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Andytizer

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Posts posted by Andytizer

    Article titles and stylised names (LIMBO or Limbo)

    in Development (concluded)

    Posted

    ThunderKnight has brought up the small issue of stylised titles of names. The example here is LIMBO vs Limbo.

     

    Wikipedia uses the title Limbo (video game). This is Wikipedia's title convention.

     

    Like ThunderKnight, I agree that our article titles should not be in their stylised forms, as this opens up a can of worms (SPAZ vs Space Pirates and Zombies, PROTOTYPE vs Prototype, WATCH_DOGS vs Watch Dogs, etc.). Curious to hear other feedback.

    Humble PCGamingWiki Enhancement Initiative

    in Articles and troubleshooting

    Posted

    Sure, I just added a list to the progress page.

     

    A large number of those however is prototypes. I'm not sure whether they actually deserve separate pages. This might require a bit of discussion.

     

    Sure prototype should get their own pages - but I don't think they should contribute to the 'count'. We should consider the project finished even if we don't finish off those prototype pages. Maybe we can just make stubs for all of them at the moment.

    Digital distribution template

    in Development (concluded)

    Posted

    These stores need work: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Category:D ... stribution

     

    Individual store pages are great because each store has their unique quirks (e.g. Amazon.com digital games can be bought from any country, you can activate Ubisoft games on Uplay using a hack, etc.)

     

    However, we should try to standardise some of the information, by implementing a new table - e.g. Template:Digital Distribution Table

     

    Some things to checklist:

    central client - does it have a client for buying?

    patching - automatic patching?

    standalone installers - does it offer as an alternative?

    international/regional - can you buy or activate the games from another country?

     

    Interested in hearing what else would be involved.

    Console commands and subpages

    in Development (concluded)

    Posted

    I had a vision for 1 page per game, covering every single fix. However, I have come to realise that there are some very in-depth information which will clog up main article pages too much. This information might include comprehensive lists of console commands, cvars, graphics configuration settings etc.

     

    For example, here is a list of Crysis 3 cvars and console commands, which is enormous: http://www.gamefront.com/crysis-3-pc-de ... -commands/

     

    There is potentially useful information which could warrant its own page, on a case by case basis. I am also considering making subpages for tweaks such as 'ultra' settings, etc.

     

    A title might be:

    Crysis 3 (console commands)

    Crysis 3/Console commands - this is a subpage, but might look a bit ugly as a title

    Crysis 3 (graphics settings)

     

    The Crysis 3 (console commands) page might contain a huge list of commands, but the main Crysis 3 article would also contain the commands relevant to 'standard' settings such as windowed mode, FOV, etc. so that wouldn't be affected.

     

    Any thoughts?

    Improvements

    in Development (concluded)

    Posted

    My thought was that system requirements would be part of the 'reference' list, as much as Game data, Video settings, Input settings, etc. and that other content like Issues unresolved, Issues fixed are endless, and that System requirements would get lost at the bottom.

     

    However I can see that it's more intuitive to have System requirements at the very bottom of the page, as that's where it is on most websites. Now the question is, do we put the 3 OSes together under 1 header at the bottom? (as we have been doing for the Humble Indie Bundle restoration project).

    Suggesting a "Help Out" Section

    in Development (concluded)

    Posted

    Hello everyone!

     

    Currently, there is no easy way on this wiki to find pages that may need improvement other than looking through a large list of articles labelled as stubs/cleanups. I'd like to suggest a "Help Out" page, preferably listed on the sidebar or prominently on the front page, that is based on Wikipedia's Help Out page. It would be similar, but with only two sections (unless more are suggested), those being "Stubs" and "Cleanups".

     

    I was wondering if the moderators would be willing to keep this page up to date, it could be partially moderated by a bot. Mods would add pages manually but once a "stub" or "cleaup" tag is deleted the bot would automatically delete the article from the page. Due to the small userbase it probably wouldn't need to be updated more than once every one to two days.

     

    Recommendations for the priority of games put onto the page would be helpful. Possibly based on view count, recently released, or incredibly poor quality (e.g. uses an older version of the template, has no sources, or has poor grammar/formatting).

     

    Suggestions are very much appreciated.

     

    EDIT: A category called "Help Out" to point out articles that very badly need improvement may be a good idea. Quantum Conundrum being a good example.

     

    Good suggestion. Really, cleanup should be the priority, as poorly laid out pages reflect on the site poorly.

     

    I've done some preliminary work here: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Home/Help_out

     

    I'm not sure how to improve it or to integrate it into the Home page.

     

    Currently, Home page is laid out into 5 individual horizontal rows in 3 columns.

     

    I am thinking of redoing the Home page layout again(!) into a 3 column layout, but where the third right-hand column is not fixed to the rows of the left two columns. The right hand column might be a better home for long lists.

    Add Information from WSGF

    in Development (concluded)

    Posted

    Thanks for the work on this. It's very much appreciated, and it's timely as Skip (WSGF admin) and I have discussed link sharing, and I've been stalling trying to think of a good way to integrate this into the sample article.

     

    My opinion is that we should integrate all information from WSGF and any other sources for widescreen/multi-monitor fixes. The advantage being that PCGamingWiki is a resource that anyone can edit, and its pages can be kept up to date easily.

     

    In terms of format however, I think we should keep it very simple so that we avoid clogging up pages with information that is irrelevant to most users.

    Ideally every game should run at native widescreen resolution without cutoff or letterboxing. Rather than using a table checklist, we can just write up where the game is deficient and whether there are any available fixes.

     

    I also propose a mini-WSGF award icon with the 'Native' column, with a link to the relevant page. This would make the table easier to scan through. The trouble will be making tiny icons which fit the table and also convey the info, maybe we need to make new ones.

    System Shock 2 to be released on GOG.com

    in Articles and troubleshooting

    Posted

    Release information is here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02 ... es-to-gog/

    Updating our PCGW article will be essential: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/System_Shock_2

     

    This is a big deal and it will be a priority for us to get our article updated as soon as the game is re-released.

     

    I'm be happy to provide review code for the new version to do testing on applying old mods - according to Kick, "This release is the original version in all its glory. Fans will be able to apply the mods they know and love, and hopefully we may see some new mods from the community in the future."

     

    I've done a lot of work on the page now: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/System_Shock_2

    System Shock 2 to be released on GOG.com

    in Articles and troubleshooting

    Posted

    Release information is here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02 ... es-to-gog/

    Updating our PCGW article will be essential: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/System_Shock_2

     

    This is a big deal and it will be a priority for us to get our article updated as soon as the game is re-released.

     

    I'm be happy to provide review code for the new version to do testing on applying old mods - according to Kick, "This release is the original version in all its glory. Fans will be able to apply the mods they know and love, and hopefully we may see some new mods from the community in the future."

    Improvements

    in Development (concluded)

    Posted

    So in the sample article we have the order of articles as follows:

     

    Availability

    Improvements

    Game data

    Video settings

    Input settings

    Network settings

    *** Other improvements

    System requirements.

    Issues unresolved

    Issues fixed

     

    My original thought for having the 'Improvements' section at the top was really to make sure people see things that 99% of people would recommend to install when playing a game. e.g. Dark Souls DSfix, Fallout 1 and 2 content restored patch, KOTOR2 restored content patch, Titan Quest fan patch, etc.

     

    However, I want this separate from other improvements, like enabling Ultra settings on Planetside2, or injecting FXAA into a game - which improve the game, but are not essential to enjoyment, and may clutter 'essential' improvements - e.g.: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/PlanetSide ... a_graphics

     

    So my thought is to rename the headers 'Essential improvements' and 'Other improvements' and place them in the order as shown above. Any thoughts?

    PCGamingWiki first birthday giveaway - 9-10 February 2013

    in Articles and troubleshooting

    Posted

    Giveaway contest

    Celebrating one year of fixing PC games

     

    12 February 2013 - congratulation to the winners: Кирил Тричков, William, Kahn, Kory, Pekka and Jmaa!

     

    5 copies of

    Dishonored (Steam) to giveaway to 5 winners, courtesy of Bethesda

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

     

    1 copy of

    Arma II (Steam) to giveaway, courtesy of Bohemia

    everything you need to play DayZ

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

     

    History of PCGamingWiki: the first year

    The problem with PC gaming

    I've always been interested in tweaking PC games so that they would play exactly how I wanted them to. Too many times have I purchased a game and then realised that it didn't allow you to alt+tab without crashing, or it wouldn't work on a certain set of graphics cards or it had really horrible DRM, or it plain just didn't work at all and I'd think 'welp maybe it'll work on my next PC'.

     

    I really hated the idea of people spending hours trying to fix a game and failing because their skill in scouring forum threads for fixes wasn't as good as mine. So, whenever I discovered something new about a game, I endeavored to post it somewhere to give people a chance of finding it. These early steps involved me submitting game fixes to magazines or post them up on my blog where I maintained guides like how to implement borderless fullscreen windowed on any game.

     

    The idea

    As the blog developed, I found that the fixes I'd written up would get out of date really quickly: new patches and programs would be released, services would blink out of existence, and comments filled in the gaps until I could get the time to edit the main post again with the new information. I began to realise that comments from readers were actually the most valuable sources of information on any page listing a fix, and that I should just let the commenter make the edits themselves. If I could create a site where a single page listing fixes for every game, then this would eliminate the need to ever research a fix ever again.

     

    Humble beginnings

    On 4 February 2012, I registered pcgamepedia.com and worked on it for a few days, before realising how silly the name sounded, and so on 9 February 2012, I registered pcgamingwiki.com and transferred everything over. At this stage I wasn't too worried about whether I'd be able to attract other people to the project. I figured that even if no one else contributed, it would a useful place for me to refer to when I reinstalled Fallout 2 again and wanted to get all my patches, fixes and tweaks back.

     

    The first article I contributed to was for Titan Quest, which I had picked up on sale and had spent many hours researching the rich number of mods and tweaks for the game, and managed to consolidate information strewn everywhere on fan sites, blogs, endless forum threads. I figured this was a good start, and I promptly began writing up articles on newer games such as Kingdoms of Amalur.

     

    I tried to put the word out about the wiki onto the forums, but it was difficult attracting people to the project. The first time another person registered was an absolute joy for me. A friendly chap named Moloc decided to upload his Monkey Island fixes somewhere, and chose PCGamingWiki to do it. For the first few days, only 3 accounts were registered, the Admin, Andytizer and Moloc.

     

    Reddit explosion[fright][rimg width=100 height=200:1mszqhqq]http://i.imgur.com/H2AgI.png[/rimg] [rimg width=100 height=200:1mszqhqq]http://i.imgur.com/QMU1L.png[/rimg][/fright]

    Initial post onto subreddits like r/pcgaming were very successful, so I decided to try and capture the mainstream r/gaming crowd by posting up a comic, a popular format there at the time.

     

    What I love about PC gaming / What I hate about PC gaming... [fixed] proved to be so successful that it brought our hosting server to its knees, bringing over 200 new users and an explosion in activity. You can get an idea of how it looked like by checking this Wayback Machine cache from 12 February 2012.

     

    PEOPLE OF THE FUTURE - this is what we have figured out so far... was the really big post that took the top spot on reddit r/all, bringing in so much traffic that our host shut down the site and told us to find another service.

     

    Constant improvements

    It was around this time that JRWR stepped up to help us transfer over to a new host (and since then, to the dedicated server), and he's been instrumental in keeping PCGamingWiki up and running. I'd like to thank him for all his work, and also the work of our hard-working moderators, who have gone beyond the call to make sure formatting has been applied correctly and spamming has been eliminated, and for taking part in helping to guide the future of the website.

     

    Since the beginning of the site, we have worked extremely hard to improve our formatting and layout to improve the clarity to which fixes are listed. Our main goal now is to complete listings for as many games as possible, and to fulfill a dream of having every bit of information about how a game runs and what fixes are available on a single page, so that it's all kept up to date in a single place. My hope one day that this site becomes as important to the games industry as Wikipedia is to the rest of the world. We want developers and publishers to link and contribute to our articles directly and eventually I want the site to be officially acknowledged and linked to by stores like Steam, GOG.com and Amazon.com. One day, tere'l be a page for every single PC game ever released.

     

    Thanks for being a part of PCGamingWiki. --~~ Andytizer

     

    Milestones

    09 February 2012 - registration of pcgamingwiki.com

    29 February - Kotaku writes about PCGamingWiki

    30 August - more than 1000 concurrent users

    09 September - 1000th registered user

    09 November - Rock Paper Shotgun article on Dark Souls, linking to our most visited game article ever

    19 January 2013 - migrated to a dedicated server

    20 January - Kickstarter success, 440% funded

     

    Top 5 game articles

    1. Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition

    2. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords

    3. Borderlands 2

    4. DayZ

    5. Diablo III

     

    Top 5 website referrers

    1. reddit.com

    2. forums.steampowered.com

    3. rockpapershotgun.com

    4. t.co (Twitter)

    5. steamcommunity.com

     

    Most viewed family viral video from a member of the PCGamingWiki team

    Bots

    in Development (concluded)

    Posted

    Many thanks to Garrett for the use of Garrbot and deprecating the SysReq template in favour of the System Requirements template.

     

    I'm wondering if anyone else can think of any mass edit type actions that the wiki could benefit from?

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