Upgrade StorageEntry type: Computer game/videogame
First of all: Thank you very much for this great program, which has made my life much easier! However there is one feature which could make it even better, for me and several others.
I do research on computer games, but I find that there is no good way to register computer games in zotero. Registering them as computer programs doesn't give the appropriate format in the reference list. The issue is that references to computer games should always include platform information, as described in the style guide of gamestudies.org (which uses a variant of Chicago style):
Developer. (Year). Title [italicized]. Distributor (Platform [i.e. Windows, Wii, Board game etc]). Webpage [if online game]
So, for instance:
Blizzard Entertainment. 2004. World of Warcraft. Blizzard Entertainment (Windows and Mac OS X). http://www.wow-europe.com
I asked on the gamesnetwork email list what other zotero users do to get the reference right, and one answered that he classifies the items as books and adds the platform in parenthesis after the publisher information. That will work most of the time, but it is not really a good solution, for instance if one needs to reformat the references to a different style for a different journal.
It seems to me that this is part of a more general problem: Different researchers will have the need to reference different kinds of media types (I just needed to reference a press release, for instance, which also does not exist in the list of entry types). Perhaps there should be the possibility of adding your own types, and then specifying how they should appear in the reference list?
See also the related discussion at http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/97/book-reviews-another-item-type/
I do research on computer games, but I find that there is no good way to register computer games in zotero. Registering them as computer programs doesn't give the appropriate format in the reference list. The issue is that references to computer games should always include platform information, as described in the style guide of gamestudies.org (which uses a variant of Chicago style):
Developer. (Year). Title [italicized]. Distributor (Platform [i.e. Windows, Wii, Board game etc]). Webpage [if online game]
So, for instance:
Blizzard Entertainment. 2004. World of Warcraft. Blizzard Entertainment (Windows and Mac OS X). http://www.wow-europe.com
I asked on the gamesnetwork email list what other zotero users do to get the reference right, and one answered that he classifies the items as books and adds the platform in parenthesis after the publisher information. That will work most of the time, but it is not really a good solution, for instance if one needs to reformat the references to a different style for a different journal.
It seems to me that this is part of a more general problem: Different researchers will have the need to reference different kinds of media types (I just needed to reference a press release, for instance, which also does not exist in the list of entry types). Perhaps there should be the possibility of adding your own types, and then specifying how they should appear in the reference list?
See also the related discussion at http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/97/book-reviews-another-item-type/
I believe the item types currently included in CSL are
| "article"
| "article-magazine"
| "article-newspaper"
| "article-journal"
| "bill"
| "book"
| "broadcast"
| "chapter"
| "entry"
| "entry-dictionary"
| "entry-encyclopedia"
| "figure"
| "graphic"
| "interview"
| "legislation"
| "legal_case"
| "manuscript"
| "map"
| "motion_picture"
| "musical_score"
| "pamphlet"
| "paper-conference"
| "patent"
| "post"
| "post-weblog"
| "personal_communication"
| "report"
| "review"
| "review-book"
| "song"
| "speech"
| "thesis"
| "treaty"
| "webpage"
This doesn't even seem to include computer program, so this item-type probably defaults to book anyway.
The people developing CSL monitor these forums, so they may be able to give you an indication of how likely it is that this list will be extended.
In reality you can do this at the moment, by taking any item-type you are sure you won't use, e.g. patent, and then use this for computer games. You could then create a csl style which meets your requirements.
However, it seems to me that this is a wider issue, so a user-type1 etc kind of solution also seems necessary.
On the customisation of item types: [I was trying to find an old thread on this question... until I discover this one. I think adamsmith's answer is still valid [and concurs with mine (above)].
What you need is a csl-mapping for "computer program" and/or at least a mapping for "system": none of these variables exist or will exist in csl 1.0.
EDIT: See this too..
Perhaps "System" could be mapped to *genre* in CSL? (that would be consistent with many other Zotero item types, where *genre* is used to indicate type, see e.g. http://gsl-nagoya-u.net/http/pub/csl-fields/letter.html )
https://github.com/ajlyon/zotero-bits/issues/3#issuecomment-1871759