Forum:Renaming the Tutorial namespace

For those of you who didn't already know (hopefully this doesn't mean you), we have a Tutorial space here on The Sims Wiki. The Tutorial namespace was created at the same time that the Fanon namespace was created, and the main jumping-off point to reach those articles is the Tutorial Portal.

To cut to the chase, I'm proposing that we re-name the Tutorial namespace to something else... I'm thinking the "Game Help namespace." I'm suggesting this name change because the idea of 'Tutorial' is limiting, and I believe this limitation is partly to blame for why the Tutorial namespace is struggling to grow and prosper while the Fanon namespace is booming.

By changing from Tutorial to Game Help (or a comparable name), we show that the space is supposed to be used for more than just game walkthroughs and step-by-step instructions, but is intended to offer all sorts of guidance on game issues, both in the game itself and in game installation, installation of content, etc. This technical information is an area where The Sims Wiki is lacking, and unlike walkthroughs and tutorials, we don't have a dedicated place to host that sort of information.

If a name change is approved here, some articles in the Tutorial namespace might need to be renamed, but this would be relatively minor and could easily be handled as the need arises.

So, thoughts? --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 02:02, April 17, 2013 (UTC)

Discussion
Will it not confuse with Help: namespace? It's not a big change, although I agree that in some instances, the use of term "Tutorial" doesn't seem to suit.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  02:39, April 17, 2013 (UTC)


 * I don't really know about this renaming stuff, but I definitely think that adding instructions like game setup would benefit the wiki. So I'm basically indifferent about renaming the namespace (I can change my opinion if I find more reasons to support it), and I support adding information like what was explained above. ~ Waikikamukow  ( Anyone wanna chat? ) 02:43, April 17, 2013 (UTC)

Just want to quickly confirm that a name change is technically possible as I've just demonstrated on my own personal wiki (one benefit of independent hosting). It's basically the same input but a different cosmetic output, so while it will still technically be the Tutorial namespace, cosmetically it'll show up as whatever we decide to call it.

As for the proposal itself, I'm indifferent to the idea of the name change. I don't see any real reason to make the change but if it does help even the slightest in populating the namespace then every little helps. However, I do think "Game Help" would cause too much confusion with Wikia's mandatory Help namespace and could be seen by some to be more to do with walkthroughs than technical information. I don't have any ideas myself but it's just food for thought. 21:13, April 18, 2013 (UTC)

It's worth mentioning that 'tutorial' does even less to evoke the idea of technical help than 'game help' does. The main purpose of this discussion is to get the idea of a name change moving. I don't have my heart set on changing it to Game help, so if someone else has a better name for it, I'll embrace it. But calling it the Tutorial namespace is a limiting factor on otherwise valid content that the namespace could otherwise house. This is not a minor change or a quibble over minute details. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 21:42, April 18, 2013 (UTC)

I believe that changing the name of the namespace would be a good idea, as there are many other things that could be added that are related to tutorials. -- Bleeh (talk) (blog) 23:30, April 18, 2013 (UTC)

I also think changing the name to something else would be better, because theres not much you can write on it. So giving it a more attractive name mabey make more people to go there. Also i think there should be a place for tutorials on the wikia a bit like fourms. Like how to make a signature of something, because it took me ages find out how to do a custom signature. But that just an idea.

Blue12porcupine

talk 18:28, April 21, 2013 (UTC)
 * Personally, I do not like the idea renaming of the Tutorial namespace to Game Help as a purpose of advertisement so more people will edit it. As we can imagine, tutorials are supposed to contain technical help or explanation about the game. I disagree if some random people just makes some random "tutorials", and then claim them as "tutorials." Technical stuff about the game is not supposed to be made like amateur.


 * I'm sorry if I sound arrogant, but IMO, technical stuff requires things like in-game observations or experiments. We can't just put stuff together and claim it "tutorial." Take a look at this one for example. Some good examples of technical stuff from The Sims 2 are the Firstborn Syndrome, the many dangers of accidentally deleting tombstones, moving Sims the wrong way, the danger of packaging an inhabited lot, deleting Sims, and many other ways to corrupt the neighborhood. These things weren't just known all of a sudden.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  16:03, April 22, 2013 (UTC)
 * There's no reason why we can't build up that same encyclopedic information here on TSW... the only real hindrance has been our lack of a good place to put the information, and the lack of the information itself. The game info on simswiki.info is not exclusively theirs... it exists at other sources as well, so it would not be a major issue to compile that information, add any additional experience TSW users may have, and post those articles. But those articles don't belong in a 'Tutorial' namespace. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 16:38, April 22, 2013 (UTC)

Information: I sent a message to Wikia staff asking them; 1 - If namespace name changes are possible and allowed, 2 - If we could rename the current Help namespace to something else. They responded that namespace renames can be done, but they advise against renaming the Help namespace, and suggest that any namespace we create/rename to not have the word 'help' in it, to avoid confusion.

So... How do we name the Game Help space without calling it "Game Help"? --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 01:29, April 22, 2013 (UTC)


 * Maybe 'Game Guidance' or 'Game Aid'. Still, it sounds to tutorial-ish....  Cavia (  wheek  •   speak  ) 07:34, April 22, 2013 (UTC)


 * The technical help at SimsWiki also uses "Game Help" as their namespace, so I thought it would fit. :/ Other than that, I don't really have any idea.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  16:03, April 22, 2013 (UTC)

Comment - "Tutorial" has it's issues, as stated by the proposal. "Game Help" has its issues too. We're at an impasse on what to actually use to rename the namespace. As the door is open at this point, I'd say we try and look for a breakeven between say, "Tutorial" and "Game Help" and opt for that if possible. Whether or not it is logically possible to find an ambiguous answer to this, I don't know but we may as well try. 16:23, April 22, 2013 (UTC)

Would 'Game Guide' be a good compromise? Game Guides would obviously cover tutorials, while leaving the namespace open for articles which help with technical issues. I dunno.. -  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 17:00, April 22, 2013 (UTC)
 * It could work. Steam has a feature for several games, TS3 being one of them, known as "Community Guides" and it seems to work fine. 17:07, April 22, 2013 (UTC)
 * I think Game Guide would be a good name, as it almost covers it all. You could expect tutorials but also little tips & tricks (what is meant to be posted there as well right?) You could always explain in the Game Guide Portal what to expect or what to place there. Tiezel (talk) 19:13, April 23, 2013 (UTC)
 * I like the Game Guide idea as well to revamp the Tutorial namespace, as I have seen some tutorials (other than the one that Nikel linked about fire ghosts) that could use some work. 10:39, May 12, 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm indifferent to changing the namespace - but if it does come to that then I do support using "Game Guide" as our revamped namespace. Ѧüя◎ґ (talk) 16:55, May 12, 2013 (UTC)
 * Game Guide seems like a good idea (love alliteration!). After all, a lot of the supposed "Tutorials" really aren't tutorials, and that name seems like something that will encompass everything that that namespace has to offer. 18:35, May 12, 2013 (UTC)

Summing up
Seeing as (for once) the initial discussion seems to show favourably towards the namespace being renamed from "Tutorial" to "Game Guide", I'm going to assume, unless anybody else has a neat idea they wish to put forward, that this is the direction the community wants to go with this. In case there's any opposition or last minute comments, I'll leave this section up here for a bit before moving ahead with contacting Wikia to execute the change. 20:32, May 14, 2013 (UTC)
 * As there has been no additional response, the request for a Tutorial namespace name change to 'Game guide' will be sent to Wikia Staff. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 10:43, May 20, 2013 (UTC)