Search for multiple systems/formats #272
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Improvements in IFDB's search functionality
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dfabulich
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The previous search was searching for "system:inform rating:3- #ratings:2- language:english" i.e. games with a 3+ average based on at least 2 ratings, in English, written in Inform, and it forced the search to sort alphabetically. That's not an ideal approach. * `system:inform` excludes TADS games, which do work in iOS Frotz * It excludes games written in non-Inform systems that compile to Z-code, including Dialog and ZIL * It includes Hadean Lands, but IFDB doesn't have a download link for it, so it can't be played in iOS Frotz * It excludes game listings that forgot to list a language. * Sorting alphabetically is wrong; we want the highest rated games first. The new search is simpler: "format:*blorb". This will return all games with a download link whose format type ends with "blorb," such as "Z Machine/Blorb" and "Glulx/Blorb." It will use the default sort order, sorting by Highest Rating. This doesn't match TADS games, but it does include Dialog and ZIL games, and excludes Hadean Lands. It also misses some Inform games, due to IFDB's multiple overlapping format types. The highest ranking game that we miss this way is Suveh Nux, which should have appeared at position ifrotz#17, but doesn't, because its file format is "Z-machine" (`.z5`) instead of "Z Machine/Blorb". "format:*blorb" also includes a few ADRIFT 5 games, which don't work in Frotz, but they don't rank highly. Finally, note that IFDB now uses Evan Miller's "starsort" to sort by highest rating. https://www.evanmiller.org/ranking-items-with-star-ratings.html We used to sort by average rating, but this would tend to rank games with just one perfect 5-star rating above games with dozens of 5-star ratings and a few 4-star ratings. Evan Miller’s formula sorts by our confidence in the game, by adding five "fake" ratings to the average (one 1-star, one 2-star, one 3-star, one 4-star, and one 5-star rating) and subtracting the standard deviation from the average. I've filed an issue on IFDB to support searching for multiple formats, which could allow searching for `format:glulx*|z*|tads* -system:adrift`, which I believe would be ideal. iftechfoundation/ifdb-suggestion-tracker#272
dfabulich
added a commit
to dfabulich/iosfrotz
that referenced
this issue
Apr 4, 2021
The previous search was searching for `system:inform rating:3- #ratings:2- language:english` i.e. games with a 3+ average based on at least 2 ratings, in English, written in Inform, and it forced the search to sort alphabetically. That's not an ideal approach. * `system:inform` excludes TADS games, which do work in iOS Frotz * It excludes games written in non-Inform systems that compile to Z-code, including Dialog and ZIL * It includes Hadean Lands, but IFDB doesn't have a download link for it, so it can't be played in iOS Frotz * It excludes game listings that forgot to list a language. * Sorting alphabetically is wrong; we want the highest rated games first. The new search is simpler: `format:*blorb`. This will return all games with a download link whose format type ends with "blorb," such as "Z Machine/Blorb" and "Glulx/Blorb." It will use the default sort order, sorting by Highest Rating. This doesn't match TADS games, but it does include Dialog and ZIL games, and excludes Hadean Lands. It also misses some Inform games, due to IFDB's multiple overlapping format types. The highest ranking game that we miss this way is Suveh Nux, which should have appeared at position ifrotz#17, but doesn't, because its file format is "Z-machine" (`.z5`) instead of "Z Machine/Blorb". "format:*blorb" also includes a few ADRIFT 5 games, which don't work in Frotz, but they don't rank highly. Finally, note that IFDB now uses Evan Miller's "starsort" to sort by highest rating. https://www.evanmiller.org/ranking-items-with-star-ratings.html We used to sort by average rating, but this would tend to rank games with just one perfect 5-star rating above games with dozens of 5-star ratings and a few 4-star ratings. Evan Miller’s formula sorts by our confidence in the game, by adding five "fake" ratings to the average (one 1-star, one 2-star, one 3-star, one 4-star, and one 5-star rating) and subtracting the standard deviation from the average. I've filed an issue on IFDB to support searching for multiple formats, which could allow searching for `format:glulx*|z*|tads* -system:adrift`, which I believe would be ideal. iftechfoundation/ifdb-suggestion-tracker#272
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Frotz for iOS includes a button to search IFDB. It's currently set up to search for
system:informto find games that will be compatible with Frotz.But that's not a great approach.
system:informexcludes TADS games, which do work in iOS FrotzIt would be preferable to search by multiple systems, e.g.
system:inform|tads, or, perhaps even better for these purposes,format:glulx*|z*|tads*.The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered: