Forums > News > Moby v2023.11.09 Release

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MobyReed (318) on 11/10/2023 8:50 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

We now have the ability to handle game relations! Starting with Expansions/DLC/Addons (more types to come). So you can associate a parent game with its addons and vice versa. This new tool is called "Game Relation" and can be found on the game overview page and via the Contribute tab.

Example relation: Pharaoh has an expansion called Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile. I set up this relation and now if you go to Pharaoh's page you will see Cleopatra linked and conversely if you go to Cleopatra's page you will see Pharaoh linked.

Currently you can only select one DLC/Addon at a time when creating a relation, which will be tedious for cases that have a lot of DLC like Rock Band and Cities: Skylines. We'll update the tool soon to handle multiple selections at once. In the meantime you may want to start with other games where the number of addons are more manageable!

Changelog:

  • Added game relations feature: Starting with Expansions/DLC/Addons
  • Added Parent Game filter to Most Wanted
  • Added Atom feeds for most researched games, people and companies
  • Added Moby ID to disambiguation step in credits form
  • Improved error messaging with some contribution tools
  • Fixed submitting photos without a caption
  • Fixed Nintendo scraper
  • Fixed issue with player review UI not wrapping properly in certain cases
  • Fixed issue with empty names sometimes getting added to credits
  • Fixed critic scores with lowest score best
  • Fixed Steam unlink feature for game collections
  • Fixed bug with person<>person collaborations page
  • Allow empty credit groups/titles when saving as work-in-progress
  • Approvers: Added game relations queue
  • Approvers: New tool for linking people with Moby user accounts
  • Database migration to automatically extract dates from photo captions
  • Misc. backend updates, UI fixes/tweaks, polish
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Danfer (32454) on 11/10/2023 9:26 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Great update, "Game Relation" was a big miss in mobygame, hope it will be expanded with more options in the near future

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Kam1Kaz3NL77 (565303) on 11/10/2023 10:41 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Been adding stuff and i see you've been adding stuff as well. Approved a bunch

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Emitewiki (157) on 11/10/2023 9:42 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Fantastic!! This game relations feature is a huge win, was definitely needed! Thanks for adding it! I like that it shows up with the "See Also".

The better error messages and the Nintendo scraper fixes are also super nice, so thank you for those! :)

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Rwolf (22572) on 11/10/2023 10:15 PM · edited · Reply · Permalink · Report

Good to see new fixes and especially the DLC relations update - hopefully one can also add a DLC to multiple base games in the future - I'm of course thinking of things like flight simulator add on:s that often work for multiple generations of MSFS. But maybe DLC vs add-on:s are not the same thing, in these cases?

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Terok Nor (41080) on 11/10/2023 11:43 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

I just submitted one such example, a golf course that works with two different Jack Nicklaus games. Let's see if it goes through.

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Terok Nor (41080) on 11/11/2023 12:07 AM · Reply · Permalink · Report

https://www.mobygames.com/game/20055/age-of-empires-iii/ currently links to its add-ons twice, the same goes for the other way around.

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Kam1Kaz3NL77 (565303) on 11/11/2023 12:25 AM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Has been fixed. Approval through the queue and self-approval messed it up

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Terok Nor (41080) on 11/11/2023 9:35 AM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Assuming the relations might be used in the future to filter out DLC/Addons from searches or displays in groups or the game browser: how about titles that are available in both standalone and add-on versions? Either because they were sold as both, or because they are an add-on on one platform but stand-alone on another. It's rare, but I can think of at least two examples of the former and three of the latter. Maybe introduce an additional flag for these?

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MobyReed (318) on 11/11/2023 7:28 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Hmm, good question. Can you list the examples you know of?

(and yeah, we'll have the ability to filter out DLC/Addons)

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Terok Nor (41080) on 11/11/2023 8:33 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Oh No! More Lemmings and The Humans: The Jurassic Levels are examples of the former - sold both stand-alone and as add-ons for less. Wing Commander: The Secret Missions is an add-on for PC but stand-alone on console. Same goes for Wizardry 2 and 3 - you need the first one to create characters on computers, but they are standalone on console.

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Rwolf (22572) on 11/12/2023 12:39 AM · Reply · Permalink · Report

For the IL-2 Sturmovik series, the second main series 'Forgotten Battles' had an add-on called 'Pacific Fighters', which could be used stand alone, or combined with Forgotten Battles - provided there was an Ace Expansion pack was installed with the Forgotten Battles base game. So it quickly gets complicated, but the details can best be outlined within each expansion I think..

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hoeksmas (142294) on 11/11/2023 10:16 AM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Would this also be a good way to add sequels and prequels?

Would there be a way to search for DLCs that don't have an added parent game?

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Foxhack (32098) on 11/11/2023 5:59 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

"Would this also be a good way to add sequels and prequels?"

Isn't that what Game Groups are for?

Also, not saying your idea is without merit, it could be used to have the games added one by one, then you just hit "next" somewhere to go to the next sequel. But this gets complicated with games that have prequels and interquels...

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hoeksmas (142294) on 11/11/2023 1:02 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

A bug: I'm trying to add this add-on: https://www.mobygames.com/game/205081/poker/

Unfortunately I can't because there are so many entries that contain Poker that I can't find this one in the list.

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Foxhack (32098) on 11/11/2023 5:41 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

I'd call that an oversight!

I think using the GameID to link to a game directly should be available as an option.

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MobyReed (318) on 11/11/2023 7:20 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Yeah, good idea. We'll add that.

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Cantillon (73763) on 11/11/2023 3:32 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Great work!

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Infernos (43129) on 11/11/2023 3:34 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Game Relation is a very welcome addition. Thanks.

On a side note, I salute the brave soul who's gonna tackle the DLCs for the two DOA games - Dead or Alive 5: Last Round and Dead or Alive 6.

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Foxhack (32098) on 11/11/2023 5:43 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Laughs in Train Simulator

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hoeksmas (142294) on 11/11/2023 9:15 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Another question. Will ALL add-ons be added and linked to from the main entry? Won't that make the entry a mile long?

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Foxhack (32098) on 11/11/2023 9:16 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

I'd prefer to have a couple shown on the page, then if there's a lot, then click a link to see the full list.

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hoeksmas (142294) on 11/11/2023 9:19 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Yeah, like maybe the first 4 or 5, and then a link to see all.

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Kam1Kaz3NL77 (565303) on 11/12/2023 2:18 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

I blieve that is already there, i think 5 are shown and then a link that will extend the list, on the same front page

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Freeman (64004) on 11/11/2023 10:17 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Would this also be used for a game's various special editions?

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Kam1Kaz3NL77 (565303) on 11/12/2023 1:18 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Ow, you've read my mind. Something in the line of. "Special Edition of" relation link Parent and Child.

AND/MAYBE also something like "Included In" for compilations

All future possibilities.....

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hoeksmas (142294) on 11/12/2023 1:44 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

THIS! I've added many compilations, but there's no way of linking the original game to show it was included in the compilation. That would be a HUGE help for navigation!

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Foxhack (32098) on 11/12/2023 11:15 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Since we currently have "DLC/Addon" as the only option, changing it to "Game contained in this compilation" is a definite possibility for the future. That way, a full list of the games included could be shown on the page, or on a separate one.

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Kam1Kaz3NL77 (565303) on 11/12/2023 2:21 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

PS. There is still the bug (well, Tod Howard would call it a feature :P ), that is you scrape a PS4/PS5 dual title, like i did here: https://www.mobygames.com/game/211583/excessive-trim/ the platforms have to be added manually (and as follows all release data and such) as well as the cover picture (which is scraped by the way) doesn't have its platform attached (because of the platforms not being added initially)

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Danfer (32454) on 11/13/2023 12:16 AM · Reply · Permalink · Report

I understand not wanting to consider expansions that are stand-alone as add-ons, but there are certain cases where if you don't have the base game you have access to only part of the game's content, for example in Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance if you don't have the base game you only have access to a single "Seraphim" faction and you can't play with any of the other three, which have new mechanics and units exclusive to the expansion, in case like this I think an exception should be made.

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S Olafsson (58106) on 11/13/2023 10:50 AM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Are there plans as to how groups play into related? It's redundant information in many cases that needs to be maintained in several places. (and no, this was not intended as a lyric ;) )

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Koterminus (209491) on 11/16/2023 11:04 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

Series groups that only contain one game and its DLC can be rejected for redundancy. I've already rejected a bunch of those.

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PoliticallyCorrupt (2564) on 11/13/2023 2:10 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

OMG Fantastic! Do these relations show in the API?

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Rwolf (22572) on 11/16/2023 3:48 PM · Reply · Permalink · Report

One thing I miss in the 'Most Wanted' section is the possibility to filter only results from your own collection, e.g. I could more easily contribute screenshots from the games I actually own, rather than something else in the database. (However, this 'collection' also currently includes my own want-list, which does not work in this case.)