I am usually a guy that doesn't get too wrapped up over new site designs, I mean I actually didn't throw a big fit over all the redesigns for YouTube the past few years, but Mobygames' redesign left me completely sour after checking it out. It feels very clunky and some aspects of the site just feel sluggish when using it on my end such as the screenshots section.

Hey Anamon, I'm all with you. The MG community is also discussion this thing now at http://www.mobygames.com/forums/dga,2/dgb,4/dgm,180978/ .

I would be all for a CC-alike community built site. A clear transparent vision for a community project, providing proper APIs for everyone to access, providing regular data dumps, etc. That's the only way you can make sure the content, is this is the most important aspect, is never lost to a company or whomever.

Btw, I think mass-relicensing is not out of question per se (I'm not talking about MG specifically). I remember a year or two ago, openstreetmaps changed the license. Anyones contribution data who didn't comply was removed, it's "easy" as that.

Technically I wouldn't use Mediawiki or any wiki :) I understand their efforts, even for the semantic web/SPARQL and such user interface-wise I'm not a fan of it. Although they got better with their new beta inpage editor, IMHO a game database is not necessarily too much about text, but equally about their categorizations and relations to other entities (deveopers, publishers, etc.). Exactly the way MG did it .. oh my. I'd even go so far as some technically skilled members could start with a simple project on github hosing on one of the new shiny cloud services and take it from there ...

Yes, I'm an active participant there :)

The relicensing as such isn't impossible as I have also stated on the MG forums, the problem is that this would have to come from GameFly, and that is very unlikely to happen. On one hand they have made it very clear how much they care about what the community wants. And on the other hand, they must know that within a very short time this would lead to a better-run competing project that took all the important people with it. GameFly have lost all the respect and trust from the community that built the site, and it seems very unlikely at the moment that they would do what's needed to regain some of it. So I think they're well aware that opening the license would be the first step in a complete devaluing of their MobyGames property.

Setting up a new database, even a site to provide access and contributions to it, defnitely isn't impossible. A few weeks of work by a couple of dedicated people would be enough for a first working version, there's no need to re-invent the wheel anywhere. Maybe I would even take part in it (I'm working on my own non-contribution-based database anyway), but to be honest what would mostly keep me from it right now is the sobering feeling of how much it took to get MobyGames to where it's at. Almost 15 years of work, especially in the reviews and scans departments. It seems very unlikely that a new project would get anywhere near that in the forseeable future, and I find that a bit disheartening.

holy smokes the site is garbage now, mobygames is ruined

Forever, or just until the next revision?

It's really sad to see Mobygames going downhill for the past few years, especially after GameFly purchased the site, and this latest redesign fiasco do nothing but worsen the fate of Mobygames. I hope GameFly do not continue to disregard the MobyGames community because as Daniel Saner says on MobyGames forums, "without the community that they systematically and deliberately shun, their acquisition will lose all its relevance and value, which hurts everybody involved -- GameFly, active contributors, passive visitors". It's no wonder that Jim Leonard, the founder of Mobygames, agreed with Saner's words and said, "I completely agree, and I hope that the current owners of MobyGames realize this".

Jim Leonard also has recently posted an informative post on the forums on why he sold the website. He writes these words below after quoting one of the users, Yid Yang (Yid Yang was also an approver of the contributions until the redesign. He wrote many great reviews on Mobygames):

"Yid Yang: 'I have no less and no more rights than any other user here who has invested his time and effort into building this site. And I would have absolutely no problem with CP & Co. selling MG if the site benefited from the sale. What's the absolutely worst part about that sale is that they got their dough and now are smugly observing the site's ruination. Burn, MobyGames, burn, other people's work - we are washing our hands!'"

"Jim Leonard: 'Here's a hypothetical question for you: If you had worked on an idea/website/database/community for 11 years, and donated tens of thousands of hours and many tens of thousands of dollars towards it, but could no longer support it financially or mentally, what would your options be? I can think of a few:

1. Shut it down. 2. Sell to another company so it continues. 3. Donate it all into the wild and see what happens.

What would you do? Before you scream #3, consider Home of the Underdogs, which chose #3 and ended up dying a horrible death anyway (all mirrors are static, user community is gone, some don't offer downloads).

Could the communication about the sale been better handled? Of course. But three years after the sale, the site is still up and the content is still here and there is at least one person working on fixing the issues with the redesign. I can think of many other communities, game-related and otherwise, that have sputtered and died after a sale, or sputtered and died after being turned open-source. There have been much worse outcomes.

You are free to criticize all relevant parties, but speaking purely for myself only: Don't think for a second that I sold my share of MobyGames just so I could "get rich" and "wash my hands" of it. I did not "get rich", for one thing, and I do care about the site's outcome just as much as you do, maybe moreso since it was my baby.'"

Sorry to bump this but I'm kinda late for the show.. But I think this subject should get MUCH more attention not only in the various forums/communities, only to be forgotten soon, but by any (remaining) really independent gaming (news/blog/review/whatever) site...

I urge everyone to read some of the posts above from ppl involved in Mobygames for years, at their forums and everywhere.. To put it simply, tons and tons and TONS of hard work of dedicated gamers and archivers contriibuted contnet to MG making it the reference point for games only to see ALL this mess (not only the redesign, that's the tip of the iceberg)..

The only good thing is that this *might* encourage some ppl to just drop MG and start assembling a new , and better site, community based to fill the gap that soon MG is going to leave .. I really really think the community should try something (I'd also like it not to be wiki based but anything will do for start.. dunno on that)..

That seems like a good effort. Is it possible to get an English version of the forums?

The English sections are at the bottom of the board list.

Because of the "current events" we are plannung to extend the English part of the forum.
Stay tuned!

The Night of the Rabbit :0

I hadn't been onto Mobygames until recently, as I had got my hands on a copy of the Elder Scrolls Anthology. When I first loaded the page, I actually closed the windows and retyped "mobygames.com" in my address bar, as it looks completely different (and not necessarily in a good way). Anyway, I did a quick search for Elder Scrolls Anthology, and didn't see it in the results. So I began the process of adding it, only to find that it was apparently already added. Fine, fine, I think, I'll just add covers. Try as I might, the only way I could find the game was through the link when you try to add a game and they say it's already there. I select my cover scans, hit save, and am told to select a platform...only the drop down menu for platform selection is empty (nothing to select). So I can't upload cover scans.

Now perhaps the game is pending approval or something, but thus far, I've not heard any response to my email inquiry for advice.

RIP Mobygames, I guess.

Anyone remember Direct2Drive? Same thing happened; Gamefly bought it, and now you have to install their client to get your games... ¬_¬

Looks like Gamefly made some changes. Now you need to just install their downloader, instead of their client, to get your games.

... what does that have to do with MobyGames?

... and don't I know you from somewhere? :P