Help:Manual of Style

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This page is to help users become familiar with page creation and style.

Contents 1 Style Notes 1.1 Do Not Personalize 1.2 Italicize Game Titles 2 Creating a Game Info page 2.1 Infoboxes 2.1.1 Release dates 2.1.2 Ratings 2.2 Sections 2.3 Subpages 2.3.1 Codes 2.3.2 Credits 2.3.3 Sound 2.3.4 Walkthroughs 2.4 Series Template 2.5 Categories 2.6 Long Storyline Transcriptions 3 Stubs 4 Disambiguation 5 Fair use 6 Characters

[edit] Style Notes

[edit] Do Not Personalize

As Wikia Gaming we uphold the highest possible quality of writing we can achieve. As such take these things into consideration:

• Use few if not close to no "to be" verbs (am, are, was, were, be, being, to be).
• Do not use contractions (don't, won't, shouldn't, etc.).
• Do not use first person and second person personal pronouns (I, we, you, etc.). Only in certain cases of subpages may these pronouns be used, for example when testing a cheat.
• Instead of saying "__one" "person" etc., say "the player".

[edit] Italicize Game Titles

Whenever a game title appears in regular text, it should be italicized. On the wiki, simply place two apostrophes on each side of the game name to accomplish this.

''Game Title''

If the game's title is being linked, put the apostrophes *outside* the brackets, as such.

''[[Game Title]]''

Note that if you using the game title as a parameter to a template, such as this example:

{{Navigation | name = Juiced}}

You must not italicize the title, as it will cause the resulting link to go to a non-existent page.

[edit] Creating a Game Info page

This section will lead you through creating your first game information page.

[edit] Infoboxes

First, add an infobox. Go to the Infobox template and copy and paste the section where it says "Copy and paste". Add this to the top of your new page. The infobox template page contains detailed descriptions of each field; fill in as much information as you can.

Once you have done this, you can later use the links on the bottom of the infobox if you have codes, walkthroughs, credits, or soundtrack information. Those should be used where possible; the main articles are intended for more encyclopedic information, such as descriptions of the gameplay, history of the development, controversies surrounding the game, and the like, not for GameFAQs type information.

[edit] Release dates

When the infobox is added and you fill in the release date(s), you should link the date as follows. Assume an example date of November 8, 2005. The text should be linked as such:

[[November 8]], [[2005]]

This is for two reasons. First, the wiki software can automatically rearrange linked dates so that they appear as a user wishes. (Europeans usually prefer to see 8 November instead of November 8, for example.) Second, it will create a link to the page for that month and day, and that year, where readers can find out what else occurred at those times.

If the date page already exists, such as November 8, please add your new game to the list under the appropriate year; let's assume we are talking about the game Gun, which released on November 8, 2005. So on the page for November 8, we would add 2005 as a list item, and Gun as a sub-list item, as such:

*2005
**''[[Gun]]'' for the [[Nintendo GameCube|GameCube]], [[PlayStation 2]], and the [[Xbox]] in [[North America]]

[edit] Ratings

If a game has been assigned a rating by a content rating body, it should be included in the infobox. Please make sure that it follows the standard links, so that all rating links are uniform and go to the same place.

You can see all of the ratings links in one place at the gamerate template. For example, to link to an ESRB rating of E for Everyone, your link should be as follows.

[[ESRB: E]]

Similarly, to link to a PEGI rating of 12+, the link should appear like so:

[[PEGI: 12+]]

You can find a complete list of the links for various ratings at Content rating links.

[edit] Sections

After the infobox, briefly describe the game, its' significant aspects, primary release dates, developer, publisher, and major systems for which it was released. Below this, go into more detail with sections. Some section ideas to consider:

1. Storyline: If there is a great deal of information, make it a separate article.
2. Gameplay: Elements of gameplay and unique features.
3. Praise/Critisism/Controversy: General idea of how well the game was received, both by critics and consumers. If there was controversy about the game or a particular feature, go into detail.
4. Development: Major events during the development of the game. If the publisher originally attached to the project closed up shop, and the developer had to scramble to find a new one, that would be noteworthy.
5. Similar Games: List a handful of games with similar gameplay styles. (As long as you have provided a genre or genres in the infobox, and categorize the page in one or more genre categories, readers will easily be able to link to similar games, so this section does not need to be overly long.)
6. External links: Link to trailers, demo(s), art, pre-release material, the official site(s) for the game, and the like.
7. References: If you used any <ref> tags within the article, make sure you create a References section. The only thing the section should contain is the reflist template call - {{reflist}} - as this will automatically create a list of references from your tags. (See also References.)

[edit] Subpages

Encyclopedia Gamia organizes codes, walkthroughs, credits, and soundtrack information as sub-pages. For example, to find the soundtrack listing for Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights, you would go to Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights/soundtrack. When you add an infobox to a page, you will see links at the bottom of it for these four sub-pages. Click on one to start the page. See Help:Credits for credits details

Once you are editing the sub-page, the first thing to do is add navigation. Copy the template below and paste it at the top of the new page:

{{Navigation| name = GameName}}

Replace "GameName" with the title of the game. In the example above, it would be Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights. (As noted above, this is one of the places where you must not italicize the game name.)

You can then proceed to add information to the page.

[edit] Codes

Format

Because codes can vary from system to system use the highest header function (= Atari =) to separate them. Note that this header is never used on base pages, only on subpages Codes and Walkthrough.

Testing cheats

Wikia Gaming "testing cheats" protocol coming soon.

Do not delete false cheats

We want to collect false cheats under a === False Cheats === section so that the player does not attempt cheats that do not work.

[edit] Credits

[edit] Sound

[edit] Walkthroughs

Format

Like the codes use = Atari = to separate game consoles, then == Easy == for difficulty, === Pong Level 1 === for levels, and ==== First Serve ==== for different sections of that level if necessary. The text at the very top of the page must apply to every walkthrough for each guide and each difficulty level. The text under the console must apply to all difficulty levels. The writer may sign his/her name in the introduction of whichever walkthrough he/she is writing. For instance, if the writer wrote the every single

Use of personal pronouns

In walkthroughs it is acceptable to use the personal pronoun "you", but usually not "I". This is due to the fact that the walkthrough is speaking to the player, not you (the writer) speaking to the player. The only exception is when suggesting things to the player if the player has multiple options.

Disclaimer

At the bottom of walkthoughs, we suggest placing a disclaimer, on walkthroughs more than codes because one game might have many walkthoughs, for which have a copyright. Also place all users' names who contributed information (not typos, or placing {{Navigation}} on the page) below the disclaimer on a list.

[edit] Series Template

If the game is part of a series, there may be a series template which can be added to easily show links to other games from that series. For example, if your new article was about SSX Tricky, you could add the Ssx template like so:

{{Ssx}}

You can find all of the series for which we have templates listed at Useful Templates (Games). Note that when adding a template, it will appear exactly where you place it within the page. Typically series templates go at the bottom of a page, above any category tags, but below the last section.

[edit] Categories

Next, you should categorize your article. Possibly categories include genre(s), system(s) on which the game appears, and a series category (if the game is part of a series). (Before adding a series category, if you have added a series template, make sure that it does not include a category as part of it. If it does, you do not need to add a series category.)

To categorize an article, simply add the following:

[[Category:Target Category]]

Replace the words "Target Category" with the intended category. An example is:

[[Category:PlayStation games]]

This will make the bottom of a page have a status bar which links multiple pages in the same category together. You can go to the PlayStation games category to see everything in that category. More than one category can be added to a page.

Please note that sentence case is preferred for category names on this wiki, as this makes them somewhat easier to type. Some examples:

• Category:Game Boy games, not Category:Game Boy Games
• Category:Main protagonists, not Category:Main Protagonists
• Category:NES box art, not Category:NES Box Art

Currently, not all categories adhere to this standard. Efforts to correct this are ongoing.

[edit] Long Storyline Transcriptions

If you're writing out the entire plot for a game, and it's really long, it's best to make it a new article, and have a short summary in it's place on the game's title page. Then, link to the new article at the top. For examples, compare Breath of Fire II's story section as it links to Breath of Fire II Storyline. Wikipedia does this quite often too, particularly for linking articles on a nation with articles on their history. It should look like this in the code:

:''Main Article: [[Game Title Storyline]]''

Game Title takes place in 1000 AD, where it follows the path the brave, shining knight named Bardalon!  
He awakes in his humble, peaceful kingdom under attack by aliens from the planet Quarshk.  
With his legendary sword, The Pain-Giver, Bardalon ventures out into strange lands 
to collect the 9 magic gems that will give him the power to stop evil, once and for all!

It should be noted that any section that requires excessive scrolling could probably be made into its' own page.

[edit] Stubs

The definition of a stub is not set in stone, but if a page contains minimal actual information, it is probably a stub. It is primarily used to refer to incomplete articles.

If your article is a stub, place the following template on it:

{{stub}}

This adds the article to the Stub category and places a note on it that it is an incomplete article. There are also stub templates that cover specific game series; see Game stub templates for those.

[edit] Disambiguation

Disambiguation allows a common word to direct the reader to several different topics that share the same name. For example, see FPS. In that case, the main article is a disambiguation article, linking to other pages. Another example is Zelda, where the main article is about the character Zelda, but there is a notice at the top linking to a disambiguation page where other uses of the word are noted.

The template for a disambiguation notice is

{{disambig}}

It should be placed at the bottom of a disambiguation page, after the clarified links.

[edit] Fair use

If you use a copyrighted image or other resource, but believe it to fall under fair use (see link for details), use the following template:

{{fairuse}}

It should be placed near the bottom of the page, above a stub template and any categories.

[edit] Characters

Place the Characterbox template at the top of the page and fill out as much information as you can. Then proceed to write an article with additional information about the character. See Mario for an example of a good character page.