no musings?

[Xaa]

kilarin said:

I think we need to fix this folks, lets figure out what SHOULD be there! (and add an entry for Mageworld!)

Go ahead and do so, then. Just create an account and start editing the entry yourself, that's how wikipedia works.

[Kilarin]

Just create an account and start editing the entry yourself, that's how wikipedia works.

Thats the plan, I'm just looking for more input and advice before I post my edits.

Here is what I've come up with initially:
---

The Lands of Hyperborea
The Lands of Hyperborea is a Dungeon Siege Siegelet created by Jim Farris (aka Xaa). It is noted for its intense characterization and story line. It added Minions (summonable servants that could be controlled by the player), complex race relations, and a crafting system that allowed you to create up to 80 different kinds of items within the game. Expect gameplay that requires much more skill than DS, but serves up a very rich and satisfying world.

Mageworld
Mageworld is a Dungeon Siege Siegelet created by Jim Farris (aka Xaa). It is a radical total conversion of the Dungeon Siege game. The map is enormous, larger than Manhattan, and based on a chess board. You play an anthropomorphic female equine-warrior (A White Knight), who travels across the board (via flying ships) with her pawn companion Mantri, doing battle against all of the pieces of the Black King. Mageworld has all new spells, new art, new music, and most of the combat system has been rewritten. The crafting system in Mageworld is unbelievably rich. Almost EVERYTHING in the game can be crafted, and crafting is the major means of obtaining better equipment. Players can expect a detailed story line and intense gaming experience that will keep them occupied for months.

---

I'm trying to keep them short, but they feel woefully inadiquate. Should we mention the riddle dungeon? More details on T'Vril, do we mention the anti-cheat features?

I guess what we really need are brief summaries in the DS entry, and then add entire entries for Land Of Hyperborea and Mageworld.

So, any advice, edits, suggestions, before I go and start modifying the wiki-world for the first time?

[Xaa]

The Lands of Hyperborea
The Lands of Hyperborea is a Dungeon Siege Siegelet created by Jim Farris. It is noted for its intense characterization, story line, and unique music. It added Minions (summonable servants that could be controlled by the player), complex race relations, and a crafting system that allowed you to create up to 80 different kinds of items within the game. Gameplay requires much more skill than DS, but serves up a very rich and satisfying world.

Mageworld
Mageworld is a Dungeon Siege Siegelet created by Jim Farris. It is a total conversion of the Dungeon Siege game. The map is enormous, larger than Manhattan Island, and based on a chess board. You play an anthropomorphic female equine-warrior (A White Knight), who travels across the board (via flying ships) with her pawn companion Mantri, doing battle against all of the pieces of the Black King. Mageworld has all new spells, new art, new music, and most of the combat system has been rewritten. The crafting system in Mageworld is very detailed, and has dozens of hidden "easter eggs." Virtually everything in the game that can be used by the player is crafted by the player, and crafting is the major (sometimes only) means of obtaining better equipment. The expected time to complete the single-player game is no less than one month for most players, with many taking longer. Players can expect a detailed story line and intense gaming experience that will keep them occupied for months.

[Kilarin]

Thank you for the improvements!. I added hyperlinks and you can check it out and improve it further at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Siege

[Xaa]

Cool.

[gfb]

Might want to add a mention of Mageworld's difficulty, too. Seemed kinda funny to me that there was a mention of higher skill level for Hyperborea but none for Mageworld. I don't remember exactly Jim's wording for how hard Mageworld is, but it was one of the better moments of the readme. Probably not appropriate for Wikipedia, though.

Also, both games modified how magic actually worked (consumes health as well as mana, remember?). Not sure if that is worthy of mention, but thought I'd point it out. It's implied in the Mageworld stuff, but not mentioned at all in the Hyperborea one.

[Kilarin]

Might want to add a mention of Mageworld's difficulty
...both games modified how magic actually worked

Both excellent points. Go into wikipedia and edit it!

And we really SHOULD try and add an entry for both Hyperborea and Mageworld.

[gfb]

kilarin said:

Both excellent points. Go into wikipedia and edit it!

Done.

And we really SHOULD try and add an entry for both Hyperborea and Mageworld.

Agreed, but I don't have time for it just ATM. I'm on my prep (prep period).

If we create full entries for Lands of Hyperborea and Mageworld we can include our own Screenshots, too. ;D

[gfb]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mageworld

It's just a start, for now. Need to get some good images to put in.

We should all get together for a game and screenshots, if possible.

[Xaa]

Try not to put in things like "more to come" or "to be completed." Things like that usually get an article deleted long before you get it off the ground. Better to have something there than risk the wrath of the Communal Overmind.

[gfb]

*shrug* doesn't say anything about that in their tutorial. I just wanted to get something up there so we would all have a spot to contribute.

The Overmind can kiss my Zergling.

[Xaa]

Well, all I can say is "good luck" to everyone who wants to work on it.

[Kilarin]

COOL! Its a good start. I'll try and get time sometime this week to help work on Schrodingers Encyclopedia.

I think we need to specify near the top that gameplay is very loosely based upon a chess board or we are going to get some funny responses to "Black characters recieve a bonus to melee attacks both in hit % and in damage." Ha!

There is just so much to PUT into this article, where to start... oh my... Anyway, VERY good begining gfb, thanks. I'll try and help if I can eek out some time.

And, I know Xaa is discouraged from working on articles about himself, but PLEASE feel free to make suggestions here about important details we are missing or leaving out or the order things should go in etc! We AREN'T wikipedia, so we can get help from the author.
Kilarin

[Xaa]

Mmmm... Well, okay, let's be honest here:

1) They actually have a rule that prohibits you from posting your own bio information. Seriously. I fixed my own entry because it was wrong and it read like a cheap vanity page - ISBN's are not necessary when listing the books an author has completed. ISBN's are only necessary when you are citing an offline book as a source of information. Having fixed it, however, I'm not going to fiddle with it further unless someone screws it up.

2) I will correct glaring mistakes, but by Wikipedia rules, I can't write about myself or what I've done in other articles you may be working on. Seriously. And asking me questions and then posting the answers would be interpreted by Wikipedia regulars as being "Original Research", which also is prohibited. Tread carefully, folks. The Admins there are more than happy to kick/ban people who violate their rules. Or who are simply perceived as violating their rules. Or at random, just to keep everyone on their toes. And no, I'm not kidding.

3) Bear in mind that Wikipedia does comprise a community, and that community has several agendas which can often be generally classified as "flaming liberal, anti-US."

For example, the article on Oral Sex includes three pictures of homosexual oral sex - one male, two female. It has been suggested before that A.) no pictures are necessary, and B.) if pictures are to be used, they should not all be homosexual in nature - heteros give head, too. Both ideas were struck down in screaming flame-wars that (to date) have spawned about thirty-five thousand words of inelegant prose. The first suggestion was "if you don't like it, fix it." However, every time someone changed the pictures, the changes were reverted. When people complained about the reverts or suggested the article didn't need pictures at all, they were then accused of being anti-gay and/or accused of censorship.

No, seriously.

And really, the article DOESN'T need pictures, since it gives detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to pleasure a partner orally, male or female, describing exactly where to put your mouth and tongue and how to move to give the maximum amount of pleasure, and discussing the various pros and cons of "spit or swallow." In fact, none of the sexual articles really need pictures, they all have that level of detail.

And I am still not kidding.

Wikipedia is THE place to go if you want to see screaming fights over absolutely stupid things. I've mentioned the controversy over the spelling of the article "Aluminum" before, but I doubt any of you have actually gone to read the talk pages for it. You should. That particular screaming fight runs over 32,000 words in length, and basically boils down to "you evil Americans are trying to force your crappy spelling down everyone else's throat!" versus "No, we're not, that's how it was originally spelled, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry acknowledges it as an acceptable alternate spelling, and many of their publications use that spelling!", to which the enlightened counter-response has been "STFU you Yankee Bastard!"

And no, I'm still not kidding.

I could have added my own name to the list of "polymaths" they have on Wikipedia. After all, I do art, music, literature, computer programming, game design... Hell, when I was a kid, I read the entire 14th edition Encyclopedia Brittanica - as I've told you all before back on SN when this subject came up, I lived in Taiwan at the time, there wasn't anything else for me to read as a kid. This gave me a tremendously broad background in history, science, logic, philosophy... But, if I posted my name as one of the polymaths there, it would simply be seen as self-aggrandizement, and likely the entire bio would just be deleted.

Wikipedia is it's own community, and they have their own rules.

Tread carefully when you edit articles, folks, or you will quickly find all your hard work un-done by someone who accuses you of being biased, lacking NPOV (neutral point of view), uniformed, narrow-minded, bigoted, or just plain stupid.

[Kilarin]

Understood.

I also realize that, inevitably, we are going to attract the attention of some of your defamers, who will go out and vandalize the pages. Oh well, we do the best we can. it's easy enough to revert them. (NOTE: I don't mind alternate points of view, it's pure vandalizim that is going to be the most annoying)

I see Wikipedia as an interesting phenomenon. Its not reliable, by any means, but is, from my experiance, more useful than I expected it to be.

Which isn't really important, the important point is that, regardless of reliability, LOTS of people use it. So I think it's important we get information about Mageworld and Hyperborea into there. Since we fans are doing the work, not you, we shouldn't have TOO much trouble with the moderators/community. And we just have to be more stuborn than the vandals, and I think all of us who played Mageworld to completion have good credentials in STUBBORN!

TIME is the problem right now. I'm going to try and write something up about the unique development of mageworld, and perhaps put in a LOH stub.

Should we move this conversation into the "Gaming" category?