Topic

A better Encyclopedia

More information from in-game descriptions and from the Encyclopedia.

Here's a scenario: I have a quest that requires plain bubbles; I ended up with some in my inventory from my first day but now I can't remember how I got them. Maybe I can find information by searching the forum, but the Encyclopedia is no help. It tells me very little about items — most notably, where to find them/how to get them. Then, if I discover that they come from interacting with a Bubble Tree, I then have to search all over on where to find a Bubble Tree. In other words, there is no encyclopedia entry for types of trees, or other in-world objects, only for objects which the character can pickup. Maybe the point here is to get players to walk all over giant's creation to find one object, or to get lots of in-game chatter, but some player's may not want that...even in a 'social' game.

Posted 17 months ago by Sir Crankybottoms Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • You can always ask in Help or Global chat. I think they don't give too many information on purpose, so that you go explore the world and interact with others. Give it a try, you will find that people are very helpful around here :)
    And maybe you should take a look at the Glitch Strategy wiki.
    Posted 17 months ago by Victoria Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It should be vague. 
    Posted 17 months ago by Mr. Dawgg Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Be careful with the Glitch Strategy pages...they are very good for the different types of info and as a general guideline, but as things have changed, a lot of stuff still needs to be updated...so much of it is out of date (or still missing), IMO, that it could be misleading with the older info (for new stuff, it's really pretty good and quite useful).  It's a great place to start from, but don't necessarily take it as gospel.   

    I agree, that the game should provide better information and not be so vague with things.  I get that a lot of the fun of the game is trying to figure things out, so you don't want to give away everything but the current in game descriptions of most things are way too vague to be of much use (why else would they have started the wikis and other sites?).
    Posted 17 months ago by b3achy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • We are working our butts off on the wiki and if you have any suggestions at all drop me a line either in-game or on my Wiki Profile Page. A bunch of us have mules to work through lower level content but and are working through all of the recent changes we can.

    Also sometimes wikis can provide too much info and we don't usually tell you exactly how to complete a quest unless it has proved difficult for some people
    Posted 17 months ago by Ani Laurel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Aniloverl: Why the "strategy" is in the wiki's address? Hence, it should be included too much information. :P
    Posted 17 months ago by Milolin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Some guy actually founded a Glitch wiki and used the most obvious URL when Glitch was first announced, the same group has also done this with many other fandoms and then reap the rewards of advertising on it. Since we have no right under the law (there was a large treaty signed by several nations saying businesses had rights to URls so people could not register names of products when they were slow getting one and sell it for crazy amounts).

    So we got a different one and hoped everyone would ignore the other one since the guy has never played the game and the only information is from press releases and blog posts. 
    Posted 17 months ago by Ani Laurel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree that the Encyclopedia in its current format is pretty much lacking in the way of useful information particularly as it pertains to the Items descriptions.

    As for the Wiki, I never play without having a window open on it.  It has really helped my to figure out so many things in the game and yet does not spoil it by telling me how to play to achieve any particular goal.

    Thank you so much Aniloverl and everyone else that has made the wiki so great!
    Posted 17 months ago by Joni Mitchell Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I remember one time when someone was citing the wiki for FFXI to me... as though he knew something I didn't. I said to them... Who do you think Wrote That? Sure enough, they looked, and saw it was me. Laughter followed.

    Haha.

    When Glitch is done-done, you can bet I'll be editing the Wiki... a lot.
    Posted 17 months ago by Mr. Dawgg Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I am well aware of the Wiki, but this forum is for ideas for the game...not a third-party resource. My initial point is that if the game itself is going to have an encyclopedia, it could stand to be a little more useful. 

    I'm not asking for direct instructions on how to solve every quest as that would remove any challenge, but I don't feel that including where items can be found is in any way removing a challenge; what it does do is remove the need to tediously move around the world interacting with things in the hope you can find what you need.

    Wikipedia is a great resource, and having those third-party specific wiki resources is nice — but I don't feel that a game should rely on them, and based on most of the comments above, people are already using these third-party wiki resources as supplemental 'Encyclopedias.'
    Posted 17 months ago by Sir Crankybottoms Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I guess I misunderstood your "scenario" for an actual situation that happened to you, but now it seems te be just a poor example of a situation wherein the Encyclopedia isn't sufficient. At least, I hope so, because plain bubbles as well as bubble tree beans are mentioned in the Items section, a quick search would have solved the mystery of where plain bubbles come from. The entry on bubble tree beans also mentions the regions where these tree can be planted. Problem solved.

    I don't think TS has to hand you everything on a silver platter and I don't think they intend to ever do so. Part of the fun is exploring how everything works and interacting with the community. If you need more help than the game gives you, that's where the fanbase jumps in with wiki's and other fansites. I've played games that have no built-in reference at all except for item descriptions, so I'm actually used to player-run wiki's as a primary resource.

    So, I disagree with you but I respect your point of view. Maybe a better example of the failing Encyclopedia can change my mind.
    Posted 17 months ago by Victoria Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sir Crankybottoms, I don't want the Devs spending time cataloging (sp) everything like that. That's what the Wiki will enable. 

    It's going to be up to us to do it. Right now, I just don't see the point of it yet. I'm not going to invest time writing something that might be obsolete next week... and almost certainly obsolete next month. Doesn't seem worth it.
    Posted 17 months ago by Mr. Dawgg Subscriber! | Permalink
  • well the encyclopedia does mention cherries from fruit trees beta.glitch.com/items/cherry/ spice from spice plants beta.glitch.com/items/all-s... eggs from egg plants beta.glitch.com/items/egg/ ...
    Posted 17 months ago by goodstory Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Goodstory — that's all I was really suggesting.
    Perhaps I did find one lone example (which is not poor if it points out something missing which is evident on other like entries, particularly in a BETA phase) wherein the Encyclopedia wasn't sufficient. It would appear that it did not take the developers too long to include the information on other entires, which serve as minimal indication to a player on how they might acquire a specific item. Personally, I would take it a step further and include trees and other interactive items as entries in the Encyclopedia, but apparently the vocal majority feels that a game should rely on outside sources to enable all types of gamers to properly enjoy it, and I will gladly respect that difference of opinion.
    Posted 17 months ago by Sir Crankybottoms Subscriber! | Permalink