Talk:Mana

Experimental Format

I decided to try something with this page. Sometimes I want a page with a general concept but sometimes I want a page that just talks about a specific game. This article is now formatted in a way to give both. The main page Mana has all the general info plus all the games' info, and then the are individual sub pages for each game, Mana/Ultima III, Mana/Ultima IV, etc. On each page (including the main one) there is a common "header" Mana/common before and a common "footer" Mana/common after and then in the "middle" is the game specific data for that article. These "middles" are then transcluded back to the main page, so if you need to edit something then edit the sub pages and that edit will automatically get pulled back up to the main page.

Of course I realize that mana isn't that complicated a subject and I really didn't need to do that here, but I did it here just to see if I like the format before I try it on a bigger page.

If you're not seeing the point of this, think of it like this: I'm writing an article on a game, let's say U6, and I mention mana so I link to mana. The user has to scroll down and find the U6 section. Ok so I link directly the the U6 section header. That's better, but the user still has to scroll to the top to read general ifno and scroll to the bottom to read the links and trivia and gallery and stuff that's usually down there, then scroll back up to find the U6 section again. There's a lot of useless informatoin to scroll past, it would be nice if there was a page with just what was needed - the general info plus the U6 info. And now there is, I link to Mana/Ultima VI and I'm done. QED

Thoughts? --Sir Robin (talk) 22:09, 10 April 2025 (MDT)

There's at least something in what you say. A reader who's interested in how mana works for U3 isn't going to care a lick about what it does in U7, so binding them together may not make sense.

But there's a lot of material here that could be redivided w/readers' POVs in mind. Weapon values and Armour values are a pretty good examples, I think. Again, U3 weapons doesn't care about U7. However, someone interested in U3 weapons is also likely to be interested in U3 armour, so those pages might be better divided along those lines. You might consider that for your next project.--The Ultra-Mind (talk) 07:51, 11 April 2025 (MDT)

Yeah, you hit the nail on the head there. Articles are arranged academically, but for the typical reader (which I assume is a game player looking for info on the game they are playing) the organization is a bit convoluted. Armors, weapons, spells, etc, are pretty basic game play features but here they are presented in a way that is not easy for a newcomer to understand and navigate. I'd like to overhaul those, but I'm starting with the easier things to get practice and figure out what works. --Sir Robin (talk) 13:20, 11 April 2025 (MDT)