John Smith (369) on 2/12/2022 8:09 PM · Permalink · Report

I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I’ve had a lot of problems with approvers, and I’m pretty new to this site. Is there some sort of appeal if you disagree with (or do not understand the decision of) an approver? And is there a good way to contact the specific approver in question? I’ll give some examples

1. I recently added a new distance record game. The game was given the NORWEGIAN title “Sesam Katapult” on launch, but was later renamed to the ENGLISH title “Catapult”. By the Mobygames standards, the game should be added under the English title; “Primary title should be the title of the earliest US release (non-working title). If there is no US release then the UK title or an English title should be used. Outside of this it should be the original release title no matter the origin.”

The entry was sent to Sciere for approval, but he instead chose to invent a new name, “Sesam Catapult”, which the game has NEVER HAD in any language. How can this be fixed?

2. I sometimes take screenshots of flash games and put them up for approval, and I try to make them quite varied, including of gameplay, story, main menu, options menu, credit screen, etc. I have gotten the credit screen approved before (on strategy defense 1 and 2), but on “Catapult” it was denied by Sciere. The only explanation was “You can use this as a source image to submit the credits listing for the game using the Contribute link at the game entry.”, which I already knew. The credit screen is a part of the game, so why can’t I add a screenshot of it? Does it matter if the credit screen contains additional artwork not found elsewhere in the game?

3. When I added “Strategy Defense 2: The Three kingdoms”, I made a mistake and added it as simply “Strategy Defense 2” without the subtitle. I’m certainly willing to take most of the blame for this one myself. I have already submitted a correction for this one, though thinking back I’m a bit puzzled the original entry was approved.

4. The first two “Strategy Defense” games were distributed by CrazyMonkeyGames, a site owned by Westech LLC. At the time, I thought the I could simply add CrazyMonkeyGames to the database, and connect it to the games (Not knowing CrazyMonkeyGames was not the company itself), which is what I did. This also went through approval. I am sorry for this, and I have submitted a correction. Worse yet, the approver added Belugerin Games as publisher on both games without explanation. The CrazyMonkeyGames logo appears all over the game, and CrazyMonkeyGames.com is titled as “Sponsored by” on the credit screen, so one would think Westech LLC should be counted as publisher.

5. I have several times added tech-specs to games. 3 of them were recently rejected by WONDERなパン. The trouble is I don’t know entirely what I should have done differently. I got back “I figure it is unlikely, but I still must ask - any sources for the information provided?”, but everything should be immediately obvious; The games are easily accessible, in fact their pages on Mobygames links directly to them. I claimed in tech-specs that the games were in flash, which any flash gamer knows you can see by simply right-clicking on the game and looking at the context menu. I claimed (Freeware / Free-to-play / Public Domain) which nearly all flash games are. You are not met with any log-ins, monetary agreements or anything else stopping you from playing the game on crazymonkeygames.com or any of the other portals Belugerin Games added the game to so it should at least go under the “Free-to-play” category. I further claim required devices, which would prove itself if the approver only played the first 3 minutes of the game. (Besides, you can’t screenshot a mouse-click or a keyboard-press)

I could go on, but I wonder; do I have to explain the basics of how flash games work every time I add another flash game?

All of that being said, this is a great site, and I’m looking forward to documenting more games.

John Smith