🎮 The Big Three

A community‑driven web application where gamers curate their personal Top 3 games of all time, explain why they love them, why others should play them, and earn status based on community recognition.

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✨ Core Idea

Every registered user can create one personal collection featuring their Top 3 games of all time. Each game entry includes a personal description explaining:

• Why the user fell in love with the game
• Why others should experience it

Other users can explore collections, star the ones they like, and help creators climb the community ranking ladder.

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👥 User Experiences

👀 Guest (Unregistered User)

Guests have access to the Hub area where they can:

• Browse all public collections

• View collection details and game descriptions

• See collection ratings (stars)

• Sort collections by:

  • Newest added
  • Most starred

Guests cannot create, edit, delete, or star collections.

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🧑‍💻 Registered User

Registered users have all guest capabilities plus:

• ⭐ Star other users’ collections

  • Only 1 star per collection
  • Cannot star their own collection

• 📦 Create their own Top 3 collection

• ✏️ Edit or delete their own collection

• 👤 Access a Personal Page showing:

  • Collections they have starred
  • Status + additional info

• 🏆 Earn status ranks based on community stars

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🏅 User Status & Ranking System

User status is determined dynamically based on the total number of stars their collection receives.

Total Stars	Status
100+	Legendary Collector
30+	Superstar Collector
10+	Popular Collector
5+	Rising Star
1+	Novice Collector
0	Newcomer

Status updates automatically as stars increase, reflecting the creator’s reputation within the community.

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🛠️ Technologies Used

Category	Technology	Description
Backend	ASP.NET Core MVC (.NET 8)	Main web framework
Database	Entity Framework Core	ORM, Code-First approach
Security	ASP.NET Identity	Authentication & authorization
Database	MS SQL Server / LocalDB	Relational database engine
UI	Razor Views	Server-side rendering
Frontend	Bootstrap 5	Responsive design framework
Styling	HTML & CSS	Custom UI styling

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✅ Prerequisites

Before running the project, make sure you have:

• .NET SDK 8.0+
• Visual Studio 2022 (recommended)
• SQL Server / LocalDB
• Git (optional, for cloning)

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📁 Project Structure

TheBigThree/
  TheBigThree.Data/           # EF Core DbContext, migrations, seed data
  TheBigThree.Models/         # Domain models and DTOs
  TheBigThree.Services.Core/  # Business logic and service interfaces
  TheBigThree.Web/            # ASP.NET Core MVC Web layer
    Controllers/              # Request handling
    Views/                    # UI Templates
    ViewModels/               # View-specific models
    wwwroot/                  # Static files
    Program.cs                # Entry point
  
README.md                     # Project documentation

🌱 Seeded Example Data

To ensure the application is not empty on first run, the database includes:

• 2 pre-seeded example collections:

• Each collection demonstrates:

  • Proper game entries
  • Descriptive recommendation text
  • Star-based ranking behavior

This allows examiners and users to immediately explore the Hub without needing to create data manually.

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🚀 Getting Started

Follow these steps to run the project locally:

1️⃣ Clone the Repository

git clone <repository-url>

Or download the repository as a ZIP and extract it.

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2️⃣ Open the Project

• Open the solution file (.sln) in Visual Studio
• Ensure the startup project is set correctly

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3️⃣ Configure Database Connection

⚠️ Important: This project stores its connection string in appsettings.Development.json, which is included in the repository.

1. Open appsettings.Development.json
2. Locate the ConnectionStrings section
3. Verify or adjust the connection string to match your local SQL setup

Example (LocalDB – recommended):

"ConnectionStrings": {
  "DefaultConnection": "Server=(localdb)\mssqllocaldb;Database=TheBigThree;Trusted_Connection=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=true"
}

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4️⃣ Apply Migrations & Seed Data

1. Open Package Manager Console (Tools → NuGet Package Manager → Package Manager Console)
2. Ensure the Default project is set to TheBigThree
3. Run:

Update-Database

This will:

• Create the database
• Apply all migrations
• Seed the example collections

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5️⃣ Run the Application

• Press F5 or click Run in Visual Studio
• The application will start in your browser

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🔐 Authentication Notes

• Authentication is handled via ASP.NET Identity
• Guests can browse freely
• Registered users unlock full interaction features

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📌 Project Highlights

• Clear role‑based access control

• Full CRUD operations for collections

• Custom business rules:

  • One collection per user
  • One star per user per collection
  • Cannot star own collection

• Dynamic ranking & status system

• Clean MVC separation

• User‑friendly UI and navigation

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📄 License

This project is created for educational purposes.

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