Sort names are used to try to order sequential and/or related games when ordering alphabetically by their names gives unexpected results. In general, we want to keep games of the same or related franchises together, ordered usually by release date.

Always check the sortname of the previous game in the franchise before creating the sortname of a new entry.

All sortnames must be completely unique among all games in the website.

Basic Pattern

To make using sortnames more effective, we try to the following standard for all games:

franchisename [subfranchise subsubfranchise ...] 00X[.00Y] [subtitle]

Where:

• franchisename is the name of the franchise in lower caps and without spaces.
• subfranchise and subsubfranchise and ... are the same as above, used when a franchise spawn multiple sub-franchise and sub-sub-franchise and so on and so forth. Sub-franchises often don't have an official name, so using its most popular name is fine, or just use something relevant.
• 00X is the number of the game in the franchise or sub-franchise, starting at 1 and increasing by 1 for each entry in the franchise. The number should always be 3 digits, padded with zeros when required.
• .00Y is used for DLCs or closely-related games, starting at 1 and increasing by 1 for each expansion-type DLC, or starting at 900 for a related . It must always be 3 digits, padded with zeros when required.
• subtitle is the subtitle of the game.

All terms enclosed in square brackets [] maybe be omitted if not relevant to the current game.

One-shot Spinoffs

Some franchises sometimes spawn one-shot spin-offs unrelated to anything else in the series that cannot be considered a sub-franchise. For these type of releases, use the same sortname of the base franchise, then use the special sub-franchise name _.

Subjectivity in sortnames

Creating a sortname fo a game is more of an art than a science, and can be quite subjective. For example, should Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Dark Souls and Sekiro all be grouped together, since they're often grouped together as the "SoulsBorne" franchise? What about Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, should they be together even though their alphabetical names vary wildly?

Questions like these will sometimes arise when trying to choose a sortname. Here are some considerations to take into account:

• Respecting alphabetical order is not necessary, but appreciated.
• Group games only officially under their recognized franchise.
• In doubt, check the previous entry and the wikipedia.

Using these considerations, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls would all be considered their own franchises and thus not grouped under one single name, while all main Tomb Raiders games, regardless of name, would end up under the same franchise name.

Examples

Tomb Raider Franchise

The Tomb Raider franchise consists of the following games:

1. Tomb Raider (1996)
2. Tomb Raider II (1997)
3. Tomb Raider III (1998)
4. Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999)
5. Tomb Raider (2000)
6. Tomb Raider Chronicles (2000)
7. Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword (2001)
8. Tomb Raider: The Prophecy (2002)
9. Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003)
10. Tomb Raider: Legend (2006)
11. Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007)
12. Tomb Raider: Underworld (2008)
13. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (2010)
14. Tomb Raider (2013)
15. Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (2014)
16. Lara Croft: Relic Run (2015)
17. Lara Croft Go (2015)
18. Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015)
19. Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)

Of these, Tomb Raider (2000), Curse of the Sword and The Prophecy are handheld spin-offs for Nintendo's GameBoy handhelds, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris are top-down shooter/platforming games that can be seen as a sub-franchise, and Lara Croft: Relic Run and Lara Croft Go are mobile games. Each of these groups will be considered their own sub-franchise, and everything else a main game.

Thus, we'll have:

• tombraider 001 for Tomb Raider (1996)
• tombraider 002 for Tomb Raider II (1997)
• tombraider 003 for Tomb Raider III (1998)
• tombraider 004 for Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999)
• tombraider 005 for Tomb Raider Chronicles (2000)
• tombraider 006 for Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003)
• tombraider 007 for Tomb Raider: Legend (2006)
• tombraider 008 for Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007)
• tombraider 009 for Tomb Raider: Underworld (2008)
• tombraider 010 for Tomb Raider (2013)
• tombraider 011 for Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015)
• tombraider 012 for Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)
• tombraider guardianoflight 001 for Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (2010)
• tombraider guardianoflight 002 for Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (2014)
• tombraider handheld 001 for Tomb Raider (2000)
• tombraider handheld 002 for Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword (2001)
• tombraider handheld 003 for Tomb Raider: The Prophecy (2002)
• tombraider mobile 001 for Lara Croft: Relic Run (2015)
• tombraider mobile 002 for Lara Croft Go (2015)

Fallout Franchise

The Fallout franchise has a bunch of one-shot spin-offs, so let's use them as example:

1. Fallout (1997)
2. Fallout 2 (1998)
3. Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel (2001)
4. Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (2004)
5. Fallout 3 (2008)
6. Fallout: New Vegas (2010)
7. Fallout Shelter (2015)
8. Fallout 4 (2015)
9. Fallout 76 (2018)

Becomes:

• fallout _ 001 for Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel (2001)
• fallout _ 002 for Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (2004)
• fallout _ 003 for Fallout Shelter (2015)
• fallout 001 for Fallout (1997)
• fallout 002 for Fallout 2 (1998)
• fallout 003 for Fallout 3 (2008)
• fallout 003 new vegas for Fallout: New Vegas (2010)
• fallout 004 for Fallout 4 (2015)
• fallout 004 76 for Fallout 76 (2018)

Here's a prime example of subjectivity when creating a sortname. Fallout New Vegas is technically a one-shot spin-off, but we deliberately chose a sortname similar to Fallout 3 since it's closely related to that game. The same happens to Fallout 4 and Fallout 76. Fallout Tactics does not get the same treatment because subjectivity.