I was wondering if this is really the best approach and what do you all think about it.
Both The Last of Us and Uncharted received remastered editions for the PlayStation 4, but only Uncharted was considered a different game on the database. The same thing happened with Heavy Rain, the Mega Man games or Shadow of the Colussus.
It’s a little bit odd that Final Fantasy is the same wether you play it on a NES or on an iPhone while other game have completely new entries just because it was rereleased in a collection.
Shouldn’t those be merged or deleted? What you all think?
The reason is due mostly to the fact that Grouvee pulls data from GiantBomb. Largely games on different platforms are grouped together as releases and do not warrant a seperate entry. This often includes remasters. However, every once in a while one of these remasters or collections squeaks by on GiantBomb as a new entry, and then Grouvee picks it up. The issue is caused by the fact that there is no hard and fast rule, but more a general amalgamation of ideas and opinions of what should receive a new entry rather than be considered a release. Sometimes it is because someone felt that enough was changed in the remaster to warrant the new entry. Or it could be that enough time has passed that the new release is considered a whole new game. The problem is there are examples on GiantBomb, and thus, on Grouvee that both adhere to and contravene those rules. Generally we try to clean some of the inconsistencies up, but they are not always caught. Or there is enough or an argument for (or against) a particular case/game, and it is left as is. I agree it is a bit confusing at times, and definitely something that has been mentioned and discussed at various junctures.
All that said, if you come across something that you feel strongly about and want to make a case to merge (or separate), leave a post in the forum and I am sure @peter or one of us admins will take your argument into consideration.
this is one of the worst things about GB imo. its worse than missing a PC platform for a game page because i can just kinda ‘wing it’ or jot a private note, but there are inconsistencies and ‘dupe’ releases with collections time to time and it can be confusing to find things even. You will have people who add collections and comps as releases (for popular games) that will get approved by GB so it seems like a perpetaul problem. But in addition there really is a bit of an unsolvable quandry with the whole thing too.
TLDR; What I do is make a shelf for comps and collections that are of interest to me, and i add originals to the wishlist/played list/backlog. There are a lot of collections that are simply good editions/best versions of a game and they need to be tracked by me. However, Originals look clean in the default lists, and i just have it in my head that they are easier to find. This works nice with grouvee in practice (at least for me) anyway.
My personal opinion is that is is far less confusing to just have ONE page for something. I think FF is the best example of why. (I think FF is the best way to stress test the functionality of most things grouvee related too!) So with FF IV, one page (called that, the original title) and have BOTH jap and eng versions on it (FF II 'murrica edition) and have all relereleases on it. avoid collections whenever possible.
It’s very possible they will re-release that game (and others in the series) until the end of time for no real reason but bilking money. That would make searching for any of them pretty tough as the pages for them would multiply. If the DLC actually starts getting pages too… well Its not good obviously.
The flip side of fewer pages is this will go against our natural instinct to find some things as people look for pages rather than ‘releases’ (not just a site like grouvee but this is true of GB) I also share the sentiment that a piss poor port shouldnt be considered ‘same game’ and this is even truer for older eras of games where the whole game was a diff code and gameplay too. (sometimes only bearing title of a franchise!) Finally it just feels weird to you know, have physical games (like cartridges even) of this box version or that box version, diff systems etc and see them on same game page… (or single game on a shelf) Anyone who has s nes collection with a trio of the physical carts SMB1, SMB1/Duck Hunt, SMB/DH/World Class Track is probably gonna want those on their shelf lol.
But I think from a standpoint of sheer pragmatism that the umbrella release scheme for as few pages possible is best, I just wish GB could have been consistent with it. I find that real old games tend to be clumped together, late 90’s eras published comps (PSX etc) almost always have their own pages, and newer (even digital) stuff tend to always get people who create pages taht get approved for any popular game. so, like i said, can get confusing for anyone who lists stuff from various eras.