User:Datumizer/Sandbox/vgrelease new/doc

Description
For dates from January 1, 1970 onward only!

This template is an enhanced version of vgrelease. The differences are:


 * 1) You can specify any region.
 * 2) Regions and dates appear in the order in which you input them.
 * 3) This template links to the "XXXX in video gaming" articles instead of the normal "XXXX" year ones.
 * 4) Dates change their appearance to a certain degree depending on a user's date and time preferences.
 * 5) This template auto-collapses dates that are identical.
 * 6) This template specially handles the codes TBA and TBD.
 * 7) The output will not break onto a new line.
 * 8) This template lacks an option to specify any arbitrary string of text in place of the region code.
 * 9) This template automatically places the article into the " video game releases in " categories.

Note: this template is not backwards compatible with vgrelease.

Possible future improvements include automatically sorting dates chronologically.

Usage
Parameters are inputted as region code/date pairs, and are displayed in the order they are given. Any of the standard JP, NA, EU, AU, INT and PAL video game-specific codes will work, as well as all ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes and a smaller number of selected ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes. Note that WP:VG/DATE asserts several guidelines/rules concerning where and when (and which) abbreviations may be used in video game infoboxes, specifically:

"'Release dates should be provided from primarily English-speaking regions, including North America, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand. If the video game is first released in a non-English country, commonly in Japan, then that should also be stated ... Releases in non-English countries should not be included in the infobox (unless it is first released in a non-English country), but if determined to be necessary to include, can be discussed further in the article's body.'"

Dates may be entered either in the form of a year by itself, or as any full date supported by the  parser function. By default, the template outputs dates in "verbose" mode with the exact display appearance depending on the user's date and time preferences. If a user has no preferences set (such as is the case with an unregistered user), then the "MONTHNAME D, YYYY" format is used. By setting the optional v parameter to equal zero, the template will output dates in "YYYY-MM-DD" format instead. Setting the v parameter to equal 2 forces the "D MONTHNAME YYYY" format. However, note that the v parameter has no effect if the date given consists only of a year. When inputting a month and year instead of only a year or full date, the template will result in an error if the input isn't in the "MONTHNAME YYYY" format (e.g., ).

If you need to enter something other than a date, such as a message indicating the game is still in development or was cancelled, you may do so; any text inputted will be returned as entered and without changes. The exception is when you enter the strings "TBA" or "TBD". In these cases, the template links to the Wiktionary article, TBD.

By default this template collapses dates to a single entry when they are identical; however, this feature can be disabled by setting the optional c parameter to equal zero.

By default this template places articles into " video game releases in " categories. This can be disabled by adding the optional a parameter and setting it to equal something other than 1.

This template works only with dates from January 1, 1970 onward.