Forums > Suggestions > Issues with the search
saturnsailor (4) on 3/22/2017 12:49 AM · Permalink · Report
I apologize if I'm in the "Another one!" category but my issues with the search are:
-
Why the platform dropdown and search type boxes aren't there on the home page?
-
I entered "Witcher 3" and I got a number of results. I deselected all checkboxes but "Games" and I see a whole bunch of DLC and games that don't have "Witcher 3" in the title like "The Witcher" or "Witch's Wish". If I had entered "Witch" those would have been appropriate but as is it looks broken.
-
Why isn't there a check box for "DLC" so I can deselect it? I may not care about DLC but I still get it deceivingly presented like a game - i.e. "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine" looks like a standalone game but in fact it's expansion to the original game. This is misleading. I can only see that this is an expansion after I click on it - "DLC / Add on". Why then are character skins and expansions as big as this one, which won game of the year award on its own, lumped into one category? It's not even 100% a DLC as "Blood and Wine" was physically present on the disc of the Complete Edition.
-
On the detail page for "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine" there is no indication what is the Parent Game. I have to look through the description (fortunately in this case there was one but what if there isn't one available?) to find that out. If there is an "Add on" descriptor there should be one called "Parent Game" or something like that listing the name of the game (with a link).
I read on this forum somewhere that some big changes are coming so I apologize if this is nothing new but it may be of some value perhaps. I love your website and admire the work everyone has put into it.
Tracy Poff (2094) on 3/22/2017 1:42 AM · Permalink · Report
1. Why the platform dropdown and search type boxes aren't there on the home page?
To keep things simple and keep it from taking up a lot of space, I suppose. If you need a more advanced search, you can always just click the search button (or press enter from the search box) without typing anything in, and it'll bring up the search page for you.
2. I entered "Witcher 3" and I got a number of results. I deselected all checkboxes but "Games" and I see a whole bunch of DLC and games that don't have "Witcher 3" in the title like "The Witcher" or "Witch's Wish". If I had entered "Witch" those would have been appropriate but as is it looks broken.
The search doesn't require that exactly what you enter appears in the game's title. Instead, it tries to find games with titles that are similar to what you enter. So, in the case of "witcher 3", the top results are all games that contain the words "witcher 3" in the title, and further down the list are games with less similar names. Sometimes you can get some results with very different titles, such as when a game has an unusual regional title (e.g. searching for "probotector" puts "Contra" at the top of the list), but generally this technique balances showing only results that closely match your query against finding things even if you make a typo or give only a partial title.
3. Why isn't there a check box for "DLC" so I can deselect it? ...
- On the detail page for "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine" there is no indication what is the Parent Game. ...
At present, we treat each DLC as though it's a separate game (because it's purchased separately), and there's no direct link between a DLC and the game it belongs to. MobyGames was created before DLC existed (or, at least, before it was common), so we don't handle it as well as we should. This will be a complex thing to get completely right, but it's one of the highest priority things in our plans, so improvement is certainly coming!
Thanks for letting us know your concerns. I always want to hear if things aren't working the way people expect, or the way that would be most useful, so we can try to address those problems. So, don't hesitate to post again if you have any questions or suggestions.