The Sims Wiki:Neutral point of view

This page in a nutshell

Articles on The Sims Wiki need to be written from the proper perspective and in a neutral manner

Community Guideline

This page represents a community guideline, based off past precedent and discussions. It is not a binding policy, but should be acknowledged when making decisions and followed unless there is a sufficient reason not to follow it. Please suggest changes to this guideline on the talk page.

An article's point of view refers to how the article itself is written, specifically the wording used to portray an idea to the audience, and whether the article advocates for any particular viewpoint or opinion. The Sims Wiki seeks to write informative encyclopedic articles with a neutral and objective perspective.

Narrative point of view

• Rule of thumb: All articles on The Sims Wiki should be written in third-person point of view.

Articles on The Sims Wiki are intended to all share the same narrative point of view; point of view is here defined as the perspective from which the narrative (i.e., the topic of the article) is viewed. Having a cohesive point of view across all articles encourages more well-written, encyclopedic articles, and aids in audience understanding of a particular topic. Articles on The Sims Wiki should not use first-person or second-person points of view, but should instead only be written in third-person point of view (except in directly quoted text).

Examples of different narrative perspectives

Many editors make the mistake of writing articles or article sections in the wrong narrative point of view. Some editors may write as if they themselves are speaking on behalf of the article. For example, read the following statement:

"The gallery is an in-game exchange feature, allowing me to share my Sims, families, and buildings with other Sims players."

The example above is written in first-person point of view. Articles on the wiki should not use this point of view, as it makes the article appear to be written from a single player's experience, rather than the experience of all players. To that end, avoid using first-person pronouns such as I or me (unless used in a quotation).

Additionally, many editors mistakenly write in this manner:

"The gallery is an in-game exchange feature, allowing you to share your Sims, families, and buildings with other Sims players."

This example demonstrates second-person point of view. Second-person point of view is often informal and ambiguous, and should not be used in main namespace articles.

The following example demonstrates a correct point of view usage:

"The gallery is an in-game exchange feature, allowing players to share their Sims, families, and buildings with other Sims players."

The example is written in third-person point of view. This point of view refers to the subject in an objective manner and from an external perspective.

Neutral point of view

Shortcut TSW:NPOV

• Rule of thumb: All articles on The Sims Wiki should be written in a neutral, unbiased manner.

In addition to the narrative style of an article, it is important that all articles be written in a neutral point of view. Neutrality in encyclopedia articles is essential to ensuring that the article portrays only facts, not opinions or personal beliefs. An editor's own viewpoint, opinions, or bias should never affect the manner in which a factual article is written. The Sims Wiki exists to deliver information to its readers, and to do this most effectively, that information must be provided neutrally without regards to each editor's personal opinions about the information being provided.

Examples

The following would all be examples of a lack of neutral point of view:

"The Sims 4 is the fourth main installment in The Sims franchise, and is the worst game of the series."

"Emotion is a revolutionary and amazing game-play feature introduced in The Sims 4."

"Bella Goth is the most popular and beautiful Sim in The Sims series."

See also

• Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Grammar and usage
• Wikipedia:Neutral point of view