Recently I've been working on a new update, and although progress has been slower than I would've liked, I want to share a bit about what the update will be about, as this includes changes to some existing functionality which not everyone might be as comfortable with if it were just done out of the blue. Additionally, I want to hear suggestions and opinions since you're ultimately going to be the ones using the updated features, so it needs to fit with what you want to see.

[big]Obviously the update is still in development, so everything in this post is subject to change.[/big]

As the title reads, this update is, in essence, about game tags. Game tags are a backend combination and simplification of a bunch of existing systems (platforms, regions, series, rom hacks) and - to some extent - new types of tags (more on that later).

The main benefit of game tags is that is allows us to much more easily extend functionality for the tags as well as extend functionality that wants to deal with multiple tag types at once.

[section=Regarding the existing systems]

Platforms and regions: Currently no functionality changes are planned.

Rom hacks: Currently a game would be marked as a rom hack no matter what kind of unofficial release it is, and then being hidden away in some mostly unfindable place while still showing up in other (possibly unwanted) places. This functionality is basically thrown out and redesigned from the ground up. A game will be able to have 'Game type' tags set (generally no more than one will be relevant, but it could have more). It will still be a fully functional game, and will behave no different than without a game type tag (mostly). The one and primary exception is that they will be filtered out by default on several pages, such as the front page, the search bar, the games list and series overviews. You'll be able to disable this filtering on the settings page with yet to be decided granularity. For the games list and series overviews the filters can also be turned off on the page itself using a new filter system, more on that later.

Currently planned game types are: 'mod', 'fangame', 'web/flash' and 'rom hack'. Let us know if you think of any others that are useful. Note that there is no functionality difference between game types, it's just a naming thing.

Series: With respect to making series part of the game tags system, there are not a great many changes. The primary extension of functionality is that a game can now be part of multiple series at the same time. This should make organization a bit easier. At the same time, it also creates some minor design challenges but more significantly, one big issue which is probably the most 'controversial' of the update: the 'Series moderators have power here' option. The option certainly has its uses, but is also a big source of confusion/annoyance/drama. Now, with multiple series, this would get way worse (where do mods come from, wanting to have series mods from one series but not the other(s)). As it happens, all the code related to the option would also have to be rewritten for the update, so this seems like a good time to rip off the band aid and get rid of the option altogether. First off: There are no changes in what games someone moderates before and after this update. All series moderators that have power over games will be added to those games explicitly in the update. Series moderators will still exist to edit the series options/theme and add games to series when necessary etc. They will just be there to moderate the series, not everything in the series. This means that if there are cases where someone needs to be added to all games, it's a bit more work, but this will positively reinforce that people actually only moderate the games they should be moderating and create better expectations that the moderator actually knows the game and actually moderates it.

We realize that moderation is often a bit of a sore subject, so be sure to let us know what you think and if there any other concerns regarding this change.

[section=Regarding new tag types]

With the game tags system in place, it is significantly easier to implement new, related functionality.There aren't any concrete things implemented yet, but there are a couple of types on the ideas list (more suggestions are, again, welcome):

• Genre
• Developer/publisher
• Game engine - Since a lot of glitches/techniques are engine-dependent, this might aid in finding newer, faster strats.
• Glitches featured - This ties in with the filter system I'll talk about in a bit, but this would include things such as 'has ACE', 'has RNG manipulation' etc - (Note: these tags, like all others, are applied on a game level, not on a category/run level). I didn't actually know this when I came up with it, but http://tasvideos.org/ has a couple of these but applied to specific movies.

These new types will probably be editable in a similar fashion to platforms/regions, that is they'd be set by game moderators.

[section=Regarding the filter system]

Now that all the different tags are part of one bigger system, this allows us to much more easily search for specific criteria. To that extent, a filter system is in development which can and will be used in several places.

One of these places is the games list (as mentioned before). Instead of the current flat list which a couple of sorting options but no real way to deal with the massive amount of data, there will be a more managable, sortable, filterable and paginated list which will give a better overview of what's out there and much more finegrained control over what results you see. For some examples, you will be able to get a list of:

• all PC games from the 90s alphabetically
• all NES RPG games excluding rom hacks
• all PC RPG games released in 2010 or 2013 that are not on the Unity or Unreal engines which feature wrong warps sorted by popularity (if you want to get crazy)

The exact same system is used on series overview pages (but then limited to that series, of course).

The filter system will also be implemented on the streams page, although not with the exact same filters. For example, you will be able to get a list of only streams where the streamer has a PB in the game they're streaming. If you have any more ideas for filters for the streams page, let us know.

To illustrate the system, here are some images. Since it's an interactive system, images don't tell the whole story, but it's better than nothing.

Series overview:

Games list:

Streams page:

Note: the system is far from done, this is not a final implementation/design. As should be obvious in the images, not all filters are added yet either.

You will also be able to link to any specific results page immediately for your convenience. Because of the better games page, this also offers the opportunity to improve the search bar to link to the specific games results page if there are more results than it can display, although this is not yet implemented so might be postponed to later.

Sorry if the post seems a bit out of order at times, there is a lot of interaction so it's kinda difficult to write it down linearly.

I do hope that the post is understandable in all, please reply with any and all ideas/suggestions/concerns/opinions/questions that you have, now is the best time to do so.

I've always agreed that series moderators should be there to organize the games, set up themes and add games when necessary. Individual game mods are the ones who should be in control of verifying runs and making categories.

One suggestion I have would be to display the number of followers a game has, say, under the release date/platform. Everything else looks great.

Will all fangames etc be tied to a parent game in the way romhacks currently are? I can't think of a good example off the top of my head, but it might be nice to be able to set up fangames that are not.

Mavik: I don't know if that information is relevant enough to be added to the sidemenu, but it is something to be added to the games list. I'm not quite sure what the best way is to display more information on that, but I will try to think of something (since, if you sort by followers, you obviously care about how many followers each result has. Idem for other sorts).

mobiusman: They can but they do not have to be tied to a parent game.

The change to moderation is fine, the original method caused too much drama (like in Resident Evil).

Glad of the series moderation vs game moderation change.

As with games themselves, series moderators should be able to adjust the default filtering/sorting settings (not just on/off) for a series.

Series mods should also be able to remove a game's series tag if it's inappropriate (for example: a Sonic mod -> a Mario game having a Sonic series tag).

Regarding BetaM's post: We were planning that certain tags would be limited by site staff, while others would be controlled by game moderators. There's essentially no functional reason anyone other than Sonic series moderators and site staff should need access to the Sonic series tag. ((I'm actually not sure organizationally that series functions exactly like a tag, but it's close enough.))

Similarly, many tags mentioned ('mod', 'fangame', 'web/flash' and 'rom hack') only need added at game creation time (or one time upon this change) Aggregating all of this shouldn't be too hard given our current systems, but we'll likely open up a thread for any tag change requests. Things that only pertain to the game and don't greatly affect site sorting would be open to any moderators for the game (as they are now), but a few of the new items need restricted to minimize chaos.

I'm looking forward to these changes.

Is there potential in this new system for sub-series? Or is it just multiple series?

For example, I don't really mind helping with some of the "administration" of all "Disney" games, but it'd be nice to have a bit more granularity to the series that exist within that huge umbrella.

There are no plans to make it possible for series to be part of other series as such, but it will of course be possible for a game to be part of the Disney series and of a Disney [insert subseries identifier here] series at the same time.

Just one really small thing: Make sure to not handle 'web/flash' in the same way as romhacks. Not all flashgames are the same, there are fangames and official releases.

Could there be tags regarding similar categories? So we know what games have 100%, Glitchless, Low%, Middle Category, New Game+, etc.

Not sure how it'd be properly implemented though; category titles alone wouldn't work very well.