[game_preservation] Wikipedia thoughts?

[Jim Leonard]

Andrew Armstrong wrote:

> Basically, a give database entry is fine, but 

> you don't usually have much of a clue on how a game might play, or why 

> it was good/bad, what it used from past games, what future games took 

> from it, and where it fits into people's histories.


That is typically what you can read from the reviews, which are allowed 
to be as subjective as the author wants to be.


> BTW: I don't mean reviews as such, which (let's be honest) barely 

> contain any information about the game, since they're so short and 

> written by people who either love it or hate it, hehe.


You haven't been reading the right reviews then :-)  Here's one I pulled 
in less than a minute which not only delves into gameplay minutuae but 
compares it to a prior game: 
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/fallout-2/reviews/reviewerId,6226/

I'm not saying Moby is perfect, nor am I saying that that kind of 
information belongs in a "review" section.  I'm merely saying that not 
all of the reviews are short and lack information.

When MobyGames was designed, it was meant to be a historic record, and 
for that, we had to keep all of the details objective.  That's why "why 
it was good/bad...what future games took from it, and where it fits into 
people's histories" is not implicitly in the main description.  Reviews 
are allowed to be subjective because that information needs to be 
recorded, obviously, but when it's done as part of the review, it is 
explicitly marked as "this is my opinion, others may differ".


> It's difficult to, however, draw the line I guess between Database and 

> more general sites. :D Thanks for explaining that. If you do solicit 

> possible changes to the site's content fields, I'd be happy to help with 

> some of it, but no worries if it's "okay as it is".


Any page can have information submitted to correct what is there; there 
is a "contribute" entry under User Actions on the left-side column.
-- 
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org)            http://www.oldskool.org/
Help our electronic games project:           http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at     http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/