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Ratings
I've been on the fence on how to implement ratings. I think I have most of the structure in place for ratings, I just couldn't figure out a good way to approach it. Here is what I am thinking:

Each region (US, EU, AUS, JP) has their own ratings board. I think it is safe to say that the ratings selection box will be driven by the game's selected region. The problem that I'm running into is that there are multiple versions (or revisions) to each rating system. For example, Sonic 3's original US rating was GA. Since that game has been re-released virtually, it has been reclassified to K-A. Do we only give users the option to select current game ratings or the ability to select old ratings as well?

The reason why I ask is because I'd like to see the actual rating logo be displayed on the screen along with the box art. I'm torn because the current rating makes sense from a parental control perspective but the retro gamer in me says seeing the old school original rating is really cool.

What do you guys think?

Cartridge Type
I think we can add a cartridge type to the platform object instead of adding a cartridge type to each game object. That way we just store the cartridge type 65 times instead of 5000 times.

Cartridge Type
yes i agree on this point. most systems tend to have mostly the same "media" approach. If anything differs it could be stated in the system description etc (if users feel it's appropriate)

Ratings
I think the idea of supporting most of the regionbased ratingsystems is a good idea. Since a game classified as T (Teen) in the ESRB rating (US) the game could be "15+" in EU. So yea, would be nice to have possibility for most of the big ratingsystems.

As of re-classifications to games being re-released I'm guessing most of these games are re-released on seperate platforms which again makes it two entries which again makes the original rating untouched. ?

Movie Relation
Just throwing out this idea before the soccer match starts so not 100% thought through; A game could perhaps have a field for "movie relation". Like games based on movies etc.

Might also be possible to link the game to the movie and be able to start the movie (if in the video library) from the game menu. (like the link between Movies library and Tv Shows library can do).

Music Composer
Since I'm a huge movie/music soundtrack listener I'd want a field for letting users add who made the music for the game(s).

In addition i guess a "game credits" field would be possible aswell. It will be harder on the old console games, but in recent years people have paid more attention to who did the story, music, artwork etc in a game as we move into a time where games are more than just a game in a sense. Speaking for myself atleast I've become more aware of these aspects of games.

HOMEPAGE
Field for url to the games' website. Very often, and more used in later years, games get their own website url for promotion.

REVIEWS
Not entirely sure how this would be done in XBMC, but i guess it's better to mention it than to skip it.. A way for users to contribute reviews of the game(s) which again will be scraped and made readable in XBMC while browsing the games library.

I would like to shy away from providing user reviews and FAQS/codes. Mainly because there are already a ton of sites out there that provide this information. The only thing I don't want to do is create a site like http://www.giantbomb.com/.

When the time comes to design (or redesign) a Game Library for XBMC, I'd be more than happy to provide an ERD of my database if that would help.

For ratings I would recommend making a scale of your own that the other scales can match up to. You can still allow people to choose the actual rating that was given to the game at release, but in your database have these relate to your scale. That way software can restrict access to games based on a uniform rating system (if desired), and they don't ALL have to handle each of the different rating systems.

szsori Wrote:For ratings I would recommend making a scale of your own that the other scales can match up to. You can still allow people to choose the actual rating that was given to the game at release, but in your database have these relate to your scale. That way software can restrict access to games based on a uniform rating system (if desired), and they don't ALL have to handle each of the different rating systems.

This might be a great idea. Building a thevgm.com rating scheme and set that using the entered ratings (ESRB, EU, JAP) to pinpoints its value etc?

So maybe something like this:



Where the ratings across the top are the site's unified ratings and the ratings down are each board's ratings. If you can think of a better custom name rating convention or matching, let me know!