Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/draft

Project At a Glance

As of Q3 Template:Vgy, the project has:

• 134 Featured Articles
• 40 Featured Lists
• 12 Featured Topics

• 36 A-Class Articles
• 446 Good Articles
• 5 Good Topics

Changes to Featured and Good content

Summary: These past two quarters the VG project gained 5 Featured Articles, 4 Featured Lists, 3 A-class Articles, 41 Good Articles, and 0 Good Topic. 2 Featured Articles, 0 Featured Topics, 0 A-Class Article and 5 Good Articles were demoted.

Congratulations to the contributing editors.

April 2010

• Promoted GA: Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, Sonic and the Secret Rings, Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax, The Legendary Axe, Garry Schyman, Digimon Racing, Shigeru Miyamoto, Music of the Xenosaga series, Guitar Hero: Van Halen, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (NES), Super Mario World, Jason Jones, SimTower
• Demoted GA: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

May 2010

• Promoted FA/FL: List of Final Fantasy video games
• Promoted GA: Hotsuma, Beyond Good & Evil, Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), Cauldron II: The Pumpkin Strikes Back

June 2010

• Promoted FA/FL: List of characters in the Uncharted series, Ninja Gaiden (Nintendo Entertainment System), Halo 3: ODST, School Rumble
• Promoted GA: Space Gun, The Final Fantasy Legend, The Last Remnant, Seymour Goes to Hollywood, Mega Man, Music of Final Fantasy XIII, Espio the Chameleon
• Demoted FA: Half-Life 2
• Demoted GA: Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

July 2010

• Promoted FA/FL: List of Final Fantasy media
• Promoted GA: Lara Croft, Geneforge 2
• Demoted GA: Mega Drive

August 2010

• Promoted FA/FL: List of Digimon video games, Pathways into Darkness
• Promoted AA: Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior, Neverwinter Nights 2, Blaster Master
• Promoted GA: Backbreaker, Silent Hill 2, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Crash Team Racing, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, Metroid Prime: Trilogy, Bart's House of Weirdness, Limbo, Bart's House of Weirdness
• Demoted FA: Nintendo Entertainment System
• Demoted GA: Organization XIII

September 2010

• Promoted FA/FL: Aquaria
• Promoted GA: Pyramid Head, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Kud Wafter, Tales of Monkey Island, Last Order: Final Fantasy VII
• Demoted GA: Warcraft II

News and announcements

New articles

• There were 0 new articles in January 2010
• There were 0 new articles in February 2010
• There were 0 new articles in March 2010

Announcements

• Several video game categories have been deleted: "Video games set in the Xth millennium"
• The Wikiproject's To do list was reformatted from this.
• The template {{VG reviews}} has undergone clean up: several parameters have been removed per project consensus.
• The template {{Non-free game screenshot}} has been updated to sort images into categories based on gaming systems.
  • {{Non-free game screenshot|Wii}} for example, will place the file into Category:Screenshots of Wii games rather than the main Category:Screenshots of video games.
  • You can help out by making sure any screenshots you've uploaded are properly organized.
• Per the template change above, the previous screenshot categories are now depreciated.
  • The previous categories followed the naming scheme: [SYSTEM NAME] game screenshots.
  • The new categories follow the naming scheme: Screenshots of [SYSTEM NAME] games.
  • For example, Category:Commodore 64 game screenshots has been emptied and deleted to move the files into Category:Screenshots of Commodore 64 games.

On the Main Page

The Main Page is the most prominent page on the English Wikipedia.

Several video game articles appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page this quarter.

Congratulations to the contributing editors.

Today's featured article

• Space Invaders was Today's featured article for April 24, 2010
• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron was Today's featured article for May 14, 2010
• The Beatles: Rock Band was Today's featured article for June 4, 2010
• Crackdown was Today's featured article for July 25, 2010
• Chrono Cross was Today's featured article for August 15, 2010
• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was Today's featured article for September 15, 2010

Did you know?

Junichi Masuda

• A fact from Music of Final Fantasy XIII appeared on 12 June 2010
• A fact from Junichi Masuda appeared on 13 June 2010
• A fact from Academy of Champions: Soccer appeared on 14 June 2010
• A fact from Scene It? Twilight appeared on 17 June 2010
• A fact from Rock Band 3 appeared on 20 June 2010
• A fact from Let's Yoga appeared on 21 June 2010
• A fact from Seymour Goes to Hollywood appeared on 22 June 2010
• A fact from Fox Sports College Hoops '99 appeared on 29 June 2010
• A fact from Pocket Gamer appeared on 3 July 2010
• A fact from Hot Potato (video game) appeared on 3 July 2010
• A fact from Alice in Wonderland (2000 video game) appeared on 7 July 2010
• A fact from Battle Tag appeared on 10 July 2010
• A fact from Pac-Man Pinball Advance appeared on 14 July 2010
• A fact from Action Man: Search for Base X appeared on 14 July 2010
• A fact from Lula 3D appeared on 20 July 2010
• A fact from Space Hawk appeared on 11 August 2010
• A fact from Itchy & Scratchy in Miniature Golf Madness appeared on 13 August 2010
• A fact from Bart's House of Weirdness appeared on 13 August 2010
• A fact from Urban Yeti! appeared on 14 August 2010
• A fact from Bartman Meets Radioactive Man appeared on 17 August 2010
• A fact from Glass Joe appeared on 17 August 2010
• A fact from Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly appeared on 17 August 2010
• A fact from Mortal Kombat (2011 video game) appeared on 19 August 2010
• A fact from The Simpsons: Bart & the Beanstalk appeared on 21 August 2010
• A fact from BioShock Infinite appeared on 25 August 2010
• A fact from Superbike 2001 appeared on 31 August 2010
• A fact from Atari 2600 homebrew appeared on 8 September 2010

Feature: Featured Lists

Submited by User:GamerPro64

Feature: VG Portal

Submited by User:Guyinblack25

Portals are pages intended to serve as "Main Pages" for specific topics or areas of content. They are subject to Wikipedia's five pillars, and feature various types of content intended to further the understanding of its dedicated topic. The Video games portal is a portal dedicated to video games and the related sub topics. It was started in March 2005 by Jacoplane and included Selected pictures, Featured articles, and interesting bits of video game information. The portal has since expanded to include current events, more history information, Selected topics, and more quality articles and images.

Several other portals also exist which are dedicated to video game subtopics. Subtopics include from video game series (Final Fantasy, Mario, Pokémon, Sonic, and Zelda), companies (Insomniac Games, Nintendo, Sega, and Sony), and consoles (PlayStation and Xbox 360).

Video Games Portal Content

• Selected picture: Free picture which helps illustrate an aspects of video games: games, consoles, individuals, etc.
• Current events: Interesting bits of recent news related to the video game industry.
• Featured article: Synopsis that give a brief introduction to the respective featured article.
• This month in gaming history: Interesting bits of video game history.
• Categories: A listing of the various video game categories on Wikipedia.
• Things you can do: Various Wikipedia tasks needing attention. Feel free to help out.
• Selected topic: A group of related articles of good or featured quality.

Featured editor: Deckiller

Interviewed by User:GamerPro64

For this issue, we interview Deckiller, a longtime editor who has made Featured Articles that include Characters of Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX and Good articles like Squall Leonhart and World of Final Fantasy VIII (now absorbed into FFVIII). He's been mostly inactive since February 2009.

1. Now, you have been rarely active on Wikipedia since February. Why is that?

   Sadly, a perfect storm of real-life crises has cut down my free time dramatically. All of my free time is basically being devoted to the love of my life and my RPG Maker interests, which I had put on hold for far too long. Aside from that, I was simply burned out and needed a long break.

2. What drew you to Wikipedia, and what prompted you to begin editing?

   In 2005, Wikipedia began appearing at the top of every Google search imaginable. After a few months of reading content on the site, I found some areas that were undergoing significant development — mainly Final Fantasy and Star Wars-related articles. I was drawn into the collaborative aspect of Wikipedia, and that anyone with decent writing and research skills could contribute to a project that would certainly become a cornerstone of information. I started out by inserting a lot of fancruft on the Xenosaga pages (creating about a hundred small articles in the process). Within a month, though, I saw the error in my ways and started integrating extraneous information.

3. How did you become involved with the project?

   I joined and/or started several WikiProjects, and simply watched other editors work their magic. I've always been a word nerd, so the world of copy-editing was quite enticing. Reading FAC feedback from users like Tony1 inspired me to boost the quality of my work on the site, to the point where I was honing my skills at a rapid rate. The standards kept changing (sometimes not for the best), and I tried to adapt as fluidly as possible. 2006 and 2007 were easily my most active years, in which I helped write or elevate numerous articles to Good and Featured status. In those years, I helped mold how fiction is treated on Wikipedia, and essentially repented for my misguided view of the site in 2005.

   However, it eventually became too much to keep up with. I had my hands in the administrative, fiction, non-fiction, copy-editing, and FAC feedback jars. At one point, I was on Wikipedia more than six hours a day. Characters of Final Fantasy VIII was nominated for Featured status mere days after it had been composed. I was constantly defending my contributions and related articles from vandalism, fancruft, and anti-fiction critics. Several of my featured articles lost their status when the source standards rose, and for good reason. I also opened up Pandora's Box by rewriting WP:FICT, essentially creating a debate that is still raging three years later. There was too much going on, and I could not cover every front. Eventually, I just gave up on article writing and focused on copy-editing and reviewing, but even that became too much to handle.

4. What article(s) are you most proud of writing or exemplifies your best work?

   Because this is a collaborative project, I feel that articles exemplify the site's best work, not that of individual editors. It is very rare that a high-quality article is written exclusively by one editor, especially with today's standards. At one point, I was particularly proud of Final Fantasy VIII and Characters of Final Fantasy VIII, as well as my numerous copy-edits to Featured Article Candidates. However, I don't feel those two articles (or any Featured Article to which I've contributed significantly) exemplify the extent of my potential, as there is so much room for improvement. Articles are constantly edited and revised — for better for worse — so I can't take credit for what is on any article I've overhauled. I think my best work on Wikipedia is the sum of all the little things I've done — vandalism reverts, FAC feedback, copy-edits, research, synopses trimming — as well as my efforts in making video games a legitimate topic on this site.

5. What do you think is the most difficult part of editing on Wikipedia?

   I think the biggest challenge is two-fold: (1) finding reliable sources for topics about fiction, and (2) maintaining and defending contributions. Number one is fairly obvious, and I've already covered number two to some extent. Defending contributions can be very difficult when an entire group of editors have an axe to grind. This site is very political, and it can be very hard to work on when an entire group of editors are against your contributions from the start. When people nominate articles for review simply because they have a plot synopsis or a source they feel is unreliable, the stress can mount very quickly. There was one point where three or four of my major contributions were up for review at a single time, mostly for issues I did not cause. This is why it's extremely important not to overexert yourself; learn from my mistakes!

6. Are there any projects you want to work on right now?

   Dozens upon dozens. I've been wanting to work on Woonsocket, Rhode Island for years, and I was at one time very ambitious about elevating every Final Fantasy article to at least GA status. Unfortunately, there just isn't enough time.

7. What else would you like others to know about you?

   I love what this site stands for, and I wish I could be as active as I once was. I'll be graduating from college next year with a Bachelors in Management. I'm an RPG enthusiast; feel free to check out my profile at [1].