Talk:Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: David Fuchs (talk · contribs) 17:01, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

In progress. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 17:01, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Comments thus far as follows: Layout and Prose:

• The lead is kind of a hot mess in terms of accessibility. The entire second paragraph expects a level of knowledge of Final Fantasy XIV that readers should not be required to have to understand this one. What is Light? Why has it "already succumbed" as if succumbing to Light is something we should expdect? Why are we restoring night? Who are the Scions? The Ascian? Who is Emet-Selch? What are crafters and gatherers?
  • I'm also not sure why one of the content patches is covered with two long sentences, but not the others, and that this kind of coverage dwarfs the content about development and reception in the lead.
• The issues with presumption of knowledge extends to the article body as well. No fleeting explanations of what levels are, what classes are, MP or TP, etc.
• The story section is way too detailed and byzantine to be easy to follow; the plot section alone is nearly 1500 words, plus the nearly 690 words for the setting and characters. Trying to cut this in half seems like a good place to start.
• Planning for Shadowbringers began about one month before Stormblood's release—you haven't explained what Stormblood is in the article body.
• The development continues the trend of talking about stuff with no context and explanation for their relevance.
• If you're going to assert something as strong as "Virtually all reviewers extolled the strength of the story and writing", you're going to need a ref saying such.
• "The characters of Shadowbringers earned kudos" doesn't sound very encyclopedic.
• The reception section could do with paring down the use of quotes.

Media:

• File:Shadowbringers characters.jpg could use a more beefed-up rationale and explanatory text to justify inclusion; while there's reception info about the characters, very little of that seems to require visual identification of the characters.

References:

• What makes Gamer Escape and Massively Overpowered reliable sources?
• Source spotcheck forthcoming.

--Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 14:44, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for the review. Working on it. Axem Titanium (talk) 20:43, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

Axem Titanium any updates on this? Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 19:17, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

David Fuchs thanks for following up. I've been pecking at it in my limited free time (got very busy in the past few months since I nominated it) and I'm struggling a little with how to respond to your comments. Broadly speaking, I'm struggling with the fact that this is an expansion to a video game, which means it's a relatively niche topic that builds on a foundation established by the base game. Obviously, I can't assume the reader has read the entire original FFXIV article, but I also don't want to spend a huge amount of time closely repeating things from that article; I'm trying to strike a balance between these two extremes. A few of your points above touch on this. I know the plot section is a bit long---I wrote it relatively quickly and haven't gone back to trim as much as I could (and others had expanded it in the meantime)---but it's also true that this game is part of a dense serialized plot that has been widely praised (i.e. DUE coverage). The setting section provides important context from multiple previous expansions to set the stage for this game's story, as well as provides some concept/creation info that might normally be found in the Development section.

"The development continues the trend of talking about stuff with no context and explanation for their relevance."

I would also appreciate more guidance on what organizational issues you see in the Dev section. Thanks, Axem Titanium (talk) 01:40, 10 November 2020 (UTC)

A long-winded retelling of a dense, serialized plot doesn't really help the reader; longer plots are often harder to understand than shorter ones. You already have lengthy plot summaries later on for the patch content. My point about the development content is that when there is little context for what you're talking about unless you're innately familiar with the game, the development section is failing to serve its purpose. This might be addressed if the plot section is cut down, so that readers don't have to keep track of a dozen proper nouns that get referenced once in the plot and don't come up again until the development section. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 15:22, 13 November 2020 (UTC)

Sorry, looks like work isn't letting up anytime soon (at least within the next few weeks). It might be better if I can put this GAN on hold, or alternatively, withdraw and renominate later, at your preference. Thanks, Axem Titanium (talk) 16:56, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

No worries, such is this time of the year. I'll close this one and you can renom when you're ready. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 17:55, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, will do. Axem Titanium (talk) 20:22, 18 November 2020 (UTC)