[game_preservation] Project proposal: citation/catalogue standards

[Devin Monnens]

To answer this... 'Whatever works best' :) Personally? I was thinking a more
minimal system with basic information about the game and catalogue numbers
that would be easy to read (i.e. an ISBN-like set of numbers/letters for
things like system, region, year, developer, mfg, and title). And, of
course, the ability to add more notable information as metadata. Eventually,
it might even be integrated with the Game Credits list.

I don't think there's currently a 'perfect solution' for games. At the bare
minimum, it would contain as much of the main information about a game as
possible (certainly the info you would need to cite the game - hence help
from the IGJA), though likely many more entries would contain metadata.
Places like Mobygames and Arcade-History already contain much of this,
though integrating all of the information into a central library would be
difficult and require cooperation. The catalogue would obviously not include
everything that is on sites like Mobygames and A-H, but I don't think it
makes sense to retype all the information when somebody else already has it
- it's like manually going through every single book in the LoC to get the
publishing information.

-Devin

On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 5:50 PM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>wrote:


>  So, what, you mean a Mobygames-like database? a set of XML files - one for

> each game? a ISBN-like book system? or a library "library of congress style"

> categorisation system?

>

> Or all of these?

>

> It'd be certainly something that would be useful. I'm interested to know

> exactly what you mean, and have a comparable example to look at copying

> from. There's no need to reinvent the wheel after all :)

>

> Andrew

>

> Devin Monnens wrote:

>

> Hi all,

>

> Coming close to the end of the white paper project, I've got another

> proposal to consider. This is in regards to the development of a standards

> system for cataloguing and citing videogames. I know the Game Journalists

> group has their own system in the works, and I think that the catalogue

> system for archives could have affinities with citation standards. I spoke

> with archivists at a couple universities in Japan, one of which has begun

> their own catalogue system.

>

> The game catalogue would eventually be used to produce a 'master list' of

> games (say a sum of all products) that can be used for citation and

> archival. At this point, it is just metadata, but it is also a tool that can

> be used for preservation purposes by giving a list of actual works.

> Something like this could be very helpful for preservation.

>

> One of the first steps is determining what information needs to be included

> in the catalogue, and I think a good bit of this would involve cooperation

> from existing archives and catalogues, as well as help from the

> International Game Journalists. Ideally, I think this would be a system that

> could be used effectively by libraries, archives, academics, and

> journalists.

>

> -Devin Monnens

>

> --

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

> "Until next time..."

> Captain Commando

>

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-- 
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

"Until next time..."
Captain Commando
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