It will only take me a few days to get the re-naming done. The pars thread will not be changed only new games added will start new posts in the exsisting threads with the new names of course.

Just a minor point I would like to bring to your attention, and it's very important as it seems like this is an error of some sort.

ENGLISH only games (often bought in the United Kingdom / England) seem to be getting wrongly named (Europe).

This is most definately wrong as England is not Europe.

Europe games that include English and other European languages, German, Sweeden etc. should be named (Europe), but English only games if they are the UK versions should be England or UK or maybe even GB (Great Britain). Definately not (Europe) on it's own.

Let me know if you think I am wright or wrong. I defiantely think I have a valid point, that you may want to consider.

He who controls the SPICE... controls the UNIVERSE!
The SPICE must flow.

(E) is Europe, since... well forever. And yes, we continental Europeans had to have our games in English only for most of videogame history, how is that strange? neutral Those English only titles were available in shops all around  Europe. Back when companies didn't have the habit of translating games, English was chosen as the only language simply because eveyone knew a word or two of English, not because the games were destined to England only.

Finally, since when hasn't England been a part of Europe? If you are English and think you're in a continent of its own, you might want to check the opinion of the rest of the world lol  (no offense)

I think he means why isn't England treated the same as the other European Countries like Spain, France, Germany, etc, etc.. When they have a game that is only available in their language, they are tagged with it's respective country tag.

A game with 3 languages:
Gamename (Europe) (En,Fr,Sp)

If the same game had 3 different versions for each country:
Gamename (Europe)  <--- I think he means this should be (England, GB, or UK)
Gamename (France)
Gamename (Spain)

I "think" that's what he meant.

Still not right because the English version was the one  exported to no-main-language countries.

Countries like Greece, Scandinavia, Holland, Central Europe east of Germany, Baltic region, etc, got the English release, which was simply considered the generic "PAL" release. It's an "European" release from every angle you want to see the issue from.

Unless recent systems have games translated in EVERY European language.

I think there are probably some examples of games that have their own unique PAL UK release (English-only, whereas the rest of Europe got Multi language versions).. e.g. the Call of Duty games for the PS2 and some PS1 games.. I'm not sure if it justifies a UK country tag though.

If some dump was released in UK only, it would deserve its own flag, but then what version was released in Estonia? In Hungary? In Bulgaria? Sure those countries got an English release, and if not the UK one, what then?

I don't think any company created an English release specific to non-UK, rest-of-Europe small countries. Bulgarian kids probably got plain ol' UK release, just like we Italian, French, Spanish, German kids got back in 1991.

I don't have a lot of time in these days, so I will tell only this: I don't agree with this change.

My patch requests thread
--------------------------------

From my point of view, No-intro has its ups and downs. I think we need to keep no-intro's convention and take it one step further. For example psx dumps (which I'm especially interested in) need the serial info, as many people base their research of psx releases/history to it. Because you cannot really tell which disc the dump comes from until you know its serial - no other info is so indicative big_smile

9 (edited by Viruz 2009-07-06 15:03:43)

I agree with tossEAC about the english games. For the eastern european countries you are naming, they obviously don't have a big enough presence to require production of there own games.. so import from UK etc. Effectively, this means that they are UK games. In ways, maybe USA should be re-named North America, as Canada imports them..
Serials are important for some games, for example the PSP Demo Discs, which all now exactly the same filename, where they are different..

There's no way in hell English-only PAL games should be treated as anything else than "Europe", since they're the generic PAL release, unless there's any proven case that that specific dump, with those specific CRCs, was released only in UK and not in those other European countries which didn't get their own translation. The publishing companies officially released English-only games in those countries, it's not that the retailers independently imported those games directly from the UK lol It was the same for us Italian, French, Spanish, German people until very few years ago.

The (E) flag has ALWAYS stood for (Europe), not English, since Cowering acne days. Who did really believe the (E) stood for (England)?

11 (edited by Viruz 2009-07-06 15:34:58)

I knew it stood for Europe, that isn't whats being said. But really any Europe games should be labelled Europe then have the indiviudual languages listed. German games are still Europe.. Having a mix of of labelling shouldn't be the case, its inconsistant. I think the region should be labelled along with languages. With the old style, there was no way to resolve the problem, but being able to list the languages, means it can be now.

Game (Europe) (De)
Game (Europe) (En)
etc..

USA games sometimes have multiple languages also..
Game (USA) (En,Es)

Just my two cents, leaving tags out, even if it is common sense, makes the naming look incosistant.

The region naming reflects the actual, physical distribution. It has nothing to do with consistency or mixed labelling.

Once all PAL releases were English-only, because the whole PAL region were identified with English language, for simplicity and because there were simply not enough money to invest in translating in-game text. The copies of a game sold in each European country were too few to guarantee the return home of the money. Then some markets (read: 40+ million people markets) became large enough to make market specific releases profitable.

But the initial generic PAL release concept did't retire, because outside those 4-5 large markets distribution is still organized the same old way. If an English-only dump has been marketed in England, yes, but in Holland, Finland, Norway, Estonia, Greece, Serbia, Hungary, Poland etc etc etc too, why we should consider it anything else than "Europe", despite what we call consistency? The only consistency we have to adhere to is consistency to correctness, nothing else.

Multilingual games contains only 5-6 languages out of more than 20 European languages too, yet they're destined to the whole of Europe.

I don't get your example because while a German release is technically "European", but de-facto limited to Germany and Austria, given the language barrier, the English release has always been the multicultural one, valid for the whole PAL region, not tied with a specific national territory.

Here's what I mean:


EXAMPLE 1: http://redump.org/images/regions/E.png  50 Cent: Bulletproof PS2 1.00 Original, Promo   SLES-53734 
EXAMPLE 2: http://redump.org/images/regions/F.png  50 Cent: Bulletproof PS2 1.00 Original   SLES-53906 

EXAMPLE 1: 50 Cent - Bulletproof (Europe)
EXAMPLE 2: 50 Cent - Bulletproof (France)

EXAMPLE 1: English Language only
EXAMPLE 2: French Language only

What I mean is if a game is made with only (English) it should not be called (Europe), it should (England), even if a Game shop in France, Germany, or even Japan decide they want to sell that game

When a game is French only its rightfully called (France) not (Europe).

He who controls the SPICE... controls the UNIVERSE!
The SPICE must flow.

14 (edited by Viruz 2009-07-06 15:46:43)

If its down to physical distribution, why list the language at all?

Listing as "Game (Continent) (Languages)" gives both physical distribution, consistency, and higher searching capabilities (when searching through files). It gives more information..

In addition, if for example, we have a German release, this is as likely as the Europe-English release to be distrubuted in German speaking countries, such as Belgium (or where-ever German is spoken also), this makes the German game, European aswell. So really that should be labelled Europe, not German

If countries which aren't markets large enough to get a translation, they OFFICIALLY get the English language release, which HAS BEEN CONSIDERED BY PUBLISHING COMPANIES THE GENERIC PAL RELEASE VALID IN ALL OF EUROPE, FOR THE LAST 25 YEARS. We're not talking about independent importing, we're talking about official distribution. Outside those few large national markets, publishers sold to retailers the English-only version.

If you talk about labelling German games (Europe) (De), then I can understand you, because at least Germany is technically is part of Europe. But naming English-only PAL releases (England) is totally wrong.

Even so, labelling Continent and Languages for every release, is more accurate surely? Can you give me a case in which it isn't?

I added a part to mu above post. I accept what you're saying, but not what TossEAC is, English-only PAL games are not (England) at all.

In other words we can go from specific to generic, but not from generic to specific without corrupting the original info.

tossEAC wrote:

Here's what I mean:


EXAMPLE 1: http://redump.org/images/regions/E.png  50 Cent: Bulletproof PS2 1.00 Original, Promo   SLES-53734 
EXAMPLE 2: http://redump.org/images/regions/F.png  50 Cent: Bulletproof PS2 1.00 Original   SLES-53906 

EXAMPLE 1: 50 Cent - Bulletproof (Europe)
EXAMPLE 2: 50 Cent - Bulletproof (France)

EXAMPLE 1: English Language only
EXAMPLE 2: French Language only

What I mean is if a game is made with only (English) it should not be called (Europe), it should (England), even if a Game shop in France, Germany, or even Japan decide they want to sell that game

When a game is French only its rightfully called (France) not (Europe).

Wrong, because usually an English-only game is OFFICIALLY distributed by the publisher in every country that isn't France, Spain, Italy and Germany, while the French one is OFFICIALLY sold only in France. Retailers don't even come into play.

19 (edited by Viruz 2009-07-06 16:07:17)

gigadeath wrote:

I added a part to mu above post. I accept what you're saying, but not what TossEAC is, English-only PAL games are not (England) at all.

In other words we can go from specific to generic, but not from generic to specific without corrupting the original info.

I agree that labelling it English may corrupt the information, as it is the official PAL release. However, labelling it with (En), clearly shows that the the games primary release was intended for the UK. Which is mainly what tosEAC is trying to say here i think.

I'm not suggesting labelling games English, however a more precise labelling system which resloves tosEAC's point somewhat

Why do you say that labelling a game (En) shows it was primarily an England release? English has always been the primary language of videogames, since Pong, Space Invaders was English-only for all the planet basically. They're not books where language define perfectly the region where it's meant to be read. (En) has come to mean generic PAL through multiple release on multiple systems year after year: 80% of Europe received English-only titles for the past 25 years.

21

There are exceptions, though... for example, here in Spain we got the French versions of the SNES Dragon Ball games, yet they are marked as (France) in the No-Intro dat. And I'm talking about official releases, not imports.

22 (edited by Viruz 2009-07-06 16:24:26)

gigadeath wrote:

Why do you say that labelling a game (En) shows it was primarily an England release? English has always been the primary language of videogames, since Pong, Space Invaders was English-only for all the planet basically. They're not books where language define perfectly the region where it's meant to be read. (En) has come to mean generic PAL through multiple release on multiple systems year after year, because 90% of Europe received English-only titles for the past 25 years

Adding that extra confirmation makes it alot more clear, even though (Europe) on its own would define it as an English only game, distrubuted to the remained of Europe, adding the English language confirms it. I think treating the labelling for each game would be seen as more politically correct, and maybe a little more clear for those unfamiliar with region tags.

r09 wrote:

There are exceptions, though... for example, here in Spain we got the French versions of the SNES Dragon Ball games, yet they are marked as (France) in the No-Intro dat. And I'm talking about official releases, not imports.

Yes, there's a DB Saturn game that's like that too, French language but releases in Spain and France. For me it could be name both (Europe) (Fr) or (France/Spain) (Fr). Every other solution is formally wrong. Current database doesn't permit (France/Spain) though.

A "better" naming scheme is not my goal, since I prefer to focus on dumps, but it becomes a problem of mine when wrong naming corrupts the info I contributed to gain. (E) has always meant (Europe), in Cowering database, in No-Intro database, in TOSEC database, in redump.org database. Nobody should act surprised to see (Europe) now that it's spelled fully instead of remaining a single letter, because that's what it was since the principle. Whoever though it was (England) was wrong, and the sooner he realizes it the better. I may sound a nazi but we're talking about fucking an entire database here.

gigadeath wrote:

A "better" naming scheme is not my goal, since I prefer to focus on dumps, but it becomes a problem of mine when wrong naming corrupts the info I contributed to gain. (E) has always meant (Europe), in Cowering database, in No-Intro database, in TOSEC database, in redump.org database. Nobody should act surprised to see (Europe) now that it's spelled fully instead of remaining a single letter, because that's what it was since the principle. Whoever though it was (England) was wrong, and the sooner he realizes it the better. I may sound a nazi but we're talking about fucking an entire database here.

Would it not be better to discuss any changes while a chnage has been recently made, and will have less of an effect than a years down the line?

(Europe) (Fr) i feel is alot more efficent for problem games such as those you've listed, as it is not singled out as a French distrubuted game only, however, it is clear thats where it was primarily distrubuted

As I said, I don't oppose changes that go from specific to generic, because the result might be slightly less precise but at least won't end up wrong. So that Dragonball game could be named (Europe) (Fr), despite being released only in France and Spain. Same for (Germany) (De), I accept it becoming (Europe) (De), even if the games were released only in Germany and Austria. Less precise but correct.

The inverse is not possible, the passage from generic to specific will fuck everything up. Most current (Europe) (En) entries have been released in something like 20+ European countries, despite containing only English language. The result would be half the database spreading not simply less precise info, but outright wrong info.