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Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 10:04 am
by Gunness
With the rapid growth of the database, I thought it appropriate to take a closer look at the synopsises. Personally I think they're one of the most important and useful parts of the database :) They are of wildly varying length and content at the moment. Given the size and quality of the games they cover, they don't have to be completely similar, but a bit of streamlining, for consistency, won't hurt.

To give you two examples, there are some very long synopsises and some very brief ones.

I have some personal ideas on the subject, listed below, but at this site is developed as a group effort, there's no reason why I should have the final say in this matter :)
  • First off, there's nothing set in stone about any of the synopsises, so if anything is too long or too short, it can be edited along the way.
  • I prefer a placeholder text, however brief, rather than having nothing at all.
  • I prefer a synopsis with a personal angle, rather than just the packaging text. We're not Wikipedia, and there's no reason to aim for complete objectivity. I'd like the synopsis to be informative and entertaining at the same time.
    If a game is generally deemed to be large, difficult, ground-breaking or lots of fun, I think this information belongs in the synopsis (of course, there's no way of accurately defining "generally" here, but I hope you get the idea). This is for a number of reasons, one of which being the fact that having a personal angle shows that we actually know these games, rather than just copying their data from other sites.
  • Information on platform specifics, trivia, number of parts etc. belongs here, too.
Anyway, that's my angle. Any comments?

Re: Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 2:16 pm
by Samwise
A couple of points to add to the discussion:
  • You could actually include both parts - one being the original marketing blurb, the second being the modern CASA sypnosis. No need to choose between them.
  • As for the size of the game, I remember The Mad Hatter, the adventure columnist in The Micro User, always used to say that he thought the most useful measure to compare games' sizes was actually the number of moves required to complete each game rather than, say, the number of rooms. Though if you wanted to collect that info, if you pulled it out of the sypnosis and into a field of its own, you could also use it to search on.
Sam.

Re: Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 2:35 pm
by Mr Creosote
I wouldn't include what you call the 'personal angle'. This goes very much into review territory. Maybe game length, ok, but fun? That's very subjective. What will you do if one user submits a synopsis (which doesn't appear 'signed' on the site) saying a game is great and another user submits the opposite?

Re: Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 3:30 pm
by Gunness
Mr Creosote wrote:I wouldn't include what you call the 'personal angle'. This goes very much into review territory. Maybe game length, ok, but fun?
My aim is simply to add a few words to give a general indication of what type of game we're dealing with, without going into full-blown review territory. Perhaps "fun" should be called "humorous". Still, it will be difficult to find a lot of objective information to add about the quality of the writing and technical setup. And if we're stripping away most of the adjectives, IMO we don't really offer some much needed information.

To make an extreme example, compare Zauberschloss II with Spellbreaker. Nominally, both games are about fighting evil with magic. I think it would be fairly safe to say that the latter is more difficult and well-written, and the former is basic/simple (perhaps even "crude"). But I'm sure there are people out there who will think that Spellbreaker is a walk in the park or prefer the technical merits of Zauberschloss - what to do, then? My point is simply that these kinds of information are nice to have when reading up on a new game, and that it's pretty tricky to include only objective, certifiable information. The way I see it :D

@Sam: having both types of info is certainly an option.

Re: Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 4:29 pm
by Mr Creosote
The synopsis is just one piece of the whole picture, though, is it? If a game is humorous, it would have the appropriate theme tagged to it (which a serious take on the same subject won't). Information like "simple 'verb noun' parser" is verifyable information which can easily be included in an 'objective' synopsis.

My point is that the time required for qualifying every game in its supposed synopsis would be better spent simply writing a few reviews. What is this option for anyway if all that subjective stuff can go into the synopsis anyway?

A subjective synopsis, in my opinion, is only possible on a purely 'editorial' site, ideally one run by one, and only one person - because then, it's clear whose opinion we're reading.

Re: Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 8:35 pm
by Gunness
Mr Creosote wrote:My point is that the time required for qualifying every game in its supposed synopsis would be better spent simply writing a few reviews. What is this option for anyway if all that subjective stuff can go into the synopsis anyway?
It's simply a matter of scope - we're talking five words vs. a full page. The synopsis isn't supposed to replace a full review, which gives a much better look at the writing, the puzzles etc.

Re: Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 10:53 pm
by Alastair
I know my synopses vary wildly from the very long to the very short (though I do plan to expand some of the short ones after I have reacquainted myself with those games), but the synopses I am most happy with are the ones where I give the story behind the game then give some extra information about the game. This extra information may be about the difficulty of the game, the target market of the game (novices, experts, those wishing to learn how to create a text adventure, etc.), or anything else that may be of interest, the one thing this extra information does not include is a personal angle. I feel personal angles are more than covered by comments, game ratings, and (potentially) game reviews.

Re: Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:48 pm
by dave
One of the reasons for the difference in lengths of the synopses is that many of the games haven't been played, so the flavour text from inside the game (or inlay) is used. It makes it quick to add something, but some games vary it considerably.

Of course it'd be the prime situation if every game had been played, but this isn't going to be the case, so we do what we can!

Re: Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 7:15 am
by Gunness
Dave, I'm not criticising. Just observing. I've used these blurbs myself. My aim with this post was simply to establish what our goal should be. Long? Short? Personalized angle? Package blurb? As I said above, it's better to have something than nothing, so keep updating and we can always adjust a text if someone actually plays the game in question :)

Re: Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:31 am
by dave
Point taken, I was just trying to explain why the synopses differ so much!

While we're at it (and as most of the site admins will probably read this thread). The formatting on text entries can sometimes go a bit awry, to clarify what the code does may lead to a bit most consistency.

Any line feed in the text is counted as a <br /> in the resultant XHTML. A double line feed, is treated as a <p> </p> block in the HTML. So could we ensure that when a separate paragraph is required, a double line feed is used? (I normally edit this in notepad then copy and paste into the text box, yes I know we need to increase the size of the text box in the add/edit game screen!)

Re: Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:35 am
by Mr Creosote
Gunness wrote:a full review, which gives a much better look at the writing, the puzzles etc.
Does it? So far, there is only one review on the site: http://solutionarchive.com/review/id,1/. It's a review alright, because it gives a subjective account of the quality of the game, but it's not longer than a long-ish synopsis.

Alastair basically said what I wanted to say. I like 'personal angles' to be included on the game's page, but with a name attached to them. What's stopping you from splitting the overall information up into a synopsis and a comment, for instance? You'll notice I tried doing that for the few games I've entered into the database; many of them also have a comment from me (not that I've added many games to the site... but you know what I mean).
dave wrote:yes I know we need to increase the size of the text box in the add/edit game screen!
Why? The text size follows the user's browser settings. Isn't that ideal for everybody, because everybody gets what he wants?

Re: Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 3:47 pm
by dave
Mr Creosote wrote:
dave wrote:yes I know we need to increase the size of the text box in the add/edit game screen!
Why? The text size follows the user's browser settings. Isn't that ideal for everybody, because everybody gets what he wants?
It's the size of the textarea in the form - I remember as part of the design I reduced it to 20 columns, which isn't enough for some of the synopses we're getting at the moment. Removing the columns="20" from it will make it expand to the full size of the inner box and make it much more usable!

It's another thing on my list of stuff to do.

Re: Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 4:18 pm
by Mr Creosote
Ah, sorry, I misread you, Dave. I thought you wanted to increase the text size.

Re: Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:10 am
by Gunness
Mr Creosote wrote:
Gunness wrote:a full review, which gives a much better look at the writing, the puzzles etc.
Does it? So far, there is only one review on the site: http://solutionarchive.com/review/id,1/. It's a review alright, because it gives a subjective account of the quality of the game, but it's not longer than a long-ish synopsis.
Ah yes, the reviews section - it's sticking out like a sore thumb at the moment. I have been wanting to add a number of reviews for some time, just to give an example of what I personally believe to be a good review. But other sorts of maintenance and CASA related projects have stolen my time.
Let's just diplomatically say that the single review currently available isn't exactly what I had in mind. It's much too brief. But the first version submitted was even shorter :shock: :wink:

As for Alastair's (and Sam's) suggestion about a split-up synopsis, I'm fine with that.

Re: Synopsis - what to aim for?

Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 1:55 pm
by Mr Creosote
You approved the review, now you have to stand by it :P