PCGamingWiki's Projects and Lists overhaul

[Andytizer 269]

Did you know that PCGamingWiki's most popular page nearly every day for the past 2 years has been this list which Nicereddy created - List of Local Multiplayer Games - http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_Local_Multiplayer_Games

 

There is a big demand for these kinds of lists and we are sitting on a huge amount of data which I believe we're not taking full advantage of. Gamers use lists to find specific kinds of games, e.g. to find games with DRM, to find co-op and local multiplayer games, to sort and explore new types of games (and to check whether there are problems and fixes for them).

 

Thanks to contributor efforts, particularly Soeb and Garrett's work on templates and Semantic MediaWiki, it's never been easier to create lists of games based on any nearly any criteria. Lists like the List of Local Multiplayer Games have gone from being painstakingly handmade into being automatically generated using SMW.

 

PCGamingWiki has several Projects which basically boil down into Lists of some kind. Here's the current list of lists:

 

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_Local_Multiplayer_Games

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/User:Soeb/Multiplayer_list

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/PCGamingWiki:GOG.com_Enhancement_Project

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Big_List_of_3rd_Party_DRM_on_Steam

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_Games_for_Windows_-_LIVE_games

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/PCGamingWiki:List_of_Games_Without_Native_60_FPS_Support

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_Low_End_Games

 

As you can see above, each list is fairly inconsistent - naming, styling, goals, aims, etc. are all approached differently.

 

I propose we do the following:

 

a) Decide on an ideal list of lists and ditch ones which don't work and fix the naming

- propose we add new lists like LAN Party Games, Portable Games, Steam games that give Origin keys, etc., Games with DualShock icons (just some ideas!)

- fix up or remove others, e.g. GOG Enhancement Project, List of Low End Games

- decide on whether a namespace is required or not required, agree on a consistent naming convention

 

b) Streamline look and feel of actual pages to support its goals - easy to ready, explore, filter

Examples: 

- left-align the game title to make it easier to scan

- condense the dates (e.g. only list year rather than the full d/month/year)

- align OS columns so it's easier to scan

- make tables mobile friendly

- move project information below the main table

- I'm open to other ideas

 

c) Metacritic score

I know Metacritic isn't a favoured scoring system amongst the PCGamingWiki community but:

- it's a good general indicator of quality of a game

- it's the most widely used scoring system - used by Steam, Wikipedia, etc.

 

d) Genres

- previously I was against this when setting up PCGamingWiki, but miss this feature more and more when looking for games

- this will help to find specific types of games - e.g. First-person shooter games that don't run at 60FPS

- generally helpful when 'exploring' and looking for new types of games

- we can draw these initially from Wikipedia or Steam and even build our own taxonomy

 

Anyway I'm open to feedback on this going forward, this is hereby open to discussion to the community.

[Marioysikax 89]

Lists already have their category, but having them under similar namespace would make them even easier to find and more consistent for sure. 

 

I have kinda already done games with dualshock prompts in Dualshock 4 article (also DS3 with huge disclaimer), mostly because most games require that controller to even show the prompts and also trying to maintain list of games with that particular controller support without prompts, etc. Controller articles do need some consistency and update on formatting and information at some point. 

 

As for metacritic, it's true that many do hate it, I also hate it, but it's indeed too good general indicator when you want to know games quality in a second instead of five minutes. However I have seen some pages praising OpenCritic, which does answer a lot of metacritics negatives, maybe even some cooperation with the site would be possible as after all, issues on PC games are one thing that effects most reviewers score. 

 

Genres would be good, but especially with some new kind of games, I guess that would be really pain to maintain unless using some external readily available database for that. 

 

Also "list of low end games" was doomed the day it was created :p

[DrCat 11]

I think that most of the lists mentioned are well presented but if we have to pick one model and stick to it then I would pick something similar to "List of Local Multiplayer Games", as in:

-A first part where everything related to the list/project is explained

-Key points of each section

-List of relevant games

I think the following list row structure would work well:

[Game name | Main points relevant to the project | Extra info (such as the Metacritic score, genre, etc.) | Additional notes]

The extra info would be stuff common to all lists, so we'd also have to pick a way to order it.

 

As for new lists we could create, I've been thinking that we could make a list of all games that can be generically(?) redeemed on GOG.com, such as The Witcher series, the S.TA.L.K.E.R series (retail), and a couple of others.

[Mirh 102]

Internet Archive released 2400 dos games for free a year ago.

That's another big kind of project to follow up imo, similar to GOG.com Enhancement one.

[Nicereddy 109]

I would definitely support an expansion and unification of our lists. Very happy to see my Local Multiplayer list used by so many :)

 

The biggest things, I think, are: design, responsive design for mobile users, and making it easy to sort by platforms/controller support/other relevant fields. Unfortunately right now it's not very easy to sort by, say, OS X games on the Local Multiplayer list. Games which have dedicated servers anyone can host, which are useable over LAN would be a really good idea for a list. Definitely would be useful for my group of friends, we're pretty much just doing Team Fortress 2, Garry's Mod, Dota 2, and some Minecraft at our LAN parties.