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Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 9:08 am
by RayCarrot
Something I've noticed quite a lot now is that when referring to the first game, a lot of different names are used, like Rayman, Rayman 1, the original game etc. Is there a standard which should be used, or are all of these correct? I personally tend to go with "the original game", since "Rayman 1" isn't the actual title and writing only "Rayman" might me confusing, since that's the character's name.
Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 3:01 pm
by Ray502
On the manual of style, there is nothing about which way R1 should be named. Personally, I go for "the original Rayman game," but I guess it all depends on the person.
Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 4:03 pm
by Keane
"Rayman 1" isn't an official title so I'd avoid using that. The original/first game sounds like the way to go.
Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 4:12 pm
by RayCarrot
Keane wrote:"Rayman 1" isn't an official title so I'd avoid using that. The original/first game sounds like the way to go.
Well the main article for the first game is called "Rayman 1" for some reason.
Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 6:41 pm
by Hunchman801
"Rayman 1" should not be used. You can use:
- Rayman
- the original game
- the original Rayman
- the first game
- the first Rayman
- etc.
(Please note the use of italics to denote game titles.)
So, why is the article called "Rayman 1"? "Rayman (game)" would probably be a better choice, but so many links would have to be replaced, and the current one being easier to type, I think it can stay as is for the time being.
Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 6:44 pm
by Master
I'm pretty sure it was called something else before, but someone renamed some of the articles a while back. You'll notice that the Rayman 2 article lacks the "The Great Escape," subtitle.
Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 6:45 pm
by Hunchman801
Master wrote:I'm pretty sure it was called something else before, but someone renamed some of the articles a while back. You'll notice that the Rayman 2 article lacks the "The Great Escape," subtitle.
Yeah, this is because it is most commonly referred to as Rayman 2, without the subtitle. I think it makes things easier.
Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 7:49 pm
by Reese Riverson
Hunchman801 wrote:"Rayman 1" should not be used. You can use:
- Rayman
- the original game
- the original Rayman
- the first game
- the first Rayman
- etc.
(Please note the use of italics to denote game titles.)
So, why is the article called "Rayman 1"? "Rayman (game)" would probably be a better choice, but so many links would have to be replaced, and the current one being easier to type, I think it can stay as is for the time being.
Yeah, it's not like there's a Rayman One to confuse people like Microsoft did with Xbox (1) vs Xbox One.

Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 7:55 pm
by Master
Just you wait until they make the gritty Rayman reboot.
Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 8:00 pm
by Reese Riverson
Master wrote:Just you wait until they make the gritty Rayman reboot.
What gritty Rayman reboot?

Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 8:05 pm
by Master
Rayman 2017, naturally.
Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 8:05 pm
by Ray502
Looking over my greatest hits release copy of the original Rayman, both the front cover of the case and side say: "Rayman."
We could change it to "Rayman (game)," since the first line of the article states this line for clarification:
This article is about the first Rayman game. For main character of the series, see Rayman.
But then again, the links would have to be changed to go along with it. Personally, I call it Rayman 1 more than the original Rayman and related names, so I think it's best to keep it the way it is now. Basically agreeing with Hunch here.
There is some inconsistency within several articles referencing the second game. Some will state it like:
Rayman 2, and others:
Rayman 2: The Great Escape.
Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 9:47 pm
by Master
Well, while it's probably not the best practice, you don't need to worry about changing links. As long as you have a redirect page, all links will still point to the right page. It's because of redirects that you can enter "Rayman 2" or "Rayman 2:The Great Escape" and still end up with the one article.
Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 10:20 pm
by RayCarrot
Well I personally think calling it "Rayman (game)" sounds better and more professional. I'm quite sure it's never officially been referred to as "Rayman 1", so I think a redirect from "Rayman 1" would be good enough. There wouldn't really be any links to change either since there are barely any with the text "Rayman 1".
About the Rayman 2 title, the same applies to Rayman 3. In this case I might think it'd be easier to simply have the title without the subtitle, since "Rayman 2" and "Rayman 3" are still officially correct names (unlike Rayman 1) and it makes the page names shorter.
Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2017 1:37 am
by Hunchman801
Redirects do work, but they're not good with search engines and renaming the "Rayman 1" article to "Rayman (game)" is just not worth it if we don't update all links. Bad quality Wikia articles sometimes show up first on Google simply because they're part of a big domain and we should be careful not to make the situation any worse. In general, redirects are most useful for searching articles and should not be used in links.
I'll look into whether a bot could be programmed to do it; I'm also happy for someone to change the hundreds of links manually if they want but I'm pretty sure their free time could be put to much better use when it comes to contributing to the wiki.

Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2018 7:02 am
by The Jonster
This reminds me of when the song "The cake is a lie" was changed ot "Cakewalk". Not the same thing, but..
Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2018 7:03 am
by PluMGMK
Ah, so that's what it changed to! Pity though, it kinda looked like a timewarp for a while…
Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2018 7:13 am
by The Jonster
Wasn't ^ the one who said that?!

Re: Inconsistency when referring to the first game
Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2018 7:15 am
by PluMGMK
I knew the name had changed, but I wasn't sure what it had changed to…