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Welcome to the cleanup department of the WikiProject Video games! This department focuses on improving the overall quality of Wikipedia's video games articles and complying with the policies and guidelines of Wikipedia. The cleanup effort is meant to reduce the amount of unnecessary content and articles with the WikiProject Video games. It also aims to help in the progression of articles that require work to climb up the assessment scale.

1: What is the purpose of cleaning up articles?

The main purpose is to comply with the policies and guidelines set forth by Wikipedia. Cleaning up articles improves the overall quality of an article. By removing unnecessary and trivial content from articles, it allows them to progress up the rating scale in a smoother manner. Other benefits include improved readability and reduced article size.

2. Who can clean up articles?

Any member of the Video games WikiProject is free to clean up article content. Editors who are not participants in the project are also welcome to clean up content, but should defer to consensus within the project in the case of procedural disputes.

3. Can I request that someone else clean up an article?

Of course; to do so, please list it in the section for clean up requests below.

4. Why was a lot of game content removed from [insert article name]?

If a large chunk of game content was removed by an editor following the guidelines of this department, it is more than likely that it did not meet Wikipedia's guidelines and policies.

Per WP:NOT#PLOT - "Wikipedia articles on published works (such as fictional stories) should cover their real-world context and sourced analysis, offering detail on a work's development, impact or historical significance, not solely a detailed summary of that work's plot."

An overly detailed plot section can unnecessarily increase the article length and provide excessive amounts of information that is generally not considered encyclopedic.

Per Category:Articles containing how-to sections - "Wikipedia articles should not include instructions, advice (legal, medical, or otherwise) or suggestions, or contain "how-to"s. This includes tutorials, walkthroughs, instruction manuals, video game guides, and recipes."

In-depth game information that provide a reader with specific information on how to play a game or how to accomplish certain goals in the game are just like plot details. They can unnecessarily increase article length and provide excessive amounts of information that is generally not considered encyclopedic.

5. What if I have a question not listed here?

If your question concerns the article clean up process specifically, please refer to the discussion page for this department; for any other issues, you can go to the main project discussion page.

Though the department focuses on improving the overall quality of video game articles, there are some functions that it is not meant to perform.

• The cleanup department is not a fact checker. The burden of proof lies on the editor that adds content. Unsourced content is subject to scrutiny, and can be deleted if it considered to be original research. Questionable content is at the very least subject to being tagged with {{fact}} or {{or}}. The department also does not check to see if content is current and up-to-date.
• The cleanup department is not a copy-edit department. While there is overlap in the functions performed for clean up and copy editing, cleanup is meant to make sure that content meets general guidelines of the Manual of Style, complies with Notability guidelines, and does not violate copyright.
• The cleanup department is not a deletion department. Cleanup is an alternative to deletion and is meant to improve the quality of articles with the scope of this project.
  • Article deletion is handled by Wikipedia:Articles for deletion. Deletion is for articles which fall under Wikipedia:Deletion policy. For a listing of video game articles up for deletion see Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Deletion.
  • Merges and redirections are handled on the talk pages of the articles concerned or by Wikipedia:Articles for deletion. The cleanup department may assist with merging after consensus for the merge has been reached through normal channels.

Articles on Wikipedia must comply with various policies and guidelines to stay on Wikipedia. While these must not be complied with immediately, leaving an article in disarray can lead to it being deleted from Wikipedia or merged into an article of related topic.

Some of the more important rules that must be taken into account are:

• Wikipedia:Copyrights
• Wikipedia:Notability (fiction)
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style
• Wikipedia:Trivia sections

Violation of certain rules, such as copyright, is grounds for immediate removal of content or an article. Not satisfying the notability criteria can lead to either the deletion of the article, selectively merging content into another article, a parent article or related topic, or the selective merging of multiple related articles into a new consolidated article or list.

Game articles must comply with the guidelines listed on WikiProject Video games/Article guidelines. Many game articles start out as a stub or start article. While this is acceptable in the beginning, it is expect that the article will progress beyond this point. A stub or start article may lack the content needed to establish notability and therefore could be a candidate for deletion or merging.

According to Wikipedia:Notability, "notability is an inclusion criterion based on encyclopedic suitability of a topic. The topic of an article should be notable, or 'worthy of notice'. This concept is distinct from 'fame', 'importance', or 'popularity'. A subject is presumed to be sufficiently notable if it meets the general notability guideline below, or if it meets an accepted subject specific standard listed in the table to the right."

Notability requires objective evidence from secondary or third party sources. First party sources are acceptable for citations, but do little to help establish a topic's notability. As first party sources tend to be biased, care must be used with them per WP:SELFPUB.

Fictional game elements refer to various in-game elements that are part of a game's story and plot. Examples include but are not limited to the world or universe they take place in, the characters in the story, and specific in-game items, vehicles or abilities. While there are many notable fictional elements in video games, there are many more that do not satisfy the notability guidelines of Wikipedia. What this means is that though many game elements are often popular among gamers, they sometimes do not have the available real world information necessary to qualify as an "encyclopedic article". Such articles begin as a stub or start article and sometimes progress to a B-class article. However, without out-of-universe content, the article could be a candidate for deletion or merging, and furthermore, it will not become a Good article or a Featured article.

Examples of sections for real world content include:

• "Development", "Creation and influence", "Concept and design", etc.

A section like this should contain information related to the "why" and/or "how" behind the fictional element(s). Information like why the creators designed the element the way they did, any inspiration behind the inception, and how it was created (like the process and/or programs used to create them).

• "Cultural impact" and "Reception"

A section like this should contain information related to "how" the fictional element(s) was received by critics. What did they think of them? Did they like or dislike them? Did they spawn copycats. Did other creators mimic the design, style, or some other aspect of them?

• "Merchandise" and "Marketing"

A section like this should contain information related to "how" and in "what" capacity the fictional element(s) is portrayed on real life merchandise and/or marketing related to the game it appears in. Is a character, vehicle, or item's likeness used on posters, food packaging, and/or to make actions figures or figurines? Were they featured heavily in or a major component to a game's marketing campaign?

One solution to meeting notability of fictional elements is to merge separate articles into a single consolidated list or article. Both have their own pros and cons; lists require less real world content but are stricter on the use of images, articles require more real world content but have more leeway with image use. The plus to both is that available resources for citations are pooled together into one page, normally making it easier to establish notability.

In addition to containing real-world content, the articles and lists should be written in an objective, out-of-universe style. What that means is that an average reader should not feel like they are reading a story or a magazine article/review on the subject. Avoiding subjective and/or fictional writing styles is meant comply with Wikipedia's guidelines for encyclopedic articles.

Examples
Here are some examples of quality articles that feature sections of real world content.

Articles

Lists

• List of Metal Gear Solid characters

According to Wikipedia:Trivia sections, "Such sections should not be categorically removed: it may be possible to integrate some items into the article text. Some facts may belong in existing sections; others can be grouped into a new section of related material. Convert bullet points to prose or narrowly-focused lists (such as "Cameos" or "Continuity errors"), as seems most appropriate."

Because Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information, trivia sections are normally frowned upon. While they may contain some pertinent information, the manner in which they are often organized and displayed can lead to excessive detail and general clutter. Trivia sections should be evaluated for useful relevant content, have trivial content removed, and have the remaining content integrated into the an appropriate section within the article.

Anyone is allowed to assist and be a part of Clean up department, provided that the participant will work to improve articles within the guidelines of the department. Simply add your name below by signing your name with three tidles, ~~~.

Please list your user name below:

The following is the current list of articles and lists the department is collaborating on to clean up. Assistance is always appreciated so long as the clean up guidelines are adhered to.

Note: Due to lack of participation in dealing with such a large scope, requests are no longer being addressed.
If you would like assistance in cleaning up an article and/or would like an outside opinion regarding clean up, please feel free to list it below. If you are interested in more extensive comments on an article, please use the peer review department instead. When adding a request here, please add the |cleanreq=yes parameter to the {{WikiProject Video games}} template. Also, please add the {{todo}} template to the article talk page, and fill it out with what you feel the cleanup should focus on.

Note: Due to lack of participation in dealing with such a large scope, requests are no longer being addressed.

1. World of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars‎ – Information from the development and reception sections needs to be salvaged and merged over to Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. The Geography section was recently merged with Geography of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. We must remove regions' qualitiative descriptions that are original research and replace them with descriptions from published sources.
2. List of Kirby characters – As a recent merge target, it needs sources to assert notability, a good copyedit, and a general clean up.
3. List of Mega Man characters – As a recent merge target, it needs sources to assert notability, a good copyedit, and a general clean up.
4. Vortigaunt – Needs sources to assert notability, further references to verify material in article, fair use rationales for images, more real-world information and a general cleanup. May benefit from a complete rewrite to properly balance real-world to in-universe information. Please see section on Cleanup talk page regarding Half-Life topics.
5. List of Star Control races – The articles found in Category:Star Control races need to be merged to the list. The merge has been tagged since 27 Dec without real opposition (discussion). Many of the individual articles need to be compressed before or during the merge.
6. List of Crash Bandicoot characters - this list has a lot of issues, and is full of OR and speculation, bad formatting, etc. There has already been a consensus to merge all of the individual character articles except Crash's has already been reached on the talk page, but the merges remain undone. Attempts at a clean up recently resulted in violent editor resistance and an edit war that left one editor on a one month block and seems to have chased off others. The article is currently protected, but I'm sure a request to make it semi-protected would be accepted if the project decides to take on this task.
7. Hellgate: London - Premise section needs to be written as less in-universe, reviews section is in a list, and varying missing citations.
8. DrumMania - Needs reviewing.
9. FIFA Football 2004, FIFA Football 2005, FIFA 06, FIFA 07, FIFA 08. Composed mostly of lists (teams, leagues, stadia etc.), need to be turned into prose-based articles.
10. In the Groove (video game) - External links: the link to ITGFreak.com is broken. ITGFreak has moved to "http://www.rhythmatic.net" .
11. List of computer and video game hoaxes- I don't even know where to begin here. The article is a complete mess (though much better than it was when I first saw it). The lead is practically nonexistent, the substance of the article is incredibly lacking, the citations just aren't there, and it needs some actual guidelines on what should and shouldn't go in the article. Removing the internet rumors nearly cut the article in half, for example.
12. Europa Universalis III: In Nomine – This relatively new article requires expansion and general cleanup as well as improved references.
13. OpenArena - article is too short and needs some cleanup
14. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare It's FA quality now
15. Twisted Metal (series) - This article severely lacks references, has an extremely short introduction, has an unclean layout, is without a reception section, and constantly refers to fans throughout the article.
16. Afro Samurai (video game) - Serious need of cleening up, poorly written, no sources, and wirrten like a game guide and advert.
17. The Getaway (series) - In serious need of cleanup, sources, far too long (written like a game guide) articles need to be split in order to make it more accessible.
18. Pharaoh (video game) - sloppily merged with another article, no sources, possible OR. A lot game guide material too.
19. School Days (visual novel) - There's too much in-universe information, and doesn't looks like it maintains a NPOV.
20. Monster Hunter - Should this article be split? Also, major clean up is needed in terms of clarity between the different versions of the game and it's successors.
21. Xenosaga as well as the related list of pages:
    1. Xenosaga 1
    2. Xenosaga 2
    3. Xenosaga 3
    4. Allen Ridgeley
    5. Chaos (Xenosaga)
    6. Gaignun Kukai, Jr.
    7. Jin Uzuki
    8. KOS-MOS
    9. List of minor characters in Xenosaga
    10. List of major characters in Xenosaga
    11. List of antagonists in Xenosaga
    12. MOMO
    13. Shion Uzuki
22. Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon - This article is too much like a game guide, it resembles an advertisemement, is full of bad grammar and speculation, etc. This article as it is now is in very bad shape.
23. Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed - Sloppily written, extremely bad grammar, no citations, resembles a game guide, etc.
24. Time Hollow - The page is just a character list and a small trivia section. Doesn't even say what the game is about. It needs a major cleanup.
25. List of characters in the Soul series - as a merge target, there are numerous characters in the Category:Soul series characters that have questionable notability and need to be examined along with this list.
26. Quantum of Solace (video game) - Needs general cleanup and sources for the review section.

A majority of the material has been transwiki'd to U.M.N. Network. However, as decided on the U.M.N. Network page, the notice I put on a majority of these pages was considered badly done, and the U.M.N. network page is being deleted. As a result, I am unsure how to notify the reader that most of the links they click will be taken to a transwiki. They need to be cleaned up to an out of universe style. I'd love to do it myself, but I've never even played the game - I was trying to figure out about the game from the article itself, and found it to be a mess. Please help fix these pages. Especially remove links to the following redirected pages:

• List of terms in Xenosaga
• List of planets in Xenosaga
• List of organizations in Xenosaga
• List of starships in Xenosaga

1. Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space- I just gutted this article; it was nothing but fancruft and advertisement for the game and its sourceforge project. I'm hoping someone can help make this into a real article.

See /Automated for a list of pages needing cleanup within our project space according to Wikipedia editors. They are all marked with {{cleanup}} or a similar template.