User talk:Tanaric/Vial of Weak Blood

Description

I was always fond of a bullet list for drop information. It seems to be easier for users to edit and add to than a paragraph type. Without having seen all the items and whatnot in the game, I would think a paragraph type description might not be feasible for all of them. — Gares 01:05, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Reasonable criticism. I suspect that some items will have more specificity than others in this regard. If Guild Wars 1 and the beta so far are any indication, I suspect the vast majority of items will drop off of broad categories of mobs, which I think is more suited to a single sentence than a bullet list.

That said, an item which really only drops off Boss A and Boss B might be better suited to a list. I don't think all items need to be exactly the same in this regard. These articles can generally be extremely short -- one to three sentences, a list, and an infobox. Trying to come up with a standardized format that fits every possible item is likely to make all articles longer, so I'd like to avoid it if possible.

—Tanaric 02:30, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

I would further argue that the one to three sentence summary is always helpful, even if it's not 100% precise, and it can be supplemented with a complete list of every possibility further down the page.

—Tanaric 02:44, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

To agree with you, I too believe most item, weapon, armor, etc. articles can be short and should be as simple as possible. I have never been a supporter of "fluff". One thing that irked me from Guild Wars Wiki was long lists of drop data. If that drop data can be compacted into a sentence or two, that is more than fine with me. Crude example:

Broken Claw is a trash drop from creatures that have claws, such as Charr, Drakes, and Skale.

That would suffice with me. There are some items, though, where I'd like to see a list to help make my decisions, such as items I would farm for crafting. A supplementary list, as you suggested, would help in those regards.

Your write-up does read well. I want to say the blood also dropped from drakes I was fighting, but I cannot say that with 100% until I go back and look at my screenshots. If there was an efficient farming suggestion outside of the prelude, I would add a sentence regarding that, though. — Gares 03:28, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

For sure. As usual I'm not an expert on the actual content—I have no idea where these drop, which is why I checked the wiki—but I think I can help improve presentation. Better to get in early and set good standards. —Tanaric 04:52, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Hi Tanaric :) welcome back.

I just wanted to say that I'm fond of the lists. A list doesn't have to be exactly one enemy - a group/type of enemies is perfectly fine for as a list item. When I want to check something, I just don't want to read an entire paragraph to figure out if someone documented the drop source. I agree about the in-game flavour text, but I'd rather just push it further down the page rather omitting it algother - sooner or later people are going to start adding anyway, once a page is mostly complete. -- ab.er.rant 14:16, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Yup, I prefer lists too - they make it easier to find the precise bit of information you're looking for; you don't have to read an entire paragraph (even if it is two or three lines), you just skip to the bit you want. I think the in-game item descriptions are also useful because sometimes it's not a case of you picking up item X in-game (or wanting to pick it up) and then going to the wiki page for it, sometimes you've reached that page after clicking through 10 different pages and think "hey this is interesting, I want to know more". Another example is if you've only heard about the item on the grapevine but have no clue what it is. For those circumstances, the in-game description is useful. As you said though, it doesn't have to be topmost on the page.

Uniformity across pages can also have its uses because you know what you're looking for as a reader and also as an editor. You can copy the sections of another item's page and fill them in for the particular item page you're creating, for example. That means formatting pages with explanations on how this applies for that page and that applies for this page don't need to be the first port of call - instead, you edit by looking around at other pages, which is much more instinctive. pling 20:23, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Probably old news to you but...

Defense of Shaermoor is (now?) Defending Shaemoor. If you were the originator of the tip to farm Vial of Weak Blood in the human tutorial... Thanks ;-)  Frostty1  21:09, 1 August 2012 (UTC)