Wikipedia
There’s an old saying that two wrongs don’t make a right. Democracy is kind of like that, and, voting aside, there are few places more democratic than Wikipedia: The encyclopaedia that anybody can edit!
NinDB is far from perfect. In fact, some might say it’s the inconsistent product of a young games enthusiast. And that’s because I am no longer 18 and excitably throwing up a little bit about every game that I could glean from the “world wide web” back in 2000. I am 27, my writing has improved massively thanks to work, my knowledge of games has improved thanks to the sheer space of time, and the internet as a whole has improved its coverage of these games as well.
If any one site does what NinDB does better, it’s Wikipedia. It covers every system and every game. I’ve been using it to give me a kicking off point for a project and I’ve noticed three distinct categories of game article:
1. The Bloater: Long articles that you soon realise repeat themselves a lot. There is no categorisation or heading breakdowns, as apparently writing an article with easy to read headings counts as “game guide material”. But squishing it all into a paragraph that looks like a Magic Eye picture is fine.
2. The Lovely: Articles that have very little repetition and headings. Often these are for games that have small fanbases who love and care for the series, but the pages aren’t popular enough to warrant moderator whining.
3. The Piddler: Oddly, very common articles for US-only games. These essentially contain information ripped from NinDB.
So you can see why I’d be embarassed!
Wikipedia doesn’t allow certain information to be posted on the English language version if it might be classed as “game guide” information. This includes enemy lists, item lists, etc. Luckily, the Japanese Wikipedia does allow this, and is a fantastic resource if you speak “Bad Web Translatorese”… a language I have been fluent in since 2001.
My aim is to make NinDB a resource akin to Wikipedia Japan’s website… that is, more useful than Wikipedia, contains some guide information (but not too much) and is divided up into clear headings.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, and more editors don’t make a good article. Give me an article written by a specialist any day of the week.
Tags: Wikipedia
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4 August 2010 at 04:45
Wikipedia has a lot of little issues it needs to iron out. Like their notability clause, which has knocked off key gaming composers like Kinuyo Yamashita (who composed the original Castlevania) from getting a page. It’s a little annoying. Good luck with your goal, though – you have my support!