Awesome Games Wiki:Policy/Manual of Style

This is Awesome Games Wiki's official Manual of Style, which guides you through how articles on this wiki should be written and formatted. Please do not judge this Manual too seriously &mdash; be reminded that not all of us have viewed this Manual at all.

Grammar and spelling
For our readers to be able to understand and enjoy the material within our articles, this text must be well-written. Please try to adhere to the rules of grammar and spelling as much as possible. Although not everyone on this wiki is a professional proofreader, you are encouraged to do the best you can in ensuring that your technical details are grammatically correct. If someone corrects your spelling or grammar, do not take it personally. They are simply helping readers.

Pronouns
Please use singular they when referring to a person of unknown gender. For example, someone referring to a player should use they, as the person is of unknown gender (he/she/other).

If this bothers you, reconstruct the sentence to use a plural subject and use they.


 * Unacceptable
 * People must know the truth about TV Tropes! They're ruining lives! I heard the story of one person who got so obsessed with that dreaded site that he became mad!


 * Acceptable
 * People must know the truth about TV Tropes! They're ruining lives! I heard the story of one person who got so obsessed with that dreaded site that they became mad!


 * Alternative
 * People must know the truth about TV Tropes! They're ruining lives! I heard the story of somebody who got mad for visiting that dreaded site so often!

Quotes
Please copy text that you are quoting exactly as it is written. This includes any spelling errors and other obscurities. To indicate that you have copied an error (and it is not an error of your own), please use the &lsqb;sic&rsqb; tag.

Contractions
At best, make an attempt to avoid contractions such as "don't" and "can't." These sound very informal and, in general, decrease the formality and professionalism of the article.

Capitalization
In article titles and the article body, only the first word and proper names are given a capital letter. Wikipedia's Manual of Style can be used for guidance. The following things should always be capitalized, due to being proper names:
 * Titles of games. Does not include common names such as "shooter" or "platformer".
 * Examples: Super Mario Bros., Minecraft, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Metroid Dread, Elden Ring.
 * Exceptions:
 * Titles of articles from gaming sites.
 * Proper names.

Capitalization guides
Always capitalized: When using title case, the following words be capitalized:
 * The first and last word of the title
 * Every adjective, adverb, noun, pronoun, and subordinating conjunction (Me, It, His, If, etc.)
 * Every verb, including forms of to be (Be, Am, Is, Are, Being, Was, Were, Been)
 * Prepositions that contain five letters or more (During, Through, About, Until, Below, Under, etc.) – the "five-letter rule"
 * Words that have the same form as prepositions, but are not being used specifically as prepositions
 * Particles of phrasal verbs (e.g. Give Up the Ghost, "Puttin' On the Ritz")
 * The first word in a compound preposition (e.g. Time Out of Mind)

Not capitalized: For title case, the words that are not capitalized (unless they are the first or last word of a title) are:
 * Indefinite and definite articles (a, an, the)
 * Short coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor; also for, yet, so when used as conjunctions)
 * Prepositions containing four letters or fewer (as, in, of, on, to, for, from, into, like, over, with, upon, etc.); but see above for instances where these words are not used as prepositions
 * The word to in infinitives

Italicization of titles
Major works of art, including video games, should have their titles italicized.


 * Examples: Have you played Elden Ring today?

Point of view
A common mistake while editing is to use phrases like the below:


 * All I can say is, this game sucks big time!

Although this is completely valid due to the grammar rules above, notice that it is expressing the idea in the first person. This can confuse the reader a good deal. Who is the "I" speaking?

Second-person statements are also typically not acceptable. Take, for instance, the below phrase:


 * If you try to hit anyone with the cane, it only increases your stress!

These are slightly trickier to spot. Notice how the author is explaining the situation using the reader as an example, using "you" as if the reader is the subject of the situation.

In general, attempt to stick as close to third-person as possible. Try this phrase:


 * Trying to hit anything else with the cane only increases his [Dr. Jekyll] stress.

The only exception is in sections such as user pages, and blogs. In such cases, use second-person instructional text if possible, except for your user pages and blogs, where you can use the first person.

Linking
Links are the thread that sews the wiki together. Although their importance cannot be stressed enough, it is also important that you know how to use them properly.

Do not be obtrusive
Although links are important, do not let them get in the way of the reader. The following sentence is unacceptable:
 * This game and this game f*ckin' suck! (the Mario game sucks' too! mh:crappygames:CD-i sucks!)

Notice how the text seems to acknowledge the existence of the links and seems to "point" at them with the "see" phrase.

This is better:
 * This game along with this game, the Mario game and mh:crappygames:CD-i, they all suck balls!

Although link text stands out from the rest of the text, do not let links halt the flow of the writing.

Avoid "click here" syndrome
Many web designers know that link text that says "click here" is not descriptive and requires the reader to click on the link to discover what article is the destination. This rule of thumb also applies to wikis as well, especially within the article namespace. In particular, "click here" syndrome is to be avoided within standard articles, although its use is also discouraged within the Category, Template, Awesome Games Wiki, and Help namespaces.

Short article, one link
When adding links within a short article, it is unnecessary to link the same word multiple times. In longer articles, however, the better choice is to "renew" the link for every section.

Chronological order
Please keep each game in a series in chronological order. Articles should show the history of a topic starting with the first game and ending with the latest game.

Line breaks
Please use the    tag to add a line break, as recommended by Wikimedia's Lead Platform Architect. Other variants of the line break tag will produce the same result but are longer to type.

Multiple line breaks
Multiple line breaks (   ...) look messy. If they are in place to align a picture or template, it may be better to use a clr template instead.

Coloring
Unless there is an extreme case with a very good purpose, do not use coloring in articles. There are two major types of coloring:


 * 1) The whole page is a single color or format. While the universal color scheme may seem much more interesting and "cooler" than the plain, black-on-white text, the inconsistency can be both distracting and irritating. If you have a general color that you want to apply to all pages, talk to the administrators about the wiki's skin or insert some CSS into your personal settings.
 * 2) A single portion of the text is colored. If you use the colors to apply emphasis, use bold or italic fonts.

In-line images
Using in-line images in article text draws undue attention to some sentences over others, and causes undesirable results when readers try to copy and paste article text. Therefore, images should not be used in-line with an article's text.

Editing of userspaces

 * Generally, users should only edit their own userspace, unless permission is given by the page's author (e.g. a guest list), or you are genuinely helping the user (e.g. replacing an old picture or fixing poor code).
 * All user pages must adhere to the Polices laid out across the Wiki.
 * If you wish to remove one of your own pages, please use the Delete template with a summary such as "Author request" and an administrator will do it for you.
 * Note: please note that this is an encyclopedia and not a place to just edit your user page with cool codes. You are free to edit your user page as much as you want but please help contribute to improving this wiki.

Thank you for reading!