Wikipedia:WikiProject Alternate Reality Gaming/Notability

Notability of ARGs

There are a massive amount of ARGs out there, with two or three more coming out each week. Of course, not all of these are notable for articles on Wikipedia. This is a set of guidelines for determining whether an ARG should warrant its own article. This is a guideline. It is not a law. Articles do not need to adhere to all of these to have their own article, but it is highly recommended that they do. Otherwise, there is a high chance that they will be deleted in ordinance with other Wikipedia policies.

Necessary Guidelines

These are guidelines that ARG articles must adhere to. Otherwise, they are not appropriate for inclusion on Wikipedia.

1. Firstly, make sure that it classifies as an ARG as explained in the Alternate reality game article. If it does not, the following guidelines probably do not apply to it.
2. Secondly, make sure that there is an established player base beyond a few dozen players. The article needs enough editors to fully develop it, and also, it needs to be useful as reference to other people.
3. Thirdly, make sure that there is enough content in the game to warrant a full article and not just a stub. If you believe that the ARG is notable (as noted below), but does not have enough content to warrant a full article, consider adding it under the history section of the main ARG article.
4. Generally, articles should only be published on games that have been going on for a considerable length of time to warrant enough content to be a complete article (note: an exception to this rule can be made for high-profile games that have just begun, but have attracted considerable attention)

Notability Guidelines

These are guidelines that determine whether an ARG is notable enough for inclusion on Wikipedia. While new articles need not adhere to all the characteristics, it is recommended that they adhere to multiple guidelines below.

1. The game has been the subject of multiple non-trivial published works that are reliable and independent of the subject.
   1. This means that there are more than one sources that are out of game that have mentioned the ARG. In the case of promotional ARGs, the sources must also be independant of the promotion or company.
   2. Multiple...published works - this means that all the references cannot be blogs. There should be at least two non-blog news sources for notable ARGs.
2. The topic has its own forum on a notable ARG forum such as UnForums.
   1. The forum cannot be a forum on the game site, and must be a notable ARG forum.
   2. An article that does not have its own forum probably does not have enough content to constitue a full article.
   3. An exception can be made that are in forums such as Unfiction's ARGs With Potential section