Grand Theft Wiki talk:Titles

The biggest concern surrounding consistency here is the use of game names in text, section headings and page titles.

For example, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the full name of the game, so absolutely must be used on that page. However, on pages about that game, do we really need to use the full title. Page titles like List of Missions in Grand Theft Auto:Vice City are cumbersome to read and to type. Shortened titles like Missions in GTA Vice City are easier in both of those respects.

There are many choices of title for that page, for example:

  • Missions in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City <-- Wikipedia version
  • Missions in GTA: Vice City
  • Missions in GTA:Vice City
  • Missions in GTA Vice City <-- Current GTW version
  • Missions in GTA VC
  • Missions in GTA: VC
  • Missions in GTA:VC
  • Missions in GTAVC
  • Missions in VC
  • Missions in Vice City <-- refers to the city, not the game, so could be VCS and GTAVC
  • Missions in Vice City (game) <-- Wikipedia sometimes does this

Sites like Wikipedia use the long "correct" titles, but pages like List of characters in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories really do look silly.

Notice that Wikipedia says "List of" at the start of the title - that is something that we do not do here on Grand Theft Wiki.

So which should we use? This is something that needs to be debated here.


I think that we should use either Missions in GTA: Vice City, or Missions in GTA Vice City, that is formal enough, especially since this website is based on Grand Theft Auto. To add to that, Rockstar also officially uses the term GTA in the same way as Grand Theft Auto for games. Adding Grand Theft Auto, would just make more clutter in my opinion. 47 21:33, 25 March 2007 (BST)
I agree entirely - it's not as if anybody here isn't going to know what "GTA" stands for - especially those viewing mission lists. The last question is whether or not to use the colon... GTA: Vice City or GTA Vice City? The full names MUST use a colon, but do the short names? If we do use it, then you should ALWAYS use the colon (except for GTA III and GTA IV). If we don't use the colon, then the only time we do use it is when the names are written in full. We need to make a decision here to achieve consistency. Xenon 22:53, 25 March 2007 (BST)
Alright I see your point. Adding the colon will further cause a lot of mess, especailly with new users, because they will get confused on whether to use it or not. It is most obvious that the "GTA Vice City" is self explanatory just like "GTA III". Like I said using it for one and not the other would cause a hell of a lot of mistakes by general users.

47 01:12, 26 March 2007 (BST)

So you think it's best to stick with what we have now, and only use the colon when the game title is written out in full? I think that is our best and simplest option. The only exceptions to that rule are the numeric titles (Grand Theft Auto 1, Grand Theft Auto 2, Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto IV) - Xenon 18:44, 26 March 2007 (BST)

Another consistency issue

After a short discussion with Gboyers, I think it's time we discussed this publicly: I feel there should be some sort of consensus arrived at regarding how we format headings in articles, in particular whether or not to use [[links]] in the actual headings themselves. I am in agreement with Gboyers on the fact that it looks better without links in headings, as it maintains a consistent flow and aesthetic. Personally, I think links are nice to have, but should be kept within text to avoid headings being of two different colors (e.g. black and blue), since we aren't going to have a link for every heading. Thoughts? EganioTalk 21:05, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

I agree that links should be left out of headings. The purpose of a heading is to separate two topics that fit in the same article (eg. A page about a character could have ==Appearances in GTA Vice City== and ==Appearances in GTA San Andreas==). Links would distract from that purpose. If a link is necessary, I think that it should be formatted as follows:
==Appearances in GTA Vice City==
In GTA Vice City...
Thoughts? Biggest GTA Fan EverTalk 23:42, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

That is what you would have to do if we disallowed links in headings. In my opinion you can rarely link too much (unless it becomes confusing). If you need to link in a header, then it probably shouldn't be a header, and it should be formatted some other way, such as a table or a few separate bulleted lists with an intro line. Gboyers talk 00:23, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

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