WIKI POLL: Regarding Storyline NPC Pages

[Deirdre]

Please note: This vote is if you were to use it, not if you think others could possibly use this feature, please keep that in mind.

 

Please vote Yes if you would legitimately use such a feature.

Please vote No if you are content with the way things are in regards to NPC's within your wiki pages.

If you want to vote 'Maybe' please vote No or do not vote at all. We want to gauge how many people are actually wanting to use this idea.

 

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Hey everyone!

 

Just wanted to post a quick poll about an issue that popped up and we need a vote for!

 

In regards to making separate pages for your NPC's on the wiki, it comes down to, would you do it?

Please note that this means if the page is required to be updated, you must update it. Maintenance is completely up to you, and must be up kept. Pages cannot be stubs of information, and would have to be filled out enough to be valuable, as if it was the same as your character page.

 

As of right now, Storyline NPC's are kept in your personal wiki pages for organizational purposes and quick reference. This does NOT include alts. If it is a character you will be logged in on regularly, with which others will be interacting, requiring knowledge with a degree of depth greater than an acquaintance, then an additional page might be appropriate, and would therefore be classified as an alt Player Character.

 

Thank you! If you need any more clarification please inquire in this thread!

[Rhio]

I'm voting no, for reasons I elaborated on elsewhere. In short, I see it as a feature that's nice in theory but messy (at best) in practice.

 

The problem with major storyline NPCs have their own pages is twofold, with the first being that those characters are meant as supporting cast members for individuals rather than the roleplaying community as a whole. Ellaire Nior Aldul, Rhio's mother, has precisely one role in a storytelling context: being Rhio's mother. Giving her a separate wiki page at best results in creating a new page to contain information relevant to Rhio that could easily be contained on her wiki page. It's more clicks to convey the same amount of relevant information.

 

Second, there's the simple issue that if the NPC is interesting enough to have a distinct page and evolving plots, that character is interesting enough to be an alt at least. The player characters should be the most interesting people to talk about by virtue of being the ones actually doing something. Creating large dossiers on people that will never have any meaningful interactions with anyone outside of your character eventually stops being useful to anyone other than yourself. Going back to Ellaire, I can write at length about why she made the choices she did, but none of that is actually relevant. What matters is that she did, and that affected Rhio for various reasons.

 

It leads to a lot of loose information that could more easily be folded into a single place. A nice idea, and an appealing one at first glance, but one that ultimately creates category and page bloat without adding anything.

[John Spiegel]

The way the poll is worded not everyone has elaborate backstories with their NPCs. I personally would have to vote "No" but I support people that have these side characters to their mains. It adds depth to the mains in my opinion. 

 

I wrote my stuff in the way that my main didn't follow a lineage of any importance but another RPer's lineage may be important to understand their motives and whatnot. 

 

I am NOT voting either due to the way that this question is slanted. Not everyone has in-depth NPCs that they can write about. 

 

*plops a pinwheel into the dirt*

[Deirdre]

 

I am NOT voting either due to the way that this question is slanted. Not everyone has in-depth NPCs that they can write about. 

 

 

Would you use individual pages for your Storyline NPC's?

 

I'm not sure how the question is slanted, it doesn't really say anything about character depth at all.

If you mean the vote yes/no part, we need to gague interest on people who are going to create and maintain these pages. If you don't have detailed in depth NPC's, then you re likely not going to create these kinds of pages, which would mean a no.

 

Does that clear it up a little?

[Eva]

My stance is quite simply that I wish to avoid page bloat on my own wiki by creating a few informative pages for some of the more prominent NPC's involved with her current and back story.  I felt this would give a prospective reader the opportunity to delve deeper and learn more about a particular character who may also have touched other PC's somewhere along the way.  And if they chose not to read about Eva's father, fiancé, whatever than they have the option to simply not click the link.  I would agree that a spoiler tag could be used for some examples where there is little more than a blurb, but I know at least one NPC character who has had involvement with a number of other PC's and could easily be referenced by many.

 

I'm thinking "object oriented" - a character's friend/acquaintance/family/whatever is a separate unit and if there is more than a blurb's worth of information on that individual, I see no reason why there cannot be a separate wiki page for it.

 

I absolutely voted Yes.

 

 

EDIT: Moreover, from reading bits of chatlog from various sources I cannot help but get the impression that this suggestion was somehow misperceived as some sort of an attack. I'd like to reiterate the point that I made on the other thread that I think the changes to the Wiki are outstanding! I know Deirdre and others have worked hard on them and I was in no way trying to subjugate that accomplishment. Deirdre is awesome! It was simply a suggestion that I thought would benefit the wiki and the RP community.

[Vairemont]

To put my rather hesitant voice forward, I voted no.

 

I see the rp wiki as a place to find information on player characters that you're interested in.  That's the main, large portion of it.  Lore, major in-game characters and things that add to the overall story and place of Eorzea make up the rest of it.  But the main point is - player characters.

 

When I peruse a character's page, I'm interested in that character.  Their interests, appearance, personality, and yes, history.  That does include non-playable characters like family members, or childhood friends or whomever.  But I'm not that invested enough in those secondary characters that I feel they need an entire separate page of their own.

 

I understand that people like to write.  That is one the main reasons we roleplay.  To write and play these characters.  I'm not trying or even suggesting how anyone should write or play, but their comes a time when an outside eye may be overwhelmed by too much information.

[Knave]

I voted no for very much the same reason as Rhio and Dotoro stated. Personally, I'm not really interested in reading about the history and complex involvements between a character and an NPC in their past (present, maybe, but I feel that info comes out as we interact in RP). No offense to anyone, it's just not something I'm interested in.

 

May I suggest an alternative? If people are very concerned about the clutter on their pages, offer a template? A guideline of sorts? Do you really need to list every single RPer you've met in passing and never spoke to again on your wiki? How about creating a web page hosted on sites like Google Web or Yahoo and just link to that from the wiki page?

 

I hope that makes sense.

[Ellie]

I answered yes mostly because the question was "Would you use it?" (I would, actually) and not "Do you think it's a good idea?"

 

I'll be fine with whatever's decided, I think, but If the issue is that it will create too much clutter in the character section, why not make a subcategory for player NPCs so that they have their own little place, and people who want to ignore them can?

[ArmachiA]

I voted yes, though I could really only see myself using it for NPC's who were important to my Guild or multiple characters, rather than just, say, my character's mother. NPC's can be extremely relevant to storylines and can take on lives of their own, some really do deserve their own page (As well as what Eva said about the wiki bloat thing)

[Varus]

I personally wouldn't use the feature. It may over-saturate the wiki when all that information can be contained on a character profile. I think this may just be reiterating another poster's point, though.

 

There's an issue I do wish to address and may be off-topic:

 

If RPers have problems of wiki-page bloating, I would suggest trimming down the larger sections of their character's profile page to the point where you feel the readers can understand the main idea you are trying to convey without going into needless detail. In general, many people tend to skim over prose or ignore it entirely unless they are heavily invested in the work. If the reader is interested, RPers can refer them to character journals, articles, and RP snippets, like an actual wiki would. These pieces can be on or off the wiki, depending on the preference of the page author.