Suggestion for the "sections" part of the database

[vintagegamecrazy]

I have an idea that might work. I think it would be kind of confusing for a new collector or someone that is new to the site in general to have so many different listings in the systems box. Ex: Gameboy Advance has its own own listing but the e-reader has a separate section and there will need to be a section for videos soon as well, the Colecovision has a listing and a separate listing for the Adam, I know what the Adam is but I'd imagine that some newbies would not. I have two Ideas that might make the search cleaner and easier to use.

1 When you click on Gameboy Advance for example there could possibly be a drop down menu next to it that would populate the search options such as e-reader and videos as well as us games, non us games, and the rest of the searches in the below sections box.

2 This may be the better of the two ideas, when you first open the rarity database, the section parts would be blank. but I'll use GBA as the test subject again, Once you click on it in the systems the sections would populate only that system's specific search options, and include the Us games, rumor mill and the rest plus e-reader and videos, but it would know to exclude the option for cd rom releases and maybe homebrews and any other sections that would not apply. There are a few other systems that have separate listings for addons and other attachments and I think that it would be nice and tidy listed one of these ways.

One more thing that I mentioned before, there should be an option to search in the classic guide and the advance guide separately.

That may take a bit of work (I am not a programmer so I wouldn't know) but it would be cool, anyone agree?

[slapdash]

Not bad ideas. But of course there are hundreds of ways to organize...

Cartridge based / CD based / other removable media / dedicated

Videogame consoles / computers / portables / electronic / arcade games

Atari era / NES era / 16-bit era / Playstation era / PS2 era

Popular systems / lesser-known systems / fringe systems

...and probably others. Any or all might make other fun filters. Or a chronology selection -- pick a year and see what systems were available then (though hobbyist stuff throws that curve out of whack and should be a separate option).

And yeah, these suggestion might make for more/harder/yikes programming work, but mostly it's just tricky to think out the connections in the database probably.

[mikeetler]

The e-Reader being split off makes sense since the cards require an additional piece of hardware and most of the cards are non-game Pokemon cards. I see no reason for the GBA Videos to be split since they work on stock GBA systems and correctly fall under the "Demo, Sampler & Non-Game" section. The reason for the Adam section is the same, as it requires additional hardware. If there were more then a dozen Supercharger cassettes for the 2600, that would warant it's own section as well.

[KJN]

Split the Non-U.S. Game Releases into European Game Releases and Japanese Game Releases.

[anagrama]

Split the Non-U.S. Game Releases into European Game Releases and Japanese Game Releases.

That's a point that has been raised several times in the past, and I believe it's on the agenda at some point.
In previous discussions, we suggested changing it to 'European/Australian releases, Japanese releases & 'World' releases (Brazil, Asia etc...).

[hydr0x]

Split the Non-U.S. Game Releases into European Game Releases and Japanese Game Releases.

That's a point that has been raised several times in the past, and I believe it's on the agenda at some point.
In previous discussions, we suggested changing it to 'European/Australian releases, Japanese releases & 'World' releases (Brazil, Asia etc...).

exactly, that would make 4 regions in total which fits it quite good imho

[digitalpress]

Split the Non-U.S. Game Releases into European Game Releases and Japanese Game Releases.

That's a point that has been raised several times in the past, and I believe it's on the agenda at some point.
In previous discussions, we suggested changing it to 'European/Australian releases, Japanese releases & 'World' releases (Brazil, Asia etc...).

exactly, that would make 4 regions in total which fits it quite good imho

This can definitely happen. Import guys, keep on me about this. We can time this change around the next major database enhancement.

[Mayhem]

Sounds a good idea to me, I'm all for it. Would make life (and cataloging) a lot easier and thorough.

Depends if we then recind the listing rules and have ALL releases for each region included and not just those that only came out in the non-US areas.

[anagrama]

Depends if we then recind the listing rules and have ALL releases for each region included and not just those that only came out in the non-US areas.

Already doing that for most of the recent PAL lists ;)

[digitalpress]

Depends if we then recind the listing rules and have ALL releases for each region included and not just those that only came out in the non-US areas.

That rule was pretty much recinded when we moved to the collection lists online. Now we pretty much have to satisfy everyone looking to build their lists, which means expanding the non-US release section thusly.

[Mayhem]

Understood. I'll look to bulk out the non-US sections of the applicable lists I have at some point then.

Or maybe I'll wait until the region policy is set in stone... actually that's probably the better thing to do.

[slapdash]

In previous discussions, we suggested changing it to 'European/Australian releases, Japanese releases & 'World' releases (Brazil, Asia etc...).

Given that it's in a database, perhaps the idea is to make a region map, and use the most distinct entry possible. Something like this:

North America: 0000
USA: 0001
Canada: 0002
Mexico: 0003

Europe: 1000
Western Europe: 1100
England: 1101
France: 1102
Germany: 1103
[...]
Eastern Europe: 1200
[...]
Far East: 1300
Japan: 1301
Korea: 1302
China: 1303
[...]

Kind of tricky making up the full scheme, but once built, you could work all kinds of magic. And actually, if you built a "flag" scheme rather than a numbering scheme, you could "add" regions (like "Europe and Australia") together.

And/or you could build a NTSC/SECAM/PAL x hierarchy in a similar fashion, and allow combining this with regions. Same deal for DVD regions, in case that comes into play.

[hydr0x]

slapdash we already have the possibility to name the exact country instead of the region if that is what you were suggesting

[slapdash]

slapdash we already have the possibility to name the exact country instead of the region if that is what you were suggesting

I'm proposing some kind of scheme where you could search for one or the other, possibly mixed.

But then again, what I wrote is kind of "old fashioned". I think a database would more likely have two fields: Country & Region, and to search you could specify one or the other, and mix and match just as easily. So, oops, carry on.