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MANAGING A WIKI FOR YOUR GAME
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LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
LockeZ
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CloseOne of my games (the online multiplayer one) has a wiki. It's had a wiki for several years - before that, some clans of users individually made websites with information that they kept up to date themselves, until eventually they didn't any more.
Most of these users eventually joined the game's staff, and we didn't really want them posting raw data right out of the game's code - players collecting and sharing information is one thing but the game developers doing it on an official platform is another. Similarly, we pretty much stay out of the wiki's business, except for administrative issues.
Every once in a while one of us adds some partial information about some new content just because it helps advertise the new content, but we make sure that players are still the ones who have to gather and insert the details. For example, if a new high level superboss is added that can drop 8 pieces of equipment, we might create a page for the superboss describing how to find it and what level is recommended to fight it, but not give any data about the rewards except maybe the item names, or give any data about the boss's stats and immunities. Or if we change the effects of all the elemental rods in the game, we might delete the old wrong effects in the wiki, but just change them to question marks instead of adding the new ones. This sort of thing seems to help new players a lot while still giving the old ones stuff to hunt for.
However there are only just barely enough people out there who actually enjoy gathering data on stuff in the game and putting it in the wiki. Out-of-date information is still common, and there are hundreds of blank pages. People tend to come up with an idea like "I'm going to make it so every dungeons's wiki page has a list of what status effects are inflicted in that zone," and then they'll get 20% of the way done with adding that info, and quit forever.
I don't know if anyone has advice on how to run a game's wiki (or how not to) but I'd love to hear it. What I'm doing is only just barely working.
Most of these users eventually joined the game's staff, and we didn't really want them posting raw data right out of the game's code - players collecting and sharing information is one thing but the game developers doing it on an official platform is another. Similarly, we pretty much stay out of the wiki's business, except for administrative issues.
Every once in a while one of us adds some partial information about some new content just because it helps advertise the new content, but we make sure that players are still the ones who have to gather and insert the details. For example, if a new high level superboss is added that can drop 8 pieces of equipment, we might create a page for the superboss describing how to find it and what level is recommended to fight it, but not give any data about the rewards except maybe the item names, or give any data about the boss's stats and immunities. Or if we change the effects of all the elemental rods in the game, we might delete the old wrong effects in the wiki, but just change them to question marks instead of adding the new ones. This sort of thing seems to help new players a lot while still giving the old ones stuff to hunt for.
However there are only just barely enough people out there who actually enjoy gathering data on stuff in the game and putting it in the wiki. Out-of-date information is still common, and there are hundreds of blank pages. People tend to come up with an idea like "I'm going to make it so every dungeons's wiki page has a list of what status effects are inflicted in that zone," and then they'll get 20% of the way done with adding that info, and quit forever.
I don't know if anyone has advice on how to run a game's wiki (or how not to) but I'd love to hear it. What I'm doing is only just barely working.
SnowOwl
5188
Either stay completely out of it, or go all the way... What's the point of doing something half-assed?
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Wikis are built and maintained by the community. By the players. How do you control whether or not they go all the way?
SnowOwl
5188
Well if they don't, that's not your responsibility since it should be maintained by the players. It's not something you're supposed to control.
If you really want the wiki to be complete at all times, do it yourself. If you think it should be maintained by the players and no devs should meddle with it, then don't meddle with it.
Personally I don't think it's that big a deal if the devs add info. I'm pretty sure alot of big games have info added by the devs.
Since your game is relatively small, asking for the players to keep the wiki up to date at all times just ain't gonna happen. Even big AAA-games often don't have good wikis. So if you really want it up to date, you have to do it yourself. But just adding pages full of ???'s is a waste of time, both readers and the person doing it, don't do that.
If you really want the wiki to be complete at all times, do it yourself. If you think it should be maintained by the players and no devs should meddle with it, then don't meddle with it.
Personally I don't think it's that big a deal if the devs add info. I'm pretty sure alot of big games have info added by the devs.
Since your game is relatively small, asking for the players to keep the wiki up to date at all times just ain't gonna happen. Even big AAA-games often don't have good wikis. So if you really want it up to date, you have to do it yourself. But just adding pages full of ???'s is a waste of time, both readers and the person doing it, don't do that.
What are your goals here? If you want the wiki to only be maintained by players, then step aside and let them sink or swim on their own.
If you want this information available to players and your playerbase isn't large/active enough to keep the wiki up to date, then you have a few options:
1. Set up an official walkthrough site and keep it up to date yourself.
2. Make the information available in-game, like a bestiary that gives the stats and loot drops of any monster the player has already fought. This is the only option that prevents accidental spoilers.
3. Store (parts of) the game database in plain text so players can browse it at their leisure. This would also allow the wiki maintainers to write scripts that would automatically update the wiki when a new release goes live.
If you want this information available to players and your playerbase isn't large/active enough to keep the wiki up to date, then you have a few options:
1. Set up an official walkthrough site and keep it up to date yourself.
2. Make the information available in-game, like a bestiary that gives the stats and loot drops of any monster the player has already fought. This is the only option that prevents accidental spoilers.
3. Store (parts of) the game database in plain text so players can browse it at their leisure. This would also allow the wiki maintainers to write scripts that would automatically update the wiki when a new release goes live.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
My goal is to manage the community and administrate the wiki's guidelines in a way that results in them creating a successful wiki.
I wouldn't touch the wiki personally. Most people know that the info there isn't usually maintained by the publisher / developer.
Kaempfer
1932
Find a dedicated community manager or wiki admin. I've noticed that several of the best wikis out there are often driven by one dedicated dude or lady who posts regularly and updates pages as needed. I noticed that the Unturned wiki which, while not perfect, is pretty good has the same guy posting almost all the content. He's definitely not on the devteam, since the devteam for Unturned is one guy, he's just a clever lad who likes the game.
Find someone who posts a bunch and ask him or her specifically to be the wiki person. They might say no, but they might say yes and focus on it. Get them to focus on the big stuff first, and if they get through that then let them get down to brass tacks.
Also, there are about three hundred wikis for World of Warcraft and all of them have in depth information about everything; drops, quests, secrets, everything. People don't visit game wikis to get a tiny bit of information; THEY WANT IT ALL. It sounds like you don't know what you want your wiki to do. That translates to a confusing mess down the line. Do you want it to be a broad overview, or a specific case-by-case dungeon-by-dungeon breakdown?
Find someone who posts a bunch and ask him or her specifically to be the wiki person. They might say no, but they might say yes and focus on it. Get them to focus on the big stuff first, and if they get through that then let them get down to brass tacks.
Also, there are about three hundred wikis for World of Warcraft and all of them have in depth information about everything; drops, quests, secrets, everything. People don't visit game wikis to get a tiny bit of information; THEY WANT IT ALL. It sounds like you don't know what you want your wiki to do. That translates to a confusing mess down the line. Do you want it to be a broad overview, or a specific case-by-case dungeon-by-dungeon breakdown?
author=LockeZ
My goal is to manage the community and administrate the wiki's guidelines in a way that results in them creating a successful wiki.
It's seems that the best game wikis have only 1-3 people maintaining them, often using scripts to import data provided by the devs. Scripts are especially important for RPGs and CCGs where it's important that pages are a consistent style and fully cross-referenced.
It's possible for a community to collaborate in exploring a world, but the community has to exist first, and wikis are a terrible system for collecting data. Better if they use Google Docs or a forum thread to share data, and then have one person collect it all and add it to the wiki.
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