[twistedsymphony]

Originally Posted by Gemini-Phoenix

The problem I see with this is the fact that there are so many PC games released, and backtracking through them all would be an epic nightmare! Even if we just started with SteelBook's, that's a hell of a lot of SteelBook's to track down! Even I would struggle to gather significant data for PC CE's and LE's, and I own my fair share!

I honestly think this would be too much hard work for us. It's difficult enough just keeping track of the console releases, let alone adding PC games to the mix. None of us here have the expertise or knowledge, and we'd just end up spamming the site up with "You haven't included this or that PC game"

for PCs I'm planning on relying on the users to submit information to help fill up the back-catalog... I'll add new/upcoming CEs as I learn about them like I do with consoles games. This is how I plan on taking care of the Portible releases going forward

I'm considering a new "submission" procedure to replace or at least make the additions/corrections forums less spammy.

Originally Posted by Gemini-Phoenix

I would also think that if we were to include PC games, they would end up eclipsing the console games 2:1! There really is THAT many out there! Plus, where would we draw the line? Would we only include post Windows XP games?

I've been working on revamping how the information on the game pages is displayed, also I plan on reworking the integration with the forum so that we have a topic per game that covers all platforms/regions/editions.... there is really no reason we need 8 topics for Call of Duty Black ops... (one for each region/platform/and edition combination) 1 topic for all editions of the game I think would be preferable. this would mean that anything that is released on PC as well would be included in that topic, and the only PC games that get their own topic would be PC exclusives.

Originally Posted by Gemini-Phoenix

I personally think we would be better off including DS and PSP CE's, or last generation (PS2, Xbox, GameCube) rather than go down the PC route. Weve left it too long, and logistically there are just too many PC games out there to catalogue, and very little information available in contrast to console LE's and CE's

I'm planning on adding everything... eventually. Portables are next on the list, followed by PC CE, and then we'll expand into older consoles such as PS2, xbox GC, etc....

Originally Posted by Mandingo

What is PC Download?

Steam, Direct2Drive, etc.

I'm not going to add any CE's that don't include a Physical box, however I could imagine at some point in the future a CE being released where instead of a disc it includes a game voucher for Steam or whatever, they've done it with the 360 and PS3 already... maybe it's already happened on the PC? if it has I'm not familiar with it.

Originally Posted by Gemini-Phoenix

I also don't believe that the PC collecting scene is as popular as the console collecting scene, especially when a lot of PC games seem to devalue rather quickly in a short space of time. Even the CE's (With exception of a few) are worthless to many. Sealed examples still make good money, but they are another kettle of fish, and even then it's only specific titles which are sought after (Such as the World Of Warcraft CE's)

I agree. though I think titles such as WOW, Civilization, EVE, Diablo, Etc. do deserve to be included in the DB... I'm not sure what I'll use for criteria to determine what will be included.

I think anything that is cross platform with consoles will get in-automatically, also anything from big name game publishers such as Blizzard, Sega, Ubisoft, etc. will get a free pass, beyond that I'll be basing inclusions on what the community alerts me to.

Originally Posted by Gemini-Phoenix

Not to sure that this would be a very productive way of categorising the games as anyone browsing the database may not know which kind of media a specific game comes on. Eg, is X game on CD Rom or Dvd ROM? This would just make it difficult for all involved and reading. Plus some games come on more than one kind of media...

I've pretty much decided that media type is how I'll separate out PC releases... Most publishers stick the "PC DVD-ROM" or the "PC CD-ROM" logo on the box where they would normally stick "PS3" or "Xbox 360" so it makes sense in that capacity.
The straw that broke the camel's back was when I visited several major publishers website and saw that companies like Sega and Atari would list "PC CD-ROM", "PC DVD-ROM" and "PC Download" as 3 separate platforms alongside Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii

In my eye this makes it a defacto standard.

with the new game page layout I'm working on collectors having to know which platform they're looking for will become less important.

Originally Posted by Gemini-Phoenix

A lot of current games which are released for X360 and Ps3 are also available for PC. These ones will be easy to track down and include, as the majority are more or less identical to their console counterparts. But like you say, what about the shovelware?

Also, what about re-issues and re-releases of older games? PC games typically get re-branded as some kind of classics range or Gold Edition, or "Complete Edition", so would we draw the line at first releases only? That's definitely one route to consider, but then if we started doing that then what is the point of us creating a database if we're going to pick and choose?

this is perhaps the most difficult part of adding PC games. I'll rely heavily on the community to determine what should and should-not be included.

I've been thinking about guidelines and I don't think our console rules would fit well for PCs... I think a good method to combat shovelwhere and re-releases are as follows:

1. if the CE release is sold around the same time (say within a month or so, to accommodate those that might get delayed due to printing issues) as the first print standard edition release

2. any release after the the time of the initial release MUST include some kind of PHYSICAL pack in, artbook, soundtrack disc, figurine, etc... voucher based re-releases, or software "bundles" should not be considered.

I think the only exceptions to #2 are those that get a cross platform release with consoles games, or those that the community submit as needing to be included.

Originally Posted by Gemini-Phoenix

As a collector, I know I would still care about regional branding, despite the fact that PC software is compatible worldwide. Eg, I would still care whether my CE had UK BBFC logos on rather than US ESRB ratings. Likewise, I would prefer a UK version in English, rather than some Spanish, French, German, or other European language release.

So the answer to this question is yes, I think it would still matter, and if we were to do this we would obviously have to split the category up into Europe, America, and other worldwide. However, this would create even more work for us as we would have to confirm not only a US release, but also every single European release as well...

we currently track "regions" in 2 ways.
1. based on the physical ENCODING of the disc ie: [PAL] and [NTSC] or for Sony products regions [1] [2] [3] [4] and [5].

This obviously doesn't help you with localization for the English UK release versus a German or French release.

2. We currently track the country as well, though a lot of this specific information is missing from the DB, we've done a decent job of marking US and UK specific release but a very poor job of marking release for other parts of the globe... I think with the PC the "encoding" will be "none" but we'll have to keep closer tabs on the language localization aspects. of these releases.

Originally Posted by Gemini-Phoenix

At the end of the day, as I mentioned in my previous post, I honestly think this is too much effort, especially considering there are more useful things we could include which would be far more appropriate as well as more useful to collector's.

If we're going to be adding more sections to the site, we may as well add something we know quite a bit about rather than something we know absolutely nothing about.

I don't actually plan on adding PC releases "soon" it's several positions down on my "to-do list" for CE.o... however I wanted to open this discussion sooner rather than later so when we DO add PC games to the DB we will be able to do so with a clear direction in mind instead of trying to figure it out on the fly.