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Title: Wiki discussion
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muntdefems 25 Apr 2013
EDIT
This thread is meant to be a discussion spot for anything Wiki-related. If you disagree with any aspect (content- or format-wise) of the Wiki, this is the place to bring it out and see what other think about it.

------- Original Post -------

I'm by far the biggest contributor to the Crowdfunding part of the wiki. So much, in fact, that sometimes I nearly think it's MY wiki. But since it's everybody's, I've decided to create this thread to discuss everything related to it: content, format, etc. (I'm mainly doing it here rather than using the wiki's discussion pages because I guess it'll get more attention this way).

I've got many things I'd like to discuss, but for now I'll only bring out the ones I regard as the most important (or the ones that bother me the most :P):

1) Should we keep adding browser/HTML5/Flash-based games to the Wiki? As some pointed out on a recent discussion, they are not native Linux games.
On the other hand nowhere is anything written about the nativity of the games, so one could as well regard the wiki as a conpendium of crowdfunded games that can be played on a Linux box.
What do you think? Only native games or anything goes?

2) Today I've tried to embellish the tables a bit by making some columns center-aligned (e.g. the ones displaying dates or money quantities). I've failed miserably. :(
I'm no MediaWiki expert, but I thought a simple style="text-align: center" on the column definition line should suffice. I've tried this, but I couldn't get any column centered. What did I do wrong?

3) And finally, an issue that bugs me particularly. Somebody, some time ago, changed the alphabetical order criterium by ignoring the definite articles at the beginning of a game's name (e.g. right now, The Realm goes between Rally Shift Extreme and Revelation, rather than between The Essence Within and The Unbreakable Chain).
I don't share this opinion at all. I think definite articles (or articles in general, for that matter) are an integral part of game titles and as such they should be taken into account when ordering them alphabetically. Desura and Steam do it my way, at least. ^_^
So what's your opinion on this one? Articles yay or nay?
Liam Dawe 26 Apr 2013
1) Any game that can be played in the browser or natively should be included I think. 

2) I can have a go if you are still having problems.

3) I personally think "The" is part of the title and should not be broken out, all titles with "The" should match up against all others. It bugs when me places do "Realm, The" for example and put it with R, it's part of the damned titled!
muntdefems 26 Apr 2013
Yay! The Boss is on my side on issues #1 and #3! :P  Let's wait for more opinions before taking any action, though...

Quoting: liamdawe2) I can have a go if you are still having problems.
Yes, please. I've tried a bit more and I've discovered the parameter style="text-align: center" works when applied to the whole table, but it doesn't with single columns (even though [it apparently should work](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Table#Combined_use_of_COLSPAN_and_ROWSPAN)).

I've previewed a totally centered table and it looks pretty nice, except for the Game Title column, which looked a little odd to me. :dizzy:
Liam Dawe 30 Apr 2013
A general wiki idea - I think we should list game engines for commercial games don't you? Like OpenMW, OpenXcom etc with links on where to legally get the games assets from as well.

Partly because I asked the OpenJK devs to list places to obtain the content on their readme and I seem to get a backlash about it...such a simple request when a project depends on something and they won't link to it, seems completely stupid to me so this is partly where my idea has come from.

This way people can look up a game on our wiki and see if they can play it natively on Linux?
muntdefems 30 Apr 2013
Seems a good idea to me. :)

But first we should create a new wiki section to put this kind of info, shouldn't we?
Liam Dawe 1 May 2013
Updated the wiki today :)
fedso 1 May 2013
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1) agree with the Boss :)

2) I'm not aware of a way to align a column, as far as I know alignment can only be set for table, row or cells. The best solution I can think of would be to set center alignment on the table and add align=left to each title.

3) I agree with considering the article as part of the title. Probably there is no right or wrong but I would make it consistent with Steam and Desura
muntdefems 2 May 2013
Alright then, now we've got at least three opinions I'm going to:

a) Keep adding to the crowdfunding part of the wiki anything that can be played on a computer running Linux

b) Try fedso's suggestion about cell alignment

c) Reorder game titles including the article

I ask everyone to follow this rules/suggestions from now on. If anyone disagrees on anything, please make your point here and let's discuss it before starting an editing war on the wiki. Thanks. :)
Liam Dawe 2 May 2013
It may be worth adding a link to this forum topic for discussion? I will be going over fedso's email soon about security.
muntdefems 2 May 2013
Quoting: liamdaweIt may be worth adding a link to this forum topic for discussion?
Good idea! I'm adding the link right now.
Liam Dawe 18 May 2013
FYI this page http://www.gamingonlinux.com/crowdfunding/index.php5?title=Open_Source_Game_Engines_List#Engines

Is only for open source games for previously 100% commercial titles or games that require commercial content but may have always had an open source engine.

It seems the text I put up isn't too clear as people added OpenRA (doesn't use any commercial content you have to buy, doesn't support original campaigns etc) and UFO2000 (online only and not supporting the actual original gameplay).

How should I make it clearer?

EDIT > I have now split it into two sections, hopefully it's a lot clearer :D
muntdefems 18 May 2013
I'm the one who added UFO2000 and OpenTTD... :whistle:

Although it's true that UFO2000 can only use the original graphical and sound assets but doesn't follow the original campaign gameplay (I didn't read the project description carefully enough), I think OpenTTD should be included in the first table as it «attempts to mimic the original game as closely as possible while extending it with new features.» (sic)

So you could say it's still not clear enough for me. :P What's the essential difference between the two categories then? Must the first one need the original assets to be able to play and not provide any fan-made alternatives? Or must the first one replicate exactly the original gameplay and not add anything to it?
Liam Dawe 18 May 2013
The first category is for open source engines so like the open source id engines, openxcom etc.

Second list for things like FreeCiv as it's a clone and not an open source engine for Civ 1 for example.
Speedster 13 Jun 2013
Muntdefem, which parts did you want help on? I actually created an account here so I could help with the wiki, but normally by the time I check up on projects I back, they are already added (good work!)
muntdefems 13 Jun 2013
I'm sorry, I totally forgot!

As I said on the comments to the crowdfunding column, I think I can cope quite well with managing new projects and ending campaigns (i.e. the Ongoing table is accurate and up-to-date almost all the time). What I don't have time to do however is keeping the other tables as up-to-date as the Ongoing one. I'm thinking especially about the Funding Completed ---> In Development, the Funding Failed ---> In Development / Still Possible and the Funding Failed ---> Abandoned / Uncertain tables.

The first one I only check once at the beginning of the month, and only the projects that where supposed to be released during the recently ended month (as well as taking a quick look to all the overdue releases, marked as Uncertain). The other ones I never check at all. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of games in the Abandoned / Uncertain table that are not abandoned at all, and they're in this table merely because when I removed them from the Ongoing one the creators still hadn't announced any plans for the future.

So I'd really appreciate some help with those 3 tables. I know it can be a tiresome job most of the time (that's why I quickly ceased to do it :P) but it can also be a rewarding one if/when you find out a failed project that seemed abandoned has actually been completed and released. And it's just occurred to me that such a discovery could also be worth mentioning in the crowdfunding column! :)
Speedster 13 Jun 2013
That sounds like something I could help with, put a little duckduckgo-fu/google-fu in action...
Speedster 13 Jun 2013
Who the hey is that orange-haired Simpsons character?? I keep having to retry the submissions when he comes up as anti-spam question.
muntdefems 13 Jun 2013
Looks like it's Fry, a Futurama character and not a Simpsons one. ;)

Have you really never watched Futurama? :P
Speedster 13 Jun 2013
Right. Live with another gamer, and we don't even have cable TV; the TV is for watching DVDs/blurays and playing on console.

Think of all the money we save for pledging Linux games on kickstarter!
s_d 14 Jun 2013
Edit:  Redundant info removed (must remember to reload before posting) :P
scaine 15 Sep 2013
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Hey all. I wasn't aware of this thread before I made a major edit to the WIKI, so first, an apology!

I'm one of the guys that Speedster is putting together to take over Munt's crowdfunding page. I've made one big change already and I'd like to propose another.

My change was to merge "Linux with Stretch Goal" and "Stretch Goal Amount" into one new column "Stretch Required?". This will either say "no" for those games that support Linux directly, or will feature the amount of the stretch if a stretch is required. Hopefully this is okay! It took ages... so hopefully it's not reverted.

My other proposal (not yet done) is to start a new column for "Appeared in" which will link to the number of the article where each game is covered. So #18 or #19, whatever, as links to the article in question. This will help the team keep track of which games are covered, and when. And help us target which games we'd like to cover next. As a two-weekly article, chances are this will only be "live" in the Ongoing section for two articles worth, but I still think it's worthwhile and will work nicely as a historical reference.

Neil.
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