BattleMaster Wiki:Writing Help Pages
Contents
Pages in the Category: Help differ slightly from the rest of the content on this Wiki. If you plan to contribute to these, please read these guidelines first.
Introduction
The pages in the Help: namespace are linked from within the game itself, from the help button. Their purpose is to provide context-sensitive help, giving the player a quick link to a page that gives him information and help regarding the page that he is currently on.
General Guidelines
Help pages are intended as quick lookup pages, not for extensive browsing. The player most likely has a specific question or is stuck and wants to go on playing as quickly as possible. That means:
Help Pages should...
- ...be short and informative - if at all possible, the player should find his help without scrolling
- ...talk to the player ("you can do this here")
- ...be absolutely neutral and objective
- ...not copy any in-game texts. The player has already seen them before he clicked the help icon, so don't repeat them to him
- Page Creation
- There is absolutely no point in creating new pages in the Help: namespace/category. Without an in-game link, they are not useful.
- Links
- Do not use links to other wiki pages in the main text of a help page. Instead, add a "See also" or "more detailed information" section with links to appropriate wiki pages to the end of the help page
The most important guideline, however, is to remember what these pages are for, and always take the view of the reader. This is the page you land on when you click the in-game help icon. You are playing the game, and you are stuck, don't know what this page is, or need some help on the options available. So you click on the question mark icon. What do you expect to find? Write a help page with that in mind, and it will be good.
