Wikidata:Property proposal/Metacritic game ID
Metacritic game ID[edit]
Originally proposed at Wikidata:Property proposal/Creative work
Motivation[edit]
This proposal is related to the discussion that was recently started. I've decided to propose a separate property following Jean-Fred's advice, and I'll explain why it's better to split the Metacritic property into several possible ones.
Okay, even before the original property was created back in 2015, it had already been suggested that it should be split into several other properties, which is quite reasonable, as it is much easier to curate and maintain individual properties than a single one, which due to its broad scope can eventually become a dumping ground of values (which is exactly what happened). However, as the discussion progressed, we can see that for some reason a consensus was reached in favor of creating one single property for everything possible (i.e. games, movies, TV series, etc.). The reason why this decision was made is unfortunately not clear. So starting from 2015 until now, the property has been used for everything possible without any strict control.
Back to our days, Metacritic updated its design and a bit of its database in September. It is from this point that certain issues arise, as Metacritic decided to get rid of the use of the platform prefix, which is definitely the right decision, but the problem is that now all links that once led to a separate page for a particular platform, point to the same game ID, thus creating unnecessary duplicates (example). The solution to this is autofix (or QS batch), but that's not the point. This proposal was primarily made in order to move all corrected identifiers from the current broad property to a separate one for games after the autofix or QS batch has been applied. It would be fine, but there were participant who did not mind going back to the outdated scheme, i.e. the scheme of using platforms, since it is still possible.
As I already mentioned in that discussion, I'm clearly against such a scheme, as it's completely unnecessary primarily due to the fact that Metacritic now uses exactly a platform-less scheme for video game identifiers and if someone wants to look at scores on a particular platform again, they can simply go to View All Platforms or All platforms section right on the game's page. Going back to platforms would be a huge step backwards in this case. What do you think?
The only place where platforms would still be useful is review score (P444) property. They are definitely needed there, but those IDs should only be used as a reference. What I mean is that we would have two properties: one would be this one, which I proposed for specifying just the video game ID without applying the still possible scheme for platforms (new format), and another, already existing one (general/broad property), which would now be applied only as a reference in P444 property. Example:
| Metacritic game ID (new property) |
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| review score |
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So basically what I'm proposing to do is to do roughly what was done with the Filmweb.pl property (as example). In other words, the current Metacritic ID (P1712) property should be split into several other separate properties. Our project, as you can see, has already started such an initiative and I strongly recommend that members of other projects like WikiProject Movies or WikiProject Music do the same. Regarding the Wikis (reusers) that are currently using a generic property. I don't think it's a problem, as switching to the new property will only make things easier and the Wikis will follow suit. Especially since we have new MobyGames property (as a prime example), which various sections of Wikipedia are slowly starting to adopt (see [1], [2], [3]).
Based on all this, what do I propose to do and what is the plan here? The plan is the following:
- Create a new proposal for a standalone property for video games and notify project participants which has already been done.
- Before or after this proposal will be marked as ready (if it gets support at all), correct the IDs of the current general Metacritic ID (P1712) property to the new format, i.e. from
game/some-platform/some-video-gametogame/some-video-game. This will either be done by me personally, or it can be done by someone else using a QS/OR batch. We could also do it, as I said, with an autofix, but we are very likely to still have various qualifiers left like platforms afterwards, so I think it would be preferable to remove the values, and a bot that does autofixes doesn't fix that.
| Metacritic ID from → |
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| Metacritic ID to → |
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- After the IDs are moved to the new format, add the following autofixes to the talk page of the outdated property:
- This autofix is temporal. It is required to migrate the remaining identifiers (which will not be deleted) in the references to the correct format of the now deprecated property.
| review score from → |
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| review score to → |
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- After the remaining IDs in the references have been corrected, we will add this already permanent autofix, which indicates the new schema IDs that will be automatically moved from the general and outdated property to the new one when detected. In short, if someone will continue to intentionally or mistakenly add new schema identifiers to an old property, you should not worry, because the bot will automatically move them to the correct (new) one because of this autofix. Here is an example of how this autofix works in the case of MobyGames group ID (former scheme) (P5360) property.
| Metacritic ID from → |
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| Metacritic game ID (PXXXXX) to → |
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- Once all tasks from above have been completed, migrate the adjusted IDs (but this time without the /game prefix, as it is not required here) to the new property via QS/OR batch (or bot).
| Metacritic ID from → |
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| Metacritic game ID (PXXXXX) to → |
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- Right after creating the new property, add Wikidata usage instructions (P2559) (to the generic property) to indicate that a separate property is now used for video games and that all IDs should lead there and not to the generic one. We should also specify that the generic superseded property for video games is still allowed, but it can only be used as a reference in the review score (P444) property.
| Wikidata usage instructions |
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- Change the regex to a new one (still there in P1712 property), which should not allow the new schema value, but still allow the format
game/some-video-game/critic-reviews/?platform=some-platformorgame/some-video-game/user-reviews/?platform=some-platform(should only be used in references in P444 property).
| review score |
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- And finally, on the discussion page of the already new property, add the following autofix, which reduces all 4 obsolete formats to the correct one. That is, all those game identifiers that will be mistakenly added (to the new property) with different unnecessary prefixes will be automatically moved to the one and correct format.
| Metacritic game ID (PXXXXX) from → |
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| add value | |||||||||||||||
| Metacritic game ID (PXXXXX) to → |
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| add value | |||||||||||||||
For property creators[edit]
 | Warning! This note is for property creators only, so you can safely skip it if you are not one. |
- I have decided to make life much easier for those who will be creating this property and thus already prepared a ready to run QS file with all the necessary values for the new property. When the property will be marked as ready and you have decided to create it, just follow that link. All you need to do is just click on the Run button, but not Run in background, because for some unknown reason properties in this mode are not created correctly. Warning! When checking this file, be extremely careful not to accidentally run this batch before its time.
Discussion[edit]
Notified participants of WikiProject Video games. Regards Kirilloparma (talk) 14:03, 19 September 2023 (UTC)- Repinging: Notified participants of WikiProject Video games. Regards Kirilloparma (talk) 13:32, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
Support A game-specific property is a great idea, Metacritic ID (P1712) is much too broad in its scope. Lewis Hulbert (talk) 16:59, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
Info: See also Wikidata:Property proposal/Metacritic numeric game ID. Regards Kirilloparma (talk) 23:29, 25 September 2023 (UTC)
@Kirilloparma, Lewis Hulbert: Done --Trade (talk) 22:37, 2 October 2023 (UTC)