Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (video games)

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(Visual novel) disambiguation

I would like to formerly nominate that the (visual novel) disambiguation be abandoned in favor of (video game). The reasoning is that visual novels are just a genre of video game, and we do not disambiguate other genres in this manner. This was previously informally discussed at Talk:Clannad (video game)#Requested move 19 December 2020. TarkusAB^talk/contrib 15:31, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

I think there's a more general discussion to be had here, which is that there's currently no guidance for when two video games of the same name came out in the same year on the same platform. One solution is to allow genre as an alternative disambiguator, such as "visual novel". In general, there is no need to disambiguate by genre and I'm in favor of using "(video game)" where possible, including for visual novels, but the precipitating discussion to this one has one case where a genre-based disambiguator might be preferred. Axem Titanium (talk) 16:36, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

I think it was decided upon in 2012. It was a request that VNs be recognised as video games and there was no objection to that. Fully support the OP in not disambiguating by genre. - X201 (talk) 07:22, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

I agree with this. Visual novels are games, and there are better ways to disambiguate. Shooterwalker (talk) 21:18, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

Games with the same title and year on different platforms

One thing I'm curious about that this article doesn't make clear is what to do when you have games, released under the same title in the same year, that are different enough on different platforms to be considered separate games. There aren't a whole lot of examples that seem notable enough to get separate articles, ones I've found include

• The World Is Not Enough (PlayStation video game) and The World Is Not Enough (Nintendo 64 video game)
• Ghostbusters II (computer video game) and Ghostbusters II (NES video game)
• Sonic the Hedgehog (1991 video game) and Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit video game) (this one seems particularly contentious)

Even though there aren't a lot of cases of this on Wikipedia and it's rarer these days than in the 80s and 90s, it'd still be nice to have some sort of guideline for what's best to do. For instance, if a game were just released on one PC platform, like Windows, would it use (Windows video game) or just computer? Are terms like console and handheld acceptable, or is it best to always specify the platform when possible? What term would cover both PC and console versions? Would the one considered more important just get (video game) instead of specifying a platform? Or is it too case by case to make any guidelines for? Ringtail Raider (talk) 00:14, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

This is rare enough that nobody has thought to turn it into a guideline. Even then, it's rare enough that it would be hard to turn it into a guideline, because Wikipedia's guidelines are meant to be descriptive not prescriptive. If I had to describe current practice, I'd say it's inconsistent. Maybe if the 8-bit sonic game were renamed to (game gear), we could say it's best practice to distinguish it based on the platform. Shooterwalker (talk) 02:22, 30 May 2023 (UTC)

Agreed, there's too few examples that we need a guideline for. I think the proposed idea on the 8-bit Sonic, using Game Gear (the one that it was better known for out of that and the Genesis) would make sense, but that's seriously just a 1 off case. Masem (t) 02:45, 30 May 2023 (UTC)

Just a note on Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit video game) title - the game in question was released on both Master System and Game Gear, so it's a bad idea by just tagging one platform for disambiguation. This article is a very special case. Fortunately the platforms it was released are both 8-bit except for emulated and compilation re-releases. Thus the "(8-bit video game)" tag was the consenus for the article title. Such tag cannot work with Sonic the Hedgehog (1991 video game) as this game originally released on Sega Genesis had various re-releases and ports (not just emulation). Explorer09 (talk) 04:55, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

In theory, "Sonic the Hedgehog (1991 video game)" is a fine primary title for its subject, but that's not how we use disambiguation on Wikipedia. It's currently disambiguating itself with the 2006 video game, while it's assuming to take primacy over the Master System game. In turn, "(Sega Genesis game)" would disambiguate with the 2006 game less cleanly. I don't think there's a good solution; the current situation is very clear though. ~Maplestrip/Mable (chat) 07:05, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

Platform acronyms

Hello, sorry for dropping another question, but I was had a question about this line (which I apparently missed when I asked my above question):

When the platform name has at least three words in length, the shortest possible acronym should be used in the disambiguator (e.g., Disney's Beauty and the Beast (SNES video game)" or Ninja Gaiden (NES video game)).

While NES and SNES games do indeed follow this guideline, there are a large number of Game Boy Color ports of games that have (Game Boy Color video game) in their title instead of (GBC video game). Is this something that should be fixed? Or is "Game Boy" considered a single word here? I don't see GBC used as an acronym as much as NES and SNES, or even GBA, so I'm wondering if it's a specific exception or not. Thanks! Ringtail Raider (talk) 15:33, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

Example update of what I mean: Game Boy Advance video game vs GBA video game, Game Boy Color video game vs GBC video game, NES video game for comparison. Of the ones using GBA or GBC instead of the system's full name, only one is not a redirect. There aren't as many as there are game articles using NES or SNES in the title, but it's still odd the three word name rule doesn't seem to apply to them. --Ringtail Raider (talk) 04:08, 13 February 2024 (UTC)