Talk:Marathon Trilogy

plot section and story section

I don't see why there are 2 different sections in this article directly relating to the marathon story. I think both need to be combined together, revised heavily and streamlined for the reader. I'm going to comb through both sections and possibly do a re-write if need be. This whole article needs to be revised somewhat to be more encyclopedic. --RiseRobotRise (talk) 08:32, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Created Archive

I created an archive of all the past conversations. All of the topics, with the exception of the one I started has not been discussed about in the past year or so. The vast majority of topics date back years and haven't been talked about in years as well. If you want to take a look at previous conversations, you can find it here, or in the archive box I posted at the top of the main talk page. --RiseRobotRise (talk) 23:54, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

Looks like you accidentally archived the portion you meant to preserve here too. I've fixed that for you. --Pfhorrest (talk) 08:15, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I actually meant to archive that too, but on second thought, it is very recent, and relevant to the work that is being done to this article. thanks --RiseRobotRise (talk) 01:09, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Oh I see now, I misread: I thought your message above said "all the topics, with the exception of the one I started, have been archived", indicating that the archival of the latter was unintentional.

Did you set up autoarchiving, and if so, with what settings? --Pfhorrest (talk) 05:50, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

No I didn't set up autoarchiving. Given the amount of user edits this article receives, and the frequency topics are posted on this talk page, I don't think having one would be necessary, but if you'd like to set one up, go for it :) --RiseRobotRise (talk) 06:41, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

How to cite the Pathways into Darkness connection?

The mention in the lede that the games are set in the same fictional universe as Pathways into Darkness is requesting a citation. I am unclear on what would count as a citation for such a statement, and how it would be referenced.

Colloquially, if someone asked me "how do you know that?", I would say "their stories reference the same entities". The most direct connection is the Jjaro, an alien race which features in the background of Marathon 2 and prominently in Marathon Infinity, and a representative of which sent the player-character and his cohort on their mission in Pathways into Darkness. The less direct connection is the dreaming alien "god" "whose name no human throat will ever learn to pronounce", the prevention of whose awakening is the objective of Pathways Into Darkness (at the direction of the Jjaro), and the "W'rkncacnter" (try pronouncing that), a similar godlike being or beings which the Jjaro trapped inside a star in Marathon Infinity.

I think the fact that two works by the same author reference the same characters is prima facie evidence that the works are set in the same fictional universe, but how does one cite that in an encyclopedia fashion? How, for instance, would one cite the connection between Asimov's "Robots", "Empire", and "Foundation" series, if not for the fact that characters and places and so forth coexist between all three?

There is mention somewhere by a Bungie source (I can try to look it up if need be) that Marathon 2 was originally supposed to end with a return to the first level of Pathways Into Darkness "to make the connection more explicit" (or some words to that effect). Would that be sufficient, or even necessary? --Pfhorrest (talk) 04:55, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Well, since I don't see any official web pages that could be cited, just the ones run by the fans, I think the appropriate thing to do is make the assertion slightly less positive and just back it up with some of the facts you mentioned. Something like "Marathon shares some story elements with Pathways into Darkness, leading fans to consider the games as being in the same universe. For instance, [state facts here]." Perhaps just the first sentence in the lede, and elaboration somewhere in the article.

While I agree that Marathon was clearly intentionally linked to PiD, unless Bungie stated it somewhere, it's better to state it as a belief rather than a fact, and then list the evidence. I doubt anyone will be so pedantic as to mark a statement rewritten in that manner with an "original research" tag, but if they do, a simple citation of a bungie.org page showing fans making the connection should be a sufficient response. --Iritscen (talk) 17:01, 28 February 2012 (UTC)