User:Worldly Tutor

You will find that I am very critical about a lot of the articles in this wiki. This is not because I'm a whiner or I just like to gripe a lot. It's because it is extremely frustrating to see such a lack of information from a source that has only one purpose for existing, to provide information. It is even more frustrating however when attempts to modify an article is futile due to the red tape one must hurdle through in order add information that should have been obviously there in the first place. I don't edit wiki for this very reason, I'd rather be playing Guild Wars. So I do my complaining where it is most efficient, in the discussion pages of the articles. (This is where one finds the real information on articles anyway.) So for those who care enough to make this wiki better here are a list of things to keep in mind when editing articles.

Redundancies are a good thing.

I don't understand the need of some people to "Clean up" articles by removing information that may be repeated somewhere else. Don't you think it's possible the the information that is repeated elsewhere may not be as easy to find? An example of what I'm talking about is when I attempted to add that Smooth Criminal was PvE only*. This information was instantly removed as it was considered redundant because the article already stated that it was a Asuran ability. However one must already know that Asuran abilities are only PvE, and if one doesn't know this already how is he/she to discover this? There would be no reason for him/her to assume to look into the skill even further than the main article unless there is a reason that is obvious for them to do so. (This is like that part of the book Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy when the workers trying to tear down Aurthor Dent's house explained that the plans to do so have been on display for weeks, but Aurthor Dent did not know this because he had no reason to assume to go down to the planner's office to look at the plans in the first place.) *Note that the PvE info was recently added to the article.

Write articles from the perspective of someone who hasn't been there, done that yet.

Far too many times I read articles on areas, characters or missions I haven't gotten to yet, and I have no idea on how to get there because the writers of the articles on the subjects assumes you already know. Sometimes the articles will go as far as to mention things that are only applicable to players who've surpassed that part of the game without mentioning that this only applies to those players. This can be very confusing to someone reaching a part of the game for the first time. Try to add more information on how to get quest started. (this is an area of wiki that seems to be improving)

Create more pages that list things that a player may be interested in doing.

For instance I once asked if there were any pages that list just Necromancer quest. There isn't and currently the only way to find them is to go to a page that list all quest sorted by campaign, and click on each one until you find one that says "Requirements-necromancer as a primary or secondary profession." The same is true for other things like when listing elite skills instead of just separating them by attributes, try also creating another page that separates them by campaign. (remember that redundancies are good.)

Be more specific.

When doing articles on NPC's try to give an approximate location of those characters rather than just listing the area or town they are in. Try not to use ambiguous terms when doing so. I remember once looking up a NPC and the article said he was located in the back of Lion's Arch. Back???? Try using words like North. Also I just discover there is a max of 4 slots on the storage chest. The article wasn't very clear on this fact and I overlooked the phrase (2 of 4) in the article when it was talking about the storage space a player begins a new account with. This should be more clear.

Try to keep it simple.

Remember the movie Beetlejuice when the main characters were trying to read a manual left for them but couldn't understand it at all. They made a comment about how the manual reads like "Stereo instructions" a joke repeated later in the movie. Sometimes that's how I feel about many of the articles in this wiki. Just look at the evolution of pets as an example.

Add more maps.

A lot of articles on towns, outpost and areas still do not have a screen shot of the map of that location. The articles that do include maps are very helpful in finding those locations. I especially like the maps that are included in articles about missions and their bonus.

Why do I have to log in so many times?

I keep this Gw wiki open in one window while I play Guild Wars. Sometimes I minimize my screen to look things up, and every time I do I find that I am log out of GW wiki. So if you want me to keep adding my signature I suggest keeping me logged in as long as I don't close the window, otherwise I'm just going to quit adding it.--Worldly Tutor 23:32, 12 February 2008 (UTC)