User:66 Seconds/Sandbox 4

What is The Lonely Assassins
The Lonely Assassins is a found-phone mystery video game which launched in early 2021. The story revolves around the player, having discovered Larry Nightingale's phone and investigating the contents of the phone and what happened to Larry with the help of Petronella Osgood.

The game was published by Maze Theory, and features returning actors including Jodie Whittaker, Ingrid Oliver, and Finlay Robertson, as the Thirteenth Doctor, Petronella Osgood and Larry Nightingale respectively.

Despite the game having a non-branching plot, the game has remained due to branching dialogue dependant on the choices of the player. The dialogue has no affect on the overall plot of the game, and all objectives remain the same no matter which dialogue path the player follows.

What's wrong with interactive video games as whole?
As a whole, video games on the wiki are unfairly treated. T:VS states that "most 'interactive works of fiction'" are outright invalid as:


 * Most games and "choose your fate" games present alternative, branching storylines rather than giving a definitive account of events in the DWU. Additionally, some of them will cast "you", the player, as a character, instead of having you play as an actual DWU characters.

They have branching narratives!
Look at the whole of the DWU and tell me what doesn't have branching narratives! I get that we're talking about individual works of fiction, such as the dialogue here, or the Decide Your Destiny novels, but what exactly is the issue in a franchise which explores all of time and space, and coined the phrase "wibbly wobbly, timey wimey".

Yes, there's branching narratives, but the DWU is filled with contradictions. Just try and give me the biography of Ace without using the words "according to one account" or variations thereof.

Branching narratives can easily be explained away using the words according to one account/according to another account or in one timeline/in another timeline.
 * "But which is the true timeline?" I hear you ask. Both none of them and all of them! Pete's World is just as valid as the Doctor's universe - we don't dismiss one account over another.
 * "But how do we approach them from a biography point of view?". In the main biography there should perhaps be a short reference to the work of fiction; potentially for The Haunted Wagon Train this could be something as simple as:


 * The Tenth Doctor and Martha visited the American mid-West. Accounts differed as to their actions. (PROSE: The Haunted Wagon Train)


 * This gives us rough idea of what happened and where it fits in the timeline. A user can then look into the story and find out more. If necessary, these accounts can also be expanded upon in the "alternate timelines" section of a character's biography. We don't need huge amounts of detail, just the basics.
 * "But what about on other pages?". Just reference as normal, but add according to one account/according to another account where necessary.
 * "How would this work with regard to The Lonely Assassins?". Easily. As mentioned previously, The Lonely Assassins has no branching narrative - only branching dialogue choices. There is only one plot and the dialogue choices don't have any affect on story, they are simply there to provide further information to the player. This can referenced the same as any other work of fiction.

But what if "you" are cast as the player

 * "How can we write an article about the player?": The player themselves is often simply referred to by a broad term, such as "civilian" in the case of The Lonely Assassins or "human" in the case of Attack of the Graske. We should only write what we are certain of, or in other words, what we are told by the narrative. We must not speculate. We have whole categories on unnamed individuals - the player should be treated as such, unless named by the published narrative.
 * "What if the game lets us personalise our character?": The same as previous. We should only write what we are certain of. If the personalisation feature only gives us the option of human identities, then the character is human. If the player get's to choose their species, then we would categorise the character as species unknown. We mu*"How would this work with regard to The Lonely Assassins?": As mentioned earlier, the player does play as themselves in The Lonely Assassins, but the narrative refers to them as "civilian". There is no real personalisation other than the choices he or she makes when texting with Osgood. We would likely have the page "Civilian (The Lonely Assassins)". This would only state what we know to be true; hence it might start:


 * A civilian found a phone belonging to Larry Nightingale and worked to uncover what happened to him with the help of Petronella Osgood. (GAME: The Lonely Assassins)

Summary
So, all in all, I think I've done a pretty good job in describing the game's mechanics and what could and could not be covered by us. Muy proposal is:

Only narrative/dialogues come into play
When covering The Adventure Games, we don't say "Amy took five steps to the left, waited a few seconds and then started walking again, took seven steps forward and activated a lever. She was killed dozens of times by a Dalek, when the player lost the game. Somehow, she magically came back to life every time." We cover the plot, from A --> B, which all players experience alike. That is what we should do: cover the narrative/storyline elements and all else is ignored. Matching of gems, usage of the power-ups, different skin/outfits, characters which are unlockable but don't appear within the dialogue, etc are to be covered only in a real-world fashion, as a game overview, not in the in-universe bits. We add to biographies whatever the game tells us and nothing else.

Where does it leave us page/linkage wise

 * Legacy (video game) becomes a valid source, and covers: "Chapter 1: The Sontaran Threat", "Chapter 2: "Enter... the Zygons", "Chapter 3: The Rise of the Master" and "Chapter 4: Betrayal and Redemption"
 * Bigger on the Inside (video game) and Sonic Adventure (video game) do what we're already doing, but without
 * Fan Area, Expert Levels/Expert Levels Season 2, Challenge Levels and (Tie ins to the TV-)Season 8/9: no pages do themselves, and we only "cover" it from a real world perspective in a game-overview page, perhaps at Doctor Who: Legacy.
 * Doctor Who: Legacy Kids (would get one of the two treatments above, depending on later discussion)

Now, I'll leave the floor for you all to discuss. OncomingStorm12th ☎  21:20, 5 March 2023 (UTC)