Trials of Metadata: Emerging Schemas for Videogame Cataloguing

Abstract

In the past decade, videogames have grown in cultural ­importance. As they have begun to fill museums, archives, and libraries, the need to catalogue them has become more pressing. However, widely accepted guidelines for cataloguing videogames are still in the process of being developed. Until now, online databases developed by fan communities have led the way in creating systems that effectively capture videogame metadata, yet a few groups have recently sprung up in academia that have developed coherent schemas for implementation in libraries and museums. This study will examine videogame metadata schemas designed by information professionals, fan communities, and commercial websites. These will be compared to each other and be analyzed in their treatment of RDA core elements and genre classification in order to highlight the ways videogames are challenging and expanding traditional metadata standards. These schemas highlight many of the same medium-specific elements absent from RDA, for example, the value of a platform element distinct from system requirements or edition; the equal emphasis on developer and publisher; or the multifaceted nature of videogame genre.