Universal Videogame List - www.uvlist.net

re: Game flags
[[quote:Also, I _think_ the preferred is meant to read favourite. Not much difference, but usually websites have some +favourite button ... ]]
I haven't used "favorite" because it is typically marked by a yellow star, but this would be confused with the five-stars voting.

One thing I always wondered is why the green check mark means "preferred" and the crown means "completed"? My insticts would have made these two marks just vice versa, namely check mark = "completed" and crown = valuable/preferred/favorite.

re: re: Game flags
[[quote:it is typically marked by a yellow star]]
Heart is common, too.

Heart was the second option, and I'm really thinking to use it.
Hearts are already used with popularity (that is calculated with unique page views), but I could convert it to something like the pagerank (Google )
I agree with Teran too. I hate when I miss such obvious things.

So:
Preferred : heart
Completed : checkmark
Do not own right now but I played it : (HELP!!!)
I'm going to have it / please make a gift! : something like images.google.com/images?q=gift
Popularity (in listings) : a variable length green bar

The polls are not ready yet, but any comment can be posted here as usual.

re: re: re: Game flags
[[quote:it is typically marked by a yellow star
Heart is common, too.]]

Or a "thumbs up".

I will keep thumbs up/down for rating comment/reviews/articles in the future.

[[quote:
I'm going to have it / please make a gift! : something like http://images.google.com/images?q=gift ]]

Lol... when I clicked on the link it opened the image search of google... but in my case of German google. And gift is a German word and means "poison". Lots of "poison" signs I got...

[[quote:
Do not own right now but I played it : HELP!!!]]

Maybe use a "moving or shaking" joystick for games you are currently playing, and a still joystick for games you have once played. And by not checking the "own it" symbol you have a clear statement "Do not own it but played it".

re: re:
[[quote:Maybe use a "moving or shaking" joystick for games you are currently playing, and a still joystick for games you have once played.]]
Animated things are bad outside things you want to draw attention to.

Rather, use the current joystick for playing and a grayed-out variant for "have played". it may need to be light gray to be decently distinguishable from the blue one.

re: re: re:
[[quote:
Animated things are bad outside things you want to draw attention to.]]

I didn't mean animated. Just that the little picture itself looks like the joystick is "in action".

Since 'have played' was mentioned here, what about 'have owned'? This probably doesn't apply to the collectors here, but I'm pretty sure many out there buy games, play them and then sell them as used, or their copies get into so poor shape that they trash the thing. This is less useful bit of info, though, and probably shouldn't be included as 'have played' should be enough for that.

With "Do not own right now but I played it" I assumed that people that has owned a game has played it too.
To me, "have played" is more important than "have owned" because can help to interpret comments and editings.

These are currently called "Marks". Perhaps they should be called "Personal Marks"

my suggestions for the icons:
Preferred : heart
Played It : lighter red joystick if played and currently unowned, darker green if played and currently owned
Completed: gold star or trophy
Wishlist/want list (I'm planing to have it / please make a gift!): darker red gift box with white bow
Currently Owned: lighter green box (the gift box without bow)

Wishlist and owned remain separate symbols in case a differed version of the title or one in better condition is wanted. Or is one is sought as a gift for someone else.

The light and dark colors are for viewers without full color displays (palm, older platforms, vnc, speed optimized/minimalist browsers). Although is still remains dubious that such browsers will work with these tags at all, their are such systems that have limited support for CSS and Java.

Personal tags should be moved (or duplicated) next to signatures and noted in logs. This especially adds appropriate weight (or lack of) to reviews.

I currently use my UVL owned list as a sort of anti-wishlist. When people ask me what gifts I want, I tell them "Anything you can't find at uvlist.net/search?ftag=!own_215, which is a searchable list." Other sites currently don't seem to ofter this feature which makes UVL my preferred 'wishlist' site. I myself use my UVL owned list to verify that I don't already own a game before purchasing it. Amazon lets me make a comment on my wish list items which is a nice feature. I use it to set a price because it would bother me greatly if someone paid more than $ 0.25 to buy me a "R@R3 LQQK VINT@G3 GAME NIB STELLA'S TRUCK FOR ATARI JAGUAR 2800 MINT NINTENDO 2600BOY AND CLONES (loose, label damaged, missing 1 floppy, w/optional contract for my brother's soul. HAVE PIC && MP3 OF SOUL)". Some people still prefer I give them a wishlist and unfortunately they prefer the mobygames format. Perhaps you could add a 'personal list' view mode, that is formatted for ease of identification of games with title, cartridge, box, platform thumbnails, and personal reviews (marked personal tags). Note this would have the effect of members creating reviews for games they want, thus more reviews. It would also compel members to bring more visitors to the site. Be prepared for a increase in traffic around Christmas time and other gift giving holidays.

I'm redrawing the personal marks, they need to be more detailed and unique, so i scrapped the "filled outline" style (the gift icon was ugly both when on and off).
Here are some samples, selected and unselected:


The "i'm playing" / "I've played" difference still struggles me, I've considered both an "in action joystick" and using different colors.

The "shaking" variation (using kinetic lines or similar) is hardly recognizable from the static one, while using different colors has no real meaning, and I haven't found an explicit pair of colors for this purpose. (and since I've known that in Japan red is used for important and usually positive things, while here it means "wrong", I've stopped dealing with colors at all)
I would use the above joystick for "have played", so the "I'm playing" could be the same icon with a symbol meaning "now" or "action".
Perhaps a stylized lightning, but I'm not sure yet.

I did not realize about Red/Green meaning different things elsewhere, how about instead:

Deep blue is fairly universal as representing 'subdued'. In the US, its associated with sadness. Is also universally associated with a calm sea. The sea connection is probably why many countries associate blue with freedom, though in peaceful way rather than a revolutionary way. It also represent solid strength, loyalty, protection, and faith. In the US, is is often associated with rarity and also sleep. It is associate with Virginity. It represents established royalty in some cultures.

Gold (or Golden / #FFD700) is fairly universal as representing 'distinguished', special, perfected, useful, wild strength, joy, heat, finesse, wealth, longevity.

Well, at least I think these colors mean this. I'm sure I don't have all the facts so further input would be helpful.

Had the idea of hand on the joystick, pushing it forward, but that would likely cover the joystick too much and make it unclear. Or... the stick tilted forward with either yellow or white circular motion thingy shown (with arrowheads in both directions) is what I keep thinking for the action variant, but I'm not sure how that translates into that small icon. And it seems to be already disqualified :)

Fo some reason I imagine gift boxes to be yellow with red bow, but that may be because of some webshops I frequent and them using that.

Both the heart and the gift look a bit large, IMO, but that hardly matters. The heart could be a bit rounder, too. And the box in an angle like the joystick.

A transparent hand outline imposed on the joystick and another on the button, may communicate playing, without motion.

Just an update about the new icons...
own, preferred, want, completed, play(ing ?)

[[quote:Just an update about the new icons... ]]
The first one looks like a golden MSN (or some other IM I forgot) icon, and I was quite confused.

I've kept the original simplicity of the "own " icon, and some other edit.
The code is coming well too.

looks ok