Grand Theft Wiki:Titles: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:00, 16 November 2010

In brief...

Make sure you follow the way of doing things that already exists here, even if it is different to other wikis.

Consistency means doing things the same way. This is important on a wiki, as repeated methods make it easy to find and do things.

See the Style Guide for details on style, structure and language.

Game Names

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

Games should always be shown with "GTA" or "Grand Theft Auto" at the start. This is to avoid confusion with place names - GTA Vice City vs Vice City

Full form: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (with colon)
Short form: GTA Vice City (without colon)

Note that GTA 1 and GTA 2 use english numbers (1 and 2), whilst GTA III and GTA IV use roman numberals (III and IV). We must follow the convention of the game's actual name. Also note that the numbered games do not have colons in the title (Grand Theft Auto III vs Grand Theft Auto: Vice City).

Abbreviated titles (GTASA) can be used as codes in large tables, but never in text.

For the game's own page

Use the full form in the title and the opening sentence, ie Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

For pages about part of the game

Use the short form, such as Vehicles in GTA Vice City

For other pages

Generally, use the short form in the any part of the text, any lists or tables (ie "The Cheetah is a car in GTA San Andreas")

For GTA 1

For the first GTA game, which was just called "Grand Theft Auto", we always refer to it as "Grand Theft Auto 1" or "GTA 1". This is to avoid any confusion, and to allow people to just link to GTA whenever they mean the series of games (which is more frequent than meaning the first game).

You can use the long form whenever you wish to be formal, such as in the opening sentence. However, do not do this if you are listing more than one game: ("The Bobcat is the trusty pick-up truck that is featured in Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.")

Note that other sites (such as Wikipedia) use the long "correct" titles in every instance, but pages like List of characters in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories really do look silly. Notice that Wikipedia also says "List of" at the start of the title on many pages - that is also something that we do not do here on Grand Theft Wiki.

Page Titles

Titles of articles (pages) should almost always use the full title of whatever it is about. For example, a game's name should always be in full (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas); a character should be Carl Johnson not just Carl; a mission should have the exact title (In The Beginning...).

The exception to this is when something is better known by an alternative name. For example, most people know the character as Sweet rather than Sean Johnson. Most people refer to the first GTA game as Grand Theft Auto 1 rather than "Grand Theft Auto".

Page titles should follow title case, such as Missions in GTA San Andreas, with minor words being lowercase (eg: a/and/the/in/to/of). Do not use full first caps (Something To Do With A Game), nor sentence case ("Something to do with a game"), nor uppercase ("SOMETHING..").

Templates should be lowercase and abbreviated, such as {{gtaiv}} and {{gtaiii vehicles}}.

Examples

Some examples of Consistency in a tabular format:

Wrong	Right
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
GTA: San Andreas	GTA San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: III GTA: III	Grand Theft Auto III GTA III
GTA San Andreas Vehicles SAVehicles List of Vehicles in GTA San Andreas	Vehicles in GTA San Andreas

Term	Meaning
GTA Vice City	The game
Vice City	The city
GTA / Grand Theft Auto	All Grand Theft Auto games
GTA1 / Grand Theft Auto 1	The first GTA game, originally called "Grand Theft Auto"

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 The biggest concern surrounding consistency here is the use of game names in text, section headings and page titles.
-Games should always be shown with "GTA" or "Grand Theft Auto" at the start. This is to avoid confusion with place names - [[GTA Vice City]] vs [[Vice City]]
+Games should always be shown with "GTA" or "Grand Theft Auto" at the start. This is to avoid confusion with place names - [[Grand Theft Auto: Vice City|GTA Vice City]] vs [[Vice City]]
 *Full form: [[Grand Theft Auto: Vice City]] (with colon)
-*Short form: [[GTA Vice City]] (without colon)
+*Short form: [[Grand Theft Auto: Vice City|GTA Vice City]] (without colon)
-Note that [[GTA 1]] and [[GTA 2]] use english numbers (1 and 2), whilst [[GTA III]] and [[GTA IV]] use roman numberals (III and IV). We must follow the convention of the game's actual name. Also note that the numbered games do not have colons in the title ([[Grand Theft Auto III]] vs [[Grand Theft Auto: Vice City]]).
+Note that [[Grand Theft Auto 1|GTA 1]] and [[Grand Theft Auto 2|GTA 2]] use english numbers (1 and 2), whilst [[Grand Theft Auto III|GTA III]] and [[Grand Theft Auto IV|GTA IV]] use roman numberals (III and IV). We must follow the convention of the game's actual name. Also note that the numbered games do not have colons in the title ([[Grand Theft Auto III]] vs [[Grand Theft Auto: Vice City]]).
 Abbreviated titles (GTASA) can be used as codes in large tables, but never in text.
@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 ;For other pages:
-Generally, use the short form in the any part of the text, any lists or tables (ie "The Cheetah is a car in [[GTA San Andreas]]")
+Generally, use the short form in the any part of the text, any lists or tables (ie "The Cheetah is a car in [[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas|GTA San Andreas]]")
 ;For GTA 1:
-For the first GTA game, which was just called "Grand Theft Auto", we always refer to it as "Grand Theft Auto 1" or "GTA 1". This is to avoid any confusion, and to allow people to just link to [[GTA]] whenever they mean the series of games (which is more frequent than meaning the first game).
+For the first GTA game, which was just called "Grand Theft Auto", we always refer to it as "Grand Theft Auto 1" or "GTA 1". This is to avoid any confusion, and to allow people to just link to [[Grand Theft Auto|GTA]] whenever they mean the series of games (which is more frequent than meaning the first game).