Forum:Adding Spirit battle sections to stages (similar to the ones on Fighter pages)

Forums: Index → Proposals → Adding Spirit battle sections to stages (similar to the ones on Fighter pages)

This discussion is in regards to a proposed change on SmashWiki. The discussion must first meet with a consensus before it is implemented.

If you haven't seen them around, every fighter's SSBU page has an "In Spirit battles" section that lists every Spirit that uses them as a puppet fighter. The core of this post is pretty simple: I believe that if a list of every Spirit battle in which a specific fighter appears is worthy of inclusion, then a list of every Spirit battle taking place on a specific stage is also worthy of inclusion. Most stages are only used in five or so battles, so I don't think it would make any page particularly long. It was brought to my attention that I should make a proposal for this, and so I'm doing it now. (Just a heads-up: I highly suspect the merit of the sections on fighter pages is going to be debated here as well.) Ahemtoday (talk) 12:42, June 22, 2019 (EDT)

To be honest, doesn’t it kind of bloat the fighter pages? And like it was mentioned, we’d have to be constantly be updating on ALL of the stages, not to mention ALL of the fighter pages with new Spirts. Along with the actual Spirit pages, we’d have to be constantly updating over 200 pages. That doesn’t seem practical at all. I think Spirit Battles should only be of the Spirit pages, and not bloating the stage and fighter pages. Plus, it’s just repeated information. Like stickers, I think only the images of the Spirits are necessary on the non-Spirit pages. 47.199.39.81 12:56, June 22, 2019 (EDT)

I think you overestimate how difficult it would be to update the pages - it's not like every single one needs to be updated when DLC spirits get added, just the ones that appear in the new spirit battles. And that's not a lot - the most that have been added at once are the ones that come with Joker's DLC, which had eleven spirits. Unless they're secretly planning to drop a hundred or so on us, I don't think it'd be an issue. Not to mention, adding Spirits to the section isn't very difficult. It's basically just a copypaste job. Ahemtoday (talk) 13:17, June 22, 2019 (EDT)

That word you used, “copy paste”? That’s precisely the problem. Just “repeated” information that it perfectly fine on the Spirit pages. It is “redundant” to add the same information in numerous places. The exceptions is where it makes sense AND doesn’t bloat the page. Trophies and stickers are examples of acceptable repeated information. Spirit Battles are basically Ultimate’s event matches, which aren’t listed on the stage or fighter pages. 47.199.39.81 13:32, June 22, 2019 (EDT)

Well, I'd like to challenge the notion that it isn't useful. If I want to look at all the spirits that, say, Dark Pit represents (because I'm curious in what situations he would be used over regular Pit), if the "In Spirit battles" section didn't exist, what would I do then? Comb through all thirty or so Spirit articles just to find the four times Dark Pit shows up? Ahemtoday (talk) 15:05, June 22, 2019 (EDT)

Couldn't you just use Ctrl-F to find them? The Spirit Battles already list what stage they take place on, so there does not seem to be a need to list them on the stage pages. I do agree with 47.199.39.81 in that it seems to just be a replacement for events. With that in mind, I don't really see a need to list the Spirit Battles on the character pages either, especially when you can just use use Ctrl-F. There is currently a page up for deletion called "List of spirits (complete list)", which is targeted for deletion for repetition (Using Ctrl-F is as an example in favor of deleting it). I feel that this is a similar, if not the same, kind of situation. Wolff (talk) 13:59, June 23, 2019 (EDT)

Ctrl-F makes it easier, but you still have to open thirty seperate pages to find them all, which is, as they say, a lot - and I don't think making people open thirty tabs at once is worth it to eliminate "redundancy". Ahemtoday (talk) 16:53, June 23, 2019 (EDT)

Even so, there needs to be others who share your thoughts (proposals are not vote based) in order for this action to be carried out. If not, the discussion will be considered a failure and the proposal will be dropped after some time. Wolff (talk) 17:18, June 23, 2019 (EDT)

Well, if nobody shows up to back me up, so be it. I mean, what else am I gonna do, recruit people by force? Ahemtoday (talk) 22:23, June 24, 2019 (EDT)

Support I believe it would be useful to know which stages are used in Spirit Battles. Awesomelink234, the Super Cool Gamer Leave a message if needed 14:17, June 25, 2019 (EDT)

I feel that listing which Fighters and Stages a Spirit Battle has would be better if it was a different page somehow, so that it doesn't bloat the pages at all. Wolff (talk) 13:41, July 2, 2019 (EDT)

I'd be amenable to that, but the problem is: I can't think of a decent layout for such a page. Surely it can't just have a section for every fighter, and then a section for every stage - that'd basically be a list of all spirit battles that you can't sort. If we had, like, some fancy custom code it could work, but within the confines of this wiki's formatting system I don't see it working out well. Ahemtoday (talk) 20:39, July 2, 2019 (EDT)

I'd like to refer to what 47.199.39.81 said; It is “redundant” to add the same information in numerous places. The exceptions is where it makes sense AND doesn’t bloat the page. Although it makes some kind of sense to have them there, it does end up repeat information we already have on the Spirit pages themselves, which causes bloat to the page. Given the concept of the Spirit Battles, it appaers to be easier to figure out why a specific character was chosen over another regarding the Spirits themselves, not the other way around. If the main reason is to find out which characters' they were the inspiration for their participation in the fight, that can easily be added into the info of the Spirit lists. I honestly cannot see a prominent reason to have the "battles" list on the "fighter" and "stage" pages and repeating the info again.

However, much like how having multiple pictures for the infoboxes was not possible before, the wiki can possibly add something that could help organize the battles if we made the individual pages for them. Wolff (talk) 21:06, July 2, 2019 (EDT)

I will cede that wanting to know what types of character a certain fighter is used for is a bit of a niche case. I guess I don't have an argument there. However, you put forth an interesting possibility with the idea of listing the inspirations of each Spirit battle on the "List of spirits (X series)" pages. That relocates the non-duplicate info from these sections, yes, but it could also encompass other aspects of the Spirit battles as well. Ahemtoday (talk) 21:56, July 2, 2019 (EDT)

The inspiration info probably would only apply to the supported fighters that may not be explained by the Spirit itself. Some are self-explanatory like "Wall-Merged Link" with Young Link being Link and Mr. Game & Watch being the flatness, as well as the ones of the fighters themselves. Some may not be as obvious like "Agatha", having Peach for Agatha's Parasol and Bayonetta with Madama Butterfly to represent Agatha's love for bugs and insects as a self-proclaimed princess of them. However, ones like "BotW Zelda" probably wouldn't necessarily need to be explained considering the fighters that make up the champions have their own Spirit Battles, but could still be mentioned anyway. Adding the inspirations, regardless of how self-explanatory a few may be, does not seem like it would bloat the Spirit Battle section of the Spirit pages (I tested it). It would possibly help explain why the character, and possibly stage, was chosen over another. Wolff (talk) 23:50, July 2, 2019 (EDT)