User:Kelars3/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Handheld game console

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose this article because I know a great deal of information about video game history, making it easier for me to identify what this article's strengths and weaknesses are. Additionally, my strong knowledge on this topic and understanding of the general sequence of events makes my contribution on this article more likely to be useful. This article was rated as a C quality article - hopefully I can add a couple of insights that might help change that. This matters because (whether we like it or not) video games can often be representative of our culture and values at various points in time. By understanding how these types of entertainment media first came into existence, we can trace our cultural development through a uniquely artistic and complex lens that highlights this often understudied category of pop culture. My first impression is that the subtopics are relatively sparse in comparison to what they could be. Likewise, none of the images appear to be cited or particularly significant, and the overall aesthetic image of the article could be improved.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

Lead Section


 * The description of the major sections here could use some work. Seems like these dates/systems were somewhat randomly picked and doesn't give a cohesive overview of the page. Perhaps a generalization of each era of handheld video game consoles by decade might be more useful here (i.e., the 1990s brought about feature a, b, and c). Additionally, this section is not particularly effective in regards to language used. Many sentences here lack transitions between each other, making the article appear jumpy at points.

Content


 * Visually, the Michael Katz quote under the section, Origins, doesn't look quite right. Additionally, consider if the quotes being used are furthering the knowledge in the article and how. Is this quote necessary?
 * Each of the systems has an inconsistent mix of facts regarding the technology, the marketplace, etc. It would be better for there to be a common set of attributes that can be applied to every system for clarity (ex: this console came out in this year, brought about these changes, was available in these colors, and was designed to appeal to this demographic through "XYZ").
 * For organization, make sure modern systems are not referenced too early on in the article (ex: should details about the DS's battery be under the Beginnings section?).
 * Make sure sales numbers for all devices are being included.


 * Unsure on this but would the Tiger Electronic Game Watches fit under this page?
 * Excellent work keeping the article updated with the inclusion of the Steam Deck!
 * OLED model could be added to the Nintendo Switch section as an update.
 * Lack of citations under certain categories could be fixed (i.e., Nintendo 3DS, PSP Go).
 * Overall, lots of great information and details here, but the organization could be more fluid if there were a certain set of criteria for what each console section should try to have included. This would also just make the patterns throughout the history of handheld console design easier to recognize and identify for the audience.

Tone and balance look good throughout.

Sources


 * Aside from a lack of sources in certain categories, I am thoroughly impressed with the diversity of which types of sources are used. Nice mix of peer-reviewed articles, magazines, newspapers, journals, books, etc.

Writing Quality and Organization


 * Certain areas would benefit from more effective transitions to give a sense of fluidity to the page. At the moment, each section feels very distinct and separate from the others - leading to a lack of cohesion.
 * Perhaps the use of separator bars (see Joan of Arc for example) might be useful in creating a more visually appealing organizational structure.

Images and Media


 * Images are not consistently captioned the same way and presented in a scattered format that isn't very visually appealing.
 * Sizing of images is also inconsistent and doesn't flow with the narrative portion of the page.

Talk page discussion - not a lot happening here in recent years.


 * This article is part of the Wikiproject Video Game category and is of top importance, but is only of C quality.

Overall


 * Appears to be limited energy from the community to make significant improvements to this article
 * Strengths: unexpectedly diverse source material for the subject, frequent use of images to provide visual representation of consoles
 * Weaknesses: lack of cohesion, organization, consistency, and visual appeal. Use of language doesn't particularly garner attention.
 * An organizational system that laid out what size images should be and detailed what content information should be included would be instrumentally helpful in making this article more cohesive.
 * I would argue this article is underdeveloped. There's a ton of potential here, but it just needs to be further fleshed out.