Speaking from experience:
I watched as a handful (about 10) enthusiastic players of the game I wrote went about
writing an article about the game for Wikipedia. They enjoyed the hell out of doing it.
And then I watched them as they got crushed because a handful of people who didn't
know *anything* about the subject matter of browser-based MMORPGs nominated the article
for deletion, ignored the comments by the players on the deletion discussion, and then
deleted it.
And then I watched this process happen three more times, with about 30 other players.
Gamers, frankly, do NOT understand and are completely frustrated by the arbitrary (from
their point of view) application of rules. Rules are rules. They should be applied
evenly and consistently. When they aren't, it's frustrating - and games that do
that, people stop playing.
On Jul 6, 2013, at 10:32 PM, ENWP Pine <deyntestiss(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
Hi Quim and Sarah,
I should have worded my question more precisely. I'm asking what Wikimedia could do
to recruit people who play video games on various platforms and in various types of games
(casual, FPS, MMPORG, and so on) so that they convert the time they currently use for
gaming into time spent contributing to Wikimedia projects of any kind or subject rather
than on the important but narrower subject of video games. For example, what would it take
to convert people who currently play crossword puzzles or Scrabble on their smartphones
into editors of Wiktionary? What would it take to convert people who play geocaching into
photo contributors to Commons? What would it take to convert FPS gamers into NPP or
anti-vandalism editors?
The people on the Research list are generating a lot of good discussion about
gamification within Wikimedia to encourage more and higher quality participation, and
we're also discussing how to recruit gamers to become new Wikimedia contributors.
Please come over to the thread on Research-l and let's continue talking there. (:
Pine
Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 07:31:17 -0700
From: Quim Gil <qgil(a)wikimedia.org>
To: ee(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [EE] Recruiting gamers to edit Wikimedia
Message-ID: <51D6D8B5.4040904(a)wikimedia.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
On 07/04/2013 12:46 PM, ENWP Pine wrote:
I've asked these questions in other ways and
places and I'd like to hear
what other people on the Research and EE lists think.
There are many video game players of diverse ages, genders, languages,
and locations. How could Wikimedia editing be made into an appealing
activity for people who are currently video gamers? How could Wikimedia
market itself to gamers, including console, LAN, FPS, MMORPG, and mobile
gamers?
Have you asked at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Video_games ?
(as an outsider) I would say that gaming in general is pretty well
covered, at least in comparison with other areas of knowledge. Or what
would be the reason to target gamers?
Editing per se is not the problem. There is no lack of gamers using
wikis (and MediaWiki!) e.g.
http://www.wikia.com/ or
http://www.minecraftwiki.net/ . The average gamer probably gets the idea
of crowdsourcing knowledge pretty well. Those wikis are community wikis
though, as an editor you won't need to deal (much) with relevance,
references, POV, essay, etc. I don't know what are the conditions to
upload copyrighted content but probably these wikis are more permissive
than Wikimedia's.
Well, I guess
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Move_to_gaming_wiki
exists for a reason. Maybe if we would send gamers (also) to
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Games we could keep a bit more
talent around...
--
Quim Gil
Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2013 08:26:14 -0700
From: Sarah Stierch <sstierch(a)wikimedia.org>
To: WMF Editor Engagement Team <ee(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [EE] Recruiting gamers to edit Wikimedia
Message-ID:
<CAFk0ehVOcyV-N5KMchop-C0r7wY649adXMDHg5U+CVbjGhaVPw(a)mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hi,
And yes, if you're interested in engaging (or re engaging) with people
already in the community or who don't edit as frequently perhaps, you can
contact people who have userboxes on English Wikipedia saying they are into
video games:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Userboxes/Games/Video_games
I do this for women's history projects and programs. I either use
EdwardsBot and spam them with a template inviting them to something or
whatever, or invite them individually (more time consuming of course).
Sarah
On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 7:31 AM, Quim Gil <qgil(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
On 07/04/2013 12:46 PM, ENWP Pine wrote:
> I've asked these questions in other ways and places and I'd like to hear
> what other people on the Research and EE lists think.
>
> There are many video game players of diverse ages, genders, languages,
> and locations. How could Wikimedia editing be made into an appealing
> activity for people who are currently video gamers? How could Wikimedia
> market itself to gamers, including console, LAN, FPS, MMORPG, and mobile
> gamers?
>
Have you asked at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/**
Wikipedia:WikiProject_Video_**games<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped…
(as an outsider) I would say that gaming in general is pretty well
covered, at least in comparison with other areas of knowledge. Or what
would be the reason to target gamers?
Editing per se is not the problem. There is no lack of gamers using wikis
(and MediaWiki!) e.g.
http://www.wikia.com/ or
http://www.minecraftwiki.net/ . The average gamer probably gets the idea
of crowdsourcing knowledge pretty well. Those wikis are community wikis
though, as an editor you won't need to deal (much) with relevance,
references, POV, essay, etc. I don't know what are the conditions to upload
copyrighted content but probably these wikis are more permissive than
Wikimedia's.
Well, I
guesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/**Template:Move_to_gaming_wiki<http://…
for a reason. Maybe if we would send gamers (also) to
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/**Subject:Games<http://en.wikibooks.org/wik…
could keep a bit more talent around...
--
Quim Gil
Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/**User:Qgil<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/…
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