Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of Call of Duty characters

List of Call of Duty characters

 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was '''Keep and cleanup: Most of the Delete notes relate to cruftiness or issues with this being a game guide or coverage limitations. I agree with all of these things, but I think that a major trimming would help a great deal. For instance, looking at the first set (for Call of Duty), there are characters listed which are not included by a single mention in the game's article; all such instances should be eliminated. Further, many of the descriptions are extensive, while they should not go beyond what the character's description is in the specific game article. Each section needs to have the "main" template added, at least, and if mention of the character is restricted to a single section, this should be included in the line item. Citation support should be provided in both the game article and here ... and that being a requirement the vast majority of the content here will be eliminated. I was tempted to indicated "delete" but there is a path to cleanup for a suitable standalone list.'''. User:Ceyockey ( talk to me ) 19:41, 8 July 2015 (UTC)


 * – ( View AfD View log  Stats )

The coverage (references, external links, etc.) does not seem sufficient to justify this article passing General notability guideline and the more detailed Notability (fiction) requirement. Majority of the content on this list is unreferenced and seems to be WP:OR. The few references that can be found either come from primary sources (the game itself), or contain characters which have their own articles. WP:LISTN requires that we should at least be able to present some sources that discuss the topic itself, and I am not seeing any reliable sources that discuss the "CoD characters". WP:LISTPEOPLE requires that items on the list should be notable in itself, something that most of the characters here (if not all) fail. Keep in mind that WP:OTHERSTUFFEXITS is not a valid criteria. I'd appreciate comments on why this list is appropriate for Wikipedia. Finally: keep in mind there is a place for this kind of fan stuff - the http://callofduty.wikia.com/wiki/Call_of_Duty_Wiki Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 02:34, 19 June 2015 (UTC)


 * Keep - Coverage cannot be glossed as the references and external links currently in use in the article. This article is poorly referenced and probably much longer than it ought to be, but there are plenty of secondary sources that could be used on this article that simply haven't been added. A Google News search for "Call of Duty characters" turns up several pages of results, and searches for individual character names would undoubtedly turn up many more. Neelix (talk) 17:07, 19 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Delete - I'm not getting a GNG passing vibe either. The lack of referencing definitely eg the imdb link for Sgt Wallcroft only confirms the voice actor not the content. GraemeLeggett (talk) 19:06, 19 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Delete WP:LISTCRUFT, a useless list of characters. The page isn't required. -- Anar  chyte   04:15, 20 June 2015 (UTC)
 * eteleD WP:GAMEGUIDE Wikipedia is not a video game guide. Gamingforfun365 (talk) 07:29, 20 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Keep We can't keep up with each characters' names and biographies in each Call of Duty game articles and this article would make it easy for that propose. If you want, you can find some external sources for those characters, like you seen in Characters of God of War. BattleshipMan (talk) 23:34, 20 June 2015 (UTC)
 * That could be read as an appeal to WP:OtherStuffExists, there would have to be good referencing, more than just mentions. GraemeLeggett (talk) 05:59, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Do you think there should be an appeal about that to WP:OtherStuffExists? BattleshipMan (talk) 06:18, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
 * "We can't keep up with each characters' names and biographies in each Call of Duty game articles..." Why on earth not? I don't at all understand what that's supposed to mean. "...like you seen in Characters of God of War..." The characters in the God of War franchise actually recur in multiple games, and those games are supposed to comprise a coherent fictional world or narrative. There is therefore informational value to gathering the characters together as they actually all relate to each other, as well as formatting value to having one central page for topics (the characters) that pertain to multiple articles. Not so here, as I've explained below. postdlf (talk) 16:49, 7 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of video game-related deletion discussions.  • Gene93k (talk) 19:03, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Fictional elements-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 19:04, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 19:04, 21 June 2015 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
 * Comment (or tentative delete). Some of the rationales given so far rest upon incorrect interpretations of guidelines or policies. WP:LISTN is not a "requirement" of all lists but instead only one way of analyzing lists (as it makes clear in its own text). It would also be difficult for a game to achieve notability without having any sources describe its characters (see, e.g., review including extensive commentary on characters for most recent game here, found in our article on that game). WP:LISTPEOPLE only applies to lists of real people, not lists of fictional people, so to whatever extent there is the expectation that lists of people only contain notable people (and even for real people, that depends on the list), that has no relevance here. It is instead standard practice to have lists of characters for notable franchises (for video games and for other types of media) where the characters do not merit standalone articles as a WP:SPLIT from the main franchise article. And merely describing the content of a primary source such as a video game does not constitute OR. That said, as best as I can tell none of the characters appear in more than one game. The franchise does not establish a shared fictional universe, but instead the narratives from one to another have nothing in common beyond sharing the same historic war settings. This definitely distinguishes this list from others like it, as that means there's really no informational utility to grouping all of the separate games' characters together. It would then be sufficient for each separate game article to internally list that game's characters. Unless I'm missing something here...? postdlf (talk) 21:04, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Indeed. Why not merge CoD characters to Call of Duty (video game), and do it for other games? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 03:04, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
 * If these mergers happen, then List of Call of Duty characters should either be deleted or end up a redirect to Call of Duty. Neelix (talk) 15:44, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, JAaron95  &#40; Talk &#41;  18:49, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Keep This article shows the proper approach: making a combination article for characters in a major work, instead of on one hand trying to put it all in the main article or on the other hand tryign to write separate articles. It's the correct density of coverage.  DGG ( talk ) 20:48, 26 June 2015 (UTC)   a good
 * Only they're not from a work; see my comment above. The separate articles already exist in the form of the articles on each game, which should each list their own internally unique and unshared characters. In light of that, what do you think is gained by grouping them together? postdlf (talk) 21:03, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Weak delete: Although Call of Duty characters as a group are notable per the coverage, I think this goes out of the scope of game articles. Esquivalience t 22:32, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Delete: per WP:GAMEGUIDE, very key characters could be moved to the main article.  Azealia 911  talk  15:36, 8 July 2015 (UTC)
 * There is a problem. Call of Duty is not one game, it's multiples and there are main articles of each games of that series. BattleshipMan (talk) 16:24, 8 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Then include the characters from each game at the games respective article.  Azealia 911  talk  17:11, 8 July 2015 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.