Game Names
1. Games are published in English that have an English title are primarily listed under the English name. Other names should be added to the Alternate Name field.
2. Games that have multiple English releases are generally listed by the name of the most-recent English Release. Other release names should be added to the Alternate Name field.
3. Games which do not have an English release are named by their first release. Other release names should be added to the Alternate Name field.
4. Games which do not have an English release, but have the game given an English name in the rulebook or on the box should still be listed as the original release name. Other names given in the rulebook should be listed in the game entry in the Alternate Name field.
- e.g. many HABA games list a titles in German, English, French, and Italian. Ach, du Mauseschreck! should remain as such, and should not be named Good Gracious Mouse.
5. Games which do not have an English release and are named by their first release which have non-Western characters should at least have an alternate name listed consisting of visually-similar Western characters (for ease of searching). This does not apply as much anymore, as the database has been modified to handle alternate characters in searches; policy is still in flux on how to handle ideogram characters
6. Game names and alternate names listed in the database should only be the actual release names, or names affixed to the game by a publisher. Rough translations of game names should not be in the Alternate Names field. Each alternate name should be able to be assigned to a version as a production title, or an alternate name printed with a version.
- e.g. Die Macher should not have alternate names like "The Makers" or "The Fixers"
- e.g. Game titles should not be translated into ideogram characters (e.g. Chinese, Korean) unless that represents an actual publication of the game.
7. Games which are commonly known by acronyms should not have the acronym listed in the Alternate Name field. There is a soft standard on this one, as some games have the acronym listed in the game name.
- e.g. Paths of Glory should not have "PoG" in the Alternate Name field.
- e.g. Advanced Squad Leader is called ASL on its packaging, and most expansions are titles as "ASL Expansion" instead of "Advanced Squad Leader Expansion"
- exception - the DBx games are alternately listed as "DBx" based on extensive use of the name in publication reference, almost to the exclusion of the full name of the game.
8. Game titles should accurately reflect the punctuation and letters used in the actual game title.
- e.g. Ora et Labora uses a stylized "et" which appears similar to an ampersand, but actually uses the word "et"
- e.g. Hab & Gut uses an ampersand, not the words "and" or "und".
- e.g. Krieg und Frieden is connected with "und", not an ampersand.
9. Games with a leading "The", "Der/Die/Das", "Le", "La", et c., should not have the leading article moved to the end; the database can now index games on characters other than the first, so altering the title is unnecessary. The database adheres to AACR2 rules for indexing titles.
10. It is preferred to use a colon instead of a dash to separate a game's main heading from a subheading, e.g. Catan: Cities & Knights instead of Catan - Cities & Knights
11. The use of "(number) edition" is dispreferred as a means to differentiate editions of a game that are kept in separate entries due to rules and play differences. But, if they are necessary for disambiguation, the appellation should appear in parenthesis, and the number portion of the appellation should be in words, not Arabic or Roman numerals, unless that is specifically listed as part of the game's title. e.g., (fourth edition) instead of (4th edition)
12. Games with extremely pejorative titles will have a censored title for the game listing, though versions of the game will carry the actual title.
Person Names
A person's name entry in the database should list the person's actual name as it has appeared in materials designed or illustrated by that person, and/or that person's common trade names. Inconsistent spellings and typographical errors used in publication should be listed as alternate names in a person entry. When two person entries have the exact same name, the entries should be delineated in the database by a (I), (II), (III), et c. following the name.
When possible, it is preferable to list an actual person's name as a designer or illustrator instead of a nickname, design group, or publisher.
