Forum:Reformatting feature lists
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When listing appearances of in-universe subjects in game articles, we currently use a system in which all of the subjects are listed under a set of rather rigid in-universe categories in alphabetical order. However, I'm not convinced that this is the best way to convey the information to readers.
Firstly, in our current format, the in-game roles of the various items are largely ignored in favor of in-universe based categorization; for example, enemy types may be found anywhere depending on whether they're living beings or machines. In addition, the usage of highly technical designations for weapons and technology is probably not the best choice in game articles; a lot of people who look for information on the games aren't hardcore fiction fans. The average person sees a title like "Deployment Platform Type-56 Ground Support/Ultra Heavy" and they have no idea what it might be referring to, so it's not helpful in the least. Add to that the confusing lack of faction-based categorization and most people will be completely lost with all the designations.
That is why I'm proposing a new format for feature lists: not a raw list of things that appear in alphabetical order, but something more informative and actually useful: a list sectioned more closely based on in-game function and role, such as Weapons, Enemies, and so on. The lists would also be faction-specific, unlike our current quite uninformative style of putting everything under a single category in alphabetical order. I know how much we all love painstakingly specific and rigid in-universe categorization and complex technobabble terms, but there are instances where this does not benefit the purpose of the article in any capacity. Ease in finding information should be the key point and that will not happen if we get caught up in technicalities. In addition, the lists don't need to be nearly as long and include every scrap of detail possible, like the various Covenant species combat harnesses. If we did this with everything the list would be endless.
For example, this is what Halo 4's feature list looks like now, and the following is what it might look like with this proposal implemented:
Features
The main differences, as you might notice, are the following:
- Characters are no longer listed in alphabetical order but rather in rough order of significance; one-off or mentioned-only characters are dumped into the "Other" list
- Enemies are now listed under their own category and not in random categories
- Armor, armor permutations and abilities now have their own category and one doesn't have to look for them amongst loads of other random tech - again, in-game function is key here, not technical in-universe categories
- Only the more prominent pieces of technology important to the plot or gameplay (e.g. Composer, Cryptum) are listed - trivial items such as the Sangheili combat harness or Kig-yar shield gauntlet are left out, just like the various MJOLNIR permutations
- Enemies, weapons and vehicles are listed based on faction and use popular terminology with the exception of the Species section (e.g. Grunt, plasma pistol as opposed to Unggoy and T-25 DEP) and specific models are only identified when necessary to disambiguate them from others (e.g. beam rifle, Phantom)
Now, I know that forgoing our precious in-universe terminology is tantamount to heresy, but if you were a random player looking for information on one of the above subjects, would you rather look for it on this list or the one we currently use?
While we're on the subject, in addition to changing the standard in our game articles, I'm proposing we add similar appearance lists to novels which currently only list characters. This is for the simple reason that a lot of pages get made based on subjects that appear in novels and it would be useful to link them somewhere in the article for the novel - a plain appearance list is a better solution than stretching out the synopsis to the level of detail it includes every minor character, location, ship and so on. We might even use a tabbox as an elegant way to save space.
--Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 01:48, 27 November 2012 (EST)
- *raises pitchforks* — subtank 02:13, 27 November 2012 (EST)