Clarification: Sypnosis and uploaded files

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Samwise
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Clarification: Sypnosis and uploaded files

#1 Post by Samwise »

Hi,

I haven't made any significant contributions yet, but I thought I could submit some info on a few games I know well. After looking around the submissions sections of the site tho, I just wanted to clarify a few points before I submitted anything.

Sypnosis - is this meant to be very short (many entries seem to be atm), or would having a long description be of value? Is it meant to be a regurgitation of the original publisher's description on the packaging? Or is it meant to be an modern, original third party perspective?

Uploaded Files - what is the preferred format? Suppose I have an official hint sheet from a particular game. Is it preferred that that is transcribed / OCR'd into text? Or would you prefer an original scan? If so, an archive of picture scans (what format? JPG? PNG?) or collated together into something like PDF?

Screenshots - I assume submitting two or more shots per game is OK (say, Title Screen and In-Game). There appears to be only one File Upload button, tho, so I assume that multiple pics are uploaded separately? Also, should a tooltip for the screenshot be specified or is that auto-generated? (I ask this question because when I looked at the Zork entry, the tooltip on the shots says something like "1976 C64/128" which is definitely wrong as the C64 wasn't released until '82!. I wasn't sure how best to report that, tho.).

Just thought I'd check!

Thanks,

Sam.
Mr Creosote
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Re: Clarification: Sypnosis and uploaded files

#2 Post by Mr Creosote »

I can only answer the last one about the tooltip: Please include system information for the screenshots. The number in front of that isn't the year (you picked an unfortunate example where it could be mistaken for one), but an internal file ID automatically generated by the system. It's displayed, because writers of reviews can include the screenshots into the reviews by referencing this number. You don't need to worry about it.

As for uploading multiple files, I'd say just use some archiving program to group them into one file, though maybe Jacob has something to say about this as well ;)
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Gunness
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Re: Clarification: Sypnosis and uploaded files

#3 Post by Gunness »

Hi Sam,
thanks for posting some excellent questions. They, along with a number of mails I've received, have made me realise that the site isn't as self-explanatory as I thought. I'll try to add a bit of information here and there, and I'll also write a guide on how to contribute to the site. The challenge is to make the guide brief and engaging enough so that people will actually read it ;)

Synopsis:
A short overview: my intention with the synopsis is to have a brief, modern day overview of the game. Storyline, size, complexity. Not the package blurb from "back when". Generally my aim is to give as accurate data as possible on these games, but when it comes to the synopsis, it's perfectly all right to throw in a dash of subjectivity. As long as it doesn't go overboard.
So if you feel that a particular game is "simple", "huge", "tricky", "taxing" or has "extremely brief location descriptions", go ahead and add it even though others may disagree.
Some games can be really difficult to write more than a couple of lines about - simple, generic treasure hunts of the "You are in a small room. Exits are w and n"-type. But as rule of thumb, I'd like to encourage longer descriptions. They make it easier to see if a game is worth your time and are more entertaining to read.

That said, I know that a lot of the synopsises – including my own - are too brief at the moment. As there are around 1,400 games in the database and a handful of people writing the texts, it's been either brief write-ups for a lot of titles or vice versa. We’ve gone the former route, which may or may not be a good idea.

Finally, "synopsis" is a bit of a misnomer, really, as it is also the place to add links, anecdotes, clarifications and the likes.

Uploaded Files:
Your call, really – all normal formats (including pdf, gif, jpg, doc and png) are acception. My personal opinion is that if keeping the original format doesn't add anything, conversion is a good idea. As per your hint sheet example, having that as a gif or pdf just takes up extra space and takes longer to load, whereas a text file would allow you to search for specific words. On the other hand, manuals with illustrations and similar items that help build the atmosphere of the game might be a good idea to keep as original format.
I don't care much for pdf myself - takes too long to load - but if you feel that gathering a number of images in a pdf, feel free to do so.

Screenshots:
Mr. Creosote has explained part of it already. As for the uploads, yes, the current method is one file at a time. So if you have multiple files, just zip/rar/ace them and we'll handle the rest.
As a site note, it could be a good idea if users could upload several files at a time. Will investigate :)
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Samwise
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Re: Clarification: Sypnosis and uploaded files

#4 Post by Samwise »

Thanks for the clarifications, all. Sounds like synopsis is more of a general description or detailed info section.

Right, I'll see if I can contribute some bits.

Apologies for not replying sooner. Been mega-busy of late.

Sam.
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