StrategyWiki talk:Guide/Main game page

No JIS?
I have to disagree on this one. I, for one, can read Japanese, and I always find it entertaining to see characters. Besides, I am very certain that StrategyWiki will grow to include import video games. To alleviate any sort of confusion that '???' renderings bring about, we could have a section similar to this and a matching template to go with it. Thoughts?  ech elon  14:20, 2 February 2007 (CST)
 * I have to agree. I originally wanted to have Japanese names included in some of the guides that I started but they kept getting erased.  Because honestly, you can sometimes find out a lot more about a game by Googling the Japanese name in Japanese than in Romanji.  I propose that we add an optional Japanese name field in the infobox so that I could, for example, add パックマン to the Pac-Man guide. Procyon 14:33, 2 February 2007 (CST)
 * I would support that. In fact, I would like to see more Japanese support on SW as a whole. In the future, maybe we can add a http://ja.strategywiki.org or something; they certainly love strategy guides in Japan.  ech elon  14:55, 2 February 2007 (CST)
 * Just to clarify, JIS is completely different from ASCII-based Japanese. JIS (e.g. Žq•ó‚ÉŒb‚Ü‚ê‚½ƒXƒŠƒbƒs[‚Í) requires the user to change the browser's character encoding, whereas ASCII (what Procyon posted above) does not. I specifically covered JIS because it's the only Japanese character system GameFAQs allows; here there's no such rule, so it's better to use the immediately visible writing system rather than one that requires user intervention. GarrettTalk 15:34, 2 February 2007 (CST) EDIT: it also causes a second problem: if someone does switch their encoding anything on the page written using Japanese ASCII suddenly mutates--what Procyon posted above turns into 繝代ャ繧ｯ繝槭Φ. GarrettTalk 15:39, 2 February 2007 (CST)
 * I believe the best thing to do is enforce UTF-8 Asian characters if JIS is a problem.  ech elon  15:45, 2 February 2007 (CST)
 * So wait, I would have to change settings in my browser(s)? Also Ech, we would want the japanese mirror to be a "jp" not "ja" to reflect the commonly used abbreviation (perhaps www.strategywiki.jp?). --Notmyhandle 17:57, 2 February 2007 (CST)
 * Nope, Echelon is absolutely correct. The Japanese wikipedia is located at http://ja.wikipedia.org/, so the Japanese StrategyWiki should be located at http://ja.strategywiki.org because it matches wikipedia's naming convention.  Procyon 18:01, 2 February 2007 (CST)

Attribution
The article says "When writing, always maintain a single focussed "voice". Do not refer to yourself ("I", "me", etc.) in the guide, unless it is specifically necessary (e.g. "User:NameHere has found that collecting all five keys within 30 seconds can actually be done, as long as...". However this is solely for the purpose of asserting that something is possible, rather than claiming glory for having achieved it."

The example given isn't particularly good. Does the fact that a named person has found something assert it is true, anymore than just saying "Collecting all five keys within 30 seconds can actually be done, as long as..."? It looks very much to me like someone is claiming glory.

Personally I think having any usernames listed in the article text looks unprofessional. Maybe I could be persuaded if there was a better example of where a username really is necessary. Pelago 15:37, 13 July 2007 (CDT)
 * I think it's in there just in case a situation where it is necessary actually comes up, but I don't think there have been any as of yet. As for the example, it's only an example. Picking it apart doesn't do anyone good. If you could, however, come up with a better one, feel free to change it. -- 15:47, 13 July 2007 (CDT)
 * Well, I was more in favour of changing it to "When writing, always maintain a single focused "voice". Do not refer to yourself ("I", "me", etc.) or to other users by name." but I didn't want to just change it without asking first. Pelago 15:52, 13 July 2007 (CDT)

One example is catching Rayquaza with a Pokéball, yup, I did it.--Rocky http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/7/78/Rally-X_Rock.png/25px-Rally-X_Rock.png (Talk - Contributions) 15:53, 13 July 2007 (CDT)

Writing style
Is there any more advice on writing style, other than what is on this page? I was thinking about changing Paper_Mario/Prologue:_A_Plea_from_the_Stars from its current confused mix of past and present tense, and its current mixture of "Mario does this" and "You do this", but I wasn't sure if there was a preferred style. Should the style be imperative (I think that's the right word) and refer to the main player character as "you", i.e. "Go there, do this, defend yourself against, etc"? Pelago 15:56, 13 July 2007 (CDT)


 * See this debate at the moment--Rocky http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/7/78/Rally-X_Rock.png/25px-Rally-X_Rock.png (Talk - Contributions) 15:58, 13 July 2007 (CDT)
 * Thanks, I'll take a look. Pelago 16:01, 13 July 2007 (CDT)
 * One other suggestion for writing style is to not edit the same post that you started six times ⌐_⌐; Procyon (Talk) 16:12, 13 July 2007 (CDT)
 * Warning! Grumph in residence! (Although he does have a point.) --DrBob (Talk) 16:42, 13 July 2007 (CDT)

Redirects and alternate names
Useful redirects should be added to main game pages.
 * For games with two parts to the title, such as Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, redirects from one or both halves should be created (ie. Solar Jetman and A Link to the Past both redirect to their proper guides).
 * Common abbreviations or acronyms for popular games should also link to the proper guide. For example, FFVII and FF7 both redirect to Final Fantasy VII.
 * For games with roman numerals in their names, redirects should be created where the name is in Arabic notation. For example, Final Fantasy 7 redirects to Final Fantasy VII.