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Forum:Merging/Separating pages for Sims that appear in multiple games

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Forums: Index → Community discussions → Merging/Separating pages for Sims that appear in multiple games | Post

This is an issue that has been addressed many times by different people on various talk pages but it's never been resolved so I'm making this thread in the hopes that some sort of consensus can be found. I know Maxis/EA have never been very consistent when it comes to maintaining an official canon or a timeline but that doesn't mean this Wiki can't have consistent guidelines.

1. A lot of Sims from previous games have reappeared in The Sims 4 and for most of them the new information was added to the existing pages. This is true for the Goths, the Landgraabs, the Calientes, and Don Lothario, as well as the Newbie family, the Pleasants, and the Grunts. However, there are three noteable exceptions: Dustin Broke, Dirk Dreamer, and Holly Alto have seperate pages for The Sims 4. Shouldn't they be merged with the original pages? Especially since the articles are all very short and it would be consistent with the approach that has been taken with all the other returning Sims.

2. Then there is the case of Malcolm Landgraab. Currently, there is a page titled Malcolm Landgraab (The Sims 3) which has information from The Sims 3 (for PC and console) and The Sims 4. This is of course very confusing by itself but then there is a seperate article for the console games titled Malcolm Landgraab (console). Both articles are a complete mess and I would very much like to improve them but I'd need to know what information should be merged and what should be kept seperate. This suggestion from User:K6ka was pretty popular on the talk page:

Since this Malcolm Landgraab appears in more games and appears to be more prominent, perhaps we could do the following:

However, User:Auror Andrachome thought the pages should be kept seperate in which case I would suggest moving Malcolm Landgraab (The Sims 3) (the page that contains the information for The Sims 3 and The Sims 4) to Malcolm Landgraab and move the DAB page to Malcolm Landgraab (disambiguation).

3. There appear to be two alternate versions of the Newbie family. In one version, Bob Newbie is a white man with male-pattern hair loss and a full beard while in The Sims 2 console games, he is a black man with short dreadlocks, a soul patch, and glasses. Betty Newbie is a very casual and sporty in one version but she wears lots of make-up and jewelry in the other. The sidebar is also much longer than the article for both Bob and Betty. Maybe these articles should be seperated in Bob Newbie and Bob Newbie (The Sims 2 console) and the same for Betty.

Thank you for reading! I hope this isn't too incoherent and solutions for these issues can be found. —Gvaudoin 💬 23:00, March 3, 2019 (UTC)

Discussion

First off, I agree that there is a discrepancy in how we handle these instances. I agree that some unified solution would be ideal. But, as we've seen in other discussions, the "how" of implementing some unified solution is where we tend to get hung up.

There are a couple approaches that I've seen floated out there as potential solutions. The first is to state that TS4 exists in a separate timeline or an "alternate universe" to the other games. The outcome of this solution would be the splitting of pages for Sims that appear both in TS/TS2/TS3/TS console games and in TS4, into two separate pages for each "universe" or "timeline." The same would also apply to families that appear in both. The second solution is to simply continue as we've done, by combining all instances of a single Sim or family on the same page, regardless of "timeline," or even regardless of whether the characters are similar enough to convincingly be called one in the same. Another option is to implement a system of subpages or tabs, while keeping all instances of a Sim on the same page. And yet another option is to take the idea of splitting even further, by splitting a Sim's biography up for each separate game appearance (or perhaps each separate "generation" appearance, so that for instance, the Bella Goth that appears in The Sims base game for PC would share an article for the Bella Goth that appears in TS1-era console games).

I think there are many solutions to the problem, some of which are much more practical or technically feasible than others. But ultimately the big problem is landing on a solution that enough of the community can support. I think the idea up to now has been to allow the solution to present itself organically, but as that has not happened, it may be time for us to sit down and figure out just what we're trying to do. -- LostInRiverview talk · blog · contribs 01:15, March 4, 2019 (UTC)

I agree as well that some sort of ordering system would be very helpful. The The Sims 3 on Malcolm's page has been annoying me for a bit as well. I could see how a (Main universe) and (Alternative universe) could work, since I think that seperate pages for TS1, TS2, TS3, TS4, and even console pages would be unnecessary, especially since there are obvious connections between (mostly) TS1-TS3 and even console games. Then again I think that the The Sims 4 info on Simpages like those of Bella Goth (and even Malcolm Landgraab) are not contrary to their main universe counterparts (Because in a matter of fact they're still the 'same' person). It would be different for the very obvious different Holly Alto or the black Bob Newbie. So we could also base it on that Sims are quite obviously just not the same person, because of a very different appearance, very different personality or because they're stated (or not confirmed) to be the same person. DeSims (talk) 02:27, March 4, 2019 (UTC)
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