About the Collectorz.com Game Database

All submissions are reviewed and processed manually before they get added to the database. To ensure the quality of the database and to minimize the amount of time needed to process submissions, we have created some guidelines to help you submit the right data in the right way. Please read these guideline before submitting. Thanks!

Which games should you submit?

Basically, this can be summarized simply as:

• Only submit data and images that add value to our database
  In other words, only submit data and images we do not have yet. Do not just submit your entire database. On a good day we can review and process about 300 submissions, regardless of their usefulness. Please keep that in mind when submitting.
• Only submit images that you have scanned yourself
  We are not allowed to use images that have been downloaded from other websites (see the Copyrighted Material section below).
• Submit only ONCE
  All submissions are processed manually. Depending on the popularity of the games, it may take a while before your submissions are processed and included in the online database. Please do not re-submit.

What kind of submissions are adding value to our database?

In order of importance, these are:

1. Games that we don't have yet, including the correct Platform, Developer and Publisher and other game details.
2. Game editions that we don't have yet, including the correct barcode (see below), preferably including "home-scanned" images, region and audience rating.
3. Images ("home-scanned" only) for editions we already have in our database without images.
4. Additional data for games / editions we already have in our database.
5. Corrections for incorrect data. You can also tell us about things we need to fix on the Game Forum.

About barcodes
Only submit games with a correct barcode.
"Correct" means that the barcode matches the one on the back of your box, and it's 12 digits long for region 1 (US), and 13 digits long for the other regions. Also make sure that the cover image you submit matches the edition you own (and thus matches the barcode).
Submitting games with an incorrect barcode causes a lot of trouble, because the record will be matched to the wrong entry in the database.

When not to submit your data

This may sound strange, but there really are situations where we'd rather not receive your data, either because it would endanger the quality of our database or because it would take us a huge amount of time processing the submissions while gaining little or no added value.
So please do not submit your entries, when one or more of the following applies to your usage of Game Collector:

• You are not using the Game Collector fields the way they were meant to be used. This especially applies to the main identifying fields Platform, Title and Barcode. In other words, please only submit if you used the Platform field for the Platform (e.g. "Xbox 360"), the Title field for the Titles (e.g. "Perfect Dark Zero") and the Barcode field for the barcode (e.g. "882224075787").
• You have your own non-standard conventions for field values. You may like to enter all values in ALL CAPS, or maybe you enclosed all your Title fields in double quotes because that makes them show up in a nicer way, or maybe you included your own numbering system in the titles. You are free to do so, but please do not submit your data.

Please note that you are of course welcome to use Game Collector any way you like. But if you use it in a non-standard way then please help us maintain our standards by not submitting your data.

How to submit your games

Submitting to the online database is quite easy and can be done right from your Game Collector program. Just select one or more items in the Game Collector main screen and then choose Submit to Collectorz.com Game Database from the Edit menu.
Tip: you can submit multiple games in one go by selecting multiple items in list panel on the right of the main screen. Use the standard Windows method of Ctrl-clicking or Shift-clicking to select multiple items.

Collectorz.com is committed to protecting the copyrights of itself and all third parties. If you own the copyright for content present in the Collectorz.com database and wish to have it removed, please contact us and we will do so immediately.
Please help us prevent copyrighted material from being included in the database by not submitting any material that may be copyrighted by 3rd parties. This applies to cover images and plot descriptions.

Cover images

Copyright issues on images are quite complicated, as there are two kinds of copyrights involved here:

• The copyright on the original image: This copyright is either owned by the publisher, the developer or the cover artist. The "fair use" policy says that copyrighted cover images can be used as long as they are used for illustrational purpose only. General consensus is that low-resolution images can be regarded as just illustrational.
  That is why the Collectorz.com Game Database only delivers cover images with a maximum height of 400 pixels. Submitted cover images with a higher resolution will be automatically resized to 400 pixels in height.
• The copyright on the image file: Another thing to consider when using images on the internet is the ownership of the digitized image file. Other sites have invested time and money in digitizing (scanning) the cover images and creating good looking digital image files. Without permission from those sites we cannot just use their image files in our database, we would be stealing their work.
  So please do not submit any cover images that have been downloaded from other sites. If we have any reason to suspect that the images have not been "home-scanned", we will reject the submitted images. If you did not scan your own images, please save yourself and us some time and uncheck the "Submit Cover Images" checkbox in the Submit screen. Thanks!

Game descriptions

Game Collector allows the storage of a game's description. It appears that most Game Collector users copy these descriptions from other game websites on the internet. Because the copyright of these texts is owned by the respective authors, we cannot use these texts without their permission.
As there is no way to know whether a game description has been copied from another site or not, we have decided to stay on the safe side for now and ignore all submitted descriptions.
We would love to hear from Game Collector users who have written their own descriptions and who are willing to give us permission to use these texts. Please contact us.