I have been thinking about this for a while now. There are several roads I can take with this. Bear with me as I'm thinking out loud here:
Option 1....
In options 1 I would add a new database table that holds game "models". For example, for Tron it would hold "Pro" and "LE". For Transformers it would hold "Pro", "Premium", "Autobot", "Decepticon".
Then we would need to add a "model" selector dropdown box to the following sections of the website:
- ratings (what model are you rating?)
- collection/wishlist (which model do you have/want?)
- market (which game model are you selling?)
- archive (new section for listing differences per model)
- archive : gallery (ability to tag a photo to belong to a specific model)
- pinball map : where to play (which model of the game does a location have)
Special care is then needed for the Top 100:
- The main rating for a game should be calculated regardless of which model people are rating - this also determines top 100 ranking
- A game that has multiple models will show the averages per model
- Rating reviews will show what models is being reviewed.
Big downside is that people can only rate one model of a game - this is a technical limitation of the ratings system.
... Looking at all of this, this is one heck of a job to build.
Maybe we should think about option 2....
Option 2
Simply create separate archive entries for each game model. This is how IPDB has done it. This automatically makes everything on the site work:
- ratings (each model has its own ratings page. People can rate multiple models of a game.)
- collection/wishlist (you can only have Tron LE in your wishlist, or you can wishlist them both)
- market (which game model are you selling)
- archive (we could list differences per model in the Wiki section of the game)
- archive : gallery (each models has its own gallery)
- pinball map : where to play (simply choose the right model)
Downsides:
- Games will need their details filled in multiple times (e.g. the design team)
- Top 100 will have, for example, two TRONs in it. Tron Pro ranked #34 and Tron LE ranked #18. Is this a downside or an advantage having two entries for the same game?
I could technically average ratings for various models into one rating, you know, to make it appear in the Top 100 only once, but this is not easy.
To summarize
Are you still reading these ramblings?
The more I think about it, the more I lean towards option 2. There are other advantages. We will get proper backglass images showing in our collection, reflecting the model we own.
The only thing I'm unsure of is having multiple models of a game in the Top 100. The way the new Stern games are going, we could have 4 AC/DC games in the Top 100.
Option 2 is definitely a 3-hour solution as I only need to create entries for these games that have one or more models. Option 1 is more likely to be a 2 months solution.
What do you think?