Twitch category name collision
Currently two (or more) games with the exact same name (usually reboots) share the same category in Twitch. And all the cover art, description, tags are taken from only one of the games. This usually means that the other game(s) effectively completely lacks a page on twitch, despite being a completely different game and having unique gameplay. Can something be done about this?
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GMP__ commented
@kidcharlemagnereturns I don't know which games you follow and have this issue, but it most definitely was an issue pre-IGDB as well, because they used the same URL system for categories. They just need to take the game ID instead of the game name from IGDB API and viola, issue solved.
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kidCharlemagneReturns commented
I'm a bit confused as this wasn't an issue pre the switch to IGDB and once the switch happened this name collision also appeared. IGDB support directed me to this idea. Why can't Twitch just have the release year as the way to keep titles separate? Or platform?
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Saltbearer commented
The category for Levelhead, by Butterscotch Shenanigans, has just been replaced by a new category for an obscure indie game from 2008 with the same title. It was hard enough to establish a twitch community for the former without its category apparently losing its couple thousand followers. this really bites, Arnold
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StellarHonks commented
This isn't ok, Levelhead is an active game with an active stream scene. And has been the primary tagged game for the last few years, why did it change?
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timconceivable commented
LevelHead (2019) previously had many followers and regular content on Twitch as well, which seems to have been just replaced by the older game that no one is actively playing.
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PureKnix commented
Two games sharing the same name both to lead only one of the games on Twitch.
Levelhead (2019) https://www.igdb.com/games/levelhead--1
Levelhead (2008) https://www.igdb.com/games/levelheadWhen searched for in OBS, or on Twitch (PC), both options link to Levelhead (2008), despite having different cover art for each. Generated tags both refer to Levelhead (2008). This is a recent issue (within the last week).
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TheBoxyBear commented
Renaming the categories is just a band aid fix for a deeper issue. Currently, Twitch is able to distinguish between categories of the same name as both appear in search results with their respective cover art. The problem comes down to the category page url using the name of the category rather than a unique Id. Although this makes the url easier to remember and identify, it makes it impossible to specify the exact category between duplicates and the server returns the first category it finds that matches the name.
The solution: Make the category endpoint use either the IGDB unfriendly name instead of the friendly name and make links to category pages contain the unfriendly name (the name as it appears in the url of the IGDB page). This would prevent collisions whilst keeping the url easy to remember and identify. In order to maintain compatibility with existing links and urls generated by third-party applications, the endpoint should keep supporting urls with category names, even if the resulting category isn't always the right one. Because differenciating between friendly and unfriendly names would be quite tricky if not impossible, perhaps the unfriendly name could be provided through a url parameter "?name=".
Once implemented, renaming individual categories could still be considered to make it easier to tell which is which, especially when the categories have no cover art or have very similar art. However, the priority remains to fix the endpoint which would immediately reduce the severity of the issue for existing and upcoming categories. In its current state, the category is effectively wiped from existence, including all livestreams under that category. This lessens the enjoyment of Twitch for fans of the specific category, lessens discoverability of streamers and deprives the game from the publicity generated by streams if both games are from different developers, so is the case with the 2017 game Stray by developer rxi.
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MasterSystemMarceau commented
Hey guys. I play the 8-bit Sonic games a lot on Twitch. They are listed on IGDB but they are nowhere to be found in Twitch categories and everyone has been using the Genesis category instead. Any way the 8-bit Sonic games could be added to Twitch? I've listed them here: https://www.igdb.com/users/mastersystemmarceau/lists/sonic-the-hedgehog-8-bit
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tropoFarmer commented
Hi,
There is an existing "Otherside" category (https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/OtherSide) which isn't in use, which conflicts with the "Otherside" that I've created on IGDB (https://www.igdb.com/games/otherside--2). Can we resolve this?
Thanks!
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kappa_map commented
There are two games categorized as "Live A Live", one is the 1994 original game and the other is the 2022 remake. However, the original one seems to lack a page since it redirect you to the 2022 remake's page, making it impossible to find some streams. It's been years since this was first suggested and I wonder why they haven't fixed this problem yet. IGDB displays the games correctly with the release year next to the game's title but apparently since the year is not part of the title it doesn't display on Twitch. Might as well go and change the IGDB games title if Twitch doesn't plan on doing anything.
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OrionYTP commented
Sonic The Hedgehog (2006), commonly known as Sonic '06, is a unique game with it's original story and infamously buggy original gameplay. It is already listed on the IGDB with proper cover art and info, but it is not a Twitch Category. Any streamers that want to stream it usually have to bundle it in the standard Sonic The Hedgehog category which is mostly used by people playing the very first Sonic game, and it creates clutter. Sonic 06 having it's own category will create less confusion for viewers looking for this infamous game and streamers trying to figure out which category to chose.
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redshoepaul commented
Just please separate each game by release year. This would solve a major category issue.
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OtterlyTiffin commented
Adding the release date of the game as a post-fix to the title seems like a good idea to solve this.
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Sofox commented
Trying to play Sonic 2006. It's an infamous game that people love tuning in to watch, but because it's official title is "Sonic the Hedgehog", which has two other Sonic games by that title including the very first one in the series. Hence, it's hard to have a proper category of it and it doesn't have a title screenshot: http://sofoxcentral.com/storage/images/Sonic06Bug.png
This is really annoying, because there are numerous times a game publisher released reboots with the same name as the first one in the series (Sonic the Hedgehog, Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia, Thief, or even Prey which wasn't even a reboot, just had the same name)
There are just so many instances where completely different games have the same name. Heck, it happens with movies the whole time. Having a fully functioning thumbnail to tell them apart would be super helpful, or even vital for attracting the right audience of a game. (an original game from the 90s and its reboot from the 2010s could have similar, yet still very different audiences. You want to make it easy for Twitch users to quickly find the right game category to look for, and for streamers to know the right category to stream their game as).
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LORDmeSH1NE commented
Yeah as a speedrunner for Tomb Raider (1996) I would really appreciate if the category could be seperated from the 2013 version. The community for the old tomb raiders is very active so I'm sure the category wouldnt be redundant either
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t3ddddddy commented
It would be great to have different pages for "Tomb Raider (1996)" and "Tomb Raider (2013)" labeled as such because the reboot is the only one taken into account.
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Sirio120 commented
My game "Pathogen": https://www.igdb.com/games/pathogen--1 cannot be selected as a category.
When selected, it redirects to a completely different game also named "Pathogen" from 2019.
Please, I need this fixed, or my game won't be able to get streamed :(
Thank you. -
Definitely_a_Fox commented
Still irritated that Ratchet & Clank (2002) and Ratchet & Clank (2016) are considered the same game on Twitch despite the fact that the reboot is fundamentally different from the original in almost every way.
It's not just a remaster, it's a new game, so it shouldn't replace the original.
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kvnvaleri commented
There are two "Point Blank" games in the same category:
1. Point Blank from Namco (1994)
2. Point Blank from Zepetto (2008)Now all streamers from the "Point Blank" category only play Point Blank from Zepetto (2008), but the cover art still uses the Point Blank game from Namco (1994), and people do not play Point Blank from Namco anymore, so the cover art needs to change.
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Kekw893 commented
Somes games have the same name like Tomb Raider (from 1996) and Tomb Raider (from 2013) but only one category exist (for the 2013 Tomb Raider), i believe they merged into one category since the implementation of IGDB. It's been quite a while and i think it would be nice to have a way to differentiate those games category, like adding the release date between parenthesis after the game name so both categories can exist.