moho_00 Curator Backer Posts: 6844 Registered: 6/10/2011
moho_00
# 1 - Posted on 1/19/2018 21:49:16

I posted a while back about a new feature that allows box art specific to a platform / region / format to be displayed within your collection. This functionality is in place and we're working on adding all of the data to support it (and we're still looking for helpers, if anyone is interested!)

But having the appropriate box art show up in your collection is not the only reason we put this foundation in place. It will ultimately be used to provide a new feature that acts as a sort of checklist for a certain platform / region / format. For example, if you're looking to collect every North American NES game (which would obviously be physical), I would like to add a feature to help facilitate your quest. There are lots of different ways we could take this and we're still a ways off from having the data to support it, but I wanted to start gathering community feedback on how we can make this the best it can be.

Here are some potential ideas, just to break the ice, please feel free to comment on these or add your own! For the purposes of these bullets, please assume that these actions would be available on a page where you could filter to a single platform, region, and format (so again, North American NES physical games).

  • When viewing the full list, provide visual indicators to easily identify what's in your collection, wish list, or neither
  • Filters to see what you don't have in your collection and / or wish list
  • Provide checkboxes to bulk add games to your collection and / or wish list
  • Provide sortable metrics such as estimated value (North American release only) and average completion time
Post Edited on 1/19/2018 21:50:02
moho_00 Curator Backer Posts: 6844 Registered: 6/10/2011
moho_00
# 2 - Posted on 7/20/2018 21:39:22

We're still working on loading in the data to make this feature work, but I decided to put together a quick mockup to hopefully convey the idea a little better.

Given the nature of this feature, I'm thinking we should limit the platform / region selection to one combination at a time. In the above mockup, it's currently showing North American Saturn "items" (more on that in a minute). Now is a good time to mention that the actual content of this mockup is more just to showcase the idea and how things would generally be laid out. There might be more / less / different filters, columns, etc.

Anyways, the platform / region you're looking at would be clearly displayed at the top with an option to select a different one. If you clicked the "Change" button, you would get a very simple modal to select from a pre-determined list of options. Since this data has to be heavily curated before it can be made available here, I want to limit selections to only the platform / regions that the curation team feels are 100% complete and accurate, based on the Completionator data model. When this feature initially launches, we will have a very small set of options, but it will grow as we continue to build up the data.

Okay, so below the platform / region, you have the standard display for filters that you see elsewhere on the site. Again, these are mostly just placeholders, but I'd say the ones I have here are legit and there will likely need to be some more. I mentioned "items" earlier instead of "games" intentionally because over the years the site has evolved to store things beyond just games, such as Amiibo, Skylanders, demo discs, etc. I've been trying to move away from the very specific "game" terminology for this reason. Item Type is something that doesn't show up much throughout the site...yet. But it's a way for us to denote what the item is. The options we currently have are:

  • Game
  • Addon (i.e. DLC / expansion packs)
  • Hack
  • Mod
  • Demo
  • Console
  • Accessory
  • Toys to Life

The Edition filter also warrants a mention because this is something else that hasn't really surfaced anywhere but the curator side of things. Whenever we fill out these releases, we have the option of entering an edition. This allows us to separate let's say regular edition of Assassin's Creed and the limited edition and provide them their own box art. So for editions, we'll probably end up with a filter that lets you include / exclude "non-standard" editions, as well as a filter to find specific editions.

And lastly for the filters, the "Owned" dropdown is essentially the same thing that's on the Browse Games page. You would be able to use this to include / exclude items you already own.

The next thing on the mockup is the blue / green bar. I'm not 100% sure on this, but my idea here is to provide you with a quick overview of the items you own based on the filters you've entered. I'd want this to be a minimal impact on the UI, so it would probably rely solely on tooltips like some of the other bars throughout the site.

Finally, we have the actual results! This would be a table very similar to others throughout the site. The far left column would be a checkbox so you could perform bulk operations like adding to your collection or wish list. You have basic item info like the name, edition, format, etc. The far right column is the status for your collection. If you own it, there would be text / colors to indicate it. I'm thinking you'd be able to click on this to open a modal / new tab to view the items in your collection. Regardless if you own it or not, there would be a button to quick add the game. I'd like to have similar functionality for wish listing things, so maybe it's in a separate column or maybe it shows up if you don't own it, not sure yet.

I ran out of room so again, this is just a sample of what columns we could show. There are lots of other options like showing the rating / difficulty (yours and the community as a whole), genres, price data (if available), etc.

Speaking of prices, I'd also like to show the overall value for everything listed in your filters. This would let you filter the platform / region down to the things you're interested in and then get a rough idea for how much the items are worth. This could be broken down further to the amount for things you don't own so you have a feel for how much more you would need to spend to own the things you want.

So that's the general idea of what you could do with the page. I'm hoping to build something that would be useful for new users to enter their collections quickly and in a more organized manner, as well as something for users that are trying to collect all items on a platform or just want to look for other items in their budget using a bit more of a refined search interface. The data we're dealing with here is a little deeper than Browse Games, which will remain as kind of a generic way to find stuff on the site. This is intended to be a much more powerful tool that (hopefully) covers a lot of functionality.

If you have any feedback on the mockup or the idea in general, please let me know! This has been a loooong time coming. My original post was in January 2018, but I can assure you this has been rattling around my noggin for a lot longer than that and I'm looking forward to building it!

dhobo Curator Backer Posts: 1965 Registered: 1/5/2015
darwinsocialism
# 3 - Posted on 7/21/2018 17:21:22

It would be really nice if you could drill down a game's entry to see any DLCs that are associated with that title and their owned status. Have a feeling it'll be messy to implement though with some companies' games having platform-exclusive DLCs for some games, etc... but worth investigating down the road after the initial checklist functionality (and data) is ready.

katana1100 Posts: 18 Registered: 4/1/2018
# 4 - Posted on 9/1/2018 21:03:58

This is kind of off topic but related. Adding a way to filter collections by the condition of the case/cartridge(disc)/manual/extras would be helpful for collectors that are continuously upgrading their collection, trying to get as many games in Mint or Very Good condition as possible. Today for instance I wanted to replace some cracked game cases I have, but had to dig through my games to find them. I couldn't figure out how to easily sort out those games in Completionator.
If there is already a way to do this, please ignore the noise.
Thanks!

moho_00 Curator Backer Posts: 6844 Registered: 6/10/2011
moho_00
# 5 - Posted on 9/14/2018 19:39:57

@katana1100 - It's not currently possible to filter the way you're describing, but I've added it to my task list!