Forum:General proposals/Archive 5

Forums: Index → Proposals → General proposals/Archive 5

Welcome to the SmashWiki Proposals page.
If you wish to make a new proposal, please do so at the bottom of the page under a new section header.
Remember to sign your comments with ~~~~

Former Mains for smasher pages

I'm for adding "former mains" parameters (for each game) to the Template:Infobox Smasher. For example Armada would have Pit as former main for Project M (right now Pit is in "other") and Mang0 would have Jigglypuff as former main for Melee (right now his Jiggs isn't there). I don't like both current options for former mains. Also, instead of solely text-based, which can get really long and have a lot of rows (just look at Armada's infobox), more symbols like a table with stock & game icons would be nice... Something like this:

	Current/Last	Other	Former

Patzui (talk) 08:32, May 9, 2019 (EDT)

I don't see the difference between "former mains" and the "other character" sections, especially since a lot of the "other characters" are former mains. Plus, if they were former mains, it would have been stated in their opening blurb somewhere. Cookies

Creme 15:36, June 2, 2019 (EDT)

Changing PAL terms to “British English”

Smashbrosfan99 seems very adamant about changing this, but in my honest opinion, I think the way it is now is fine. PAL also refers to Castilian Spanish replacing Mexican Spanish, and regular French vs. Canadian French (if there even is any difference) so I think generalizing it as PAL is fine. Lou Cena (talk) 01:55, May 4, 2019 (EDT)

Have to agree. Even if it's technically inaccurate terminology, it's effective shorthand for the European standard versus the American one. DryKirby64 (talk) 03:17, May 4, 2019 (EDT)

Perhaps there could be a page that explains the difference, as well as why the Wiki uses "PAL" over "British English"? Wolff (talk) 03:22, May 4, 2019 (EDT)

This page goes over it briefly. DryKirby64 (talk) 03:32, May 4, 2019 (EDT)

Then perhaps when PAL and NTSC are mentioned, they should probably link to those pages if they don't already. unfortunately, I don't think they explain the supposed problem of "PAL" vs "British English". Wolff (talk) 11:55, May 4, 2019 (EDT)

Might as well unveil the elephants in the room - only the Nintendo 64, GameCube and Wii use the NTSC and PAL connections for their original releases so using those terms would make sense for those games. The 3DS, Wii U and Switch use HDMI connections, so stating NTSC or PAL to refer to releases in those countries would be not only inaccurate but also outdated as well. Aside from the 3DS and Wii U, the Switch is region-free, meaning any game from any country in any continent can work on the Nintendo Switch in question; also helps that most first-party games don't have a drastic change between the English in the Americas region setting and the English in the Europe or Australia/New Zealand setting. Apparently, using the term PAL region for the 3DS, Wii U and Switch games is perfectly acceptable at the moment when it isn't for everything I just described. It's even used for the pages that talk about Spirit Board events, when the pages in question are literally "websites," which, need I remind you, can be viewed literally "anywhere." So, what should we do? I have a few options, which were the same ones I used to figure out what to do on the Mario Wiki (sure different wikis have different rulesets, but hopefully we can come to an agreement):

Use the American and British terminology for everything.
Use NTSC and PAL when talking about Super Smash Bros. 64, Melee and Brawl and use the American and British English terminology for 3DS, Wii U and Ultimate.
Use NTSC and PAL for basically everything.

In my honest opinion, we should absolutely not consider doing choice 3. Going with choice 1 should simplify matters in the long run, almost choice 2 isn't a bad idea either. What do you guys think? – Smashbrosfan99 (talk) 19:37, May 4, 2019 (EDT)

I said something to this effect on you talkpage but I'll paraphase it here: Yes it's technically obsolete to use "PAL" in the sense of "regions that use the PAL technology". But players don't really use the term like that anymore, and in some ways they never have - its current place in the gamer lexicon is "the Europe/Africa/Oceania region". In fact, Wikipedia's page on the PAL region covers how the region is defined independently of its page on the PAL technology, specifically going over how the game industry uses the term; the page on regional lockout does very similar.

Therefore, because the internet at large is continuing to use NTSC and PAL for gaming regions, we should also continue to do so. Toomai Glittershine

The Producer 20:29, May 4, 2019 (EDT)

I'm in agreement with Toomai. The gaming community still uses NTSC/PAL, as does much of the rest of the internet. Our terminology here should be based on what the Smash community uses; hence, NTSC/PAL should stay. Dark Fox 01

This is horrible… 21:05, May 4, 2019 (EDT)

Just found this now, but on the Substitute page, it mentions an error in the Wii U version but not the 3DS version in the European Portuguese version. It doesn't even use "PAL," it literally uses European Portuguese to describe it. All the more reasoning why the usage of NTSC and PAL should be limited to the first three Smash Bros. games...for the most part as these games often have different language options, so mentioning "This change is not present in the PAL version," seems to imply it isn't present in all language options, when we're really only focusing on the American and British differences of the English language only. – Smashbrosfan99 (talk) 23:59, May 7, 2019 (EDT)

Perhaps the accepted usage of NTSC and PAL is better when viewed as a type of "slang". Although "incorrect" or better yet, outdated, it is acceptable depending on its usage. PAL is considered a "term" (Term: "a word or expression that has an exact meaning in some uses or is limited to a subject or field"), in which it refers to the region of Europe, Asia (minus Japan), Africa, Australia and some of South America, while NTSC refers to the region of North America and small parts of South America and Asia. In English, its perfectly acceptable for people to use "don't" incorrectly. For example, the sentence "don't you think?" would actually be "do not you think?" What I'm getting at, NTSC/PAL have meanings other than what they originally meant or refer to. For games, they just mean refer to differences/changes in/from specific countries/regions. It does not just refer to differences between the U.S.A and England versions. (Extra Tidbit: Although their usage is less common now, they still teach the differences between PAL from NTSC in school/collage) Wolff (talk) 00:56, May 8, 2019 (EDT)

Honestly till reading this discussion i had no clue pal meant a video encoding technology, i just knew it as the Europe, Africa and Australia region. there is no reason to change it as the definition has basically shifted from a video encoding technology to a region.Xtra Talk Edits 08:14, May 8, 2019 (EDT)

"Not to be confused with..."

This has been copied over from Template talk:Disambig2, as I realized the discussion belongs on this page.

Several pages currently have a disclaimer at the top of the page reading:

Not to be confused with [[X]], {{{descriptor of variation from X}}}.

There is currently no template used for such disclaimers. Variants of {{disambig2}} have been created in the past, including for and redirect. What should be the course of action for Not to be confused with...?

Possible solutions include:

Replacing the Not to be confused with... cases with {{disambig2}} or {{for}}.
Creating a new variant of {{disambig2}}, perhaps named {{confused}}, to deal with the cases.

Using pre-existing templates may provide additional clarity, but may also appear redundant in some cases. I'd appreciate the community's feedback on this issue before any action is taken. Dark Fox 01:D 21:18, May 4, 2019 (EDT)

This seems like a good idea, but it feels like it’s just going to be more work to change everything to the template instead of keeping it as is. It seems like you want future proofing, but we can’t really speculate about the future. Also, the regular disimbag template is more helpful in most situations in my opinion. The one situation where I can see this being helpful is with Galeem and Galleom. Lou Cena (talk) 22:24, May 4, 2019 (EDT)

Put tabbers in the quote sections for multiple games

I believe that articles with different quotes in multiple games, such as Pokémon Change and Fireball (the latter of which does actually use one), should have tabbers, as they look rather cluttered without. Awesomelink234, the Super Cool Sonic Fan Leave a message if needed 18:33, May 11, 2019 (EDT)

It looks neater with the tabs, since it takes up less physical space. I agree with this notion. Lou Cena (talk) 18:36, May 11, 2019 (EDT)

My problem with it is that it stands out and looks somewhat awkward when actually implemented. That doesn't mean that using quotes changes the issue, because having multiple quotes does also look awkward, however there's definitely a better idea for this other than tabber. Cookies

Creme 18:39, May 11, 2019 (EDT)

The page looks really messy when it doesn't have the tabs. The tabs were already slowly being added since the beginning of last month without a problem before. If you believe there is a better substitute for the tabs, then unless that substitute is found/suggested, we should use the tabs. Without the tabs, the pages with multiple quotes (Like Pokemon Change or Counter) push the article down and makes it look messy. I don't know which one looks better (possibly the second for multiple characters), but it looks a lot more organized than just having all the quotes by themselves. (Unless someone thinks it'd be better if the quotes were on their own page) Wolff (talk) 23:03, May 11, 2019 (EDT)

How about we just not have stuff getting in the way of the opening paragraph? Put quotes down in their own content section on the page where they belong. Then we don't even need to mess around with tabs. Toomai Glittershine The Superlative 09:39, May 12, 2019 (EDT)

But wouldn't it still bloat the page that way? It would just be in a different spot, and the problem would still be present. Wolff (talk) 17:41, May 13, 2019 (EDT)

Very late from me, but in my opinion it's better for it to be bloated on the bottom of the page than the top of the page, since the introduction of the article wouldn't look as messy, plus properly formatting it on the botton won't make the page massively bloated anyways. Cookies

Creme 12:23, June 8, 2019 (EDT)

Now that you mention it, I actually agree that it’s better to bloat the bottom than the top. The issue is where to put it exactly. Do we just make a section for the quotes? Lou Cena (talk) 13:20, June 8, 2019 (EDT)

Split all pages for moves that are shared between characters

I feel like this is the only way to end the debates. And by all, I mean ALL. Lucina's specials, Daisy’s, Chrom’s, the five counters. Split all of them, just so that we can have something consistent going on. Lou Cena (talk) 12:28, May 15, 2019 (EDT)

This is actually the wrong page for that. You're suppose to make a new proposal from here. That's what SerpentKing was referring to from before. And according to the rules, you are not suppose to restart a discussion that is ongoing somewhere else. You've already had been warned for doing that before. Wolff (talk) 18:29, May 15, 2019 (EDT)

I’m suggesting something different, which may not be appropriate for that page because it doesn’t relate to it. But you’re right. I’ll move this to its own page. Lou Cena (talk) 19:28, May 15, 2019 (EDT)

The idea you are suggesting "so that we can have something consistent going on", is technically already ongoing somewhere else and would technically go against the first rule. Wolff (talk) 19:33, May 15, 2019 (EDT)

Differences from... sections only for the official clones.

As the page suggest I think only the characters that are officially defined as clones should have "differences from" sections - to prevent bias and clear up confusion in circles. Particularly these characters.

		Luigi has a "differences from Mario" list on the website.
		Listed as model change characters by Sakurai himself.
	None
		Were balanced relative to original characters only.
		Nintendo put up a definition of echoes on their website.

--5.81.67.51 15:01, June 2, 2019 (EDT)

We have stated multiple times, no. Cookies

Creme 15:29, June 2, 2019 (EDT)

Bumping this up, it seems like a reasonable idea to handle clones with as little bias as possible. The other clones who have too many gameplay differences can be handled in a different manner. Perhaps a mini summary on their attributes pages? --86.180.117.90 10:41, July 25, 2019 (EDT)

This discussion is closed and has been shut down multiple times. Cookies

Creme 10:57, July 25, 2019 (EDT)

"Frozen Rayman" rumor to be added?

I was on SmashBoards and I saw people bringing up the "frozen Rayman" rumor, but it wasn't on the List of rumors and I can't edit the page. I was wondering if it could be added.

"Frozen Rayman" rumor

On May 8, 2019, a tweet from Pouchabaka pointed out what appeared to be Rayman frozen in the ice on Battlefield. This led to speculation about the possibility of him joining the roster.

- Mega Mario Man (talk) 21:21, June 5, 2019 (EDT)

No this isn't really a rumor just a little illusion with battlefeilds textures. this is 100% not a rumor and i don't think many people seriously took it as a sign of rayman coming since its just a illusion Xtra Talk Edits 07:23, June 6, 2019 (EDT)

Change R.OB.’s icons across the wiki to reflect his non-japanese default

We’re an english-speaking wiki. Aside from the Famicom colors not existing in Brawl (which doesn’t stretch out to later games outside of japanese, Chinese, or Korean languages in all games after that), or the highest quality version on SSB4’s website and the only one with his shadow is the Famicom colors (which doesn’t stretch out to Ultimate), there’s no reason to have R.O.B.’s icons use the japanese default. I did list two reasons, but neither of them apply to Ultimate, and if I’ll be honest, both are lackluster reasons when compared to the fact that new non-contributors may be confused as to why the “wrong” default costume is everywhere. Lou Cena (talk) 00:47, June 17, 2019 (EDT)

Hm, what do you mean by the Famicom colors not existing in Brawl? Both the Famicom and NES palettes are there, it's just that Famicom R.O.B. is the default. Either way, this has been discussed a bit before, though there really wasn't much of a conversation when SSB4 came out. The main reason as far as I'm aware is just for consistency with Brawl. On one hand, there isn't really anything preventing us from switching the default to NES R.O.B. other than tradition, but on the other, it's well-known that Famicom R.O.B. is the default in Japan anyway, so it's not like it feels like the "wrong" one. (It's mentioned in for Wii U and Ultimate as a tip, for one.) Plus, the consistency just looks nicer, I think. DryKirby64 (talk) 00:59, June 17, 2019 (EDT)

The “not existing” part was an unfortunate mistake. My point is that it doesn’t make sense to mainly showcase the japanese ROB if we’re an english wiki, regardless of what past games use. Lou Cena (talk) 02:28, June 17, 2019 (EDT)

Mii costume pages

An IP recently brought up whether Mii costumes should have pages. I have no opinion on this matter, but I just want to bring discussion about that over here before it clogs up Navi’s talk page. Lou Cena (talk) 23:19, June 30, 2019 (EDT)

SK did say what he said, but Miles, Disaster Flare, and I discussed with him the fact that we've had them since Smash 4's DLC. Aidan, the Rurouni 23:21, June 30, 2019 (EDT)

That it no reason not to fix an almost 5 year mistake. 172.58.173.88 23:33, June 30, 2019 (EDT)

Fine then. You want us to play fair, at the very least, I will.

Taunt characters have minor appearances, and, in the case of Navi, it's sometimes never explicitly stated to be the specific character. Characters who appear as taunts have less going for them than a character who appears as a Mii costume.
With that said, characters who appear as taunts are also part of gameplay; I will fully concede this. They are, for all intents and purposes, as much a part of a character's appearance as a character in Smash as their alternate costumes are. A Mii costume should therefore be able to have a page, as should taunt characters.
However, since both are such a minor appearance in the grand scheme of things, maybe the pages who are for characters who don't have a major appearance (such as an Assist Trophy or something else) should be deleted, since it's a minor appearance.

If we're absolutely playing it fair here, then I'm going to lean for the second option. Feel free to discuss. Aidan, the Rurouni 23:43, June 30, 2019 (EDT)

There isn’t a reason one can have over the other to have a page. I’d rather lean towards the taunt and mii costume characters, like Navi, Ribbon-Girl, Slime, and K.K. Slider, to have pages. I feel those appearances are MUCH MORE prominent then a trophy or spirit. Keep the Taunt and Mii costume characters’ pages. 172.58.173.88 23:55, June 30, 2019 (EDT)

I would say to keep them as appearing as a taunt or Mii costume does seem more notable when compared to background cameos or trophies. However, although I'd much rather like to keep them, I can still see them being deleted just as much. Wolff (talk) 11:29, July 2, 2019 (EDT)

Mii costumes should have pages, many of the Mii costumes of SSB4 became AT or Fighter in Ultimate. --Capstalker (talk) 14:03, July 25, 2019 (EDT)

To be honest, I've never fully seen the reasoning behind "a character gets a page if they affect gameplay", because that led to a bunch of Smash Tour items getting pages even though they're really the least notable thing possible. They could all go on a "List of Smash Tour items" page with little to no loss of information. But regardless, I agree with the idea that Mii costumes and taunt characters are about the same level of notability, so both are worth receiving their own pages. ~ Serena Strawberry (talk) 15:02, July 25, 2019 (EDT)

I feel like we need some kind of definition to help justify their pages. Yes, gameplay, as strange as it may seem, works for taunt characters and Tour Items, but what definition can we give the Mii costume allusions so they are not grouped with cameos? 47.199.39.81 15:35, July 25, 2019 (EDT)

They affect gameplay because they affect how the Mii Fighters look? I guess? I'm not sure if they change hitboxes or anything. ~ Serena Strawberry (talk) 16:32, July 25, 2019 (EDT)

Mii costumes are completely aesthetic, meaning it’s only looks different. It’s basically the Mii Fighters’ pallets swaps. They’re unfortunately pretty much just glorified cameos. They’re more so allusions as they are not actually the characters in question. I don’t want to delete the pages for the base characters of the Mii costumes, but I can’t think of a justified reason to warrant their pages. 47.199.39.81 21:44, July 25, 2019 (EDT)

Get rid of disambiguations for minor characters

We have a lot of disambiguation pages. And a lot of them are for a single character that's been spread between multiple trophy/sticker/spirit lists. I don't think a character who doesn't have a page here should have a disambiguation page. Especially not one that just links to lists where the character is present in. There shouldn't be an Amy Rose (disambiguation) when there's no actual Amy Rose page. If someone makes a recurring cameo in the Super Smash Bros. series, I think they should have a page on Smash Wiki. Or if they are just not relevant enough, maybe they should be deleted altogether. SeanWheeler (talk) 19:35, July 1, 2019 (EDT)

It's a tough spot because some characters are too minor to note in the context of Smash, but are major enough within their own series to warrant individual pages. At least from my experience, these disambiguation pages are mostly for the convenience of someone using the search engine to look for a particular character. For instance, someone who knows that Silver the Hedgehog appears in Smash, but doesn't recall where, can just type in "Silver the Hedgehog" and direct themselves to the proper appearance. For characters who only have one appearance (for example, Jingle), it just redirects to the sub-page that covers their appearance. I don't think it's the best solution, but getting rid of the disambiguation pages probably isn't a good approach either. ~ Serena Strawberry (talk) 19:43, July 1, 2019 (EDT)

They’ll still get results for characters like Silver and Amy just by searching their names, as long as their name are mentioned on a page. That would cover their cameos, trophies, stickers, and spirits. Because of that, the disambiguation pages doesn’t seem entirely necessary. Any page that have the same, or similar, names has a mention of it, or are suppose to, at the top of the page to avoid confusion. Being if those were actual pages. I think it would be necessary only if there was four or more pages that shared a name, not counting Final Destination and Battle Field. 47.199.39.81 19:57, July 1, 2019 (EDT)

I was always confused why some characters without pages tend to link back in on themselves when viewing their collectibles. (as in, they go back to the section of the page where I had just clicked the link) Shouldn't they just link to their respective wikis if possible? (or not at all) Their respective wikis already note their Smash appearances (Silver, Marin) so we don't really need to if we are not going to give them pages ourselves. Wolff (talk) 11:29, July 2, 2019 (EDT)

Here's an idea: How about each series could have a list of minor characters that have cameoed at least once in Smash but aren't relevant enough for their own articles? Like Amy Rose and Silver the Hedgehog can have their own sections in List of minor characters (Sonic series) and their names could redirect to their sections in the minor character list instead of the unnecessary disambiguations? It could be a similar thing that we did with List of minor universes and List of companies with minor representation. SeanWheeler (talk) 01:08, July 9, 2019 (EDT)

That’s good, but we don’t even need to make new pages either. We can just redirect all of them to Non-playable character. Lou Cena (talk) 02:07, July 9, 2019 (EDT)

Non-playable character doesn't exactly give any information on the characters who were just trophies, stickers and spirits. A user looking up Goron would not find him there. But if we make a List of minor characters (The Legend of Zelda series) and include a section for him, we could redirect Goron there. SeanWheeler (talk) 20:06, July 9, 2019 (EDT)

That's a good idea, like List of Pokémon, but should we make lists for each series?--Capstalker (talk) 13:42, July 25, 2019 (EDT)

Make UpdateList templates for Ultimate

Similar to the ones that were made for SSB4. It'll make it easier to ensure the list of updates pages match the individual character pages. Alex the Jigglypuff trainer 06:40, August 6, 2019 (EDT)

Quick warning that those are a lot of work. Serpent King 17:14, September 9, 2019 (EDT)

Ultimate Character Presentation Videos

I noticed that the "livestream-style" presentations done for Hero and Banjo & Kazooie don't have a page anywhere. Considering those presentations are meant to be for them what "The Masked Rebel" was for Joker, and that video has a place on the list of Ultimate character trailers, should we put the Hero and BK videos on that page as well? I was considering branching them off into their own page, since we're likely going to see at least 7 more of them, but since "The Masked Rebel" is already covered on a page, any thoughts? Mega Mario Man (talk) 17:15, September 7, 2019 (EDT)

I'm confused on this proposal, since Hero and Banjo have their presentations listed on the page you linked. Cookies

Creme 16:49, September 9, 2019 (EDT)

He proposes to add the presentation videos, the "new format" ones where Sakurai, while playing the game, goes over every aspect of the their gameplay. YoshiRyu (talk) 17:12, September 9, 2019 (EDT)

^ Exactly. Sakurai's informal "mock livestream" character presentations aren't covered anywhere, despite being Hero and BK's equivalent of Joker's "The Masked Rebel" trailer. I'd also like to discuss whether they should be on their own page or not, as the list of character trailers for Ultimate is composed entirely of character reveal trailers, aside from "The Masked Rebel". Mega Mario Man (talk) 22:44, September 9, 2019 (EDT)

"The Masked Rebel" isn't the full presentation, it's just the second Joker trailer. The full presentation, which explains Joker's moveset and Mementos in detail and covers also Mii costumes, stage builder and other changes isn't covered anywhere on this wiki. --Rdrfc (talk) 05:59, September 10, 2019 (EDT)

Would rather put these in new article called "List of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate video presentations" OR put under "Miscellaneous video presentations" (most non "Direct"-named video presentations) in the Nintendo Direct page, since we had a section for "50-Fact" video for Smash 4 (an example of a video presentation that doesn't have a "Direct" in its name). And speaking of which the other video presentation, like the SSBU segment in E3 2018 Direct, was already covered in the E3 page. Infinite8Bros64 (talk) 08:21, September 10, 2019 (EDT)

I think "List of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate video presentations" works pretty well. Take "The Masked Rebel" off of the list of character trailers and put it on this new page under the full version (which includes the other sections on Video Editor, Smash World, etc.), and put "Mr. Sakurai Presents “Hero”" and "Mr. Sakurai Presents "Banjo & Kazooie"" plus any further "Mr. Sakurai Presents" videos on that page. (On second thought, based on the titles of the latter two videos, maybe "Mr. Sakurai Presents" could also be a good title.) Mega Mario Man (talk) 18:34, September 11, 2019 (EDT)

Languages

With the ease of switching languages in Smash Bros. Ultimate, I've been curiously looking at the names of various subjects in the different languages, like playable characters, special moves, spirits, etc... Unless it's hidden somewhere I didn't find, I don't think we cover much of anything on this wiki regarding different languages, aside from Japanese and the Spanish version of the wiki. Would there be any interest in bringing the names of stuff in different languages here? I have a minor fascination with other languages, so I don't mind doing some of the work and transcribing the names of stuff for here. I just don't want to do it if nobody here wants it, y'know? Shadow2 (talk) 00:03, September 22, 2019 (EDT)

We cover these things in the List of regional version differences pages (the one for Ultimate is currently a draft), but we indeed don't cover the international names for moves anywhere. I am neutral about starting to do things Mariowiki or Bulbapedia style; it's nice and doesn't really detract from anything, but it is also a big undertaking and one that wouldn't have much of an audience because most smashers (myself included) are so used to English names as opposed to the names from their native tongue. Rdrfc (talk) 03:32, September 22, 2019 (EDT)

I like the different language boxes on Mario Wiki and Bulbapedia. --Meester Tweester (talk) 14:35, September 23, 2019 (EDT)

I agree with this; I think it's a good idea. Aykrivwassup (talk) 11:08, March 10, 2020 (EDT)

Stretch Offsets on Ultimate Hitbox Tables to be put next to the usual ones, as well as adding a heading for them to the default template.

Ultimate has a LOT of stretch hitboxes compared to previous games, and in editing the King K. Rool attack pages I had a lot of issues putting them in. I attempted to do "xstretch=x" on the USmash page and it wound up jutting out with no header, so I had to compromise with the Special S4 Hitbox table. There are also other pages for K. Rool with these offsets simply omitted due to the problems with presentation. Could some kind of modification to the template be made to accommodate for this? --Plague von Karma (talk) 19:03, December 9, 2019 (EST)

With the amount of extended hitboxes, it would be good to have the second offsets with the firsts. Having them to the other side of the table is just inconvenient. - Hitbox Enthusiast Zeck (talk) 19:06, December 9, 2019 (EST)

Merge Phantom Thief pages to Phantom Thieves of Hearts

I'm not sure whether to make this a standalone proposal or not, but since someone just created a page for Goro Akechi that's up for deletion, I'm wondering if it'd be a better idea to merge all of the Phantom Thieves into a single page. Besides Morgana (who's a Mii hat and part of Joker's actual moveset), none of them really have enough of a role in Ultimate to carry their own pages, but I think it'd be more worthwhile as part of a singular page. Give brief biographies for each of the members in list format (maybe similar to Hero?), and then sum up their in-game role in a simple and easy way: "The Phantom Thieves appear in Joker's Final Smash, along with their voices in Joker's victory poses. They also cameo on Mementos, aside from Futaba." The page art could use the group Spirit artwork, and Goro could be mentioned as an aside. Does that sound like it'd work out? ~ Serena Strawberry (talk) 01:20, May 19, 2020 (EDT)

Oppose. All the other Phantom Thieves have more representation than Goro (background character, victory screen quotes, spirts, and All-Out Attack). They are also, for the most part, not represented as the collective group, but individually. I believe it would be more accurate having them separated than only having the Phantom Thieves page. Cookies

Creme 10:23, May 19, 2020 (EDT

Support. Even though it is true that the Phantom Thieves have more forms of representation than basically any other non-playable character in Smash, I believe that because all of them share variations of the same form of representation, it would be feasible to simply cover them all at once and list what is unique between each character. It would lead to a much longer article than either of the Thieves have individually, yes, but I think that the largest component of that article would be the condensed spirit table itself. From what I see on all of their articles, there are comprehensive character biographies in their Origin sections. This does contribute to strengthening an encyclopedic record of these characters in general, but the way I see it: basically nothing recorded there has anything to do with how these characters actually appear in Smash. For every single Phantom Thief, especially the (from what I hear) half-member Goro Akechi who only appears as a Spirit, we can just give a short character summary - not a history that feels like a Persona Wiki excerpt, but a summary of general information to create a basic understanding of the character. Plus, they're all already part of a team anyways, with said team having a group-shot spirit itself.

A point which has been brought up before is that their comprehensive Origin sections help establish context for their Spirit battles, which have many references to the characters and their experiences in Persona 5. Well, that's absolutely true!.. and each spirit battle there already contains either simple facts about the character that a reader can just take for face value there, AND links to comprehensive articles on the Persona wiki about things from Persona that don't appear here in Smash. We can do that for each Thief's origin on a Phantom Thieves article too - just say that "Persona Wiki has an article about [character]". It really, really doesn't seem that hard or out of the question to merge these articles together. Yes, each thief has an appearance in a Final Smash, and as a background character, and on a victory screen, and as a Spirit! And they do each and every one of these things in the exact same way, which in my eyes really could give us leeway to cover these things all at once while recording the minor variations between how each character does them. I don't want to come off as too stubborn on this, so soon I'm going to work on a draft to just see if my convictions about the feasibility of this are well-placed. Acgamer28

13:47, May 19, 2020 (EDT)

I would agree with cookies on this. S3AHAWK

(talk) 15:09, May 19, 2020 (EDT)

Oppose. They’re different characters and also what if one of the human characters got Mii costumes it would be out of place for one of the phantom thieves (not counting Joker) to have page but the others don’t. Thegameandwatch (talk) 03:30, May 20, 2020 (EDT)

Oppose, per what Cookies already said. No offense, Acgamer, but I have read your draft and it did not convince me that merging them would work. You did a good job at slimming down their biographies though, which were admittedly a bit too long for minor characters (this is a problem that doesn't apply only to them btw). --Rdrfc (talk) 05:42, May 20, 2020 (EDT)

Thanks, Rd. Slimming down their bios feels like it was the hardest part so far. However, can I ask what what sort of things you may have taken issue with in the draft? It isn't 100% complete atm - I still have to add info on their in-game appearances and a few other things. Is there any way you think I could further improve the draft or are you just opposed to the idea in principle? (Asking this more as constructive criticism than trying to defend my draft. At the end of the day, it's is mainly practice for myself as an editor). Acgamer28

09:37, May 20, 2020 (EDT)

I have to agree after seeing the draft that it might be a little bit too much to merge them into one page. I was thinking it could work like the Koopalings, but seeing it in practice, it's just too much info to condense. It's a structurally sound draft, just not a good idea in general. But I'd be in favor of implementing the more abbreviated biographies you did, Acgamer. Thanks for your input, everyone. ~ Serena Strawberry (talk) 18:45, May 20, 2020 (EDT)

Well, it is what it is. I'll still complete my draft as practice, but if I get a green light I'd definitely love to at least condense each character's backstories on their main articles. If there are other character articles with the same problem, as mentioned previously by Rdrfc, I'd help take care of them as well. Acgamer28

00:42, May 21, 2020 (EDT)

On a related note, I think Phantom Thieves of Hearts could be made into a disambiguation page.--Rdrfc (talk) 10:48, May 22, 2020 (EDT)

That would be a good idea. Nice way to at least group links to each individual Thief without a user having to go to an article with the Persona universe table at the bottom. Acgamer28

13:56, May 22, 2020 (EDT)

Merge Smash Service, Share, and Shared Content into new general article

I am unsure if this should be made a general proposal, but seeing as how another propsal about a multi-article merge was recently created, I figured I would do the same about a smaller case I've noticed recently. The Smash Service, Share, and Shared Content articles were each tagged for merging almost a year ago by a user who stated that they're all generally the same feature with variations across each installment (Brawl for SS, SSB4 for Share, and Ultimate for Shared Content.) I agree with what this user has said, and even though a case can be made that they are each different ways of publishing content, we may benefit from having an article about shared Smash content in general. It seems much more practical to mention all these features on one page (I've already created a basic draft of what such an article could look like in my userspace. The Smash Service article in particular is a stub which may not be easily fixed after its discontinuation, as explained by a message left by Omega Tyrant on its talk page. Currently I've only moved the content of these three articles directly into my draft, so I think that effectively writing a general article will require a fresh perspective on the topic - but how does everybody feel about this idea? Acgamer28 01:40, May 20, 2020 (EDT)

Removing comments about character buffs/nerfs in “changes” sections

I brought this topic up to Disaster Flare a few weeks ago, and he suggested that a proper vote on it should probably take place before action is taken. I feel that statements such as the following that are found on character pages should be removed:

“Possibly as a result of being ranked #_ out of #_ in __, (insert character here) has been buffed/nerfed in the transition to __.”

To my knowledge, it’s never been proven or confirmed that the developers change every single character based on their tier status in the previous game. Thus, I feel as though statements like these fall under speculation, especially due to words like “possibly” being used. OmegaToad64 also brought up a good point when I asked Flare about it. Characters that were higher-tiered in previous games can still be buffed, and vice versa as well. Examples in Ultimate include Pikachu, Peach, Ness, and Little Mac. However, some more drastic cases, such as Bayonetta and Pichu in Ultimate, I feel are more understandable regarding these statements and probably could be left as is. Gizmo (talk) 20:35, May 27, 2020 (EDT)

Support Everything I said here applies to this as well. Also at the same time, I would suggest removing statements like "Despite being ranked (tier#) in (previous game)'s tier list, (character) has been buffed/nerfed in the transition to (new game)". These statements have always sounded somewhat opinionated to me, I even removed it several times from articles but they keep being added back in. OmegαToαd64 • the Best Kαrter 20:56, May 27, 2020 (EDT)

Support While there is generally evidence for those, the buffs and nerfs to a character are not solely based off of their placement on a tier list. Cookies Creme 22:13, May 27, 2020 (EDT)

Support. For 99% of cases, tier lists / competitive placings do not dictate how a character is changed. This seems like a generally good idea. Acgamer28 00:36, May 28, 2020 (EDT)

Just giving this a slight bump. I’m not sure when consensus is allowed to be reached for general proposals. Gizmo (talk) 13:30, June 8, 2020 (EDT)

Support per reasons above. 46.229.158.109 15:37, June 8, 2020 (EDT)

Support, this has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. It feels like some extreme self-insertion since there are way more tier lists than just the Smashboards ones. It's really annoying.

I also feel that competitive play sections of articles should be more objective about whether nerfs actually affected a character. There's a lot of times where pages say "on top of all these issues this character was nerfed" in competitive play sections without considering the context of the changes. There's times these changes are extremely minor or are part of a rework, yet they're really overexaggerated. If buffs/nerfs are to be considered in these areas, they should be very well-explained. For example, did a nerf remove a valuable combo, or did it hurt their movement or advantage state? Things like that are critical in assessing viability. -Plague von Karma 15:49, June 8, 2020 (EDT)

To be honest those should be listed on the "changes from Smash 4" sections instead. The competitive play section is generally used to explain the character's metagame. Cookies

Creme 15:53, June 8, 2020 (EDT)

Agreed. It isn't just that though, I'm also talking about patches. A lot of pages tend to really gas up those. For example, Palutena and Joker have been nerfed, but are both still omnipresent meta characters. King K. Rool has been buffed, and while he's no longer bottom tier, he's at the low end of mid tier at best. However, some would cite his early meta nerfs when if anything the Vacuum nerf did nothing and the down throw "nerf" was more of a buff than anything. These kinds of non-context patch citations are all over the wiki. They should explain why they mattered. -

Plague von Karma

16:01, June 8, 2020 (EDT)

K.Rool's 2.0.0 nerfs were quite relevant in lower level play, where K.Rool could get quick and easy kills using his down throw, and threaten the ledge for a very long period of time. Those shouldn't be downplayed. --MrMHM (talk) 12:54, June 11, 2020 (EDT)

K rool was only considered overpowered in low level play, and even then not to a huge extent. More experienced players could still take advantage of his weaknesses (slow moves, predictable recovery, suspectable to combos, etc) to where he was never seen as an actual threat. I'm not a top professional yet I could still take advantage of his weaknesses before his nerfs (PK Flash=gimping machine).

Omegα Toαd 64 18:36, June 11, 2020 (EDT)