Who Moderates the Games Database? - Proposed Changes For the Game/Collection Database

Ok thanks, I got a few of them.

1444 not found
9051 was :gc: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
9558 was :dc: MDK 2
10649 was :xbox: Doom 3: Collector's Edition
14376 was :gbc: Pokemon Crystal
15440 was :nes: Super Mario Bros 3
510239 was :360: Harm's Way
510241 was :360: Dorito's Crash Course

Totally agree with FriskyTanuki. Now I have to re-add a game to my database that was just created 2 days ago, instead of an entry that was probably created before back towards the time of the games release. weird.
 
Through some tedious spreadsheet manipulation, I've deduced that two of the nuked games from my collection (but I can't tell which #) were The Sims 2 University (PC) and Xenosaga 1 (PS2).

Curiously, Xenosaga 1 has no duplicate entry, unless I'm missing something.
 
I rolled back some of the game deletions that failed to merge, but as a result you'll probably notice that some of the dupe records are back. It should have fixed the problem with collection records lacking names though - let me know if there are any that we missed.
 
Heads up - if anyone added Syndicate for 360/PS3 to their collection, it'll need to be added again.
 
I like this part of that entry: "Genre: andrew"

I guess it's safe to say that those that added it to their collection and are offering it on the marketplace should be checked out.

Is there any update on opening up moderation to more people so the doubles, bad entries, and all that can be fixed more quickly? Are we waiting for the new forums first or is there something else holding it up since this thread is a year old and not much has been done since then that we can see?
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']I like this part of that entry: "Genre: andrew"

I guess it's safe to say that those that added it to their collection and are offering it on the marketplace should be checked out.

Is there any update on opening up moderation to more people so the doubles, bad entries, and all that can be fixed more quickly? Are we waiting for the new forums first or is there something else holding it up since this thread is a year old and not much has been done since then that we can see?[/QUOTE]

So, the upcoming changed don't just affect the forum, it's a complete rewrite of pretty much everything on the site. That includes the moderation system, and there are a lot of significant changes that'll change the way the game database is maintained.

As you probably know, the current system is pretty basic. Anyone can add a game record, and while we have checks in place to prevent duplicates/invalid submissions, it's far from perfect. User submitted edits are placed in a moderation queue with very few moderators, and the tools for managing the data are a real pain to use. There was a huge backlog of edits for a long time (which has since been processed), with descriptions often being copied and pasted directly from sites like IGN - meaning every single edit took a long time to check over. It wasn't a practical system.

The new system is a complete rewrite that makes improvements in a lot of key areas.

1. Crowd moderation
Any user can submit an edit - when they do, it goes into a "moderation pool". Instead of sitting there until a moderator (that is, Cheapy or me) approves or denies the edit, any user can see all the submissions in the pool and vote them up or down. When an edit gets enough up votes it goes live, and users that have contributed (correctly) are assigned points. As moderation continues, users with more points will have weighted votes - eventually, users with high point scores will be able to approve/deny by themselves. When moderating submissions, users will also be able to post comments to discuss the status of edits - if justification is required, for example.

2. Better moderation tools
Users will now have access to the same editing tools that we do, and thankfully those have been rewritten. Anyone can easily nominate games to be merged, deleted or renamed, all through a simple AJAX based interface. (It's a super-fast tool for making light work of the most obvious problems.)

3. Automated data scanning
We do a lot of data feed scanning for the price tracker, and most of those feeds contain a lot of useful data. Things like release dates, box art, UPC codes, and so on. With the new system, we leverage those data feeds as a source for inserting new game records. For example, if several retailers start listing "Assassin's Creed 3" but no such game exists in our database, it'll add the game and submit it to the moderation pool with a higher priority. Lower level changes (for example, release date changes) will be made directly, bypassing the moderation pool.

There's a lot more to it, but those are the three main changes that should help keep the game database up to date with higher quality data. While I've not replied to many posts in this thread, I've read all the feedback and most of the changes were made in response to the problems people have been having. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has regarding the new system, feedback is always welcome.
 
Thanks for the update. Those sound like some good changes to the moderation system, especially being able to merge games so nobody loses their entries in their collection because somebody added a duplicate that was deleted.

Is there going to be any way to add official and MP/community threads to game pages so that people can more easily find good places to discuss games in the non-deal forums? I see that there's some form of that that seems to scan the deals forum for matching titles, so something similar for the Gaming forums would be nice (maybe including threads with proper tags) with the ability to highlight those main threads for discussion. It would add more of an informational aspect to the game pages so you can also see some news/information.

Will we be able to add multiplatform games with just one submission instead of multiple submissions for each version? And what about multiplatform games that are just one file that can be played on multiple systems, like PS1 games and Minis on the PS3 & PSP?
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']Is there going to be any way to add official and MP/community threads to game pages so that people can more easily find good places to discuss games in the non-deal forums? I see that there's some form of that that seems to scan the deals forum for matching titles, so something similar for the Gaming forums would be nice (maybe including threads with proper tags) with the ability to highlight those main threads for discussion. It would add more of an informational aspect to the game pages so you can also see some news/information.[/QUOTE]

There are three ways that threads and posts will be pulled into the game pages:
1. Thread title based searches, just like we have now.
2. Search matches found in the first posts of threads posted in the deals forums.
3. Threads that have been manually "tagged" with a game - I say "tagged", because it doesn't use tags. Rather it's an association to either a release (which contains all versions of a game across multiple platforms), or a single game.

[quote name='FriskyTanuki']Will we be able to add multiplatform games with just one submission instead of multiple submissions for each version? And what about multiplatform games that are just one file that can be played on multiple systems, like PS1 games and Minis on the PS3 & PSP?[/QUOTE]

Ideally you won't have an opportunity to submit multiple games, because the automated scanning system will already have submitted them to the moderation pool. As of right now, adding a new game to the system consists of me clicking "ok" when the scanner suggests something that needs to be added - and that's only because user moderation is switched off.

For trustworthy moderators (i.e. users with high scores), there'll be an interface that lets you search all scanned pricing data that isn't tied to a specific product in the database, and one-click add it as a game. For example, I searched for "Assassin". It then returned a list of all the scanned products containing "assassin" that weren't associated with anything already in the database, ordered by the most frequent occurrences. "Assassin's Creed 3" were the top entries, which I then one-click added to the database, complete with the latest release date data, UPC codes, platform IDs, etc. But once the automated system is switched on fully, you'll have to be pretty quick to beat it.

As for Minis, products in the database can now be assigned multiple categories. For example, PS Vita hardware is both in the "Console Hardware" and "PS Vita" category. I'd imagine we'll add any Mini title to every platform that supports it. We'll need to establish guidelines for how games are categorised in cases like these, though.
 
How does the multi-category stuff work for game pages? Are there unique pages for each category that a game's listed for or is it one all-encompassing page? I'm hoping that it's one page for stuff like Minis since you wouldn't really own a PS3 and a PSP version of that game and having your collection filled up with duplicates like that isn't ideal.

The bigger concern would be for things like Virtual Console, PS1/PS2 Classics on PSN, and all that, as those are all essentially the original games for all intents and purposes with the only difference being that they're digital versions of those games. They don't need specific PS3/PSP/Wii/3DS pages since all we'd really need is a way for us to designate that as a digital version like we have for regions right now.

How far of a reach do you have for pricing data? Would it include PSN, XBLA, Steam, WiiWare, 3DS eShop, and all of those digital services or is it limited to any codes that GameStop, Amazon, BestBuy, and all of those retailers offer? I'm guessing that those would be where most of the holes would be for the system that you're going to be using for the new site.

Thanks for answering questions about some of the minutia of the changes that are being made.
 
A Mini would be one page, tagged with multiple categories. As for things like VC games, that's something that needs to be discussed - my instinct would be to have a new root level "Digital" category, which is then tagged with every other category the game is available for. That might create some less than desirable results when it comes to a user sorting their collection, though. We could create root level "Virtual Console", "PlayStation Network" and "Xbox Live Arcade" categories to solve that sorting issue, but then we end up with the same problem of a lot of seemingly unnecessary records.

Regarding feeds, we're unlikely to be able to get access to PSN/XBL/WiiWare/3DS prices any time soon, although I haven't looked into those recently. Certainly it'll never happen with 360 downloadable titles as the currency conversion is too much hassle.
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']Yeah, I'm not sure what the most elegant way to handle those digital versions of older games would be.[/QUOTE]

The thing that irritates me about VC games in the database is that if I browse Wii games, I expect to see games that were coded to run natively on that hardware. I don't object to having re-released games in the database, I just don't want them to pollute the main categories. Having new root level categories for each digital platform solves that problem - so we'd have "Virtual Console", "PS1 Classics", and so on - with platform categories tagged as a secondary method of categorisation.
 
Is there, or will there be, a way to filter/sort by platform and then by game? I can do one or the other currently but with an extensive collection, I usually update a platform at a time. When I sort by platform, it looks like it sorts within that platform by date added instead of title.

Currently, I usually end up downloading the csv file and going through it that way.
 
That CAG search bar isn't really flexible, for example, if you type "Dragon Age 2", none of the results are remotely related to Dragon Age 2, you have to type in Dragon Age II. Kinda annoying.
 
Eagerly awaiting the database overhaul... fortunately though, I logged on and got the award for submitting boxart, so something is going on behind the scenes, even if we don't know what!
 
Yeah, I got boxart I submitted back on May 17, and it's still q'd. Still willing to volunteer my soivices to help moderate just that part of it.
 
End of which thread? I've seen box art updates since the March posts here. I'm not much about the database overhaul, I just like having shinies in my collection here on CAG (which is pretty much the only place I keep track of it).
 
This thread, specifically John's posts above. You don't need to report specific things because it'll mostly be correctable by the community once CAG 3.0 launches.
 
[quote name='dfg']Yeah, I got boxart I submitted back on May 17, and it's still q'd. Still willing to volunteer my soivices to help moderate just that part of it.[/QUOTE]

The queue was processed a few days ago. If it didn't show up, it's probably because the uploaded image had extra white space.
 
Okay. I see some of them now; probably need to clear my cache. Although I don't think some of the ones that didn't show up had white space; they're rectangular (width > height), such as the ones that we have for games primarily found on Steam.

example:
live_517039_reflection.jpg


Either way, I appreciate all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into what we see here. Cheers.
 
[quote name='dfg']Okay. I see some of them now; probably need to clear my cache. Although I don't think some of the ones that didn't show up had white space; they're rectangular (width > height), such as the ones that we have for games primarily found on Steam.

example:
live_517039_reflection.jpg


Either way, I appreciate all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into what we see here. Cheers.[/QUOTE]

Good point, I forgot to mention there are other reasons why box art is declined:

- For some reason, people have been submitting box art that was lifted from the game page. I.e. they were trying to replace the box art with a copy of itself.
- It's a problem that sometimes games don't have box art (mainly downloadable games), and as a result people often submit screenshots or other "homemade" box art.
- Sometimes the image quality is too low.
- A lot of PS3 downloadable games get box art submitted with the text "PS3 Game" stuck on the top. Not sure where that's coming from, but I think I'm right in thinking it's not an official Sony graphic?
 
Hopefully this will be read by someone from the site but what I really want (beyond an Android app for the site), is a full-blown game collection and wishlist Android app that incorporates this database. It would be so helpful to look at when I'm in a game store! As long as I'm dreaming, UPC scanning to add to the wishlist or collection would be boss. An Android tablet version would be great too!
 
Thank you!


edit: um, sorry to be a bother, but do the Game page images and Collection images update independently? The Borderlands 2 (PC) image in my Collection is still the old version.

live_515874_mini.jpg
versus
live_515874_reflection.jpg
 
[quote name='dfg']Thank you!


edit: um, sorry to be a bother, but do the Game page images and Collection images update independently? The Borderlands 2 (PC) image in my Collection is still the old version.

live_515874_mini.jpg
versus
live_515874_reflection.jpg
[/QUOTE]

They take a while to update.
 
It doesn't seem like the CAG Database is being updated anymore. There's no listing for Wii U games, nor have box arts for some recent releases been added yet. Did someone report in sick or something?

Also, is there going to be a Wii U forum added? Or what?
 
If it follows the way they've handled other consoles, it'll take over the Wii forum instead of getting its own. I'd prefer to see Wii, DS, and GBA get merged into an Other Nintendo Consoles forum so that 3DS and Wii U could get their own and the same for PSP/PS2 with Vita getting its own forum.
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']If it follows the way they've handled other consoles, it'll take over the Wii forum instead of getting its own. I'd prefer to see Wii, DS, and GBA get merged into an Other Nintendo Consoles forum so that 3DS and Wii U could get their own and the same for PSP/PS2 with Vita getting its own forum.[/QUOTE]

That'd be more fair I guess. But I'm not really seeing any action when it comes to Forum merging or the Games Database, which is why I raised the concern.
 
The database is being reworked so it will no longer be reliant on user submissions.

I don't think it's necessary to have "other _____ system" legacy forums as they tend to not get much traffic. Less forums = easier to navigate IMO.
 
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[quote name='CheapyD']The database is being reworked so it will no longer be reliant on user submissions.

I don't think it's necessary to have "other _____ system" legacy forums as they tend to not get much traffic. Less forums = easier to navigate IMO.[/QUOTE]

Then why not just combine them into one Forum for each manufacturer?
 
Getting this message/page when trying to upload box art:

You do not have the GD Library installed. This class requires the GD library to function properly.

Is this an issue on my end or CAG's? Tried it with both Firefox and Chrome: same result.
 
[quote name='dfg']Getting this message/page when trying to upload box art:

You do not have the GD Library installed. This class requires the GD library to function properly.

Is this an issue on my end or CAG's? Tried it with both Firefox and Chrome: same result.[/QUOTE]

Fixed.
 
Guess it's a CAG 3.0 issue, but still wish a lot of games were in there that aren't. Maybe it's a suspect search function, maybe it's not really in there, but I'd say about 10% of the time I can't find a fairly common "next gen" game to add to my collection.
 
If you have trouble finding a game in the search, use this in google and then type the name of the game after it. For example, for COD MW3:

site:cheapassgamer.com/forums/games call of duty modern warfare 3

That should help you out and determine if the game is really in the database or not.
 
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