[Games] Company Collections Following Name Changes etc.

Ideas to improve Criticker and new feature requests, as well as announcements about new enhancements.
howabe
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[Games] Company Collections Following Name Changes etc.

Post by howabe »

Over the years it's been quite common for video game companies to change name, merge with other companies, have subsidiary studios etc.
In practical terms for Criticker, this brings up the issues of what name should be used when listing a company that has had a name change, as well as, if different names are used on different games, causing the publisher/developer collection pages to be fractured and not list all applicable entries.

To give an example - Namco was a developer and publisher. When working in collaboration with Nintendo, they worked under the name Namcot. They later merged with Bandai, publishing under the name Namco Bandai Games, before using the name Bandai Namco Games.
If games made by "Namco" list the name the company was operating under at the time, it can lead to easily a dozen separate company collection pages, with none that truly lists all the games they're responsible for. Obviously it'd be nice (for some at least) to have a full collection available.

As I see it, there are a few ways to achieve this:

1) Always use the current company name
-All games made by Namco, Bandai, Bandai Namco etc. use the current operating name regardless of what name was used at the time of publication. All games throughout company history are listed in a single collection.

2) Use both the old name and current name
-A game made by Namco would list 2 developers - Namco and Bandai Namco Games. A collection for just games published under the name Namco can be accessed, as can one for the all games in company history.

3) Use the old name, and have a master collection for the company without listing it under developer/publisher on the game page
-A game made by Namco lists its developer as Namco. A collection for just games published under the name Namco can be accessed. A collection for all games in the company history can be accessed too, perhaps from the other collection pages.

Example - Star Ocean was published by Enix. Its game page lists Enix as its publisher, and clicking this takes you to all games made under the name Enix.
Final Fantasy was published by Square. Its game page lists Square as its publisher, and clicking this takes you to all games made under the name Square.
As the two companies have now merged to form Square Enix, both the Enix company collection and the Square company collection would include a text (such as "This company is now known as Square Enix. To view all Square Enix titles, visit...") and a link to a master Square Enix company collection

4) Do nothing
-It's fine as it is.


Personally, I'd prefer option #3.
#1 & 2 have the benefit of being able to be more-or-less user implemented, with just having to make sure submitters include the relevant company names. #1, however, falls short in accuracy and maintaining information for posterity, while #2 can cause superfluous clutter on game pages.
#3 requires changes to site on Criticker's end, but provides the most accuracy on a game page while still allowing a full historical company overview to be accessed. It would also probably be the most future-proof method, as a future name change would not need current game entries to have their company details changed, just a renamed master collection.


Anyway, I'm interested to hear any thoughts, or even just whether anyone even really cares what name games are grouped under.

mpowell
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Re: [Games] Company Collections Following Name Changes etc.

Post by mpowell »

Thanks for this detailed writeup! It's not too likely we'll have bandwidth to implement a big change like this soon -- the nice thing about the existing Company functionality, is that it fit well into our current system setup.

But I agree with the need to associate companies, or allow for "other" names. I'll add this as a topic to think about for future enhancements, and include your notes in the report!

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