PC Adding PC games to the Database

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Now my personal thoughts have been expressed, I though I would break down your initial post:

Originally Posted by Twistedsymphony

I don't collect PC games personally and that combine with the difficulty in categorizing PC games is what has really prevented me from adding them to the DB.

Neither do I, as a rule, although I do happen to own several CE's for games I like.

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)

1. How to we categorize the "PC" Platform

There are a number of ways we might do this...
1. is by Operating system consider "Windows 7" games a different platform than say "Windows XP" games, of course there is also the issue of cross-compatibility. which platform do we file that under?

An interesting concept, but this would involve a lot of research into which OS a game is compatible with or intended for. Obviously this is easy if you own the game, but in our case we would be researching this entirely from what we can source on the internet. And as we all know, the internet is not always a reliable source of information, and it's better to get this information first hand where possible. I for one am not prepared to start collecting PC games just for this reason.

2. another method is by media... I see a lot of games with a "PC DVD" logo, that could be a platform, while older games might be "PC CD" and older games "PC Floppy" or something along those lines. But what about games that were released in both DVD and CD or maybe had both in the same box? how do we classify those? Is there an official validation procedure a game must go though to hold the "PC DVD" logo? if so, does anyone know what it is? Are there any games that were released on thumb drives or flash media that we'd be missing out on?

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...

3. another option is based on existing official "platforms" such as "Games for Windows Live" I like this option because it's a clearly defined platform... unfortunately very few games are included under this umbrella. which means using it wont really solve the problem here.

I like this option as well, but we would then have to draw the line at the point where this started being in common use. The downside to this would be we would miss out anything which came before this came into use. Ie. There were a lot of SteelBook's and CE's in circulation a long time before this format started being used. The plus side would be we wouldn't have to backtrack too far, although there have still been an epic amount of PC CE's released within the last three or four years since CE's became a more popular form factor

4. no classification at all, all PC games are just "PC Games" and that includes everything way back since the 80s.

PC games are PC games in my book. The alternative would be to categorise them in five year periods, such as 1990-1994, 1995-1999, 2000-2004, 2005-2009, 2010-2014 etc... This would seem more appropriate as any collector would have a rough idea of the age of a game, and would also dictate what OS a game would run on at the same time (More or less)

2. How do we decide what is included and what is not?

Clearly PC CE releases that get cross platform releases with consoles should be included, as should big name publisher CE releases such as those from Blizzard, Sega, Ubisoft, etc. But what about all that shovel-ware? Do we want to include "Monopoly 2011 Gold Edition" that goes for $10 at Walmart? I don't think so... but how to define where that line is drawn... what separates a valid CE release from one that doesn't belong in the Database?

I think this is a given. 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?

3. Do PC CEs have regions?

Obviously the PC is a region free platform, but a US collector might not care about a European release...or how do we differentiate between the European and the US release of a PC CE if they have the same name but completely different content?

Do we want to assign arbitrary regions? or do we want to just assume all PC games are "international" and not assign any regions at all?

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...



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.