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CRPG Database

Jahmis

Educated
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Messages
30
Sounds good, have you seen http://backloggery.com/?

It seems to do a lot of what you're thinking about.

If you really just want to mess around and have fun, do two different rating system. One is 1-10 IMDB style. The other the system picks two random games and you pick which one is better. Then you use those results to make an ELO rating of RPGs.
I have seen backloggery recently, but haven't used it myself. It seems pretty awesome, and it is the kind of thing I'm thinking about for tracking your own games. I was actually a little disappointed when I saw it because I thought, "Oh well, that's been done". But what hasn't been done already? And maybe it would be good to have a place dedicated to RPGs.

And it's funny that you should mention ELO ranking because this is another site I did: http://www.hearthcrowdrank.com/#pairRanking :)

Obviously I'm a fan, but I don't know how well it would work for games though because you need to have played it to know whether it good or not (hopefully). So the chances that you've played some random game are pretty low.

How about a user reviews section for each game? Or is that already included with the plans for ratings?

Yep, it's in the plans. I'll post more of my thoughts on a rating system in a bit.
 

Jahmis

Educated
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Messages
30
Btw, tags are in. I've added a few already and I'm working on tagging steampunk games right now.
 

tuluse

Arcane
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
11,400
Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Little bug report to file: if the browser is narrow enough, the text overlaps the image. At least on the Arcanum page.
 

Jahmis

Educated
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Messages
30
Thanks, and I'm not too surprised. I haven't done much work yet to make it behave under difference circumstances. I'll check it out.
 

Jahmis

Educated
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Messages
30
I've added support for Gravatar, so now we have profile pictures for members. I'll do more with them as time goes on. I also realized that I shouldn't be storing user emails in my own database so I removed them, if anyone was concerned about that. But let me know if that broke anything for anyone.

And that "little bug" cost me a couple hours to fix. Man, I hate CSS. But I gotta learn this stuff, and next time it really will be quick fix. But if there's anyone here that actually likes doing web layout (or even wants to contribute to the code), I'm open to collaborating. It would be nice to make faster progress on this than I have been by myself.

Anyway, more stuff coming. Stay tuned.
 

dragonbait

Augur
Joined
Jul 4, 2009
Messages
290
Location
Below the ruins of Yulash
Wow. 4809 entries so far. The database seems coming along well. It's pretty all encompassing so an advanced multiple tag selector option like Alchemist said, would help narrow down searches for games. Another interesting database (this one for 1st person dungeon crawlers) is http://www.dungeoncrawlers.org/
allows users to rate each game with a top 100 that is search-able either via most votes or by highest average.

With the amount of games you already have listed in the database it would probably make sense to have some sort of user upload option so that people can upload their screenshots, or videos of gameplay or write reviews or add mods or other game related files so to fill out each game page quicker. The more content on each game page the better, as it would give more incentive for users to return to the site. Site's like Mobygames do it well in that there is almost always content, be it pictures, or reviews or links and such on their game pages, as opposed to other sites you might find when googling a game but end up coming to some blank placeholder page that has not data or pictures or anything whatsoever. Site's like Moby I use as reference often. SItes containing placeholder pages usually get avoided.

I sort of went the other way when putting the CRPG directory together, only putting a page of a game online when I had content for it, and not putting every possible game ever made, but rather only games that were either turn based, or party based or retro in style or just rare or interesting and obscure titles. I'm not too fond of CSS either. Much prefer basic HTML. SImple and straight to the point, but also sort of like riding atop a dinosaur while strolling through the remains of the Geocities while everyone else is blasting off into space with more up to date website coding options.
 

Jahmis

Educated
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Messages
30
All good points. Thanks for the heads up on Dungeon Crawlers, I'm always on the lookout for other sites doing a similar thing. I totally agree about what seem like placeholder pages and the quality of each game entry. A database isn't much good without good data, right? I just added a way for people to add missing box art to any game. I plan to keep improving the different ways anyone can help with fleshing out the game info, and even getting rid of ones that don't belong. There are definitely some duds in there. My hope is that eventually more folks will contribute to the general upkeep and make this a really useful source for reference as well as just a fun place to go. At the very least, I want to be able to easily update a game myself from work whenever I've got some down time. And I can't do that if I have to log into my Mongo database or mess with source code.

A more advanced tag search option is in the plan, along with uploads and everything else you've mentioned. Slowly but surely.

On another note, I'm thinking about changing the name of the site to avoid the whole, "why are there console games here?" issue. Personally, I'd rather keep it inclusive and change the name to avoid confusion than to go through and prune out the non-cRPG's. That line is too blurry for me to feel confident in drawing myself.

Anyway, rpgdb.com is taken, although not being used right now. But rpgplayers.club is available. :) Maybe. Any suggestions?
 

tuluse

Arcane
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
11,400
Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Just keep the name and make a short explanation that you mean any video game RPG. I think the codex is just about the last place that actually differentiates c meaning personal computer any ways.
 

Jahmis

Educated
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Messages
30
Still pluggin' away. I've mostly been working on some behind the scenes stuff. Fixed a couple bugs with Firefox and IE

Based on dragonbait's comment about placeholder entries, I added a "health" value to the front page that basically shows the percentage of empty to non-empty data for each game. I like the idea of clearly showing this up front and it motivates me to keep updating the information because I really want it to be complete. I just added a bunch of box art which bumped it up a whole point.

About the name, I'll keep it for now. We'll see.

I think I'm going to work on a tag search box next, along with continually adding more tags and other data to the 'base.
 

Jahmis

Educated
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Messages
30
Tag filtering is in on the database page. I'm going to have to improve it when we get more tags on games so it's not this huge wall of buttons.

I know I've been slacking on the "fun stuff to do" features like favorites and tracking your game progress and whatnot, but I'm just trying to get the data in the database itself in a good state. Trying to make sure there's as much "meat" there as possible to sink your teeth into.
 

dragonbait

Augur
Joined
Jul 4, 2009
Messages
290
Location
Below the ruins of Yulash
Hey, I like the tag filter you've set up. I see you have "turn based", might I also suggest adding a "party based" tag? Also, Isometric is listed, so perhaps "1st person", and "top down" tags would also be helpful.
 

Jahmis

Educated
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Messages
30
I'll be adding a ton of new tags soon, and I'll be reworking the filter so that it's not just a huge wall of buttons.
 

Jahmis

Educated
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Messages
30
Better tag filtering on the database page is in, as well as ratings for individual games. Log in to rate them yourself. I'm working on improving loading time right now and will keep updating the game data to add missing information.
 

DaveO

Erudite
Joined
May 30, 2007
Messages
1,240
Well, the ratings page has MMIX with a rating of three stars. I don't know how many people rated this so far, but perhaps with more ratings from more people a more accurate rating could be achieved.
 

Jahmis

Educated
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Messages
30
What do you think is accurate? In a five star rating system, 3 is technically 50%, which jives with its Metacritic score 55 (or 4.9 user rating). But you should log in and rate it. Power to the people!

So, I've been kicking around this idea of creating a game journal feature for the site. The idea is that you can keep a running journal for each game you care about, with notes and pictures, as you play it. Each entry is dated and would serve as a record of your journey through the game, whatever that means to you. I know a lot of RPGs have some sort of diary system right in the game, but most don't let you save screenshots you want to remember and this would be public so you could share it.

I'd use Tumblr to store all the entries. Why? Because I don't have a budget for this project so I need a free way to store a large number of potentially large images. Plus I get automatic image resizing, unlimited posts, and a built in RSS feed anyone can subscribe to.

Does this sound interesting and like something you would use? Let me know what you think.
 

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