Gothic 3 wiki
 

Let´s assume we create a Gothic 3 wiki.

What´s the organisational structure behind a wiki? How is moderation and deleting / updating content handled? Does the structure grow wildly or do directories have to be created by the moderator? And if so which categories do you suggest?

Of course the plan must be world domination. Everything else is below our niveau. ;)

Whats a wiki?

The fans are the main driving force, but the moderators supervize everything, so all new entries/old edited posts will be reported to the mods(via email or some in-mail system), and they take a look at it and either approve or delete telling this is not good enough/needs editing.

New categories are created by mods - fans can only edit existing categories. Anyone at all can edit, but like I wrote above, moderators approve/disapprove of everything written.

This basically means that you need very active moderators who know how actively check out what is correct and what is not, and what is scientific and what is simply I'm-12-and-want-to-write-on-a-website.

As for categories, hmm, that's a tough one. Initial categores should contain factions, not only definitions but how to deal with factions in the best possible way, character development(perks, magic, etc), a main quest walkthrough with the different branches. Of course you need sidequests too, but I'd divide those either in factions or cities, probably cities as that's how they are categorized in the game. Maybe there should also be a technical directory with possible tweaks and such to get the game running as smoothly as possible, since it certainly has quite a few technical issues right now(inspired by the huge tweak thread we have now, something similar as a wiki, but more organized obviously).

Well, those are my suggestions at least. :)

Edit:
@MonGoliat:
A wiki is something similar to wikipedia.org, an encyclopedia where fans can contribute instead of just proffesional writers. So basically, you can get huge amounts of information(about Gothic 3 in this particular wiki) in very little time, but the information needs to be moderated so it doesn't get out of hand or contain false information. Basically it's a very thorough and solid FAQ, written by fans who know what they're talking about.

I have reservations about using a wiki, it can easily be edited with WRONG info's by anyone which would then lead to some confusion and ever more work.

I am more favour an acrobat.pdf file for use in this requirement, they are easily downloadable, can contain graphics, can be edited, compiled, ammended, deleted, upgraded, they are widely known and accepted. Then by having a responsible person in charge of it would keep some order and credibility. It would also be a more desirable item for gamers to download the latest version at any given time.

Like I said, the wiki would need active moderators to acknowledge all changes, to make sure the language is okay and the content correct.

In general I'm not a fan of pdf files, but that's an old grudge I have towards information that is downloadable when it could be opened on a simple website instead, whether it's powerpoint, acrobat reader or word.

With proper moderation, a wiki is a good idea. I support it (and eventually will contribute…).

A wiki would be very nice!
Like the ones they have on WoW and so on, right?

But Id need alot of moderators that knows what their talking about.
And have the time to work with it.

How many moderators do we need? 10 ?

And who would maintain control of such a pdf? That´s a lot of work. Easily 200 hours or more in the first year.

As I understand it a wiki has a tree structure. How about this:

1 Gothic 3 (leaves the option open to create more wikis for the older games)
1.1 Game Overview
1.1.1 General Gameplay
1.1.2 Story
1.1.3 The World
1.1.4 Combat
…

1.2 Technical Infos and Tweaking
1.2.1 System Requirements
1.2.2 Tweaking
1.2.2.1 Prior to installation
1.2.2.2 Graphics Driver
1.2.2.3 Options Menu
1.2.2.4 Ini Files
1.2.2.5 Tools


1.3 Guides
1.3.1 Quest
1.3.2 Combat
1.3.3 Character Development


1.4 Maps


1.5 NPCs


1.6 Downloads

i like the wiki idea. :) But I agree we'd need good moderators.

Yes Gorath, a lot of work, but there must always be a controller/overseer to co-ordinate the input of any group otherwise it could get chaotic if you see my point. A wiki with multi persons editing and inputting the data at random maybe wouldn't be as coherent as intended, whereas a pdf file although similar, would be different, a compilation of the same data input but only the co-ordinater edits and releases the download when complete.
The idea was only meant as another alternative, to possibly expand upon because i remember the strategy guides for Beyond Divinity were beautiful but simple and impressive… see for yourself.

http://www.locusinn.com/index.php?hs…167&pageID=480

Thanks to 3 Larian Studios forum members (Kiya, Barnabus and Raze) and our own Myrthos.

The wiki has been confirmed. Now we need at least 5 moderators.

I have never used a wiki. Otherwise, I would volunteer.

A wiki builds on the idea that if you have enough active and serious contributors, that you'll always have more people adding correct information and fixing false information than people that are just there to ruin it or don't know what they're talking about. I'm of the opinion that those that don't know what they're talking about or just want to vandalize do not have the same enthusiasm to contribute than the serious contributors. So in the end you will accomplish a certain amount of trustworthy content that is worthwhile enough to be useful.

Of course, I've never been closely involved with the back-end of a wiki and how much moderation is required. There will always be situations where certain articles will have dubious or false information, but people can also tag those as doubtable as far as I know. Every change is logged and can be rolled back. Vandalizers can be banned, too.

A wiki would be a great fun way to get everyone who wants to involved and is just more interactive than a stale PDF that is simply a strategy guide. A wiki would and could contain so much more. I like the idea.

(Just check the WoW wiki, it's a great source of information.)

The work done for Beyond Divinity (and Val's Divine Divinity guide) was fantastic but it also represented a huge time investment. If I asked Myrthos if he could (or would) do it again, I think he'd have a heart attack at the mere thought of it. ;)

In practice, we simply can't reasonably construct a good guide (unless it comes out in a few years). Also a wiki grows organically, whereas a guide needs to be somewhat complete before release. This is the best way. :)

Great point and I agree. This is the way ti works (almost everytime). Less interesting wiki topics have less poeple interested in contribute but less people willing to destroy and so on. Therefore I would say we don't need many mods but it can't hurt to actually have several of them "just in case". So I would think 5 is a good number.

I was thinking about writing a F.A.Q. for G3, but due to it's tremendous size and NWN2 in my hand I might have to delay that job. Once I am ready there might have been someone else who already dunnit. I might have some free time between mindflayers to assist on a wiki.

I could always assist on such a wiki, I've spent quite a bit of time the last few weeks answering and re-answering the same questions, so posting it all in one place for people to read might actually be less work in the long run. :)

How many directory levels does a typical wiki have? It seems the one we are about to use only has "category" and "article", which makes it two levels. The first one would be taken by the games DB.

If the navigation structure is so flat we need more than 5 moderators to keep everything under control because the articles will have a gigantic size, for example all Cape Dun quests in one place.