[game_preservation] IGDA Chapter Meeting Minutes

[Jan Baart]

Wow, how on earth did I miss this message? I have the utmost respect for 
your stance. I have done a video game database model myself and I know 
how hard it is to accept it is not flawless. To be honest, I would have 
used the same "holding back" approach as that journalist. So I am 
actually quite surprised no one followed up on this and actually asked 
you certain things.

The one thing that always worries me about MobyGames is something most 
people seem to see in a very positive light: the way data is gathered. 
Don't get me wrong, I like crowd efforts, they have a lot of benefits. 
But it sometimes feels as if MobyGames gets drowned in a sea of credit 
contributions while at the same time still missing games for platforms 
like the SNES. Is this something that also bothered you or am I just a 
bit weird in this regard?

On 09/03/2012 23:41, Jim Leonard wrote

> On 3/9/2012 11:40 AM, Henry Lowood wrote:

>> Devin, were you not able to attend remotely? I think the video feed went

>> ok; we had 5 or 6 people on it.

>

> The feed went rather well after everyone on the feed muted their mics, 

> which stopped all the ambient compression noise ("swishing") and we 

> were left with only Henry's mic.  It was very low, but it was audible.

>

> Something concerned me briefly during the meeting:  Someone (a 

> journalist, I didn't catch the name due to low chat volume) mentioned 

> that he was apprehensive to talk badly about MobyGames, as I was 

> present in the (virtual) room.  I'd like to make a few things clear:

>

> 1. I'm no longer officially associated with MobyGames now that the 

> sale to GameFly is complete, so I can talk about any aspect of it I 

> want to.

>

> 2. I don't have any hangups about failure -- failure is an opportunity 

> to learn and succeed the second time around.  I have no problem both 

> admitting and talking about some of the ways MobyGames failed in what 

> it was/is trying to achieve.

>

> So next time, bash away :-) and I'd be happy to give context to some 

> of the design decisions that were made, what practices we tried to 

> adhere to, what failed, what succeeded, etc.  There are portions of 

> MobyGames that outright failed, and I'm not blind to them, nor opposed 

> to discussing them.

>

> In fact, I think I heard a criticism during the meeting that MobyGames 

> can't possibly be comprehensive without coin-op arcade games.  This is 

> *absolutely true* and I agree with the sentiment. At the time we 

> started to expand platforms in the early 2000s, we made the decision 

> to stay away from arcade games because the KLOV was doing a pretty 

> good job, and we wanted to turn our attention to platforms that 

> weren't covered as well (for every powerhouse like the NES or Xbox, 

> there's an Atari Lynx huddled in the corner that deserves a fair shake 

> :-).  So that's why coin-ops were initially out of scope.  TODAY, 

> however, there is no reason why they should be excluded; it would be a 

> good suggestion to make on the MobyGames forums.