Guidelines:Articles
Overview
Article Construction
Articles generally follow a basic and recurring order, which can be summarized via the following diagram:
Header | |
Lead paragraph | Infobox |
Body | |
Trivia | |
Nomenclature | |
Gallery | |
See Also | |
Footer |
Not all sections in the diagram are applicable and occasionally other sections must be placed at any point in the diagram in order to convey information unique to an article. However, this order should be followed unless otherwise necessary. Specific articles types are covered in the Article Types section below.
- Header — Content within the header of an article is generally reduced to any information that is required to inform readers of the article ahead. Maintenance templates are usually placed here to inform readers that the article is in need of maintenance, and this is also where we inform people of similar articles that they might be looking for if they've stumbled upon an article by accident.
- Infobox — Infoboxes (templates designed to offer a brief summary of an article's subject, found to the top right of any page) follow immediately after the header. See the Infoboxes section below for more details. For a full list of infoboxes, see here.
- Lead paragraph — The lead paragraph provides the most basic statements about an article's subject, including what media a subject appears in and what names it bears in them.
- Body — The body of an article contains the specific information pertaining to all of a subject's appearances within media. The body is usually split into two parts, the main series appearances and the other appearances. All content within the body should follow the "canon order" for presenting information, though sections for remakes may be skipped and their content placed under the section pertaining to their predecessors if they are represented already. The section bearing other appearances, usually named
Other Appearances
is further separated by ambiguously canon and noncanon, which separately follow the "canon order". For further details, see Article Types below. - Trivia — The
Trivia
section concerns any out-of-game, real-world aspects to a subject. Trivia sections should be used lightly and content in Trivia sections should be scrutinized for potential ways the information can be integrated into the body of an article instead. Each trivia line in this section should be separated by an asterisk bullet (*
, which is not followed by a space before the line). - Nomenclature — The
Nomenclature
section deals with the subject of an article's name origin as well as the subject's name in other official language releases. See the terminology guidelines for more information. - Gallery — The
Gallery
section of an article generally contains a comprehensive list of a subject's media in the "canon order". Unlike with the body, ambiguously canon and noncanon media should be placed after the canon material in the canon order with no distinction for their level of canon. See the Image Gallery and Video Gallery sections below for specific details. - See Also — The
See Also
section should contain links to related articles in an alphabetical order. Each item in this section should be separated by a bullet (*
, which is followed by a space before the item). - Footer — The footer of an article contains any templates necessary to support the article (such as Template:Notes and Template:Ref), as well as any navigational templates that can direct people to other articles that share a commonality between them (such as item navigation templates directing people to other items in the same game, or templates that list all aquatic enemies). Categories should be placed below any relevant templates, following the same "canon order" used in the Gallery section.
Infoboxes
Image
The image displayed in the infobox must generally be an artwork coming from the latest main-series iteration where it was present, or in order of elimination from the latest appearance in ambiguously canon titles to non-canon titles. If no artwork is present for the given game, the hierarchic order is to be followed the same way as in galleries (Artworks, Renders, Models, Sprites, Screenshots, Concept Artworks). If applicable, you may use the Media template to store multiple files so that they can be viewed in the infobox. See Template:Media's guidelines here for more information.
Sizing
The image section of the infobox should not exceed 320 pixels. This can be managed by adding either |320px
or |x320px
to images which are wider or taller, respectively. If an image is even in both width and height, it is usually acceptable to simply add the former. An image that is smaller than either 320px wide or 320px tall should also retain this scaled property on the principle that it may be replaced by a wider or taller revision at a later time.
In the event that the image section requires multiple images, the sum of their height and/or width should not exceed 320 pixels. See example below.
The only exception to this rule are games. On those pages, the height may exceed 320 pixels as it should display both the logo and the box artwork of the game. Though it may still not exceed 320 pixels in width.
Examples
Sizing | N/A | 320px
|
x320px
|
[[...|160px]][[...|160px]]
|
---|---|---|---|---|
Result | image |
image |
image |
image image |
Caption
A caption must be added if the subject of the article is present in more than one article of media (games, manga, etc.). When used, the caption of the image must be formatted as such: <depiction> from <game>
. Captions are not necessary if Template:Media is in use.
Galleries
Ordering of Files within Galleries
The hierarchic order of the images is as follows:
- Canon
- Ambiguously Canon
- Non-Canon
Media from remakes of a given title are to be placed after all files of the original title. Within each of the previous elements, the order of the files themselves is as follows:
- Artworks
- Renders
- Models
- Sprites
- Screenshots
- Concept Artworks
Image Gallery
Image galleries on an article is included in its own Gallery
section. Images that are present in the article are not to be added in the gallery. The gallery is formatted as such:
<gallery> File:Image.png|Caption File:Image 2.png|Caption 2 File:Image 3.png|Caption 3 </gallery>
Images do not need to be present within galleries if they can be found within Template:Media. See Template:Media's Guidelines for more details.
Video Gallery
Videos must be separated from images in their own Video Gallery
subsection within the Gallery
section. Embedded YouTube videos must be added with the Youtube template. These videos are typically size 200.
Article Types
The following diagrams display the general layout of an article of a particular type. Because each piece of media is unique, you should consult each game's respective guideline for how to tailor its sections accordingly.
Boss Articles
- This article type is supported by the Boss boilerplate.
Header | |
Lead paragraph | Infobox (Template:Boss) |
Characteristics | |
Trivia | |
Nomenclature | |
Gallery | |
See Also | |
Footer |
- Characteristics — The
Characteristics
section should cover a boss's information such as what dungeon they are located in, what they are weak to, and what attacks and patterns they utilize. This section should not be written as a guide and should only state the facts of the boss.
Character Articles
- This article type is supported by the Character boilerplate.
Header | |
Lead paragraph | Infobox (Template:Character) |
Biography | |
Trivia | |
Nomenclature | |
Gallery | |
See Also | |
Footer |
- Biography — The
Biography
section should account for where lives or can be found, what they do, and how Link can interact with them.
Dungeon Articles
- This article type is supported by the Dungeon boilerplate.
Header | |
Lead paragraph | Infobox (Template:Dungeon) |
Entrance to the [Dungeon] | |
Themes and Navigation | |
Minor Enemies | |
Trivia | |
Nomenclature | |
Gallery | |
See Also | |
Footer |
- Entrance to the [Dungeon] — The
Entrance to the [Dungeon]
section covers where the dungeon is located and how the dungeon can be entered. "Dungeon" as used in the header here is interchangeable with any relevant term that a dungeon might have as part of its name (such as "Temple", "Shrine", etc.). - Themes and Navigation — The
Themes and Navigation
section should cover the basic themes of a dungeon, what the dungeon's miniboss(es) and boss are, as well as what treasures can be found and where. This section should not be written as a guide and should only cover the facts of each detail. - Minor Enemies — Any enemies found within a dungeon should be listed in a gallery under this section. Minibosses and bosses do not go in this section.
Enemy Articles
- This article type is supported by the Enemy boilerplate.
Header | |
Lead paragraph | Infobox (Template:Enemy) |
Characteristics | |
Trivia | |
Nomenclature | |
Gallery | |
See Also | |
Footer |
Item Articles
- This article type is supported by the Item boilerplate.
Header | |
Lead paragraph | Infobox (Template:Item) |
Location and Uses | |
Trivia | |
Nomenclature | |
Gallery | |
See Also | |
Footer |
- Location and Uses — The
Location and Uses
section should contain any information about where an item can be found (for items that appear many times in the same game, you should only state by what means they can be found rather than precisely each location). The section should also cover how the item can be used, such as as a weapon, whether it can manipulate the world, or what practical uses it has with relation to other items or characters.
Object Articles
- This article type is supported by the Object boilerplate.
In the event that objects overlap with items (such as in name), the object details generally should be present on the item page and no page for the object should be made even if the items are different in function or purpose. In this case, it should be specified where and when a subject is an object instead of an item.
Header | |
Lead paragraph | Infobox (Template:Object) |
Features and Overview | |
Trivia | |
Nomenclature | |
Gallery | |
See Also | |
Footer |
- Location and Uses — The
Location and Uses
section should contain any information about where an object can be found (for objects that appear many times in the same game, you should only state by what means they can be found rather than precisely each location). The section should also cover how the object can be used.
Location Articles
- This article type is supported by the Location boilerplate.
Header | |
Lead paragraph | Infobox (Template:Infobox Place) |
Features and Overview | |
Minor Enemies | |
Trivia | |
Nomenclature | |
Gallery | |
See Also | |
Footer |
- Features and Overview — The Features and Overview section should cover details of a location such as where the location is in relation to other locations, what importance or role the location has or previously had, what characters can be found at the given location, and what features and treasures can be found in the location.
- Minor Enemies — Any enemies found within a location should be listed in a gallery under this section. Overworld bosses do not go in this section.
Song Articles
- This article type is supported by the Song boilerplate.
Header | |
Lead paragraph | Infobox (Template:Infobox Song) |
Overview | |
Trivia | |
Nomenclature | |
Gallery | |
See Also | |
Footer |