Hello!
I'm new around here and have some newcomer questions:
1. How did started this website, is AndreaD the creator and still the maintainer?
2. In some words, what is the goal of UVL? I figure out what is it, but curious to hear it from long-time users.
3. I added over 70 'Completed' games in my list, but when I look in my profile, it shows only 13 of them.
4. Also, how to see all games of a category (ex. Preferred, completed, own, etc) in a list except using the export method?
I'm glad to get to know UVL and contribute a little.
Newcomer questions
Some interesting questions. I will try to answer them from my perspective this evening - not enough time now... got to go to work now ;-)
1.) Andrea is the founder, programmer, owner and admin of the site. Maybe on vacation right now. But will be back soon I'm sure. As for the history. If I remember correctly in the early days of the internet (1997) Andrea programmed a little database/list of arcade games. Put it online and soon made it for all platforms. It got a few re-designs over the course of time and features were implemented incrementally. Like the tag/group system, a forum and better editor tools (I remember when users were not yet able to upload pictures themselves). Everything done by Andrea (who is a web-programmer). And here we are about 25 years later. Not the biggest or well-known videogame database today, but one of the first "big-scale" ones that existed in the internet.
2.) The perfect goal would be to have every game in existence listed and be searchable. This is of course not possible. And the gap between existing games and games in UVL widens. We don't have enough active editors. You will find comprehensive information about older games. It all depends what some editors concentrated on in the past. UVL can be useful to manage your games. However here again it must be noted that we lack in modern games. But adding new games yourself is very easy. It must also be noted that UVL is completely non-commercial. Some other databases got a lot bigger over the time than UVL. Mobygames or Gamefaqs. Simply because they got more editor power behind them (but still they are also far from having "all" existing games in their databases). And often they are commercialised through and through (not so much Mobygames, but Gamefaqs and others). Why am I still at UVL after 20 years? Because I put years of work into adding/editing games. When I joined 20 years ago it was exactly what I searched for. If it wouldn't exist I would have had to develop it myself (but I am not a programmer, so...). I have editing experience with other sites and I did not enjoy it as much. Maybe thats because here is no long approval process of edits and I feel I have full "power" of game editing here. I see a game entry that I think needs being fixed/corrected, then I fix it. Instant gratification. And I like working on game entries, especially for retro games. My dream is still to have UVL being the #1 source to find a game that you have played before and want to find again. Or that you want to find all Pac-Man clones in the 80s. In a perfect world UVL should answer those questions.
3.) Strange. It is only with the completed games. 71 shown on the user page. But it lists only 13 when you click on the 71. Even refreshing the site cache does not help (which is a feature that comes in handy if a site does not show the changes right away). I did some test with my user and I think it is a caching problem. I added a new game as "completed", but It would not register on the game group page. So on the user page I had 363 but on the games group page I still had 362. Refreshing the cache for the game group page did not help. However, as soon as I marked another game with a "heart" it refreshed everything. Also the completed games. So it went to 363. Maybe you could try to do that. Check out if this brings the number to 71 and remove the random heart again. I think its a minor caching problem/bug. Ultimately Andrea must look into this.
4.) In your user profile you can for example click on the 18 besides the heart. Then it opens up your personal "preferred games" group. Now scroll down and click on the 18 again (on top of the "preferred games for each platform"-text). That opens up your preferred games list in "search mode". Basically this URL: https://www.uvlist.net/gamesearch/?ftag=!preferred_25765 ---> note that your personal user number is 25765.
2.) The perfect goal would be to have every game in existence listed and be searchable. This is of course not possible. And the gap between existing games and games in UVL widens. We don't have enough active editors. You will find comprehensive information about older games. It all depends what some editors concentrated on in the past. UVL can be useful to manage your games. However here again it must be noted that we lack in modern games. But adding new games yourself is very easy. It must also be noted that UVL is completely non-commercial. Some other databases got a lot bigger over the time than UVL. Mobygames or Gamefaqs. Simply because they got more editor power behind them (but still they are also far from having "all" existing games in their databases). And often they are commercialised through and through (not so much Mobygames, but Gamefaqs and others). Why am I still at UVL after 20 years? Because I put years of work into adding/editing games. When I joined 20 years ago it was exactly what I searched for. If it wouldn't exist I would have had to develop it myself (but I am not a programmer, so...). I have editing experience with other sites and I did not enjoy it as much. Maybe thats because here is no long approval process of edits and I feel I have full "power" of game editing here. I see a game entry that I think needs being fixed/corrected, then I fix it. Instant gratification. And I like working on game entries, especially for retro games. My dream is still to have UVL being the #1 source to find a game that you have played before and want to find again. Or that you want to find all Pac-Man clones in the 80s. In a perfect world UVL should answer those questions.
3.) Strange. It is only with the completed games. 71 shown on the user page. But it lists only 13 when you click on the 71. Even refreshing the site cache does not help (which is a feature that comes in handy if a site does not show the changes right away). I did some test with my user and I think it is a caching problem. I added a new game as "completed", but It would not register on the game group page. So on the user page I had 363 but on the games group page I still had 362. Refreshing the cache for the game group page did not help. However, as soon as I marked another game with a "heart" it refreshed everything. Also the completed games. So it went to 363. Maybe you could try to do that. Check out if this brings the number to 71 and remove the random heart again. I think its a minor caching problem/bug. Ultimately Andrea must look into this.
4.) In your user profile you can for example click on the 18 besides the heart. Then it opens up your personal "preferred games" group. Now scroll down and click on the 18 again (on top of the "preferred games for each platform"-text). That opens up your preferred games list in "search mode". Basically this URL: https://www.uvlist.net/gamesearch/?ftag=!preferred_25765 ---> note that your personal user number is 25765.
Hello teran01!
I'm grateful for your detailed answer!
I appreciate that this website and system has a non-commercial background. I somehow feel like home here.
Thanks for the tips. I tried the "heart" button trick and I understand that I have to track back each completed game and do the heart button trick. I guess it was considered natural to give a rating after completing a game. Since I entered what I remember and it dates from my childhood, I didn't rate much yet. It's hard for me to give a number to show my appreciation, anyway.
I also feel 'instant gratification' when adding a piece of content that was missing. It's like doing a 1000 pieces puzzle.
I'm grateful for your detailed answer!
I appreciate that this website and system has a non-commercial background. I somehow feel like home here.
Thanks for the tips. I tried the "heart" button trick and I understand that I have to track back each completed game and do the heart button trick. I guess it was considered natural to give a rating after completing a game. Since I entered what I remember and it dates from my childhood, I didn't rate much yet. It's hard for me to give a number to show my appreciation, anyway.
I also feel 'instant gratification' when adding a piece of content that was missing. It's like doing a 1000 pieces puzzle.