Forum:Concerning a series of articles I have started....

Hello all~

First I would like to say that I am new to MediaWiki editing, and that this will be my first attempt to do anything serious to aid a public wiki such as this. I've already looked through Wikipedia's guidelines and MediaWiki tutorials (more like I skimmed through them, since there's so much to read @.@), but I think I understand the basic formatting and markup syntax conventions involved by now.

I would like to contribute to this wiki by starting a compendium of every skill, spell, and summon that has been used throughout the Tales series. I understand that this is a rather large and internally redundant task, but I think the freely-editable environment of a wiki community such as this will allow the process to go a little faster if others help. (^-^)b I have not played some games in the series, but I have a fairly decent base of knowledge of the games, and I think there should be a publically available resource to reference each skill and its effects, coupled its localized naming history (and possibly other facts like requirements for each game, though I don't intend to add something like this just yet). These articles can link to the skill lists that I have seen for some chars here, so we can provide a more in-depth resource to anyone who might be interested.

About the use of terms in my articles, I am trying to use all current localization names and formats that have been used in the most recent games. For instance, I am using terms like "Base", "Master", and "Arcane" to represent Tokugi, Higi, and Ougi throughout my articles. My only problem is how to refer to Hi Ougi skills, since the current term is "Mystic Arte", which seems like a TotA-specific term, and it doesn't sound right to me when referring to Reid's hidden skills like that. I happen to prefer "Hi Ougi" in any case, but I'm open to changing it to whatever anyone else might suggest, if anything (or if it really matters, lol).

There are a few parts within my articles that have missing data, and I don't have any sources available to me to fill in those blanks. These blank parts include the missing Japanese incantations and transliterations, or skill/spell data for games that were never localized in North America. For now, I am leaving those spaces available to allow anyone to fill in the necessary information. I don't know what Wikipedia's policy on incomplete information is, but I will remove the blank parts in my articles if anyone has a problem with them. But really, I'm hoping others will see those blanks and add the correct information.

There are also possible formatting issues to be considered, and I am open to suggestions. I am trying to be as complete as possible, at a risk of being redundant, particularly on the skill comparison tables I include in every article, in which I include all released ports and remakes on the list, as well as the Tales of the World spinoffs.

I admit that everything I have in mind will result in a great many pages to be created, and this project might even double or triple the total number of articles that currently exist on this wiki! @.@ But that might be a good thing for this community, if we can manage to bring more activity to this place, since Aselia doesn't seem to be well known. I hope my activity here can help this community grow, at least to a point of self-sustainability where many people will continue to edit and create articles without large-scale initiatives like my own.

Thanks, and I'm sorry about making such a long post here for my introduction to this community~ ヘ(^-^ヘ)(ノ^-^)ノ

Mayu Miyuki 06:04, 5 March 2008 (UTC)