Ambiguous Name: Video Game.Portal

Okay, I've been meaning to address this issue for some time, but I wasn't sure where to go. I guess TRS will do. If not, I'm sure this will be moved to the correct forum.

Anyway it seems that the Portal series does not have a page. Rather, VideoGame.Portal only refers to the first game in the series, in the same way that VideoGame.Portal 2 refers to the second game. The problem with this is that there is no way to refer to the series without directing to merely the first game of the series. The series itself is much larger than solely the first game, which is rather short and only features two characters (not counting the turrets, the Companion Cube, or Rattmann). This essentially forces any wicks that are attempting to refer to the Portal series to technically be a misuse, as there is no reason for a reference to the Portal series to link to Portal 1.

Of course, this also means that any subpages relevant to the series will only be subpages of the first Portal game, and do no link to the Portal 2 page. The series as a whole should really have its own page, and Portal 1 should be a separate page. As precedent, I compare this to Portal's sister series, Half-Life, which has a page for the series, and pages for the individual games as demonstrated below:

VideoGame.Half Life: The series
VideoGame.Half Life 1: The first installment
VideoGame.Half Life 2: The second installment

The problem with this, though, is that VideoGame.Half Life and VideoGame.Half Life 1 have the same custom wikiword. But this doesn't appear to be too much of an issue, since the ambiguity is clarified in bold.

Anyway, to illustrate how much of a problem this is, I'm doing a wick check with 50 random wicks to check the ratio of references to the game vs. the series. I hypothesize that the references to the series will overwhelmingly be in the majority.

So, with 50 random wicks, I designate a reference as either to Portal, the game, or to the Portal series as a whole:

Recap.Doctor Who S 32 E 8 Lets Kill Hitler: The game
Computer Voice: The game
DoingItforTheArt.Video Games: The game
Web Animation.Eddsworld: The game
Descending Ceiling: The game
FanFic.And If That Dont Work: Unclear
Cruelty Is the Only Option: The game
Not Quite Dead: The game
WMG.Doctor Who New Series: The series
Headscratchers.Death Note Rules Of The Death Note: Seems to refer to Portal 2. I'll count this for the series because of misuse.
YMMV.Mega Race: Ambiguous
Death Course: The game
WMG.Cave Story: Pot Hole from G La DOS. Refers to the series
Funny.Edge: Pot Hole from G La DOS. Refers to the series
Jump Physics: Really applies to the series
Quotes.Earn Your Happy Ending: The series
Headscratchers.Portal: Subpage, so this one goes to the series.
For Science!: This one seems like the series
WhamEpisode.Video Games: Link is to the game, but references are to the series as a whole
Gaia's Lament: The series
Creative Closing Credits: The game
NonIndicativeName.Real Life: The game
Recap.Big Finish Doctor Who 080 Time Works: Pot Hole from G La DOS. Refers to the series
Horrible.Webcomics: Reference to the cake meme, so this goes to the game.
Quotes.Totalitarian Utilitarian: The game
ShoutOut.PAYDAY The Heist: The series
MostWonderfulSound.Video Game: This applies the series as a whole.
Blog.The Rapture Logs: The game: The game
Quotes.Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: The game
VideoGame.Vector Vendetta: Pot Hole from Chell. Series
First-Person Ghost: I’m gonna give this one to the series even though it links to both games. The reference applies to both. Characters.Dino Attack Villains: Pothole from Chell and G La DOS. The series
Fanfic.Dungeon Keeper Ami: Pothole form G La DOS. The series.
O.C. Stand-in: The series
Machinima.Combat Devolved: Not enough context
Mascot Mook; Refers to turrets. The series
Madness Mantra: No points for guessing this refers to the game.
Murder by Cremation: No points for guessing again. The game.
Puzzle Game: Index. I suppose it refers the game, but Portal 2 is indented underneath of it. I'm not going to count this one.
YMMV.Tron Two Point Oh: Pothole from G La DOS. The series.
ShoutOut.Epic Battle Fantasy: Portal Gun. Yeah, this one goes to the series.
Stupidity Is the Only Option. References to both the game and the series separately. Since this is an example of "misuse", I’m giving this point to the series.
FanFic.Half Life Full Life Consequences: Pothole from G La DOS. The series.
Roleplay.Portal Breach. Pothole from Chell and Wheately. Wheately wasn’t even in the first game. This definitely goes to the series.
Guilt-Based Gaming: The game
UnwinnableByMistake.Other Video Games: Seems to refer to the game.
Machine Monotone: Eh, I really thought this was going to go to the series, but this one really refers to the game.
RealLife.Mean Character Nice Actor: Gasp! The series! I would have never guessed!
Hanlon's Razor: Reference is to Aperture Science as a whole. This one goes to the series.
The Tetris Effect: Pretty obviously the series.

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Summary:
References to the first game: 17
References to the series as a whole: 28
Ambiguous or not applicable: 5

Ratio of misuse based on sample, excluding unclear data: 62%.

I should also mention that VideoGame.Portal currently has 1639 wicks, while VideoGame.Portal 2 has 1205 wicks.

Conclusion: Not as overwhelming as I hypothesized, but over half the examples refer to the series, despite in actuality, linking to the page for the first game of the series. Misuse tends to be far more common on work pages and subpages, and rather low on trope pages, and is especially prone when in Pot Holes. Though, it is impossible to blame the tropers for doing this, since they really don't have any other options other than linking to VideoGame.Portal 2.

Recommendation: create a new page that refers to the series as a whole in the same manner as the Half-Life pages, and create a long-term wick cleanup project. There are many tropes that are shared by both games in the series, and there is no reason to not have a page for the entire series.

edited 9th May '14 4:52:40 PM by Rethkir

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This is an excellent, excellent Opening Post for a TRS thread. It states the problem perceived, suggests a repair, and supports the suggestion with both well-presented logic and a good wick-check. Thank you, Rethkir.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I'm not very experienced on TV Tropes besides reading it and editing guidelines, so forgive me if I'm saying something stupid, but isn't the creation of a Franchise page (as in, Franchise.Portal) a good option?

edited 9th May '14 6:49:38 PM by BlueMadness

That's an option, but franchises are supposed to be a minimum of three media types, and this just has two—the games and the comic (and the comic doesn't even have its own page; it was pretty short). It barely squeaks by the minimum of three works, so that makes hard to just decide to make it an exception to the rule.

The other option is to do as the OP suggested and make VideoGame.Portal 1 its own page for the first game, and VideoGame.Portal the general page.

Ah, I see. Didn't know that, thanks.

That said, I think WebComic.Lab Rat (Link) is trope-worthy enough to warrant its own page. I'd certainly be up for making one.

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I would use VideoGame.Portal 1 for the first game and VideoGame.Portal for the franchise. Not sussed on a long term project though - seems more like Short Term.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Sounds like the best way to do it.

It does not matter who I am. What matters is, who will you become? - motto of Omsk Bird

^^ That does sound like the best solution. It shouldn't be a Long-term project, either; that's really for on-going projects or those that are expected to take a long time to complete. There a goodly number of wicks to be fixed, but even so, it shouldn't take more than a month or so to fix them all if a couple of people work at it (or if one person who knows the works well so they can make a quick call what each wick should be changed to plugs away at it steadily.)

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Okay, this sounds simple enough. We'll just follow the Half-Life format. VideoGame.Portal will be the page for the series, and the current page will be moved to Videoame.Portal 1. I suppose it would be best if we used Sandbox.Portal to get this page together before we transport everything on the current page to Videoame.Portal 1. The series page will describe the series as a whole and the gameplay styles. And tropes will be anything shared across both games. I'll see if I can get one started. And I'll definitely be able to help with the wick cleanup.

Well, I got Sandbox.Portal started. The description may need a little more work, and it will need examples, but it's a start.

edited 10th May '14 6:58:31 AM by Rethkir

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Bump. This had a lot of momentum before it suddenly halted. Any other thoughts on this? I added the tropes from Portal 1 to the sandbox and sorted through those that applied to the series as a whole. Any help will be appreciated.

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I think we have consensus as to what to do. Why don't you move the portal page, and start the draft for the series page?

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

I started the draft for the series page already. That's what Sandbox.Portal is. But, I suppose I can make the swap by this point, at least create the VideoGame.Portal 1 page.

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The games have enough editors that once we do the move and move the wicks, wiki magic should help fill out the page for the series.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

Okay. I made the swap. The series page will need an image, and I'll cutlist the sandbox page. I think now would be a good time to start that short term project. Also, we have to work on the subpages before we're done. I'll summarize what we need to do with that in a minute.

Oh, I should also mention that these pages need more separation. I transplanted tropes from Portal to Portal, but I did not remove or alter them from Portal.

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Subpages:

• Anaylisis.Portal: For both. Keep as is.
• Awesome.Portal and Awesome.Portal 2: Separate. Can be merged.
• AwesomeMusic.Portal and AwesomeMusic.Portal 2: Separate. Can be merged.
• Characters.Portal: Characters.Portal 2 redirects here.
• FanficRecs.Portal: FanficRecs.Portal 2 redirects into this.
• Fridge.Portal: Redirect.
• Fridge.Portal: Separate. Can be merged.
• Headscrathers.Portal and Headscrathers.Portal 2: Separate. Both pages are long.
• Heartwarming.Portal: Heartwarming.Portal 2 redirects here.
• HighOctaneNightmareFuel.Portal: Redirects to NightmareFuel.Portal. Cut that.
• ImageLinks.Portal: For both. Keep as is.
• Laconic.Portal: For first game. Move or broaden.
• Memes.Portal: Memes.Portal 2 redirects into this.
• NightmareFuel.Portal: Nightmarefuel.Portal redirects into this.
• Quotes.Portal and Quotes.Portal 2: Separate. Can probably be merged.
• ShoutOut.Portal: Shoutout.Portal 2 redirects here.
• TearJerker.Portal: TearJerker.Portal 2 redirects here.
• Trivia.Portal and Trivia.Portal 2: Separate. Can be merged.
• WMG.Portal and WMG.Portal 2: Separate. Both pages are long.
• YMMV.Portal: YMMV.Portal 2 redirects here.

Either remove the redirects from Portal 2 or make redirects from Portal into Portal so that they can be accessed from any page. Many of the separate pages can easily be merged. Headscratchers and WMG are both sufficiently long pages for both games, so merging them may not be beneficial.

edited 18th May '14 3:43:02 PM by Rethkir

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This has been sitting around for quite awhile. We're pretty much done here, but I'm not exactly sure what we should do about the subpages. Any ideas?

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Were the wicks moved at all?

As for the subpages, move these which refer exclusively to the first game to the "Portal 1" title and cutlist these under "Portal", unless there is more general content which can stay under the "Portal" title.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

No. the wicks have not been moved. That's something I should start doing soon. Some of the supbages refer to the franchise as a whole, and should not be split by game.

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The wicks haven't been moved, and there's over 1800 of them - should that be made a short term project?

OH MY GOD; MY PARENTS ARE GARDENIIIIINNNNGGGGG!!!!!

Short term project.

Also, this is probably the point where I complain about the custom title?

I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.

Bump. Also, a reminder that the current custom title for both Half-Life 1 and Portal 1 is in violation of How to Make a Custom Title, as removing a "1" from the end of the page name is not one of the five things that the custom title system is only to be used for.

I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.

Locking as part of New Years Purge.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick