shooting
Games with medal system
Games with slaves
Games with stamina exhaustion
Games with radiation
Games with superheroes
Undercover Protagonists
Games with multiple endings
Games featuring player-controlled party
Games with quick-switchable equipment sets
Games with global reputation
Games with personal - party reputation
Games with NPC Reputation
Games with horseback riding
Games with jousting
Games with arena fighting
Games with character classes
Alien / Extra-terrestrial protagonist
Games with tattoo / tattooing features
Games with haircut features
Games with purchasable (sea) ships
Games with purchasable automobiles / cars
Games with purchasable (space) ships
Games with diplomacy
Games with building design / architecture
Games with customizable weapons
Games with customizable armor
Games with customizable ships
Games with customizable vehicles
Games with customizable mushrooms

Just to name a few. Serves you right for asking, Fred. :p
 #37578  by Indra
 21 Nov 2013, 13:30
Speaking of game group hierarchy levels, it's still a mess. Some are still overlapping with each other and some, to be honest, I have no idea what they mean. Thus far, here's my overview of the game group hierarchy based on MG:

Categorized Game Groups With No Identifiable Issues
1. Controllable Vehicles, consisting of:
  • Aircraft
    Automobiles
    Motorcycles (not yet proposed)
    Tanks
    Sea Vessels (not yet proposed)
    Spacecraft (not yet proposed)
2. Visual Technique / Style, consisting of:
  • Visual technique / style: Cel shaded
    Visual technique / style: Live-action cutscenes (shot exclusively for the game)
    Visual technique / style: Rendered in clay
    Visual technique / style: Voxel graphics
Categorized Game Groups With Identifiable Issues

1. Protagonist, consisting of:
  • Protagonist: Barbarian
    Protagonist: Black
    Protagonist: Blob
    Protagonist: Caveman
    Protagonist: Demon
    Protagonist: Extraterrestrial / Alien
    Protagonist: Female
    Protagonist: Gangster
    Protagonist: Ghost
    Protagonist: Jewish
    Protagonist: Mullet Haircut
    Protagonist: Musician
    Protagonist: Robot
    Protagonist: Vampire
Issues
1. There may be slight issues/confusion in regards to more than one identifiable protagonist.
2. Though perhaps not a popular suggestion, I do recommend further sub-categories, e.g.
  • Protagonist: Race - Black
    Protagonist: Profession: Musician
    Protagonist: Animal - Three Headed Monkey
    Protagonist: Fantastical Creature - Vampire
    Protagonist: WTF - Mullet Haircut
3. Various overlapping with themes.

2. Gameplay Feature
  • Gameplay Feature: Alchemy
    Gameplay Feature: Armor / Weapon Sets
    Gameplay Feature: Auto-mapping
    Gameplay Feature: BASE jumping
    Gameplay Feature: Blacksmithing
    Gameplay Feature: Brothels
    Gameplay Feature: Character development - Automatic leveling
    Gameplay Feature: Character development - Skill development / training
    Gameplay Feature: Character development - Skill distribution
    Gameplay Feature: Controllable Pet Companions
    Gameplay Feature: Dating / Romance
    Gameplay Feature: Drawing
    Gameplay Feature: Fishing
    Gameplay Feature: Freely destructible terrain
    Gameplay Feature: Gambling
    Gameplay Feature: Goldsmithing
    Gameplay Feature: Hunger / Thirst
    Gameplay Feature: Importable Characters
    Gameplay Feature: Jetpack
    Gameplay Feature: Journal
    Gameplay Feature: Lock Picking
    Gameplay Feature: Mining
    Gameplay Feature: Monster Capture / Training
    Gameplay Feature: Photography
    Gameplay Feature: Poker
    Gameplay Feature: Quick Time Events / QTEs
    Gameplay Feature: Recordable Replays
    Gameplay Feature: "Simon says"
    Gameplay Feature: Survival Cooking
    Gameplay Feature: Time Manipulation
    Gameplay Feature: Tower of Hanoi Puzzle
    Gameplay Feature: Trophy Harvesting
Issues
1. I suspect that these can be categorized into more accurate sub-categories. The differences in many of these features are obvious: technical features, global features, some are technically genres, etc.
2. Some are noticeably categorized and may be in conflict with other categories, e.g. theme.

3. Historical Conflict, consisting of:
  • Historical conflict: American Civil War
    Historical Conflict: American Revolutionary War
    Historical Conflict: Arab-Israeli Conflict
    Historical Conflict: Cold War
    Historical Conflict: Hundred Years War
    Historical Conflict: Korean War
    Historical Conflict: Napoleonic Wars
    Historical Conflict: Persian Gulf War
    Historical Conflict: Spanish Civil War
    Historical Conflict: Vietnam War
    Historical Conflict: War of 1812
    Historical Conflict: Winter War
    Historical Conflict: World War I
    Historical Conflict: World War II
Issues
1. By definition does not allow fictional and futuristic theaters of war i.e. World War III.
2. Which is why I prefer the definition Theater of War.
3. Each conflict could have additional sub-categories identifying a specific battle i.e. Historical Conflict: Napoleonic Wars - Waterloo

4. Inspiration, consisting of:
  • Inspiration: Comics
    Inspiration: Horror Movies
    Inspiration: Literature
    Inspiration: Movies
    Inspiration: Toys
    Inspiration: TV Cartoons
    Inspiration: TV Game Shows
    Inspiration: TV Series
    Inspiration: Author
    Inspiration: Book
    Fictional Character
<b>Issues</b>
1. Literature should have sub-categorized:
  • Inspiration - Literature: Comics
    Inspiration - Literature: Book - Shuihuzhuan / Water Margin
2. Horror movies is a sub group of movies, and perhaps movies, TV cartoons, game shows, series, belong to some sort of same category.
3. Books and authors are in conflict with each other.
4. Fictional character should be purged and be incorporated to books.

5. Setting, consisting of:
  • Setting: African
    Setting: Ancient Roman
    Setting: Australian / Oceanian
    Setting: Aztec
    Setting: Belle Époque
    Setting: Chinese
    Setting: Chinese Ming Dynasty
    Setting: Chinese Qin Dynasty
    Setting: Chinese Qing Dynasty
    Setting: Chinese Song Dynasty
    Setting: Chinese Three Kingdoms era
    Setting: Chinese Warring States Period
    Setting: Chinese Yuan Dynasty
    Setting: Classical Greece
    Setting: Earth's Moon
    Setting: Egyptian
    Setting: Inca
    Setting: Indian
    Setting: Interwar
    Setting: Japanese Heian Period
    Setting: Japanese Kamakura Period
    Setting: Japanese Sengoku Period
    Setting: Korean
    Setting: Mars
    Setting: Mayan
    Setting: Medieval Europe
    Setting: Middle East
    Setting: Western / Old West
<b>Issues</b>
1. Unclear if categorization is based on geographical location, an entity, or a time period.
2. Overlap with themes.
3. Some of these setting are in overlap with each other i.e. Chinese with at least three other Chinese settings.

6. Theme, consisting of:
  • Force Powers-themed games
    Games involving the Hanseatic League
    Non-traditional Westerns
    Stock Exchange-themed games
    Theme: Alcohol
    Theme: Amnesia
    Theme: Amusement park
    Theme: Atlantis
    Theme: Christmas
    Theme: Circus
    Theme: Dieselpunk (sub-genre of Theme: Steampunk)
    Theme: Famous musicians
    Theme: Firefighting
    Theme: Game Development
    Theme: Giant monsters
    Theme: Hacking / Pseudohacking
    Theme: Haunted house
    Theme: Holy Grail
    Theme: Homeless
    Theme: Hunchbacks
    Theme: Law enforcement (police)
    Theme: Law practice (legal professions: attorneys, judges, etc.)
    Theme: Ninjas
    Theme: Olympics
    Theme: Psychic powers / Psyonics
    Theme: RMS Titanic
    Theme: Sea Pirates
    Theme: Steampunk
    Theme: Submarine
    Theme: Time Manipulation
    Theme: Vampires
    Theme: Werewolves
    Theme: Zombies
    Wisdom Tree's Bible-themed games
    World War III games
Issues
1. Apparently what we have no idea where to put, we put in themes.
2. In conflict with practically every other category.

7. Universe, consisting of:
  • Army Men universe
    Baroque universe
    Battlestar Galactica universe
    BattleTech universe
    Bloodlust Software universe
    DC Universe
    Discworld universe
    Dragon Slayer universe
    Dragon Warrior / Dragon Quest universe
    Echelon universe
    EverQuest universe
    Ghost in the Shell universe
    Half-Life universe
    Homestar Runner universe
    Ivalice universe
    Koudelka / Shadow Hearts universe
    Lancer universe
    Marvel universe
    Masters of the Universe / He-Man licensees
    Megami Tensei / Megaten universe
    Metaltech / Tribes universe
    Might and Magic universe
    Mistbound universe
    Omnitrend science fiction universe
    Paradise Cracked universe
    Pokémon universe
    Puyo-Puyo / Madō Monogatari universe
    Record of Lodoss War universe
    Renegade Legion universe
    Robin Hood universe
    SaGa universe
    Shining universe
    Silent Storm universe
    Sonic the Hedgehog universe
    Spyro the Dragon universe
    Star Trek universe
    Star Wars universe
    Suikoden universe
    Tengai Makyō / Far East of Eden universe
    The Badlands universe
    The Dark Eye / Das Schwarze Auge universe
    Tokyo Majin universe
    Twilight Syndrome universe
    Twinbee universe
    Ultima universe
    Universe series
    Warcraft universe
    Warhammer 40,000 universe
    Warhammer universe
    Warhead universe
    Warlords universe
    Wasteland universe
    Wing Commander universe
    Xak universe
    X: Beyond the Frontier universe
    Xenogears / Xenosaga universe
    Zork universe
Issues
1. Should be purged.
2. Renamed to licence or something.

8. Variants , consisting of:
  • Amidar variants / Line-coloring games
    Artillery variants
    Asteroids variants
    Astro Invader variants
    Ataxx variants
    Avalanche variants
    Berzerk variants
    Blitz variants
    Boulder Dash variants
    Breakout variants
    Burgertime variants
    Bust-A-Move / Puzzle Bobble variants
    Cabal variants
    Cave-flyers and Thrust variants
    Centipede variants
    Circus / Clowns variants
    Concentration variants
    Defender variants
    Defense of the Ancients variants
    Diablo variants
    Donkey Kong variants
    Dynablaster/Bomberman variants
    Elevator Action variants
    Frogger variants
    Galaga variants
    Head On / Dodge 'Em variants
    Heiankyo Alien/Booby Kids variants
    Hunt the Wumpus variants
    Joust variants
    Knightmare variants
    Lemmings variants
    Lunar Lander variants
    Lunar Rescue variants
    Mastermind variants
    Minesweeper variants
    Missile Command variants
    Moorhuhn / Crazy Chicken variants
    Pachinko variants
    Pac-Man variants
    Pang variants
    Panic variants
    Pengo variants
    Pipe Dream / Pipe Mania variants
    Plotting variants
    Pong variants
    Puzz Loop variants
    Q*Bert variants
    QIX variants
    Rogue variants / Roguelikes
    Rush Hour variants
    Sabotage / Paratrooper variants
    Scramble variants
    Slicks 'n' Slide variants
    Snake variants
    Soko-Ban variants
    Space Invaders variants
    Space Taxi variants
    Star Trek variants
    The Sumer Game variants
    Warlords variant
    Weather War variants
    Whac-A-Mole variants
    Wizard's Castle variants
    Yahtzee variants
    Zaxxon variants
Issues
1. All of these are actually sub-genres, without a marketing jargon.
2. Yeah, good luck with that.

Looks like I really need to create a game group guideline (yet again).
 #37580  by Rola
 21 Nov 2013, 15:08
Indra, we could use those examples of MobyGames groups. But we are not importing them.

Read my first post. We can create a new system here, free from MobyGames' old limitations.

See my first post here. Are you familiar with http://uvlist.net ?
I do like their insane amounts of detailed tags - something you should love, right? - but I hate their presentation.
They simply lump important things (id tech 1 engine) with trivia (weapon-in-center-of-screen).
We need a flag for a tag, importance value of sorts, for simple hierarchy. Even major/minor would be enough, I'd say 1-2-3 is max.


Setting:

World War 2 (automatically adds: Historical conflict; Earth; XXth century)
Clone Wars (automatically adds: Star Wars universe; Sci-fi; Fictional conflict)
Post-apocalyptic
Mars
Earth's Moon
Dakar Rally
(automatically adds: Africa; Europe;)



Technologies and techniques used:

Build engine
live-action video

MIDI
voxel
iMUSE
(automatically adds: interactive music)



Gameplay features:

Journal
Recordable replays




Themes:

Mythology: Greek
Amnesia
Hanseatic League
Protagonist: Gangster
Protagonist: Robot
Animals: Chickens
Animals: Dinosaurs
Time travel
Zombies




Vehicles, weapons, items:

Jetpack
Chainsaw
Space Shuttle
(automatically adds: Spacecraft; Aircraft)
AH-64 Apache (automatically adds: Helicopter; Aircraft)












See?
 #37581  by Indra
 21 Nov 2013, 17:30
Rola wrote:See?
Er. No.

Took me freakin' ten years just to get half of those game groups online. No way I'm starting from scratch. That's just MG in the beginning, when game groups were no different from tags. Tags meaning, add first, ignore overlap later.

Been there, done that.