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Talk:Pokémon Trading Card Game (video game)

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You know, I think the TCG GB-related articles could use some improvement somehow... Happy Mask Man 07:19, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
A good start would be to list the cards, with links to their real-life versions and new pages, with screenshots, for those which only appear in-game. If people are willing to cooperate, I can offer a lot of help with this. Punkrockrevel 09:36, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Club Member

Recently, there are Club Members with articles like this: Water Club Member Joshua or like Joseph. I think the Club Member Jennifer style should stay, so I'm redirecting the articles. -- Netto-kun 01:00, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Pokémon Black? :\

First of, love this game <3. But on to what i was going too say; I remember, a number of websites referring too the game as "Pokémon Black". I forget what websites as this was many years ago, and also my Cousin used too call it Pokémon Black. So i was wondering, and i know that the name is "Pokémon Trading Card Game", but where did the name "Pokémon Black" come from...Maybe cos it's cartage is Black...now i think about it..But still... Takoto! 16:18, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, it's cuz of the cartridge. My friend's brother and I used to call it "Black Version" when we were little. lol. YinYang 06:02, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Another similarity to main series?

The graphics are very similar, especially sprites: The sprite used for Red is reproduced exactly (as far as I can tell) some enemy characters. Punkrockrevel 20:07, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Similarity to SNK vs Capcom Neo-Geo Pocket Colour card game

I'm not sure how common this kind of card-game-video-game is, and how similar they are in general, but similarities between these two are plentiful - only map view and a few locations in which you can move around, characters constantly 'walk', several disciples and a leader in each place, many more if I can take time to remember them. Punkrockrevel 20:07, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the player a girl?

Didn't someone in the Glass Club say "We only accept female members! You could join, but we're not accepting membership right now..." or something akin to that? Doesn't that mean the main (player) character is a girl (even though their portrait does look...androgynous. It could be male or female). ~~Takoto - タコト 21:42, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Close, she actually says "Only girls are allowed to join the Grass Club. But we're not accepting applications now, anyway. Sorry.", implying the character is a boy. Squitter 06:54, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

European release dates

It was released in Sweden on December 14, 2000. --SnorlaxMonster 16:57, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Further Disambiguation

Would it be worth it to change this page's title to "Pokémon Trading Card Game (video game)"? My thinking here is that it would be more specific than "Game (game)" and would provide more specificity in distinguishing it from the actual physical card game. Geodude6 (talk) 01:57, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

I don't overly feel it's necessary to be honest, the link to the TCG and incorrect links should be corrected if anything. --Spriteit (talk) 04:32, 7 November 2020 (UTC)
IMO "(video game)" is the clearest way to properly disambiguate this page title. --SnorlaxMonster 10:06, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
I agree, "(video game)" is a lot clearer in search results than "(game)" or "(GBC)". - bthrussellUK (talk) 11:28, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
I agree that neither (GBC) or (game) is the best distinction, and im open to using (video game) as a console neutral term to distinguish a video game from a physical game, but there can be cases like with Pokémon Picross where two games on different consoles share the same name, to proof against those and be consistent everywhere it can be useful to disambig by console, but then I think we shouldn't be abbreviating it to (GBC) and rather use (Game Boy Color) to avoid any ambiguity. 4iamking 12:03, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
"(video game)" makes the most sense for this page in particular. For other pages (such as the Pokémon Picross example), a different dabtag may be more appropriate. That should be discussed on that page's talk page instead though. We don't need to use "(Game Boy Color)" as the dabtag for every Game Boy Color game that needs one, just because it's the best option for one Game Boy Color game. --SnorlaxMonster 14:48, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
I'd like to check a bit how Wikipedia handles page titles like those. Obviously we don't need to do everything like they do, this is just a comparison.
Wikipedia currently uses these titles for the video games:
In the case of Ranger, I suppose Wikipedia was able to get away with having no disambiguation in the title since they have no separate specialized articles like Pokémon Ranger (Trainer class) and Pokémon Ranger (Ranger series).
Sometimes in the past, we have discussed how other page titles like Red (game) and Blue (game) are specifically for game characters but they could easily be confused for video game titles. I wonder if "Detective Pikachu (video game)" or "Detective Pikachu (game)" could add to that confusion since it would be specifically for a video game title but there's also a game character named Detective Pikachu.
But I understand maybe I'm talking too much about multiple pages and games instead of just discussing TCG GB specifically in this talk page. Yes, we can discuss that kind of thing in the talk pages for each game. --Daniel Carrero (talk) 15:44, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

(resetting indent)Actually, I do think it's appropriate to bring up how to handle other similar cases here, as it can make things a little harder for users and editors if things are disambiguated inconsistently. For example, game characters that need to be disambiguated are generally disambiguated with (game)...but Flint (Elite Four) and Aaron (Elite Four) are disambiguated with their Trainer class. Meanwhile, Detective Pikachu (game) isn't the name of the page for the character, but rather the 3DS game, while Detective Pikachu (character) is the name of the character's page. I forget about some of these nuances while I'm writing articles, which has lead me to link to an incorrect page on occasion. This isn't to say that decisions about those other articles have to be made here, but I wanted to point out that consistency is an important factor to consider.

With that being said, I feel that it makes more sense to disambiguate video game pages by the consoles they're on, given the Pokémon Picross example above. So, my vote is for moving this page to "Pokémon Trading Card Game (Game Boy Color)". Storm Aurora (talk) 19:27, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

I personally like that (Game Boy Color) is even more specific, specifying not only that this is a video game, but a Game Boy Color game. Landfish7 20:00, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
I agree with Storm Aurora above that it would be nice to have some consistency with the disambiguation between certain pages if possible.
As discussed at some point in the past, looks like we can't exactly use some page titles like "Red (character)" and "Blue (character)" since there are multiple articles for characters (or character variations) sharing the same name, like Red (Masters), Red (Origins) and Red (Adventures) too. I wonder what kinds of page titles we would use if we ever wanted to split "Detective Pikachu (character)" into multiple articles for character versions like that.
One idea that can be discussed is naming some character pages like "Red (game character)" and "Blue (game character)", but it has the small problem of being a bit longer than "Red (game)" and "Blue (game)".
I suppose some pages like Ethan (game) and Serena (game) are probably fine anyway, since there's no conflict with other kinds of pages. As we know, there is a game named "Pokémon Red", but no game named "Pokémon Ethan" or "Pokémon Serena". lol
In the case of TCG GB, I think we can compare some possible page titles:
  • Pokémon Trading Card Game (GB)
  • Pokémon Trading Card Game (GBC)
  • Pokémon Trading Card Game (Game Boy)
  • Pokémon Trading Card Game (Game Boy Color)
The Game Boy is the oldest system compatible with the TCG GB game (in which case the game is obviously played without color). In Japanese, this game includes the "GB" as part of the game title: "Pokémon Card GB". On the other hand, it seems this game was specifically marketed for the Game Boy Color as seen by the large "Game Boy Color" logo on the game box (both Japanese and English).
I understand some people are currently favoring (Game Boy Color), but I would suggest maybe it can be a good idea to use the abbreviations and avoid writing "Game (Game" together in the page title like that if possible. At least that's my opinion.
Personally, I would prefer (GB) or (GBC), since those abbreviations should be pretty clear in any case. Maybe some page titles like Akane (HIBAPC) currently use very unclear abbreviations invented by Bulbapedia editors, but GB and GBC are used normally in the "real life" too.
The TCG GB character pages use the (TCG GB) abbreviation, such as Mark (TCG GB), Ronald (TCG GB), Nikki (TCG GB), Rick (TCG GB), etc. which should have no problem being understood, right? I don't suppose we would want to rename "Mark (TCG GB)" to "Mark (Trading Card Game for Game Boy Color)" or something to avoid using abbreviations. --Daniel Carrero (talk) 20:22, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
I mean personally I dont inherently see the problem with using the same word twice in the page name, if thats what the products are officially called. In an extreme case, we could also call this page "Pokémon TCG (GBC)", it wouldn't technically be incorrect but thats clearly not how the game is promoted. In my opinion, with a few exceptions that are defined in policy, we should do our best to avoid using abbreviations in page titles. 4iamking 20:35, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
Yeah I suppose (TCG GB) does seem more like an exception than the rule. Landfish7 20:38, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
And honestly, while a different discussion, I feel like we could (Trading Card Game) for the video game characters as well. I do not believe this would cause any conflicts with the actual TCG either as most of the characters from the GBC games dont appear in the actual TCG, and also the video game is technically a TCG spin-off product. 4iamking 20:51, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
Well, if we start talking about renaming character pages like Mark (TCG GB) to Mark (Trading Card Game), I would also like to ask about the several TCG-related pages that use (TCG), including the expansions. For instance, would we want to rename all those kinds of pages?
Just to be clear, I'm not saying we should move them. I'm just discussing a bit about the use of abbreviations. As we know, the word "TCG" is used officially in the Pokémon franchise. I could be wrong, but maybe "TCG" qualifies as the single most well-known English abbreviation in this franchise. So I see no problem with the pages currently named like "Neo Genesis (TCG)".
That said, yes, I understand and agree that we don't want to call this video game page "Pokémon TCG (GBC)" as mentioned above.
You see, I've been thinking that we probably need to use official non-abbreviated terminology as the main title outside the parentheses, but what is inside the parentheses can be generally understood as not an official part of the title.
It appears that neither "Pokémon Trading Card Game (Game Boy Color)" nor "Pokémon Trading Card Game (GBC)" is used in its entirety as the title as the official title of this game. Only the part "Pokémon Trading Card Game" is the official title, so I would think that we have some degree of freedom to discuss and choose what to use between the parentheses.
As we know, "GB" and "GBC" are officially used abbreviations anyway.
I'm also a bit curious about the idea of avoiding using abbreviations in page titles. Maybe this is a rule that generally applies to all articles? Or maybe the articles for movie/episodes/specials/chapters/etc qualify as exceptions, so they are OK even if other abbreviations are to be avoided? As we know, some articles are named M01, EP001, AG001, XY001, XYS01, JN001, HZ001, PO01, PG01, PS001, DPA01, GRT1, PZ01, PPP01, etc. --Daniel Carrero (talk) 21:19, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

(indent reset) Personally I would see epicodes as one of the exceptions, as it is a policy that we have defined and implemented to help us sort anime and manga releases. Personally, I would support de-abbreviating the TCG related pages you mentioned above, while on the topic, an other TCG related inconsistency that I'm not a big fan of is the basic energies where we have most of them at Grass Energy (TCG) but for metal/darkness it is Metal Energy (Basic). This is because the cards differ from the releases in the NEO era, but I feel like we should move them to "Basic ___ Energy". 4iamking 21:45, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

I really don't think the TCG GB characters need the dabtag changed, personally. Likewise, I'm a bit impartial on whether we keep GBC, as I don't think it's that uncommon or easily misunderstood. Landfish7 21:59, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
"TCG" is probably used as widely as (if not even more widely than) "Trading Card Game" in official sources. I think there's a fundamental difference between cases where the shorthand effectively becomes the name itself and cases where a shorthand exists but is only used in limited contexts (which is how I see "GBC"). For example, at official tournaments, "TCG" and "VGC" are very much names themselves; you do hear them spelled out in some contexts, but the initialisms are also just used as the names.
Since Wikipedia's titling scheme was brought up, I should mention that for games they disambiguate by system, they use the dabtag "(Game Boy Color video game)" etc. This makes it more explicitly clear that what is being referred to is actually a video game, not some kind of special edition Game Boy Color or Game Boy Color accessory. I'm not necessarily advocating for using that kind of naming scheme on Bulbapedia, but I do think there is value in it. (This would be similar to always naming character pages "(game character)" instead of "(game)" etc., which does have some value.)
I think this discussion has gone a bit off the rails into discussing other page titles. Potentially we could set up a broader discussion at Bulbapedia talk:Project Games if we want to make a site-wide decision on what to do with the "(game)" dabtag in general, but I don't think this talk page is the right place to do it.
Getting back to this page specifically: My view is that the dabtag should be as specific as it needs to be, but not any more than that. To me, using the dabtag "(Game Boy Color)" implies that there is a video game titled "Pokémon Trading Card Game" on a different video game system. (In this specific case, that could be particularly confusing because the game is playable on both Game Boy and Game Boy Color, even though it was primarily marketed for the latter.) If the distinction we want to make is that this is the video game titled "Pokémon Trading Card Game", I think just "(video game)" is the best option. --SnorlaxMonster 00:55, 20 November 2023 (UTC)
I found some examples of Wikipedia page titles like that. They are interesting in my opinion. Yes, I see it's true that they are used for disambiguation when the same game title has articles for multiple consoles:
Wikipedia also often uses the year instead when needed:
As mentioned above, Wikipedia simply uses "video game" when there's no need for disambiguation between consoles or years:
Okay, it looks like the title "Pokémon Trading Card Game (video game)" can work for this page since we don't need to disambiguate per console or year.
Maybe we can also discuss somewhere about renaming character pages like "Red (game)" into "Red (game character)" too if we want to make it clear that they are not about game titles. --Daniel Carrero (talk) 01:51, 20 November 2023 (UTC)
OK, given the evidence that y'all have presented, I'm alright with moving the page to "Pokémon Trading Card Game (video game)". Storm Aurora (talk) 03:23, 20 November 2023 (UTC)
Sounds reasonable to me. For the record, I'm counting 7 support votes and 1 against. Landfish7 11:03, 20 November 2023 (UTC)
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