Wikipedia:Featured and good topic candidates/Looking Glass Studios video games/archive1

Looking Glass Studios video games

Contributor(s): User:JimmyBlackwing, User:Hahc21, User:PresN

Looking Glass Studios was one of the most innovative, interesting and all-around amazing developers of the 1990s. The company's staff members, who came and went with some regularity, were generally amateurs in the field. They were musicians, physics geniuses and (almost always) overly-ambitious MIT students. They didn't have great business sense, and their development processes tended to be chaotic. Somehow, it usually worked out in the end, and LGS managed to produce legend after legend: Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Thief, System Shock 2, Thief 2. Projects like Flight Unlimited and Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri aren't remembered as well today, but they were acclaimed at the time.

There will inevitably be controversy about the scope of this topic. Most of this stems from the question of Looking Glass Studios' true origin. The company took its name after a merger between Blue Sky Productions (developer of Ultima Underworld) and the little-known Lerner Research (whose development credits are difficult to ascertain). Depending on one's interpretation, this might mean that the topic should include Car & Driver (video game)--or perhaps even F-22 Interceptor. I have tried to hash this issue out multiple times, and the current scope reflects the consensus reached then. Please read the discussions here, here and here for more information.

In conclusion, I'll just say that this topic has been seven years in the making. I started back in 2007 with System Shock and, via off-and-on editing in the years since, the LGS video games topic has become a reality. Most of the users who helped with this topic are now inactive. User:Zeality, User:TKD and User:Prime Blue assisted me at various points with copyediting; User:Noj r co-wrote Thief with me and single-handedly took System Shock 2 to GA. The only major contributors to the topic still kicking around Wikipedia are User:PresN—a FL grandmaster, who did much of the work on List of Looking Glass Studios video games—and User:Hahc21, who got System Shock 2 featured. I've listed them both as contributors above. Finally, all thanks go to User:David Fuchs for creating the beautiful topic icon. This topic has been the work of my Wikipedia career, and I plan to retire from article writing if and when it passes GTC. Thanks for reading this overlong introduction; and I hope you find the topic to be worthy of a green circle. --JimmyBlackwing (talk) 07:13, 17 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yay to you finally completing the whole topic; boo to you retiring. You've done some great work over the years on this thing, not to mention all your other work around the place. I guess I can't officially support, since you named me as a co-editor, but I fully support in spirit- I was really excited to see you pop back up this Spring and finish this off. Also, that icon is great, nice job David. --Pres N

Support Nergaal (talk) 10:56, 17 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Support. I feel terrible about the idea of my vote contributing to you leaving, but you seem quite comfortable so I can only offer you my blessing. I've heard of Looking Glass and of most of these games but had no idea it was the developer of all of them. (Reminds me of a few weeks ago, when I learned that Joss Whedon had done Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and The Avengers. Weird.) This seems quite comprehensive and well-done, and none of the GAs or FAs looks flagrantly out-of-date as far as satisfying the GA/FA criteria (from cursory glances), so... nice job keeping everything in order over the years. Tezero (talk) 22:38, 17 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Support. I'm very happy about all this work done within seven years! You managed to maintain this long-term goal of improving these Looking Glass video game articles, and despite your retirement, this good topic has great quality. Thank you! (=D) ~~}IMr*|(60nna)I{~~ 00:04, 20 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Support Looks great. very good job. Lucia Black (talk) 02:35, 25 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Question Is that their actual logo, or is it a Wikipedia invention? —Designate (talk) 19:58, 5 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It's an original work by User:David Fuchs. Their actual logo changed over time (the final one is here), but it never resembled the one used for this topic. JimmyBlackwing (talk) 20:18, 5 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
- I think, as a rule, we should avoid inventing fake logos for real companies. It's unencyclopedic. Also, even if the company no longer exists, it seems like a bad precedent with regards to trademark protection. See WP:TRADEMARK—"When deciding how to format a trademark, editors should choose among styles already in use by sources (not invent new ones)". —Designate (talk) 21:08, 5 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  - The image is not a fake logo for the company. Keep in mind that this topic is "Looking Glass Studios video games", rather than "Looking Glass Studios". As there are no images in existence to represent all of their games considered as a whole, a bit of creative license had to be taken. See David's Book of Myst or StarCraft icons for similar examples, or this icon used for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Neither WP:TRADEMARK nor WP:LOGO are relevant to this case. JimmyBlackwing (talk) 21:25, 5 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Support, but please don't retire! The previous discussions linked in the nom makes me confident the scope is appropriate, and the chosen icon seems perfectly fine in respect since it is mostly for "internal" usage, kinda like Taskforce icons. ☺ · Salvidrim! · ✉ 16:23, 18 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Don't worry; I'm only retiring from article writing. I'll still be around WPVG. JimmyBlackwing (talk) 03:21, 19 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Closed with a consensus to promote to Good Topic. --十八 06:02, 19 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]