User talk:Johnnyauau2000

Welcome to StrategyWiki!
Hello Johnnyauau2000! Welcome to StrategyWiki. Thank you for your contributions. If you have any questions, just contact a sysop through their talk page or post on the staff lounge, and they'd be happy to help. If you need help editing, check the StrategyWiki Guide. If you have a question about the content on this wiki, you can check out our staff lounge page. If you want to ask questions or hang out in IRC, we're usually around. On the other hand, if you have ideas for StrategyWiki, bring them up on the community portal talk page. Please remember to sign your name on, and only on, talk pages by clicking or using four tildes (    ); this will automatically produce your name and the date. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field as this helps to document all of your hard work. Feel free to delete this message from your talk page if you like, or keep it for reference. Happy editing! -- The preceding signed comment was added by Rocky (talk • contribs). 01:17, 3 February 2008 (CST)

Using Button Images
We've simplified the process by using templates. I think the two you are interested in are gc and ps2. If you have any questions that the documentation on those pages can't answer, continue asking questions. Good luck, -- 03:39, 3 February 2008 (CST)
 * Please don't remove all the uses of the Control template. It is used along with the controls drop down at the top to only show the controls specific to that version, rather than showing them all at the same time.  Can you please convert your changes on the Bully/Wardrobe page to use it again? -- Prod (Talk) 09:51, 25 April 2008 (CDT)
 * If you want to show controls for both, then just put both, like on Viking: Battle for Asgard/Enemies. -- 00:18, 26 April 2008 (CDT)
 * Please use the Control templates. Without it the pages look really messy and I will have to revert your changes. If you need help with the usage, let me know. -- Prod (Talk) 10:37, 20 June 2008 (CDT)
 * Put a PlayStation 3,Wii,Xbox 350 at the top of the page. Then anywhere you want to put the different controls, you something like psx: X.  Check out The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess/The Beginning for an example of use. -- Prod (Talk) 11:00, 20 June 2008 (CDT)
 * Nice work with the updates. I've just got a few more pointers.  Try to use the Show Preview button at the bottom.  it lets you check if there are any obvious errors before saving. There is no need to add the text controller to the control selector since that term is right above.  Finally, it's only possible to put one selector per page, so place it at the top of the page.  Keep up the good work :) -- Prod (Talk) 02:01, 21 June 2008 (CDT)

Bully
Unfortunately, I don't own the game, nor have I ever played it. Do you know which are which? If so, you can just list them here and can fill it in later, or you can do it yourself... Sorry, -- 14:38, 30 April 2008 (CDT)

A little thank you… For for all your hard work on the Bully guide.. Hugs, 17:44, 4 August 2008 (CDT)

Finding the Staff Lounge
I noticed you mentioned that you may not see when someone responds to your comment on the staff lounge. Next time you venture to the staff lounge, click on the "watch" button in the tool bar on the top right of the page. From then on, whenever anyone makes an edit to the staff lounge, your watchlist will let you know. This watchlist can be accessed at the very top of the page, in between the contributions and preferences button (near where you log in). Hope this helps! If you have any questions, feel free to ask.-- Duke Ruckley Talk 08:10, 23 June 2008 (CDT)

Attitude correction
I've been watching some of the comments and edits that you've been making recently, and I'm putting you on warning right now that you are very close to receiving a temporary ban for some of the negative attitude that you've been displaying. The constant complaints on your part (especially concerning the Paper Mario guide) are not constructive in the least. You've been here long enough to know by now that no user has any responsibility to do any more or any less than he or she feels like doing. If you are "appalled" by something, your taking the time to say so could have been much better spent actually contributing something constructive to the guide. On the same note, erasing empty sections from a guide really isn't the best use of your time either. The sysops patrol the edits very well, so I would ask that you refrain from doing any corrective edits and stick to content contributions. We would appreciate your efforts to be a more positively contributing member of this community. Thank you very much. Procyon (Talk) 08:57, 23 June 2008 (CDT)


 * The only advice that I can give to you, is if you feel that you are getting upset about something, stop for a moment and think about the best way to resolve the issue. Take the case of the Paper Mario guide, for example.  Not everyone who contributes to SW will be as thorough or even know enough to make a guide complete.  This is where your knowledge and tenacity to see a project through to completion will help improve the guide over someone else's previous efforts.  A lot of people contribute little bits here and there to feel like they are a part of something.  Their reasons for contributing have more to do with what they're contributing to, than what they are contributing.  You see to be more about making worthwhile contributions.  Use that as a strength, not a weakness.  Try to serve as an example of what a good contributor is.  In other words, make sure that you can take pride in all of your behavior on SW, and serve as a role model to others who may not know how to develop guides as well as you.  If you remember to keep all of this in mind, you could actually end up rising up the ranks of the staff here at SW.  But complaining is definitely one thing that will prevent that from happening.  Good luck.  Procyon (Talk) 09:12, 24 June 2008 (CDT)


 * The one thing that I got from your recent message is something that Prod has also been trying to help you understand. The reason that none of the Cruis'n games are on StrategyWiki is because no one has felt like doing them.  The only time a game gets added is when someone feels like adding it.  So if you don't find the Cruis'n games, there's no reason to be upset.  It just means that out of everyone who has visited the site, you're the first one who wanted to add it.  No one has any "responsibilities" on SW except to contribute what they like.  So don't be upset if you think something is missing.  There's no need to be.  Just feel free to add it yourself.  Procyon (Talk) 19:59, 24 June 2008 (CDT)


 * This is completely volunteer - no user receives funds from this site. -- 02:30, 28 June 2008 (CDT)

The Godfather
If the versions are different enough, it might be easier to separate them into two different pages. -- Prod (Talk) 15:08, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Fixing mistakes
Preventing them is the best way. Take a deep breath before submitting, and try out the preview button xD -- 03:55, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

Console disambiguation
You don't need to remove console specific info, in fact, please don't. Details are very important. If there's an alternative method/control for something, you can always use Control/Control selector. Also, if only one or two things stand out, you can use sidebar. -- 01:29, 1 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Nice work with the control selector on that Godfather page :). -- Prod (Talk) 00:33, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Re: Compliments
Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to say that. :-) I must also thank you for all the effort you're putting in adding controls and control selectors. Not many other people will take the time to do that. Keep up the good work. --DrBob (talk) 14:17, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Re: Mario Kart Wii controls.
Yes, in fact, I do own Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros. Brawl and have tested the controls myself. I'm not exactly sure what proof I could give you beyond telling you to play them yourself. Speaking of which, have you actually played either game yourself, or are you just going by the instruction manuals? Wanderer 18:11, 2 November 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm having a lot of trouble understanding what you're saying with some of your comments. First off, when making a new comment, start on a new line rather than putting it all on the same line.  That way you don't have a mass of text with random signatures in it.  About the controls, it's not a dispute.  One is right one is wrong (the control either works or doesn't).  Do not attack each other; work together to figure out the right controls.  We're all here to get the best information possible together. -- Prod (Talk) 00:50, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Userpage
Hah, stop editing? Yeah right. I take breaks every once in a while, especially when I'm more focused on gaming, but as long as I have a computer nearby, I won't be stopping. As for my user page, there are only three facts that pertain to my identity; I don't think I run any risks. My user page primarily functions as an attempt to persuade people to feel closer to me. For sysops, its to help us get to know one another better, and for normal users like yourself its meant to help you understand me as an admin and be able to ask questions and such without feeling like you have no power or that we are superior to others. Do what you will, it's just for fun really. Most of the stuff is just there as notes (statistics and such). -- 02:09, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Need for Speed: Undercover
Hey Johnny, since DrBob's on vacation, I thought I'd drop by to see if I could help you. Good job on starting the new page, by the way; the infobox looks great. To upload some cover art for the game, you can go to the image upload page and follow the directions there. For more information on how to upload images, you can look in the SW guide or the picture tutorial at the bottom of the section.

To edit the Table of Contents, just add links to the lists under each column heading. It looks confusing, but everything underneath each 3 tag goes into a column on the page. ToC pages default to three columns with the headings "Getting Started", "Walkthrough" and "Appendices". Just add  * new page name under the appropriate column and the link will be added to the table of contents. You can go to any page with a filled out table of contents and go into edit mode to see how it's done. Once you've added all the links to the table of contents, you can click the red links and start creating those pages. Hope that helps! - naj zere 17:37, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Please go back through the Need for Speed: Undercover pages you have recently added (Getting Started, Walkthrough and Controls) and add Header Nav and Footer Nav templates to them. In the future use the buttons above the edit text box to insert the correct templates:
 * For a new main page: Main game page
 * For a new page associated with an existing guide: Guide page
 * For a new table of content: Table of Contents
 * Just a heads up - I will delete any future pages you create that are improperly laid out, so make an effort to use the information everyone is giving you and your contributions won't go to waste. Thanks, - naj zere 16:54, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for going back over those pages and putting the Navs in. I really appreciate you taking the time to learn how things work and making the effort to clean up your edits. You've said on a couple talk pages now that you're scared of making mistakes or doing things wrong, but you really don't have to be. Anything you do can be fixed, and all the admin here are more than happy to help anyone who's trying to do the right thing. Just keep learning and you'll be doing great edits and helping other users out in no time.

As far as getting box artwork for games, try searching Google Images for the name of the game, and usually something will come up. Just make sure there are no watermarks or site logos on the image. When you have an image you're ready to upload, just make sure you follow all the guidelines on image naming and categorization. Hope that helps! - naj zere 06:40, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Call of Duty: World at War
I was looking in the recent changes and saw that you created that page. There is something I noticed that I thought I might tell you about.


 * When you create new pages, the titles come up with . It seems you took out the bit that says 'pagename' but left the 'subst:' and the ' – ' in there. This makes the titles look very odd (which you may have noticed), so instead of doing that, either leave them, which automatically generates the name of the page, or take out the whole of the '  ' and replace it with the name of the page.

I changed it to make the page look better, but now you know for next time! : ) -- Melon 247, The Dog's Life Expert 14:11, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Requests for help
There is no reason to announce which games you plan on working on, or whether you are going to be starting new guides, or simply contributing to old guides. The sysops monitor every edit that is made to the site, so at least five different people will notice you starting a new guide. Always use the new guide template button, fill in what information you can, and the sysops will take care of the rest. Asking for vague general help is nonconstructive. If and when you have a specific issue that you need help with, then ask for help on the Staff Loung, and only after you have checked to see if the answer cannot be found in the StrategyWiki editor's guide, which we often point out to you, but you do not seem to want to take the time to read. We applaud your bravery, but dislike having to answer questions which we have taken the time to- thoroughly answer in the guide. Procyon (Talk) 15:48, 29 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Don't worry too much! Remember, you can be bold and do what you think is right.  If you make a mistake, we'll be there to correct it and let you know.  The best way to learn is to do.  Heed Procyon's advice as well and read the guide.  It'll help you out quite a lot.  If you still have questions after reading the guide, please feel free to ask us.  No one wants you to leave!-- Duke  Ruckley Talk 01:57, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Wow, you completely misunderstood what I was trying to tell you. Nobody wants you to quit, and your enthusiasm to start guides for games which you feel are underrepresented on the site is quite appreciated.  All that wed ask is that you do a little "due diligence" on your part, to try and figure out what you want to know before you ask one of us for help.  That can be done in any number of ways, including:
 * Checking the guide to see if you're question is already answered in there,
 * Looking at a guide that already does what you are trying to do, and checking out how it was done by editing it,
 * or even checking Google for some tricks if you're really looking for clues.
 * If you can't find the information that you are looking for after all that THEN ask for our help, and we'll probably be even more than happy to help you because you'll be asking us an unusual and perhaps challenging question. See what I mean?  Just keep at it, don't be afraid and shy away from tough problems, and pretty soon, you'll be as good an editor as some of our best.  But try to learn as much as you can for yourself, or you'll never reach that level of expertise.  Good luck! Procyon (Talk) 02:03, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Images
I see you've uploaded your first image, so let's take a look at how to make your uploads even better. I renamed the image, changed the summary and added some categories. Take a look at it here to see the changes. For more information on what goes into uploading an image, read this policy. Here's a quick list of what you need to include when uploading: - naj zere 07:33, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
 * 1) The image name: This should contain the name of the game or an abbreviation, and a short description of what kind of picture it is.
 * 2) Summary: One sentence describing the picture and including a link to the game.
 * 3) Categories: Any applicable categories.

Making Lists
I noticed you have a few lists on your user page. Here's a little hint to make numbered lists with wiki-syntax. To create bulleted lists, add a "#" before each item. To add a sub-item, just add multiple "#" before the item. Example:


 * 1) Item 1
 * 2) Item 2
 * 3) Item 2.1
 * 4) Item 2.2
 * 5) Item 3

This works the same way with bullet points, except you'll use "*" now:


 * Item 1
 * Item 2
 * Item 2.1
 * Item 2.2
 * Item 3

See the guide for more details.-- Duke Ruckley Talk 14:16, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Hardware discussion
Hi Johnny. I had to blank out your topic on the Wii discussion page as that simply wasn't the best place to pose that kind of discussion. Please use the forums for that type of discussion, particularly the Nintendo forum. Take care. Procyon (Talk) 15:05, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Call of Duty: World at War
The main layout was copied from here, most of the information I got was from the multiplayer beta, which was checked with information from forums, youtube and other players in Call of Duty 4. I think that the number of pages is reasonable as each of the pages can have a lot of information added to it.-- The preceding signed comment was added by Rocky (talk • contribs). 17:22, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Forums
The login for the forums should be near the upper right hand corner of the page. Your StrategyWiki login and password should work to get you on the forums, so you don't have to register a separate account. Procyon (Talk) 01:20, 9 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Hmm... maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you do have to register first, but if you do, make sure to use the same exact login and password as you do for StrategyWiki.  That way, when you log into one page and switch to the other, you will stay logged in.  I know we did some work to connect the two user databases, but it could be that you still have to register on both sites for that to work.  Give it a try, you can't do anything wrong.  Procyon (Talk) 03:24, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Your game guides
I see you have a guide for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and that just so happens to be our Collaboration of the Month. Feel free to add any info you think we're missing, as long as it's in your own words and not a direct copy of the guide you have. It'd be a big help! - naj zere 00:35, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Game differences
Don't assume people have played every game. For instance, some people might not have played Ocarina of Time, while they have played Wind Waker. -- 09:57, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Categorization
You've actually brought up a major point which we have to resolve. The standard is to ignore the "The" on the beginning of names when categorizing them (which is why they're usually categorized as "Legend"). You'll notice at the beginning of the categories section there's a which automatically puts it where it should go (in the L section). We'll have to look into a solution for this. -- Prod (Talk) 04:24, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I believe it's now fixed. -- Prod (Talk) 07:05, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Ghost Squad images
Unfortunately all the images you uploaded, except for the box art, were copyrighted and so had to be deleted. Make sure when you're taking images from other sites that they don't bear a copyright watermark on them. The images themselves contained information, which would be better as text on the page so that it is accessible for modification. As for the box art, please make sure to upload images that are at least 250px wide, as this is the size at which it is displayed in the infobox. Anything smaller is stretched and looks very bad. I've uploaded a newer, bigger version of the box art though. Really what we need as far as images are concerned are a few screenshots of the gameplay on the different missions. These are taken directly from the game and are usable on the site under fair use. Let me know here or on my talk page if that all makes sense or if you need any more help. - najzere T 16:12, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Guide images
Hey Johnny, just wanted to try and clear up some of the image issues you're having.

Copyrights
There are two types of images that you won't have copyright problems with. Those are box artwork and screenshots. We can use those images under "fair use", meaning that although they're copyrighted to the companies that made them, the way in which we're using them isn't infringing on their rights. Other types of images where someone has either created or modified them, is where you will most likely run into problems with copyrights. Someone creating a an image or putting game information on one is doing so to help you understand the game. So unlike game companies, with whom we are not in competition, the creators of these images are essentially doing what we're doing. In that case, we don't have any rationale for fair use - in fact that's the exact sort of infringement that copyright law tries to avoid. If the image has been wholly created by the person, there's really no way we can use it unless it's been released under a compatible license - for the same reason we can't just copy/paste text from wherever we want. If the image is a screenshot that has been modified and you can remove the parts they've marked up, it's usable, since they don't have any more rights to a screenshot than we do.

Watermarks
Watermarks will be anything identifying the website where you found the image. For screenshots, this is anything that isn't part of the in-game world. It may be a little harder to distinguish on the box art, because there are lots of company logos and graphics on them. In this case, all the logos from the developers, publishers and distributors are fine, as is any rating graphic. Basically anything that would come on the box when you buy it in the store. Signatures are also lumped into the "watermarks" category, and these are usually just someone's name, with or without "created by". This is a good hint that the image may be copyrighted, but even if it's not, we still don't want signed images for the same reason we don't want signed contributions on guide pages.

Size
If you search for images on Google, you will see information below the images on the search page. It will tell you the dimensions of the file, how big it is and what format it is (i.e. JPEG, GIF, etc.) If you are getting the images from elsewhere or are creating them yourself, you can either eyeball it to confirm that it's probably bigger than the main page infobox, or you can open it up in an image editor to find out its dimensions. Box art is displayed at a specific resolution, but screenshots just need to be big enough for a reader to identify the information the image is trying to convey. On the other hand, we don't need extremely large images either, if a smaller one would serve the same purpose. This is just a waste of resources.

Just try your best and don't worry if you upload something we can't use, as it's pretty easy to just delete it or upload a better version. If anything is unclear or you run into something not covered here, you can always ask on someone's talk page or the Staff Lounge, and either describe the image or provide a link if it's online. - najzere T 15:55, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Hey I think I know what the problem is with your images - it looks like you're saving the thumbnails from a Google search, instead of clicking on them and going to the larger image. When you input something into a Google image search like "Mario Power Tennis" you'll get a bunch of pages that have image thumbnails on them. These are shrunk down versions of the actual images. Just click on one of those pictures and you'll be taken to the page where the image is being used. You should also see across the top of the page the Google information with the thumbnail. If you click on that thumbnail, it will take you directly to the full size image. From there you'll be able to see if there are any watermarks, and if not, download it to your computer and copy the URL in the address bar for attribution in the upload edit summary. Sorry, that's kind of a lot of info, but if you're still having trouble getting to the full size images, leave me a message on my talk page and I'll make something clearer. Good luck! - najzere T 16:56, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Tips and stuff
Yeah Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance is a really fun game. I'm going to have to purchase a copy for myself, because the first time (and last time) I played it was at a friend's house.

So, starting a walkthrough is always tough for me because I tend to want to beat the game by myself first before writing the walkthrough. By the time I'm done with the game, I don't want to play it through again so I rarely get around to filling in details. However, when I write a guide like this, I usually do everything by memory.

But if that's not your style, I recommend the following:
 * In a text editor (Notepad) or on a piece of paper, jot down notes as you play along.
 * If you're with a friend, try to watch them play by themselves while you write down your observations.
 * Make a list, then fill in the details. Start with things like when cinematics and cutscenes happen. Make an outline of a section of the game (like a dungeon), and try to make it logical to reduce the amount of time people have to spend doing things.
 * Add additional details like: how to acquire quests, what difficulties appear and where, how much things cost, how to solve puzzles, how to use environment objects (traps/explosives) to your advantage, choices you can make, etc.

Hope that helps.

On a side note, you should check out User:Skizzerz and User:Melon247 for some games (like User:Melon247/Puzzle Page) and ideas of how to interact with the SW community. -- 02:30, 29 May 2009 (UTC)