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The game's Description section is actually a wiki page for information about that game. In addition to the main description section, there is a second Community Wiki section which is another wiki page. The Community Wiki section is meant to include further information about the same game. Also see Wiki Formatting for a general description of Wiki text formatting rules and Wiki Content Guidelines for broader guidelines on what belongs on the wiki and what does not.

General Guidelines

  • While this is not Wikipedia, use of a neutral point of view is encouraged.
  • When linking to games, link to the game page using [gameid=NUMBER].
  • For descriptive terms that apply to many games, link to an appropriate wiki page, even if that page does not yet exist. For example, "This game is language neutral" or this game was illustrated by Doris Matthäus. (These two examples are now inapplicable, as there are BGG modules for both of these now, but the concept of this item is still relevant.)

The game's Descriptions section is not meant to be a place to implement other new features such as ratings by number-of-players, personal categorizations (use Tags), or the like.

Things to include on a game wiki page

  • A brief description of the game. This should always appear as the first part of the page. A good game description covers theme, game-play, and goal.
  • Links to other related games e.g. other games in the same series, or older versions, along with a description of the relationship between these games. It is worth noting that current BGG modules can link together base-games and expansions, and can link together series and related games through Families.
  • Links to wiki pages with extended details about a game, for example if a game has a large number of different editions with a great deal of information about each, you may create a wiki page dedicated to the various editions of a game and simply link to it in the main Game Wiki page.

List of "Similar to:" games

A list of very similar games, with an explanation of the differences is a nice addition. The idea isn't to compare this game to every other game in the database, but very similar games that are not related through some other relationship in the game's specifications.

Suggested markup:

    '''Similar to:'''
    * [gameid=xxx] - blah blah blah

Link to a FAQ wiki page

Note that a separate wiki page for a game FAQ can be very useful, e.g. Hive FAQ, Hellas FAQ, King of Siam FAQ, Tomb FAQ. It is appropriate and helpful for the game's special description wiki page to link to this separate FAQ wiki page.

  • Suggested markup in game description wiki page:

   '''[[Hive FAQ]]'''

  • The top of the game's FAQ wiki page should include a link back to the game's main database entry and a link to the list of FAQ wiki pages (markup ''[[List of game FAQs]]'' in example)

Suggested markup:

   '''FAQ'''
   FAQ for [gameid=2655]
   [[List of game FAQs]]
   [[toc]]

Note: To create a new game's FAQ wiki page, just add the markup, and then click on it after submitting the game description wiki page. The system will then automagically create the new wiki page. Once the page is created, then the markup is just a link to that specific wiki page.

  • On wiki page List of game FAQs enter the new wiki page (''[[Hive FAQ]]'' for example) in alphabetical order.

Things to NOT include on a game wiki page

  • Links to designers/publishers/categories that are already included in the game entry, unless the name already is a natural part of the text.
  • Rules questions, reviews, discussion, opinions, announcements, or other content that belongs in the Forums
  • Images
  • Links to external web sites (these belong in the game links)
  • Rules suggestions or other things that belong in files or forums
  • Recommendations, which currently are best discussed in the forums
  • Categories the game is in except as noted above
  • Information about the "in-print" status of the game should be avoided, as print and availability are nebulous qualities at best and the relative speed at which descriptions are updated nearly guarantees that this information will be inaccurate or out-of-date. The versions system is designed to list release data, and integrates with Gone Cardboard for forthcoming publications.
  • A list of contents of the games. These should go in the "Community Wiki" section instead, unless they are necessary for the description of the game.
  • A list of awards won by the game. These should be tracked in the Awards & Honors module, or listed in the Community Wiki if they are not tracked in that module (see https://www.boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Tracking_Awards_on_BGG).

Examples
[What Links Here]