The Big List of 3rd Party DRM on Steam

[Andytizer 269]

This article page has been receiving a lot of attention since posted onto reddit a few days ago:

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Big_List_of_3rd_Party_DRM_on_Steam

 

I have stepped in to discuss some policy here:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=34991074&postcount=2029

 

Here is what was said:

 

 

Hello, I am Andytizer, admin of PCGamingWiki here, and I suppose the current custodian of The Big List of 3rd Party DRM on Steam, taking over from Flibitijibibo some time ago.

 

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone for helping to edit The Big List of 3rd Party DRM on Steam. It's a big job and I'm glad that there are lots of people passionate about PC gaming and DRM issues, it's certainly not possible to maintain without your help.

 

Regarding the recent edits by i9urd (130.43.141.35) and Arios - we would like to allow i9urd's edits to stand. The reason is that articles should 1) not contain unconfirmed speculation and 2) reference wherever possible. It is clear that games like Fallout 3 do not belong in the 'From GFWL to Steamworks' list as there has been no official announcement about its GFWL future. However I would say that various hacks and fixes DO belong on the Fallout 3 article page, and likewise on other game articles too.

 

I also want to say that we do not tolerate name-calling or offensive language on the wiki in any form, even mild terms such as calling someone a child, or telling someone to GTFO. This kind of languages has no place in our community, please consider yourselves warned.

 

Part of the problem we hope to address is lack of policy guidance. We hope to produce this in the near future, especially with regards to notability, citations, and behaviour. We aspire to become the Wikipedia of PC gaming, and our moderation will reflect this too.

 

I will also be discussing revamping the way we present 'project' pages such as the page being discussed. I will include a link to this Steam discussion to be displayed prominently on the header and talk pages, and clarify the goals and rules to be followed when editing that page.

 

Many thanks for everyone's contributions, they are very much appreciated.

 

Andytizer

 

I'm open to suggestions on how to improve The Big List of 3rd Party DRM on Steam (our most popular article for the last week).

 

I would like to produce some kind of boxout header explaining goals and highlighting relevant discussion threads and relevant people/moderators. This could go at the top of the page or alternatively the talk page.

 

These could be applied to other project pages, e.g. Humble Store, Humble Indie Bundle, GOG.com Enhancement Project. It is clear that these pages are hugely popular and important and we need to do a bit more moderation to improve the situation.

[Nicereddy 109]

I will gladly take a leadership role on the GOG.com and Humble Bundle projects (along with Soeb), if we plan on adding that to the header as you suggest. I also think cleaning up the status bar may be in order, since it currently doesn't automatically update how much the bar is filled alongside the number being updated.

 

Would it be worth creating simple logos for each big project to put on the home page as well as their respective project pages?

[Andytizer 269]

Hi Nicereddy thanks for volunteering on this. Because these pages are 'projects' rather than articles (and very high traffic projects too) because the information is constantly being updated.

 

I have some ideas I'd like to discuss with you about a new type of template to place on top of each project, a 'Projectbox' perhaps. We don't have to define fields, but just have a consistent freetext boxout briefly explaining the main points. For example we could have:

Moderators, points of contact

Discussion threads (e.g. Steam, GOG.com, some forum)

Main references

Positions/assumptions, (e.g. Steamworks isn't DRM explanation, GFWL closure date is a rumour rather than hard fact, etc.)

Rules, policy

 

I feel something like the above would help people to contribute and to provide proper guidance for them.

[Nicereddy 109]

That sounds like a good template to begin with, although we may need to update it as we go on.

 

I was also wondering if we could make the "counter" on the GOG.com project a template for ease of updating?

 

As of now I have nothing else to add to what you suggest, but I'll comment again if I think of anything.

[Andytizer 269]

Thanks Nicereddy - to create a counter GOG.com counter template we need a way to calculate a percentage , e.g. 160/746 = 0.21 = 21% - that will automatically calculate the progress bar width. Is there a way to do this with parser functions or another method?

[Garrett 214]

I have added a very basic instruction section to The Big List of 3rd Party DRM on Steam. Project goals are only very vaguely stated at the moment.