Peripheral albums

[Efendija]

Those recent manga image albums got me wondering (again), allowing albums that really do not meet the usual criteria, but if they have enough info, aka if submitted well, they can stay and can be visible?

So for the just, just a bit of variety, can some (maybe four or five total, really nothing more), albums for western animation be submitted and visible, if the info is appropriate? I know how big that issue is for the database and how much discussion was already about it, but if manga image albums can stay and be visible if they meet mentioned conditions, can a really minimal... sample of western animation OSTs be here as well?
I would if I'm allowed add 4-5 more albums and stop there, such as this one (deactived at the moment of course):
http://vgmdb.net/album/37297

It goes without saying I'll get similar amount of info for (eventual) other entries.

Thanks for reading XD

[Cedille]

My biggest problem with "only well-submitted entry qualifies" criteria is it wouldn't look clear for others (especially newcomers), and some of them would believe "if that's okay, mine would be okay too",　and I wonder if how much of their submissions would ever meet the standard - perhaps we expect a bit too much, but still. I also feel an individual member's view on what counts as a good entry isn't actually so much affected by how other members do (based on how we initially tried to cover anime but it ended up).

I thought the reason why we keep well-submitted entries is just because it is a waste to delete an entry somebody puts so much efforts, and being "well-submitted" doesn't (shouldn't) make any album in our scope.

After all, it depends on what staffs and administrators who are currently burdened with the task of moderation nowadays (such as you or SS) think of.

[Teioh]

I think when we open VGMdb for a new category, whether that's manga, western animation or film scores (sooner or later somebody will come up with a reason to add Pirates of the Caribbean), it should come with some responsibilities, such as adding the lesser known albums and actively collecting information on unknown albums -- and of course a few dedicated members willing to team up and get it running.

Otherwise you have ten "manga" albums on their own and that's more of a burden rather than a benefit to the database.

Before VGMdb officially started there were already 1000+ albums in the db -- so when it went live there was a foundation to work on. Adding all these along the way would've made VGMdb pretty much dispensable in the first few years.

That being said I'd rather like to see more improvements made to the game music/game category and a focus on the things we're excellent at.

[Phonograph]

Originally Posted by Teioh

I think when we open VGMdb for a new category, whether that's manga, western animation or film scores ...

bah manga category is publication, and film scores category seems to be no category selected

personally, if there is no western site speaking of western animation music that won't bother me if someone adds stuff in the db
however, if there are several ones (I didn't search so I don't know) so I don't think vgmdb should have those albums

I'd prefer to see a "western animation" category with another "green" nuance (light green maybe)
because having "shrek" in the same category of "princess mononoke" or "ghost in the shell", I say a big NO (let's be serious one minute, seriously)

[Efendija]

This is nice, a (start of) good discussion where there'll be (maybe) some clear conclusion. Thank you Cedille and Teioh (even Phono XD) for expressing your views.
The thing I'm a bit confused all this time is a 'good submission' and something I've obviously used, unauthorized It's understandable why SS would keep it (most of the time I guess) if it's done as it should while the possible fact that it's maybe just an album without video game/anime artists; that could be a manga image album that also has no anime as a later derived product; then maybe it's a doujin j hardcore album with completely original compositions, not really having to do anything with game or anime; also maybe a j pop vocal album that doesn't have anime op/ed songs but the artist could already have a number of op/ed albums in here, so it's not so big deal not to keep it... as long as it's submitted well, not requiring any effort from trusted editors or staff to spend the time checking/researching something that they don't know best is not wanted as SS said.
That's how I ended adding these DreamWorks albums (at least I haven't branched out to Pixar and Disney lol), while also thinking, in the end, it's still (western) animation and maybe just a reminder vgmdb will open up to western animations some day as it did to anime.

Now, what Phono said about color coding I really can't understand - why aren't THE GAMES also differentiated if we're to follow such form of categorizing, by the very same criteria, how can a Final Fantasy and a Call of Duty game be color coded the same huh? If we're to show the world of difference between Japanese and western animation by color coding, why the same isn't done for Japanese and western games? That doesn't bother you I see?

edit: wasn't VGMdb about ALL game music before started accepting anime, and not just Japanese titles? I get an impresion you really think of VGMdb as a JVGMdb more & more.

[Phonograph]

since you bring that, western games could have different colors too
but when it's easy to have a light green (like to say western animations is the poor parent of animation, I don't watch western animated shits so don't be surprised if I say "poor") for showing a differenciation between western animation (few) and "eastern" animation (huge), it's maybe another story for games


perso, I find the actual color system is maybe not enough accurate
cedille had spoken about that long ago and I was pretty agreed with him (I'm well unable to say/find which one)

I say that because I find some colors should be used differently
for example, "dark green" for canceled albums isn't a good idea when you have another "green" used for a category like animation

as I read (today) in a thread, blah spoke about vgmdb.net/anime and vgmdb.net/game
with that system, more colors could be assigned to more categories
of coursse you still have red for bootlegs, etc. (like to have default colors for any type of stuff -bootleg, canceled, etc.)
so you could assign colors for animated movies, ova, series, western animation, and why not cg animations like ff:ac
and same for console games, pc games and why not nuances for western/eastern games

[Efendija]

Uh-huh, while I'm not arguing that western animation is so very small compared to anime in terms of quantity, I'll definitely say there's a bunch of shit animes and as the years pass, the situation is getting worse. Don't be surprised, that's only a personal opinion

[Phonograph]

I'm totally agreed with this, 98% or more of actual animes are total crap =)

[cal]

I do agree there should be more colors. Just not too many, since too many would get confusing.

Those portals would be a good addition too (vgmdb.net/game, /anime, /doujin). I remember seeing that post a while back and wondered why it was never implemented.

[Fearin]

Colors are good and all, Can have a definitive color, IE Green for animation, and all other uses of shades of green would still be used in the animation genre and none other. Or as mentioned for types within a specific portal. So orange would be say re-releases across all the portals, making sure no matter which you are in you know what you are looking at.

However you do have problems when it comes to color blind people.

[Xenofan 29A]

Originally Posted by Fearin

Colors are good and all, Can have a definitive color, IE Green for animation, and all other uses of shades of green would still be used in the animation genre and none other. Or as mentioned for types within a specific portal. So orange would be say re-releases across all the portals, making sure no matter which you are in you know what you are looking at.

However you do have problems when it comes to color blind people.

Speaking as a (partially) color blind person, I have no problems with either the way it is now or the proposed changes. Telling shades of the same color apart isn't hard, it's more telling between certain colors.

[Secret Squirrel]

I apologize for not participating when this discussion was active, but January was a very busy month.

Around 2009 we rebranded as "The Music of Visual Arts and Games" and opened the site up to anime submissions. We never set any clear limits on what qualifies a Visual Art. This may have been intentional to allow future flexibility in our coverage. Technically, filmmaking is also a visual art but I don't think we ever want to cover that. Our scope will probably always be a function of our collective interests and expertise as editors and staff.

I did receive some pushback about the addition of the Pixar albums. Mostly it was in the form of questions or suggestions about how to make our album filtering preferences filter this stuff out.