StrategyWiki:Staff lounge

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Welcome to all users! This page is where you can ask StrategyWiki-related questions to the staff and senior community figures, and they will do their best to answer. If you want to raise a topic for discussion (rather than just ask about it), please use the community issues forum instead. New issues are entered here, with the most recent at the bottom of the page. If your question does not pertain to editing StrategyWiki (e.g. asking for hints or game-specific information), please ask on the guide's talk page or on the forums.

Please review the Table of Contents to see if your issue has already been raised; also check the archives (to the right) in case it was discussed some time ago.

To facilitate ease of browsing and replying, please:
 * 1) Place your question at the bottom of the list.
 * 2) Title the question (by placing the title between equals signs: ==Title==).
 * 3) Sign your name and date (by adding four tildes: ~ ).

Credits pages
Do credits pages (like Dog's Life/Credits and The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night/Credits) fall within guide scope? I'm inclined to think they're not, since SCOPE says not to include "any extremely detailed information that doesn't have to do with playing the game"; as far as I know, the Marketing Executive of Atari doesn't actually help players beat Dog's Life. -- 02:22, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
 * I think it's kinda relevant as it is technically game "content". I wouldn't personally add that kind of information, and I usually strip it out when bringing pages from wikipedia, but I don't think it falls outside of scope. -- Prod (talk) 03:59, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

--RAP (talk) 09:05, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * When this discussion came up in chat with User:Moydow before he posted this message here, I humorously jabbed StrategyWiki's functionings in that we're covering the game and not acknowledging the people who contributed into creating the game.
 * In all of seriousness, I'm a bit mixed about this since StrategyWiki's main goal is to help the player in any way and get the most of out the guide.
 * I don't think the average player would get anything out of it because they don't provide something that needs to be tackled through or interacted.
 * The only exception I can come up with for such a credits list to be accepted is: if the credits list is incorporated to interact with the game, like the credits section of New Super Mario Bros. Wii where it involves a mini-game competition on getting the most coins out of the lettered brick blocks.
 * Having a credits list is more of an acknowledgement of the game being made by those people, credited, or uncredited.
 * If players interested at looking to the inner workings of the game, it would be preferable to find info in the web or go into websites that are dedicated to keeping track of credits/staff records.
 * If we take on the stance of having Credits page in the wiki, we would also have to add info on uncredited people who contributed to the game.


 * Normally, credits is stuff surrounding the game, not part of the game itself. Such things should easily be found in the manual, readme, or ending sequence, and aren't really that special.  The only way they're in-scope is if they're playable and need to do something there to get the best ending or avoid a gameover sequence.


 * My problem while working at SW has always been filtering out what is unnecessary. But lately I've been getting more into the groove of what I/we should be focusing on (mostly because my time is limited these days). Credit pages are unnecessary, walkthrough pages are necessary. Simple as that. We don't need people fighting over credit syntax, styles, etc. We aren't about that. If you care that much about the game, go help with a full wiki on that game universe (it's okay! I admit that I help with other wikis, too). We strive to provide the best guides, not comprehensive information (unless it pertains to strategy). That being said, I, like you, fall in love with some games and 110% completion for these guides is what I want, so, think of credits as optional, unnecessary, but a good idea for featured guides or ones that are close to that. -- 22:00, 27 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Note that the quote Moydow pulled from the scope was to give us the power to reject overly technical information in some cases (e.g. Namcorules' fixation on arcade hardware). It's nice and all, but we don't need our game information inter-spliced with useless technical information that would be much more valuable on an arcade hardware wiki. -- 22:02, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

Equations in spoiler templates.
So by chance I've noticed a little oddity with the spoiler template. Strangely, whenever an equation is inserted, the whole thing that was supposed to be displayed there just fails to appear, instead displaying a. Can anyone check why this is happening? T.testLP(talk) 09:14, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
 * That's due to how template parameters work, if it has an equals sign everything before the first equals is treated as the parameter name. Pass in 1=your equation=here as the parameter, e.g.  


 * -- 00:32, 27 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, numbered parameters (as defined on the template page) work both sequentially without being named (e.g. ) as well as when named (e.g.  ). They do the same thing. Our policy is, if you use numbers in your template, then you should fill out the template sequentially. Otherwise make up names for them (e.g. content, gold, xp, name, image, etc.) and define what goes in there by describing how to use the template. -- 06:31, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

Allow free games bundled in video game magazines gain coverage?
--RAP (talk) 02:52, 21 September 2013 (UTC)
 * What the title says.
 * There's a Czech game called "Berusky", a free game that is bundled with various Czech video game magazines. The source regarding this info is this website:  anakreon.cz/?q=node/1 
 * Talking to, he notes that: The game is qualified for "being mentioned in a notable third-party source", but wasn't sure about games given as free gifts in game magazines being accepted for coverage in StrategyWiki.
 * I vaguely recall European video game magazines having disks distributed, but wasn't sure if it is commercial; to which Moydow brought up this nifty nugget: Sinclair magazines at one point gave out complete code of games in which requires the input of being typed into the magazine. He recalls that StrategyWiki game articles have been accepted before by this notion.
 * Wanting to hear the final call, Moydow wanted me to post it here for further discussion.
 * Yay or nay? Discuss.


 * It is allowable. Since the game is freely available online there is low chance of its availability disappearing any time soon (someone is likely to mirror it). The guide must be in English. A translations page is acceptable (and necessary for non-Czech readers) if you're into that. PC Gamer used to send discs with their magazine in the late 90's. I have a few, but I haven't spotted any demos on these, just custom maps (for Warcraft, Doom2, Hexen, etc.) and such. -- 23:39, 21 September 2013 (UTC)