"Not Applicable" Option for Settings Templates

[Nicereddy 109]

I've seen multiple ways of dealing with settings which are N/A or Not Applicable, most of which are not preferable for various reasons. Sometimes editors will just delete the "unknown" and leave that line blank, or simply delete the line entirely. Both of these aren't preferable both for wiki automation using bots and simple aesthetics.

 

I'd like to propose an N/A option alongside the current true, false, and unknown options. This would be usable for multiple cases. Games which don't use the mouse wouldn't require mouse acceleration, games which don't have voice acting wouldn't require subtitles, and games which are 2-dimensional wouldn't require an FOV slider. I think this would be much better for unifying all settings templates across all pages, so that there aren't any pages which have only a few rows on their table due to the irrelevance of many of the settings.

 

Thoughts?

[Garrett 214]

This sounds like a good plan. This would also help catch cases where standard rows like multi-monitor have been removed. The template could automatically display the N/A symbol for blank/absent parameters until existing pages are updated.

[Pridit 39]

I'd also have to agree with this, I don't really like leaving it blank if it doesn't apply either and this would be the perfect solution for that.

[Nicereddy 109]

Awesome, so generally the consensus is that this has no negative consequences? Would anyone be able to make such an image so we can implement it in our templates? I would do it myself, but I don't have access to Illustrator at the moment and GIMP just goes over my head.

[Garrett 214]

How about something like this?

 

 

The obvious downside is that it's the same colour as unknown, but I don't know what other options there are in that regard.

[Nicereddy 109]

What if we made it a capitalized N/A? I think it'd make it stand out more.

 

I'd also think about making it red, although that may cause problems with the false tag.

[Jeth Calark 12]

Definitely make it capitalized.

[Mirh 103]

"?!" couldn't be replaced by a simple question mark?

like here

 

it really let you feel that there's something missing there, imo

whilst i think that not applicable field should simply be hidden..

 

if i'm playing super mario 2D, i won't ever look for a fov hack, so since the row is useless it shouldn't be shown

[Newmansan 30]

I'm sorta torn. I can see that having a N/A field for certain fields can be informative, but putting N/A for lots of fields can clog up an article.

 

Totally removing lines however could possibly leave some doubt in the user.

 

I'm leaning towards including fields and just leaving them N/A, but we gotta consider the trade off of potential clutter.

 

A potential middle ground could be include fields that are a part of some or most games in the particular genre/style of a game, but not fields that aren't really expected (i.e. fov in a 2d platformer)

 

Also, why not make N/A a slightly muted orange? That way it sticks out but doesn't sear your eyeballs.

 

 

 

Also, random aside: Keep the interrobang for unknown. If only because it's a fun word to use in any conversation.

[Nicereddy 109]

For consistency amongst the design I definitely thing the Unknown icon should stay.

 

I can see how this could potentially add clutter, but I feel that the tables wouldn't, because they're well-contained in their borders, become cluttered by this addition.

[Sk3pt1kal 0]

It would probably be best to add a note for almost all N/A, since it still might be confusing for readers  

edit: though obviously this would make the clutter worse

[Hungry eyes 6]

I made this a while back

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/File:Not_applicable.png

 

[Nicereddy 109]

I like it, I think it works well as it contrasts with all the currently used icons.

[M0nster 1]

Looks great! As Nicereddy has already said, it looks like it will stand out from the other icons.

[Newmansan 30]

I like it.