Talk:Geneforge

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Good article Geneforge has been listed as one of the Everyday life good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can delist it, or ask for a reassessment.
April 7, 2008 Good article nominee Listed
Famicom style controller This article is within the scope of WikiProject Video games. For more information, visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
A This article has been rated as A-Class on the assessment scale.
Low This article is on a subject of Low priority within gaming for inclusion in Wikipedia 1.0.
VG To-do:

[edit] VG Assessment

Excellent job on this. You should probably expand that lead a little but other than that you have a solid read here. Rating it B class, but if you did more tweaking to it and some formatting here and there I'd easily back A.--Kung Fu Man (talk) 02:08, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, that's a shot in the arm :) BTW, I've removed the cover request, there is no cover for the game the title screen is as close as it gets. Even if you order it on CD, it comes on a printed CD but not in a box as far as I know. Someoneanother 04:09, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Ok, 2nd attempt at posting this. Damn you, firefox...
I hope that the below contains some helpful suggestions.
  • 3/4 perspective - it's not a term I've come across before. Also, the screenshot looks like an isometric one, while the screenshot included in the 3/4 perspective article looks completely different. Is it possible to clear this up, as it's confusing to me?
  • Use of commas - there's several examples where a comma's been used to run one sentence on to another where a break would be more natural. It might be an idea to go through and just look at rephrasing stuff here and there.
  • Gameplay - what's the object of the game? It might be an idea to include an opening paragraph to describe what the object of the game is and how the player attains that goal. Classes - restructure the paragraph to have the class names and descriptions earlier, then the effects they have on the game after:

Before starting the game, players choose from three basic character classes, each of which has a particular playing style. The Guardian is the fighter class, excelling in standard combat skills, especially in hand-to-hand fighting. Guardians are capable of shaping creations, but have much less affinity for magic than Shapers. Agents excel in spell casting and are capable of hand-to-hand combat, but have poor shaping skills. The Shaper is a summoner, capable of creating living creatures by using their own life essence. Shapers rely on their creations for protection. Most objectives in the game must be completed via combat or diplomacy, but players can also use subterfuge to pass obstacles. All three character classes can use different methods, depending on which skills they are adept in, but some objectives cannot be completed unless the player character is a certain class. Each character class has a different combat style, the combat skills they are associated with cost fewer skill points to increase.

  • Development & Reception - both good. I've updated reception to use the new VGReviews template.
All in all, it's minor stugg. With a few tweaks here and there, I'd be happy to second the A. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gazimoff (talk • contribs) 12:00, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks very much for your suggestions, I've started work but it'll take me some time to double check for overlong sentences and to try and drum up a better introductory paragraph, I'll drop a note here when I'm done. The game and accompanying strategy guide are now in my hands, I should be able to deal with the plot section which was the one remaining worry. Someoneanother 20:52, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

I've started playing the game, the in-game text and dialogue is proving exceptionally useful in terms of actually explaining the story (what's in reviews doesn't explain the half of it) and citing it. Since I now find myself utterly committed to nailing down this section, would you mind waiting until I've finished it before giving the article a final once over and an opinion on whether it's acceptable for A class? Another pair of eyes on it is a real help, but stacking up what's needed in terms of citing the story is taking up all the thinking room right now. Someoneanother 01:35, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

It's an A. User:Krator (t c) 11:28, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
Agree. The improvements you've made, even without citing the story fully, are enough. Excellent work! Gazimoff (talk) 19:06, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks to all of you for your help. Someoneanother 23:38, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] GAN on hold

  • "for the Macintosh on December 12, 2001. The Windows version followed on March 19, 2002" - you need to wlink dates per WP:DATE
    • Done
  • Is there any box art or anything like that for the infobox?
    • No box, it just comes as a printed CD in a little plastic case. I've used the splash screen, which first appears when booting up the game. Apart from that, there's the title screen itself (which appears seconds after the splash screen), with the 'new game' etc. options. Or there's the logo found here. Which of these would you prefer? I'll hopefully be doing the same to each Geneforge game so it would be good to know.
      • Personally, I'd go with the title screen, if it contains the game's name (which I imagine it would). dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) 08:06, 7 April 2008 (UTC)
  • "but some objectives cannot be completed unless the player character is a certain class" - so what would happen if they chose the "wrong" class at the start of the game?
    • I got that from one of the sources, perhaps 'objectives' is the wrong word? The only 'objective' is to get the hell outta there, it's access to certain areas and ways of completing certain tasks which are affected by it. Even then, I think it's referring to specific classes having cheaper skill points in certain areas, rather than "You are not a Guardian therefore cannot...". Should I just cut it?
      • Done, changed that aspect of the sentence into a separate sentence: "Some areas are difficult to pass, and some tasks are difficult to complete, unless the player character is a certain class." Someoneanother 14:20, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
        • Yeah, I was confused for a while there! That looks fine. dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) 08:06, 7 April 2008 (UTC)
  • "The player is now stranded on Sucia Island and must find a way to escape.[7][13][14]" - do you need all these refs for this? For example, ref 14 isn't that descriptive or useful...
    • Removed. All that paragraph is a summary of the introduction, I was playing it safe. Since the reader can't see for themselves without booting up the game, it's of no more use than the cites used.
  • "These serviles have had no contact" - should it be capitalised?
    • Done.
  • "Jeff Vogel cited Baldur's Gate II" - just refer to him using surname
    • Done.
  • "and its predecessor the Exile series" - exile should be in italics, right?
    • Done.
  • Any Metacritic/Game Rankings data?
    • Done. Gamerankings only has 2 reviews and is skewed positively.
      • Odd; they usually have similar content.
  • Check if italics is relevant in any case in the Reviews box. If not, then fix some cases in the prior section
    • Done, they're websites not magazines (which seems to be why italics is used), so removed the italics from the reception section. Now consistent.

Leave a note on my talk page when done. Cheers, dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) 03:02, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

All looks good here; passed. Now adding boilerplate template below *ducks*

This GAN has passed, and this is now a good article! If you found this review helpful, please consider helping out a fellow editor by reviewing another good article nomination. Help and advice on how to do so is available at Wikipedia:Reviewing good articles, and you can ask for the help of a GAN mentor, if you wish.

Cheers, dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) 08:06, 7 April 2008 (UTC)