Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (video games)/Archive 2

Archive 1

Archive 2

Naming convention for games that have yet to receive an official title

We're currently discussing what to name the article for the God of War 2021 sequel. Currently it's erroneously named God of War: Ragnarök. Before it was moved it was named Untitled God of War sequel, and we are looking to move it back. But, we've begun discussing new names based on WP:PRECISION and WP:COMMONNAME, and also if games with no title should have their own article at all when most games, currently without a title, are a part of the main article of the series. Should we work on making an official naming convention for video games that have yet to receive a title? Many music albums use untitled 'artist' album and I have yet to find any other game that has it's own article, but not an official name. Thoughts? Havok (T/c/e) 10:01, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

Perhaps it should follow the naming conventions regarding films, seeing as they're major visual works in production for years at a time. There's a lot of examples of this such as Untitled fourth 'Matrix' film, Untitled third 'Fantastic Beasts' film, and Untitled 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' sequel. There being no other published untitled game pages is likely a sign that the God of War page is not yet notable enough. Where as films get their pages based on if they have started filming, perhaps it should be that games get their pages following a title reveal and/or trailer. Mitchy Power (talk) 10:28, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

Makes sense. But, wouldn't that mean that games should get their pages when they start production and are officially unveiled to the public? I like the movie naming convention though. Havok (T/c/e) 10:38, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

That's the thing I'm unsure about. I think the difference is that films often film for up to a year, where as Games are in production for up to half a decade. So maybe it should be a trailer (gameplay or cinematic) PLUS the name, as together they should both be a decent indicator of progress. Take for example the sequel to breath of the wild, for which a draft is coming along for. There's been a trailer, but no title. If that title, and more information, is revealed at E3, then it would make sense to publish that then and there as there will be a huge wave of people searching up about it. Where as God of War doesn't really meet these two hypothetical tickboxes of having a name, and having a gameplay/story trailer. Mitchy Power (talk) 10:59, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

I may be wrong, but just because this God of War may be the only current game article without an official title, I am pretty sure that untitled video games in the past have had articles titled "Untitled [name] sequel" until their official title was revealed. Also, just because a title has not been revealed does not mean the article is not notable enough to be an article. That is in fact the opposite for this very example as there has been plenty of independent coverage from reliable sources on this game to meet the GNG requirement. It had been previously named "Untitled God of War sequel" for essentially the same naming conventions as films that Mitchy brought up. --JDC808 ♫ 11:34, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

That's what I think we should nail down. Even though articles have been named "Untitled 'game' sequel' before, I think it would be great of we could nail an official naming convention in cases where a game hasn't been named yet. I think using "Untitled 'game title' sequel" or "Untitled second/third/fourth/etc 'game series' video game" would be most natural. If we can agree on that, I would suggest adding this to the naming conventions article for video games so that we in the future don't discuss this yet again. Havok (T/c/e) 13:21, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

On the "having an article" issue, films are nearly always going to involve aspects like the directors, producers, and actors that have signed on once production starts, which are details that you can document in the article once you can create it. Even for video games with a trailer, we may have none of that short of a development studio and publisher; we should not be starting articles just because a game was announced, particularly when there's a reasonable candidate like a series article to hold information until more information comes into play (this is arguably the case of this God of War game, with so little known about it). --Masem (t) 13:30, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

Didn't that used to be in the guidelines? To paraphrase: Don't start an article based on an announcement and a trailer. - X201 (talk) 14:23, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

A number (e.g.: sequel, third game) is a good substitute for a name. The standard for an article should always be the amount of reliable coverage. If we have a lot of detail about the game, it should have an article. If we only have a teaser trailer, or a bunch of thin marketing announcements, then we shouldn't have an article. Not that it's an issue here, but we especially shouldn't build an article out of rumors. We can still cover cryptic game sequels in a section at the series or the previous game. Shooterwalker (talk) 13:47, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

I do not think there is anything wrong with creating articles are games that do have titles like the untitled God of War sequel, providing we have some coverage about them. In regards to how we name them: "Untitled [franchise/series name] [sequel/prequel, etc]" or if the series is not clear or start of a new series with enough coverage "Untitled [developer] game" seem approriate.  Spy-cicle💥  ^Talk? 22:55, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

Character disambiguation

RM here Talk:Rosalina (Mario)#Requested_move_1_June_2021 which begs the question as how we should disambiguate character articles. Should we disambiguate based off the video company behind the character (in this example Nintendo) or do we disambiguate based off the series the character is from (in this example Mario)? Regards  Spy-cicle💥  ^Talk? 23:03, 2 June 2021 (UTC)