Star Wars Battlefront Wiki:Manual of Style

The Manual of Style of the Star Wars Battlefront Wiki covers the grammar, structure, and content style of all wiki articles. This page is meant to provide the general manual of style enforced throughout the wiki, though more specific manual of styles for article types are provided in the Article types section.

To keep the wiki consistent, please become familiar with these general standards and refer to them often, especially when creating new pages.

Regarding canon
Star Wars Battlefront Wiki is a source dedicated to providing information relevant to the Battlefront games. Thus, strict limits are enforced regarding canon information.

Star Wars Battlefront Wiki is not. Readers refer to Star Wars Battlefront Wiki to learn about the Battlefront games, not to learn about Star Wars lore. Excessive details about things otherwise not related to the game itself (i.e. Star Wars lore, otherwise known as Star Wars canon) will be removed in order to preserve the site's identity as a game database.


 *  Good:  Jakku is a desert planet in DICE's Star Wars Battlefront and Star Wars Battlefront II. It has two maps: Graveyard of Giants and Goazon Badlands.


 *  Bad:  Jakku is planet in DICE's Star Wars Battlefront that was home to the scavenger Rey. Approximately thirty years before The Force Awakens, Jakku was the site of a major battle between the Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire. The in-game map Graveyard of Giants takes place during this decisive battle.



Canon information is certainly allowed when it is appropriate, though most of the time it would be better in a Trivia section of an article. If there is any question regarding whether a canon mention is appropriate, ask an administrator or look at other articles of the same type.

Fanon and user concepts
Just like canon, there are strict rules regarding "fanon" on Star Wars Battlefront Wiki. Fanon, as defined by Wookieepedia, is an "unlicensed story written by a fan that takes place in an established fictional universe, such as Star Wars." In other words, any concept, idea, or character created by a fan.

Fanon is not allowed on any official page on Star Wars Battlefront Wiki. An official page is defined as occupying a Main namespace, which follows a naming convention such as Athulla or Kylo Ren's TIE Silencer. However, fanon is permitted on pages under a user's namespace. These type of pages follow a naming convention such as User:Username/Wat Tambor.



To understand how a user might go about creating a page under their namespace, an imaginary user called Greed0 will be used. Greed0 wants to create a concept for his favorite character in Star Wars: Wat Tambor. To do this, he would create a new page and name the entire page "User:Greed0/Wat Tambor". As long as fanon is posted under a user's namespace, it will not be deleted by an admin.

Article names
The above policy extends to an article's title. In general, an article should be named according to how its subject is referred to in the newest game.

For characters, such as Shriv Suurgav, if their full name is known in canon/Legends, it can be used, even if they are primarily referred to only by their first name in the games.

If the subject of the article is not named in the newest game, but was in a previous game, then that name will be used. If the subject is not named at all in any Battlefront game or media, then and only then can the canon/Legends name be used.

If the subject of a new article in DICE's series has the same name as something from Pandemic Studios' or Rebellion Developments' series, the Pandemic or Rebellion Developments' article name should be changed to end with "/Original." Please contact an administrator in order to do this.

Article types
At Star Wars Battlefront Wiki, every game article falls into one of the following types. Please refer to the list below for more specific structure and content guidelines for these articles, though they should all be consistent with the general manual of style discussed on this page:
 * Classes
 * Game Modes
 * Heroes
 * Maps
 * Planets
 * Soldiers
 * Star Cards
 * Vehicles
 * Weapons
 * Updates

Spelling
All words, names, and locations should be correctly spelled. British English (i.e. colour, favourite) is not considered a misspelling.

Grammar
Grammar is expected to be correct. Use "the player" or some form of this instead of "you." Star Wars Battlefront Wiki uses the present tense to describe gameplay. For articles that reference aspects outside of gameplay, such as game updates or other real-world, time-sensitive subjects, the past tense is used.


 *  Good:  The Death Star Update was an update for DICE's Star Wars Battlefront that added the Death Star as new location.


 *  Good:  The Star Wars Battlefront Season Pass was a one-time purchase that, among other benefits, allowed players to gain access to the game's four expansion packs. In September 2017, the Season Pass was made completely free to all players.


 *  Bad:  In Battlefront, Luke Skywalker had three abilities. In Battlefront II, he has three hundred.


 *  Good:  In Battlefront, Luke Skywalker has three abilities. In Battlefront II, he has three hundred.

Linking to other articles
A link takes a reader to a different article or website. Whenever you refer to a subject that the wiki has an article on, you should link to that article. This allows a reader to easily learn more about a topic that is related to the current article they are reading.

At the same time, we do not want to have so many links on an article that it begins to detract from the reading experience. To make sure links are used as tools of discovery and do not become distractions, the wiki has some rules in place for when you should link to another page on the wiki.

The first time you refer to a subject that the wiki has an article on, you should link to that article. If you refer to this same subject again, you should no longer include a link to it for the remainder of the article. However, on incredibly lengthy articles, it is okay to link to the same subject again if it has been a while since they were last mentioned/linked to.


 *  Good:  Han Solo is a playable hero who uses a blaster and time bombs to defeat enemies. Han Solo, as well as Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, also appear in the game's campaign, helping the player locate valuable resources for the Rebel Alliance. Unlike Han Solo, Luke and Leia can be played as characters in the campaign.


 *  Bad (too many links):  Han Solo is a playable hero who uses a blaster and time bombs to defeat enemies. Han Solo, as well as Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, also appear in the game's campaign, helping the player locate valuable resources for the Rebel Alliance. Unlike Han Solo, Luke and Leia can be played as characters in the campaign.

Capitalization
Proper nouns should be capitalized. This includes, but is not limited to:
 * Names of abilities, such as Force Push, Imperial Resources, or Speed Boost. These names refer to specific abilities of units, and thus should be capitalized.
 * Names of soldiers, such as Death Trooper.
 * Names of vehicles, such as Imperial Star Destroyer.
 * Names of weapons, such as Rocket Launcher, Squad Shield, or SE-14C Blaster Pistol.
 * Names of locations, such as Kashyyyk or Cloud City.

In other words, capitalize any name that refers to a specific person, place, or thing.

The first word of headings are to be capitalized, though subsequent words do not have to be.

Referring to games
As Star Wars Battlefront Wiki tries to maintain an air of professionalism, abbreviations (SWBFI, SWBFII, EABF, etc.) are prohibited.

Instead, when first introducing a game in an article (such as in the opening line), editors must type out the proper name of the game in italics preceded by the studio that created that game. This is to help better differentiate games between different Battlefront series.

For example, when first introducing Darth Vader as he is seen in Pandemic Studios' Star Wars: Battlefront II:


 *  Good:  Darth Vader in Pandemic Studios' Star Wars: Battlefront II...


 *  Bad:  Darth Vader in Star Wars: Battlefront II...


 *  Bad:  Darth Vader in Star Wars: Battlefront II...


 *  Really bad:  Darth Vader in SWBFII...

However, once the game has been introduced in an article (in this case, Pandemic Studios' Star Wars: Battlefront II), omitting the studio and "Star Wars" is acceptable whenever the editor would like to refer to that specific game again. Italicization is still required.


 *  Good:  In Battlefront II, Darth Vader is a high-health hero that can quickly traverse the map area with his dash attack.

Styling templates
A styling template is a template that automatically formats words or phrases. Because they make editing much easier, their use is highly encouraged.

For example, Template:Star Wars Battlefront II simplifies linking to Star Wars Battlefront II, in that instead of typing out  in the source editor, simply typing   automatically does this, linking to the proper game and italicizing it.

Media
Media includes images and videos and is a great way to enhance the look of an article and make the article more engaging for readers, especially when there is a lot of text in the article.

Uploading media
When adding media to an article, please only use media relevant to the games. This is very similar to the wiki's policy regarding canon. Please do not add images from other game franchises, canon media, scenes from the movies, personal art, etc. into articles.

Naming files
When uploading media, such as images or videos, especially those that relate to the Battlefront games, please name them accordingly so that they are easier to add to articles. Vague names such as "Battlefront II (1).png" will be deleted. Names such as "Battlefront II Yavin.png" are OK.

Image priority
There are several types of images that can be found on an article, including in-game files (images that were taken directly from the game files), screenshots, concept art, and promotional images.

The image priority rule mostly concerns what type of images to display at the top of an article or put into an infobox. This is the priority:


 * 1) Promotional images
 * 2) In-game files
 * 3) Screenshots
 * 4) Concept art

Generally, promotional images are given precedence and should be put at the top of an article or in an infobox. This is because these are the type of images that will show up when a reader searches for something on the wiki or is looking for something in a category. After promotional images, in-game files are prioritized because they are sourced from the game itself&mdash;there is no distortion or "background" that are typical of screenshots.

Note again that these image priorities mostly apply to the image that is placed at the top of an article or infobox.

Captions
When actually adding media to an article, particularly images, there is an option to add a caption, which will appear under the photo in gray text. Adding a caption is often beneficial because it informs the reader how the image is related to the rest of the article and can also provide an opportunity to add extra relevant information that might not have been mentioned in the main article text.

Additionally, at the end of most pages is a gallery section, a collection of images and/or videos related to the subject. In gallery sections, image captions should be centered, which can be enabled in the "Borders and captions" tab when editing a gallery.

Periods in image captions
Another aspect of formatting captions is the inclusion of a period. This wiki subscribes to Wikipedia's stance on the topic, which can be summed up in the following: If the caption is one sentence or less, a period is usually not required at the end. This is because these type of captions are usually incomplete sentences. Note the example below, which does not have a period:



This is because this caption is mostly a prepositional phrase. The subject is "an image", and it does not actually do anything (no verb).

However, if the caption is an actual sentence (having a subject, verb, and expresses a complete thought) or more than one sentence, every sentence and sentence fragment should now end with a period, like so:





Note how in the second example the first part of the caption is a sentence fragment (there is no verb), but because there is more than one series of thoughts, periods are warranted.