Talk:The Settlers of Catan/game guide versus encyclopedia entry


 * I still think that these articles now constitute a game guide, and belong at Game Guides, which still don't exist, as I can't seem to log into wikibooks. An encyclopedia article should be about the game and it's significance, not a detailed analysis of how to play the game and strategies used to win..  Gentgeen 14:39, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * The documentation here is far less detailed than the Wikipedia pages devoted to chess. Try again, Gentgeen.  ~ stardust 16:20, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * An your point is? Wikibooks is a new project, in need of more content.  Guides on how to play games such as chess and Settlers seem to fit better there, not here.  This is an encyclopedia, wikibooks is a collection of books, including textbooks, cookbooks, and computer game walkthroughs, to name a few examples.  Again, just because you can find examples that are kinda like what you're doing on Wikipedia doesn't make it right, it just means it hasn't been fixed yet.  This page and many, perhaps most, of the chess pages should go over to wikibooks. Oh, and to help your search for similar pages that you can use to support your position, but which I believe should go to wikibooks, see the pages and subpages for poker, blackjack, craps, baccarat, Monopoly, dominoes, go, ect. Gentgeen 17:05, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * Best of luck in your quest to conquer the world's gaming community and move all their beloved pages to a Wiki project that does not yet exist. ~ stardust 17:11, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)

To be fair, chess has a longer history and has been moreextensively analysed than Settlers of Catan: for example, far more academic papers have been written on chess, so we would typically expect longer enecyclopedia article(s) on chess.

There is a certain encyclopedic voice that differs from a manual or strategy guide, both in emphasis, and approach. I do think that this article could be tweaked for a more encyclopedic voice, long term. Martin 18:10, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)


 * I have no objection to changes to the tone of the documentation. However, I have written certain sections to read more precisely than the Settlers Almanac, in order to preempt incorrect interpretation and common rule disputes among players.  I would welcome any non-lossy rewriting on account of tone, i.e. alterations that preserve the precise amount of information conveyed by each section. ~ stardust 23:42, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * At the moment I'm doing a sweep to eliminate verbosity while preserving content. ~ stardust 19:42, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Is there a page about the project of writing up detailed coverage of various proprietary commercial games? (Or the idea, if it's not a project) Not that there's anything odd about covering the games, but I'm interested in the reason for writing up the complete rules of such games in this encyclopedia. (This is distinguished from history, discussions of strategy, and so on.)

To elaborate: this isn't Chess or Go, for which there are millions of sets in attics around the world, and have been for hundreds of years. Everyone who has Settlers of Catan(tm) has a copy of the rules, with surely trivial exceptions for cases in which someone has lost the piece of paper. And everyone who has the S3D computer game also has a copy; the disclaimer page assures us of that. Understanding the good reasons will deter people from thinking of bad reasons and worrying about them. Dandrake 06:42, Dec 19, 2003 (UTC)


 * There isn't a Wikiproject Games yet, but it's been on the list of requested Wikiprojects for a while. Perhaps now is the time to start this project so we have a clear understanding of what the community wants in a game article.  Gentgeen 06:58, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)


 * Yes, but everyone who has a copy of the set, doesn't necessarily have the rules in English and not everyone wants to download the S3D game. I think this article is one of the best ones on Wikipedia and is an excellent model for other games to follow.  I also just want to add that I'm pretty sure it's the best-selling board game of the past decade.  That certainly warrants quite a large collections of Wikipedia articles like Chess.  --Chuck SMITH 12:13, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)


 * This documentation explicitly covers disputes of interpretation that arise from the published rulebook, which is why it is not just a superfluous html copy of the rules. Some disputes have even arisen from the manner in which the German rules were translated into English, despite Teuber's public statement that none of the rules were changed when the US Edition was published. ~ stardust 12:29, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Just thought I'd let everyone here know that the WikiProject Games is up, ready for us to set some standards on game articles. Gentgeen 18:08, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)


 * I maintain once again that the various "Settlers of Catan, #### maps" articles can be merged into one. Just shrink all of the images to thumbnails - as you have done for the main article - and include links to the full-size versions.  I'd say they're too large anyway, both in terms of pixels and kilobytes, for inclusion in articles.  See Image use policy if you haven't done so already; it may contain some enlightenment. -Smack 02:47, 23 Dec 2003 (UTC)