Video Game Guide to Data Entry: Characters 
This is the Data Entry Guide for Series and Franchises, the main guide with all the general info and some other things can be found at Video Game Guide to Data Entry
Create a Video Game Character
Characters are an important part of almost every video game that is created. You play someone (or something) facing someones (or somethings), and that is the essence of most of the games. To keep characters out of the database would be very silly, so we have a way of adding characters into the system. But is every character in? No, there are rules about which character can be added to the system.
Character Types
A character type is a definition of the position of that character in the game. It defines if you can play with or against it, if it is just there and if it has a link to something in real life. Some of those type are out for the time been and some need special rules, see below.
Character types that are in
The following characters can be added as normal:
- Player Characters, except where stated below;
- Party Member when applicable;
- Bosses, Random Encounters, Enemies in general;
- NPCs with whom you interact in a meaningful way. For RPGs that means that those random people on the screen which you "talk", but do nothing more are out;
Character types that are out
- Real Life Personas are out for the moment (except for historical figures), this may change in the future;
- Life Simulation games, as The Sims, are out too;
- Things, as a general rules are not characters (except for some cases below) so they are out. By things I mean constructions in a Civ game, buildings on management games, etc;
What's the difference between a Player Character and a Party Member?
There is some confusing about those two categories, and lets try to clear that. A Player Character is the character you control directly. For Fighting games is any character you can use to play, for action and adventures is the same. For RPGs, where the concept of party appear more, the Player Character is the one on your party which you start the game with and which is your persona in the game. Everyone else is a Party Member.
Special Rules for some Genres and Situations
Some genres on VGG will have special rules on how to add the characters and which info we are expecting for them, please be very mindful of all that is written below:
Sports
As states, sports are out for the time being. So no character added to them will be approved.
Vehicle Simulations
Vehicle simulations are normally about what vehicle you are guide. Normally there are character per se, but each carplanebikeetc is a character that you will guide. In this cases the vehicle will be entered as a character and linked to the game. As a version rule here (see versions below for more general rules), there is always only 1 (one) [character] entry for each real life vehicle, and, unless a game completely alters what that vehicle is, there will be only 1 (one) [character version].
Strategy Games
Similar to what happens in the vehicles simulations case, the type of troop you command can be entered as a character. Again, the same rules for versions as above apply.
Fighting Game
For fighting games, every character that you can play with is considered a Player Character, every character which you can't play a Boss, when you can play or face against it, that character is both a Player Character and an Oponent.
Franchise Characters
On entry for each franchise character (Mario, Sam, Solid Snake, etc) no matter how many games and forms it appears as (Dr. Mario, Baby Mario, Older Snake, Younger Snake, etc), you will add versions as appropriate.
MMO and Class\Profession as Character
Some RPGs (almost all based on Dungeons & Dragons for example) will allow you to create characters based on a class. MMOs as a rule act the same way, for these cases you should add the ClassProfession as a Character (a tag with the appropriate ClassProfession Character Type).
What exactly is a character version?
Through the Create Character screen, and from the character main page, you have the ability to create different characters versions, and those are the things that will be linked to a video game and be assigned a character type. Most of the characters on the database will have only one version, but in the following cases new versions should be created accordingly:
- Completely new character art and concept;
- A new version for each GENRE the character appears;
- One the same characters have a different set of abilities on the same game. For example Yoshi. We will have only one entry for Yoshi, each Yoshi color is a different version;
- If necessary, a new version for an IMPORTANT distinction on the character that appears on the story;
- If the character goes through a big transformation on a game, two versions can be added. Take Goku for example, you have the following versions of him: Son Goku, Goku (Adult), Goku (SSJ1), Goku (SSJ2), Goku (SSJ3), Goku (SSJ4). Each will be appropriately linked around.
To explain better about point number 3 above, sometimes a character goes through a big transformation at some point during the game. Which will change its relation with you (made it become a villain, or stopped being part of the party and became a Helpful NPC), when that happens it is useful to have a distinction between those two version, both for the sake of discussion and for linking around. In those cases, each gets a character version.
How do I name my character version?
The naming of the versions have a convention, as most of the data on the site. If the version is the only one the character has, the name should be the same of the character. If the character goes to many different version, but has one which is the principal, and that version doesn't have a know alias, use Character Name (Original) as the version name. See the examples of Viki
Do I need a version for each language like for a video game?
No. Characters are linked to Video Game entries, and not Video Game Versions entries, therefore it doesn't make sense to create one version for each language the game was published. But we want to track those names, so add them as alt names to the character.
How much do I get for these submissions?
A Character submission should net you form 0.10 GG to 1.50 GG depending on how many versions and how well done it is, and on the type of character. Party Members, boss and Player Character give more GG while Random Encounter and enemies less. A Character Version, should net you from 0.10 to 0.50 gg.
The Character Creation Window
The Create Character Window
How to add a version to an existing character
To add a version to an existing character, go to that character page, and scroll down to the versions module, and click on Add Version. You will be greeted with the below screen. Select the appropriate linked name, type the nickname for this version, and select which Type it is and in which video games this specific version appears, add a description that is specific to this version. Click Save and you are done.
The Create Character Version Window
|
