Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Peer review/SimCity 4

SimCity 4

The article has improved quite a lot from advice given about a year ago in an old peer review. I would like to receive some fresh feedback on areas that need to be focused on now to improve the article up to Good article status, and even up to Featured article status in the longer term. How the article should be organised in headings is of particular interest as it has been moved around a bit, as well as what to do with the "Add-ons and modifications" section which currently seems to be a main weakness of the article. Camaron | Chris (talk) 09:39, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

Giggy

• Uggh. After the original SimCity, the only game in the series I could get into was Streets of SimCity. But I won't hold that against you. :-)
• I think the article uses too many fair use images, and in most cases you could get your point across effectively with a lot less. Perhaps adding an external link to a good image gallery would help.
• The Add-ons and modifications section really is drawn out a fair bit. Not the same (not even similar?) circumstances, but I think this article does the job really well, if you can get some ideas from that... basically just make sure you don't go too in universe, which seems to have happened here.
• "SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition is the original game and Rush Hour combined as a single product." - so was Deluxe Edition a seperate release? A box set or something like that?
• The lead seems pretty well formatted over all, though Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/20080409 might help a bit anyways.
• Try and expand the reception section a bit. What did reviewers think of specific portions of the game? Be more specific.
• It feels like there are a lot of not-fully-formatted references. Stuff missing author information/dates, etc.

I'll try to take a closer look at the prose at some stage, hopefully this helps get you started! —Giggy 10:52, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

• Thank you for your review. I agree with you on the fair use images issue, see my comments below. The main SimCity 4 website linked has a lot of images around, and there is no need to worry about copyright concerns unlike with linking image galleries from non-copyright holder websites. I will look at other articles for the Add-ons and modifications section and play around with it a bit; starting with perhaps removing everything unreferenced which should be. Yes, SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition was seperate release with the original game and Rush Hour combined - I will think about making that clearer in the article. I will go into more detail with the reviews, a user removed a few reviews saying they were non-notable, I did not challenge this despite the fact it was at odds with WP:NNC - I might still anyway add a few more reviews. The format of the reception section in Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game) looks interesting, I could use that. I will look at the references, all that should get me started! Camaron | Chris (talk) 19:06, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

David Fuchs

• It's an excellent start. Some sections, such as development and reception, need to be fleshed out. The gameplay might want to actually be cut down a bit. Giggy is dead on about the images; not only is it against WP:NFCC, but it breaks up the layout quite a bit. Try finding a few that give the most information. For example, Image:AbernethyFarmingVillageSC4.png and Image:Adlerstadt8.jpg only show us farmland and a city at night- we can use text to describe that, so these images could go. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^(talk) 17:54, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

• Thank you also for your review. I agree with cutting down the images, there were actually 10 images in the article at one point, but I cut this down. All the images could be described, I think it is important that we keep the ones which are most valuable at providing a visual illustration. We are now down to 4 images (ignoring the box cover which I think can be agreed to be kept). A single image of the regional view of gameplay looks appropriate, plus a general illustration of what a city looks like. I have kept the night and fireworks image as that is the only image which shows the night cycle/special affects which were an important new feature in SimCity 4, and cannot be described as effectively. I also kept the volcano image to show how disasters look, but that is less helpful and if another image should go that would be it. I have deleted a picture showing farmland, as that is less necessary and other images cover most of the content in it. I have also removed the highway interchange one for the same reasons. Camaron | Chris (talk) 16:19, 12 August 2008 (UTC)