Wikipedia - List of Dreamcast Online Games

[namine207]

Hey there!

I just wanted to bring this to the community's attention, this is the Wikipedia article about Dreamcast online games:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_D ... line_games

And while it does have some good info (I just added a reference to Dreamcast Live to the top part of the article), I've noticed that it only seems to include games with online multiplayer functionality. When I compare it to other articles such as those for the Xbox or PS2:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_X ... work_games
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_P ... line_games

The Xbox article has a column indicating which Live features the game supported (DLC, Scoreboards, etc) since there are plenty of online titles that support those features but not online multiplayer. The PS2 article separates it into three tables for online multiplayer, LAN play, and iLink, which makes sense since the PS2 didn't really have DLC or anything like that (save FFXI/PlayOnline updates).

I'm looking at going in and editing the Dreamcast list in some way to try to make it so the page has info on games that support DLC, High Scores, and other online features because I feel like as-is, it doesn't represent the diversity of online content on the DC very well. But I wanted to collect ideas first as to what would be the best way to present that info on that page. I figure it might also be a really great resource for folks looking to get into DC online gaming but who don't know where to look. I know it's where I'd go if I wasn't already aware of DC Talk/DC Live.

[OlivusPrime]

It's funny you should mention this, I had actually thought of doing this myself a while ago, but never found the time to do so.

Personally I think that one table should be dedicated to games that had online multiplayer, and another should be dedicated to other online functions (DLC, leaderboards etc). That PS2 page is a nice example of how splitting the list into multiple tables can make things clearer, and I like that it indicates whether listed games have an operational fan server.

There also needs to be a distinction as to region, too - the current table shows the release date of each game in each region, but lots of games had their online functionality limited to only one or two regions. For example, Virtua Tennis 2 had its online multiplayer limited to Japan, and a whole bunch of PAL titles had their online modes removed.

If you manage to clean this page up, it would be much appreciated! Like you say, it would be a valuable resource for new players, not to mention a great historical record on one of the internet's prime sites for information.

[namine207]

It's funny you should mention this, I had actually thought of doing this myself a while ago, but never found the time to do so.

Personally I think that one table should be dedicated to games that had online multiplayer, and another should be dedicated to other online functions (DLC, leaderboards etc). That PS2 page is a nice example of how splitting the list into multiple tables can make things clearer, and I like that it indicates whether listed games have an operational fan server.

There also needs to be a distinction as to region, too - the current table shows the release date of each game in each region, but lots of games had their online functionality limited to only one or two regions. For example, Virtua Tennis 2 had its online multiplayer limited to Japan, and a whole bunch of PAL titles had their online modes removed.

If you manage to clean this page up, it would be much appreciated! Like you say, it would be a valuable resource for new players, not to mention a great historical record on one of the internet's prime sites for information.

That's excellent, and I completely agree. I'll source info from DC Live and split the list just like that I should hopefully have time either tonight or tomorrow to begin. For region specific online capabilities, perhaps having a notes column like the PS2 page would be advisable?

[OlivusPrime]

That's excellent, and I completely agree. I'll source info from DC Live and split the list just like that I should hopefully have time either tonight or tomorrow to begin. For region specific online capabilities, perhaps having a notes column like the PS2 page would be advisable?

A notes column could work well for clarity, otherwise the way I had envisioned it in my head previously was to have a colour code system - so in the release date column for each region, the cells could be greyed out if the games had online functions removed, or coloured green/otherwise if they had active online functions.

[namine207]

That's excellent, and I completely agree. I'll source info from DC Live and split the list just like that I should hopefully have time either tonight or tomorrow to begin. For region specific online capabilities, perhaps having a notes column like the PS2 page would be advisable?

A notes column could work well for clarity, otherwise the way I had envisioned it in my head previously was to have a colour code system - so in the release date column for each region, the cells could be greyed out if the games had online functions removed, or coloured green/otherwise if they had active online functions.

A much better idea on your part Just started adding it to the article, try checking now and see how things are looking. Still got a lot to add, but I think I might go with a light red to differentiate it from the greyed out square for unreleased games. Let me know though if you see anything that I might wanna do differently! I also removed the ESRB rating column because I felt like it wasn't really relevant to the online play features of these games and is already available in the general list of DC games.

[OlivusPrime]

A much better idea on your part Just started adding it to the article, try checking now and see how things are looking. Still got a lot to add, but I think I might go with a light red to differentiate it from the greyed out square for unreleased games. Let me know though if you see anything that I might wanna do differently! I also removed the ESRB rating column because I felt like it wasn't really relevant to the online play features of these games and is already available in the general list of DC games.

That's looking really great, amazing work! Already so much better than before. Just a few thoughts:

• From what's already there, I feel like the colour coding system should be dark grey - unreleased, light grey - released but not with online functions, and green - released with online functions. At the moment the prototypes you have highlighted in green stand out very nicely, so I feel like this should be the case for all games that were online.
• Following on from the above, I feel like games without online support should still have a release date visible and should just be colour coded instead - so for Virtua Tennis 2, it would have all release dates visible, but only the Japanese date would be highlighted as online.
• For the "number of players" column, do you think this should be renamed "number of online players" and reworked accordingly? So for example, Daytona USA supports only 2 players offline, but supports 4 online, so its entry would be 1-4.

Again, thanks so much for cleaning this up - I only regret that I don't really have the time at the moment to help out more closely.

[namine207]

A much better idea on your part Just started adding it to the article, try checking now and see how things are looking. Still got a lot to add, but I think I might go with a light red to differentiate it from the greyed out square for unreleased games. Let me know though if you see anything that I might wanna do differently! I also removed the ESRB rating column because I felt like it wasn't really relevant to the online play features of these games and is already available in the general list of DC games.

That's looking really great, amazing work! Already so much better than before. Just a few thoughts:

• From what's already there, I feel like the colour coding system should be dark grey - unreleased, light grey - released but not with online functions, and green - released with online functions. At the moment the prototypes you have highlighted in green stand out very nicely, so I feel like this should be the case for all games that were online.
• Following on from the above, I feel like games without online support should still have a release date visible and should just be colour coded instead - so for Virtua Tennis 2, it would have all release dates visible, but only the Japanese date would be highlighted as online.
• For the "number of players" column, do you think this should be renamed "number of online players" and reworked accordingly? So for example, Daytona USA supports only 2 players offline, but supports 4 online, so its entry would be 1-4.

Again, thanks so much for cleaning this up - I only regret that I don't really have the time at the moment to help out more closely.

Legit, anytime!! Just made the changes that you suggested! I'm going to still have to go through and confirm the number of players, and there are quite a few games that still aren't in the list that DC Live has, but I figure this is a great start.