Crowdfunded Games

[Egonor 0]

 

This post was recently made on Reddit and I posted this comment for context:

 

This seems like something PCGamingWiki.com should take on. I know it was primarily designed for Game Fixes but it would be wonderful if it branched out into encompassing all aspects of PC Gaming such as free ESRB-esque ratings for Indie games[1] or a list of release dates.

 

I've started to create the page for crowdfunded games but I'd like to use Icons in the table to denote whether the funding is taking place on Kickstarter, IndieGogo, or any other site. Do I need a template to be able to use and Icon in the format {{ID|KS}} for example?

 

I've made Icons with their Press Icons: (I used that website because imgur compresses to JPG.)

 

Kickstarter has some weird caveats on their style page: http://www.kickstarter.com/help/style_guide so for now I'll refrain from using it until I can contact them.

[Nicereddy 109]

You can upload them directly to the Wiki using the "Upload File" button on the left sidebar under "Toolbox". It's preferable to do that rather than outsourcing the files.

 

I don't quite understand the rules either, are we unable to re-size the icon to be as small as you made it?

 

Thanks for contributing!

[Egonor 0]

Alright, I've finally submitted the first iteration of the page: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Crowdfunding . I've sent Kickstarter an email to obtain explicit permission. Currently the file is uploaded and used once on the page as I've described in the email so they can see how it would appear once the page is populated. It's pretty bare bones at the moment and takes quite a bit of time to add content.

 

Current Format With Descriptors:

|--------------------------------------------------------------
|  [[File]] or [[File]
|  Funding, Goal Reached, Successful, Alpha, Beta, Released
|  {{OS|Windows}} {{OS|Mac}} {{OS|Linux}}
|  [[]]
| [  ]
|  Q4 2014
|  RPG
|  April 5, 2013
|  $20
|  21,000
|  $900,000
|  $2,959,160
| [http]

 

Template:

|--------------------------------------------------------------
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Indiegogo requires you to calculate the backers yourself (ugh), but most of the information can be found on the page or with a few Google Searches. Kickstarter is easier to transfer because there's more information but things like Genre/Platforms are still sometimes ambiguous.

 

It doesn't have many there yet because I'm honestly burnt out. Spent 6 or so hours trying to get this right so I'll start working on populating it with more tomorrow. Anyone can feel free to chip in! :P I'd like to at least keep the format for things like the Status so they're easily sortable.

[Nicereddy 109]

Can we make {{Kickstarter}} and {{Indiegogo}} templates? They'd be like stubs but they'd say "This game was funded on Kickstarter", perhaps with a link to the kickstarter page?

[Garrett 214]

I have made an example template (see User:Garrett/Backed for the template source, currently very messy). This template would go directly below the infobox. It supports Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Steam Greenlight; support for linking to self-hosted funding (e.g. Star Citizen) would be added in the future.

 

Currency symbols currently can't be included in the money totals used to calculate the funded percentage because this breaks the calculation; I'm not sure how to resolve this. A dollar sign is shown by default or a custom one can be set using the optional currency= parameter. Funding percentage calculation differs from Kickstarter (due to decimal handling) resulting in a potential 1% difference between the two, but that's not a big deal.

 

This template is not ready to implement as yet (source is unoptimised, size/padding is incorrect for matching the infobox, etc.) but it's enough to show the concept and get some feedback. :)

[Egonor 0]

Currently the release date sorting is all kinds of screwed up because of the lack of information in certain cases. I went looking for a solution as apparently the default Wiki table sorting for dates does not consider year before month, etc. unless the date is in a specific format: YYYY-MM-DD. This Template seems to solve the issue although it doesn't seem to be implemented. (I'm not new to Wiki editing but what I have done hasn't been much more than page editing.) I assume the template would have to be reproduced or forked or something. Then in the See Also section I came across THIS which would suit the Crowdfunding table style and THIS which someone may want to implement for the entire wiki's release dates. Like I said, I have no idea how to go about moving these templates to be used so if anyone can offer any help/guidance, please do so.

[Newmansan 30]

I hate to be the lone voice of dissent here, but do we really need this? What does noting that it was crowd funded add to an article? I don't think a single game that is crowd funded is sold or made available only through kickstarter/indigogo, so noting such on the article doesn't add a bit of information to the article that relates to fixes/where to purchase the game. Plus, no game that is available for kickstarting is likely to be far enough along in development to warrant an article on here, so what's the point?

[EdenCrow 0]

I have made an example template (see User:Garrett/Backed for the template source, currently very messy). This template would go directly below the infobox. It supports Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Steam Greenlight; support for linking to self-hosted funding (e.g. Star Citizen) would be added in the future.

 

Currency symbols currently can't be included in the money totals used to calculate the funded percentage because this breaks the calculation; I'm not sure how to resolve this. A dollar sign is shown by default or a custom one can be set using the optional currency= parameter. Funding percentage calculation differs from Kickstarter (due to decimal handling) resulting in a potential 1% difference between the two, but that's not a big deal.

 

This template is not ready to implement as yet (source is unoptimised, size/padding is incorrect for matching the infobox, etc.) but it's enough to show the concept and get some feedback. :)

 

It would be good to see this implemented at some point as it is something that users could find useful and it isn't something that would take a lot of time to put into relevant game pages once the template is finalised. I would help with finishing up the template myself, but I don't have any experience with MediaWiki apart from creating simple pages.

[Andytizer 269]

I hate to be the lone voice of dissent here, but do we really need this? What does noting that it was crowd funded add to an article? I don't think a single game that is crowd funded is sold or made available only through kickstarter/indigogo, so noting such on the article doesn't add a bit of information to the article that relates to fixes/where to purchase the game. Plus, no game that is available for kickstarting is likely to be far enough along in development to warrant an article on here, so what's the point?

 

I would broadly agree that a title being 'crowdfunded' is not really integral to getting a game to work.

 

However if there is a simple, future-proof way to create lists of games, then I would like for us to support this. Then we could create lists on the fly, e.g. low-end games, all games which use Steam, all games which have GFWL, etc.

 

This really requires a rework of all of our templates to support SMW which would provide the best way of entering this type of data.

 

Appreciate the work on the template Garrett. However the crowdfunding status/data is not necessarily that useful. We should find a more comprehensive way of doing this. I would if I had more time to delve into the best that is SMW..

[Pridit 39]

Now that we have updated the infobox it allows us to implement this feature (steamdb, steam charts etc) so this discussion should be revived so a verdict can be reached. Personally I'm opposed as there is little importance to whether a title was crowd funded or not. It provides no technical information or anything really relevant that would improve articles or assist the user, it simply provides some background information about the game in question. Adding redundant information like this will only serve as clutter.

[Nicereddy 109]

I'd argue a Kickstarter/Indiegogo link in the infobox could be useful in that these pages usually have information about the state of the games development, whether that be about porting to OS X/Linux or patches.

 

I don't really see it as clutter if it's a small icon at the bottom of the infobox.

[Pridit 39]

I'd argue a Kickstarter/Indiegogo link in the infobox could be useful in that these pages usually have information about the state of the games development, whether that be about porting to OS X/Linux or patches.

 

I don't really see it as clutter if it's a small icon at the bottom of the infobox.

I'm referring to cluttering up the infobox not the page itself, there's currently a maximum of three icons there and I think that's the perfect amount right now. OS X/Linux versions would be noted in key points if they were under development, I haven't found any Kickstarter which provides that information or patches - usually that information is elsewhere like an official website or greenlight page. I just don't see any direct benefit or relevance. I'm in favor of a dedicated page which lists crowd funded games as that could be useful, I just don't believe it should be included in the article as it is of little relevance.

 

EDIT: Considering my point hasn't been contested I shall put this to rest. I'm very happy for this discussion to be re-opened at any point if there are further arguments, especially regarding a dedicated page for crowd funded games - as this has had little discussion I won't make a formal move at this point in time regarding the implementation of it.

[Pridit 39]

[Automated] This discussion has concluded and a verdict has been reached. If this is not the case and there are still matters left undiscussed please contact a member of staff to get the topic reinstated.