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Old May 18, 2010, 08:14 AM
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Secret Squirrel Secret Squirrel is offline
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Cleveland, OH
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I do share some of the reservations about adding anime. The last thing I want is to damage what we've built here. I think we're just going to have to work hard to find the best solution.

The addition of anime really grows out of a desire for the discographies to play a more prominent role, and for that they need to be more complete. While the categories Game and Anime don't overlap that much musically, the artists do overlap, especially the performers and less prominent composers and arrangers. Anyone who has done a lot of linking has seen this. Also, like game music, anime music is not widely respected in the mainstream. More importantly, the need for quality accurate album and artist information is much greater for anime music than the need that VGMdb helped to fill for game music. The current state is that decrepit.

I'm in full agreement that we need to preserve our brands, and I hope the separate portals will accomplish that. This gives us the opportunity to actually tighten up VGMdb/game. The default filter should be +game, with nothing in the other categories, so that browsing and searching only shows game-related results. The -anime filter removes all anime, including albums classified as both game and anime, so it's not the right one to use. The discographies should remain unfiltered, so a user can stumble on Works albums by following an artist link, but won't see them prominently displayed on the VGmdb/game front page or by search/browse. Eventually, animation that is related to games can be discovered by following product and franchise links. I think this follows the original motivation for adding all these other categories in the first place.

The VGMdb/animation portal mirrors this behavior, except it's +anime.

Thinking a little further, I wonder if the filter system is a little too full-featured. If we have the 3 portals (VGM, anime, everything) and maybe this category switcher, then perhaps all we need is a "Turn off Doujins" switch. I think we need to hear more about how you all are using the filter.
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