Template:Infobox Website StrategyWiki is a wiki-based website aiming to provide gamers and game walkthrough authors with the definitive repository of videogame walkthroughs, FAQs and strategy guides with the advent of the MediaWiki engine. Unlike similar sites, StrategyWiki touts a "one game, one guide" rule where, rather than having each author work on a guide of their own, all users contribute to one single guide for each game. This is both to take full advantage of the wiki design and to eliminate the originally-inevitable redundancy of maintenance and expansion between different guides for the same game.[1]
Traditionally, video game walkthroughs are created as plain text files with no formatting or embellishments other than visual tricks such as ASCII art. In recent years this format has been increasingly criticized for having not evolved along with advances in web design and web content accessibility.[2] By using MediaWiki, StrategyWiki guides utilize features such as rich text, tables and inline images, all things that are either impossible or extremely difficult to replicate in a plain text file.
Skin
StrategyWiki's unique default skin BlueCloud was developed in 2005 by web designer Ian Szewczyk. It has been favored among most StrategyWiki contributors.
BlueCloud can be easily distinguished from other MediaWiki skins, a toolbox dock is placed on the right and stretches from the top to the bottom of the page. It contains various links to non-critical functions such as Watch and What links here, while more important functions exist at the top of the page as a tab. Furthermore, a special template can be used to display extra elements originally unreachable by the scope of any other default skin created. All elements processable by the MediaWiki engine can be placed on the toolbox dock, including text, images, and various other aides. Some games have utilitized this to display the game's table of contents, or to display a list of objectives throughout the game.
Involvement with Wikibooks
When Jimmy Wales no longer wanted videogame walkthroughs on Wikibooks[3][4], StrategyWiki used the transwiki process to copy many guides for continuation to their site.[5] They now host the majority of Wikibooks' video game guides. This has inevitably resulted in a large boost to both StrategyWiki's guide count and contributor base, as many Wikibooks users now consider themselves regular StrategyWiki contributors.
Milestones
- StrategyWiki has grown to incorporate over 2,500 different articles containing over 9,000 maps, screenshots and other illustrations.[6]
- StrategyWiki has nearly 100 to 200 edits on an average daily basis.
- StrategyWiki hosts over 700 different walkthroughs, over 100 of which are in a "completed state" (covering most or all elements of the game in question.)[7]
- StrategyWiki attracts nearly 30 new authors every week.Template:Fact
- StrategyWiki receives per month approximately 100,000 unique visits and over 4,000,000 hits on average.[8]
- StrategyWiki is nearly within the top 40,000 ranked websites in the US trafic-wise. [9]
Similar sites
Since its founding IGN has started the IGN Vault Wiki, but only for computer role-playing games and MMORPGs. 1up also operates a wiki, called MyCheats. Neither of these wikis have their content available under an open source license.
References
- ↑ StrategyWiki:What makes StrategyWiki different
- ↑ StrategyWiki out to crush GameFAQS - Joystiq.
- ↑ Jimmy Wales comments on Wikibooks
- ↑ Jimmy Wales comments on What is Wikibooks
- ↑ StrategyWiki:Wikibooks Import List
- ↑ StrategyWiki statistics
- ↑ Guides at completion stage 4
- ↑ StrategyWiki's server statistics
- ↑ Alexa.com statistics