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A fact from Midgard (game) appeared on Wikipedia's
Main Page in the Did you know column on 13 February 2022 (
check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that a reviewer once withheld top marks for
play-by-mail game Midgard because of a negative experience with a
gamemaster?
The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as
this nomination's talk page,
the article's talk page or
Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
... that the medieval fantasy
play-by-mail gameMidgard allows
battles in size from 200 to over 200,000 troops? Source: Wright, B. E. (March–April 1996). "Midgard". Paper Mayhem. No. 77. p. 24.
New enough and large enough expansion. Interesting hook, especially given that I had no idea there *were* play-by-mail. AGF on almost entirely offline sourcing. One question, @
Airborne84: Is "Midguard" in the quote in the second-to-last paragraph an error in the quote itself (which should get a [sic] added to it)?
Sammi Brie (she/her •
t •
c)
18:19, 27 January 2022 (UTC)reply
Greatly appreciate the review
Sammi Brie! Yes, I think
play-by-mail games might always be around at some level, even if the ones still around are mostly played by email nowadays, or even web-based (a version of turn-based gaming). I added the [sic]. I've seen that alternate spelling in a couple of cases, but I think it's just a misspelling since the publisher(s) haven't used it, so a sic is more appropriate than an alternate name in the lead. Thanks again!
Airborne84 (
talk)
20:50, 27 January 2022 (UTC)reply
Theleekycauldron thanks for the note. Even if it said something like "allows players to simulate battles in size from"? That involves the real world, although was implied, so you're saying there's a consensus that is insufficient? If so, I can look around for the next week or so, although it might take a bit. It's possible I might have to withdraw another play-by-mail nomination due to time and challenges with the hook as well. I think these are my last two for some time. But I will look if this is not allowed.
Airborne84 (
talk)
13:45, 2 February 2022 (UTC)reply
@
Airborne84: I'm leaning towards no, since that would be akin to a movie hook reading in <Movie>, viewers watch as <character a> does <fantastical thing>... I mean, it's not exactly the same, but the spirit is similar. What I will say is that while this is my interpretation of the rule, I don't necessarily agree with the rule, so I would be 100 percent behind you if you went to
WT:DYK and looked for a consensus the other way on gameplay/an IAR exemption for your hook.
theleekycauldron (
talk •
contribs) (she/
they)
19:28, 2 February 2022 (UTC)reply
Per a discussion at WT:DYK,
Valereee proposed a new hook, which I am copying below:
ALT2 ... that a reviewer withheld top marks for
play-by-mail game Midgard because of negative experiences with a
gamemaster?
Given the discussion at WT:DYK along with how ALT2 meets guidelines (sourced inline to an offline source) and how there seems to be loose consensus to move away from "size-of-the-number-of-players" hooks about play-by-mail games, ALT2 is now approved.
Narutolovehinata5 (
talk ·
contributions)
11:07, 3 February 2022 (UTC)reply
Would want to add "in 1996" as a caveat if used to note the period since the game is still active. However, I'd like to look around a bit more first to see if I can generate a different hook if that's OK. Thanks!!
Airborne84 (
talk)
21:38, 3 February 2022 (UTC)reply
I do like concise
theleekycauldron. ALT3b is pretty good. It omits some nuances, but I think in the end it's fine. The nuances are that the overall turn result the siege report was within was probably much longer (but the source doesn't say how long the turn report was). The other nuance is that a few PBM players probably know that the extinct PBM game Empyrean Challenge had turn results which could be 1,000 pages long. There's
a photo here that I uploaded to show that. But that was computer generated. What was interesting about the eight text pages from Midgard is that the gamemaster typed it out personally. (Who does that?) Anyway, most people wouldn't know about the Empyrean Challenge thing, and I concur it's tough to capture the human nuance here concisely, so I'm fine with ALT3b or maybe adding "more than" before twelve pages.
Airborne84 (
talk)
02:32, 4 February 2022 (UTC)reply
Personally I think one required link to provide context is sufficient. Once we need two, it's too much. Readers who aren't familiar with the subject are pushed away.
Gamemaster +
turn result is too much. Oh, and "turn result" is also in a section in which that term isn't even really highlighted? No.
valereee (
talk)
22:04, 4 February 2022 (UTC)reply
Personally I still think ALT2 is the better hook. ALT3 and its variants seem to be too focused on the gameplay aspect of the game and thus feel more niche to me, whereas ALT2 has somewhat broader appeal and don't need an appreciation of games to like.
Narutolovehinata5 (
talk ·
contributions)
22:49, 4 February 2022 (UTC)reply
OK. I only hesitated with ALT2 because I have no idea if the people who still run the game are a (very) small business like some other PBM companies still around today. On the other hand, as the saying goes, any publicity is good publicity, I suppose. If agreeable, perhaps we could caveat ALT2 by noting that the reviewer's comment was in the past as below?
ALT2a... that a 1996 review withheld top marks for
play-by-mail game Midgard because of negative experiences with a
gamemaster?
ALT2b... that a reviewer once withheld top marks for
play-by-mail game Midgard because of negative experiences with a
gamemaster?
Narutolovehinata5, apologies, but I'd like to make a minor change. I checked the source one more time and, although the reviewer described his story with the gamemaster for eight paragraphs over two pages, he eventually characterized it as a single negative experience, not plural. I adjusted the ALTs to the singular to match.
ALT2a(1)... that a 1996 review withheld top marks for
play-by-mail game Midgard because of a negative experience with a
gamemaster?
ALT2b(2)... that a reviewer once withheld top marks for
play-by-mail game Midgard because of a negative experience with a
gamemaster?