Talk:Alien (Avalon Hill)/Archive 1

Suggested move

I do not think this game should be included in the merger. This game was not part of the Alien franchise. It "borrowed" ideas from the 1979 film, but was surely not licensed and no names or characters from the film are mentioned in the game.

I'd also like to mention my opinion on the merger; it seems to make for a very lengthy article and removes some valuable (or at least, interesting) information. Is this really what people want? Is it what is most beneficial?

Eradicator (talk) 07:13, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Hmm, you may be right about it not being part of the franchise per se, but it's certainly heavily based on the franchise (bordering on infringement IMO) and I think it would fit well amongst the other games in the list. As to the purpose of the merger, list articles are normally exempt from considerations of article length. I don't think it removes any valuable information. All it removes are plot summaries and screenshots. 90% of the articles tagged for merger into the list consist of nothing but an infobox, plot summary, and gallery of screenshots. The screenshots fail WP:NFCC anyway, and we shouldn't have articles that are nothing but plot summary WP:NOT#PLOT. All the pertinent info such as release history, specifications, etc. is included in the merge. The plot summaries, images, and trivial game guide-type stuff is left out. If there is a particular game that has enough secondary source material available to warrant a stand-alone article, then by all means one can be written. But most of these articles haven't had any activity for over a year despite stub tags, etc. so merger into a list is a reasonable move at this point. --IllaZilla (talk) 16:47, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation. Well, that seems reasonable and it sounds like everything is being done with care and according to Wikipedia standards. I just hope that it will still be possible to look up a game and recognise what it is/was. I'm not sure why a screenshot isn't allowed? Anyway, as for this particular game, I have to say, I still think it would be misleading to lump it with the others, as well as inappropriate. It isn't meant to represent the famous "Alien" franchise, even if it imitates many of the ideas. Eradicator (talk) 18:30, 2 July 2008 (UTC)