Clean and split: Total War

I noticed last week that the page for the Total War series had gotten quite long and unwieldy, with many cases of poor Example Indentation. The most obvious solution seemed to be to create pages for all the individual games.

I would suggest the following steps when dealing with each individual game:

1. Create a page for the game. Write a description, upload an image, add to indexes, etc. Make sure they are added to the right namespace, i.e. Video Games. Add redirects if need be.

2. Browse through the tropes on the main Total War page (possibly with ctrl+f) and look for all tropes that apply only to the game you are working on., then move them to the new work page. If a trope features multiple uses throughout the series (e.g. through multiple bullet points), then move the entry that applies only to the game in question. The main Total War page should ultimately be reserved for tropes that recur throughout the series or that apply to the series as a whole.

3. Check the Example Indentation, grammar, veracity and general quality of the trope entries, both in the new work pages and in the original series page.

4. Maintain the new work pages, as well as the series page, to ensure that they remain in a good state.

I have already done this for Total War Shogun 2 and am part way through doing it for Medieval II Total War. Now I'm asking others to help me, particularly with the games I haven't played (Shogun 1, Empire and Napoleon). Many hands make light work.

edited 3rd Feb '13 6:08:04 AM by KorKhan

I agree in principle, but empirically speaking, this sort of thread works better when in one of the media forums.

Thanks, fellow townsman. I wasn't quite sure where to put the thread, and this seemed the logical place. Would you be willing to move it, or should I create a new one?

You could ask here

Thanks, will do.

Okay, since we are going to do this, then why not separate it by mini-series instead? There is Rome, Medieval, Shogun, Empire, and Napoleon. That would cut down the number of pages from 8 to 5. All the expansion packs for those games would fall in the same page. Oh and sorry again...

Yeah, I thought about that too, but I think in the end it might be more trouble than it's worth. The problem is that the two "miniseries" out at the moment (not including the unreleased Rome II) both feature two games that are quite different in terms of game mechanics.

For example, while Medieval I shares a setting with Medieval II, it is on the whole much closer to Shogun 1. The differences with its direct sequel are expressed primarily in the graphics and the campaign map, but also more subtle stuff like unit rosters, the factions available, the extent of the map and timeline, the balancing and many other things that make the two games quite different from one another. The net result is that if we create a "miniseries" page for Medieval I and II, we'd need separate trope lists for both games and one for tropes shared by the two. In my experience, at least, this tends to result in a fairly chaotic page, since it's not always obvious which list a particular trope belongs in, particularly for those who haven't played both games.

I don't really mind doing extra pages for the different parts of the series. Hell, once I'm finished with Medieval II (once I get some time), I'd be more than willing to go straight to Medieval I (I've played both games). I'd rather let someone else do Shogun 1 though, since, as I say, I haven't played it properly.

Shogun... I have nothing on that series. Well, I remember it and I HATED it. "Convert to Christianity! A hundred more rebels a turn! Oh, and ou can't change your mind." "What's that? You're out conquering you rivals when suddenly 100 rebels comes out of nowhere for no reason? Run back and stop them. By the time you get back here, THEY'LL BE MORE REBELS AT YOUR CAPITAL.... for no raisin... no raisin. Lordly.

Any who, my bro never let me play Rome (didn't even know he had it), took Shogun away before I could figure it out, and I never installed the expansions to Medieval 2. All I can help with is Shogun I and Medieval II, and, like I said, Shogun raised my frustration index meter. Loved Med II though.

Ah yes, one more thing. What about mods of the game? There is a mod that redesigned Medieval Total War II so that it looks like Middle-Earth of Lord Of The Rings. My bro showed me. Pretty cool stuff, but does it belong on the page it was modded from? Does it get it's own page? Should all Total war mods be put in a single big page? Or should each game get its own page for its mods? Or none and the above and we just say, "screw it"?

edited 5th Feb '13 10:49:58 PM by Thecommander236

Well, some mods already do have their own page, such as Fourth Age Total War and Thera. While creating pages for all mods in the series would obviously not be feasible, I guess we could create a community subpage for purposes of listing any existing ones and linking to other major mods that don't have their own article.

edited 6th Feb '13 10:52:55 AM by KorKhan

Sounds... sound. Would there be any one willing to help though?

Persons likely to help with a work page split are usually found in a work's fandom. Not sure if you can find help here.

Most of my knowledge is Medieval Total War II. However, there is many very accurate wiki and walkthroughs written on the games. Information is very easy to find and I have a VERY thorough knowledge of tropes and have, oh a few thousand bookmarked pages and 2800 watches going. I once read a book and went through a few hundred tropes and added as many fitting examples I could remember to a works page. The Horus Heresy.

Just added a page for Rome: Total War.

I'll check it out.

Bumping after one month; it seems to me from a reading of the Total War work page that the split's been done.