UESPWiki:Deletion Review/Arena:Save Games

I consulted in IRC for some general opinions on the topic publicly and in PMs, and I've opted to cut straight to a Deletion Review, rather than a simple Prod, because the fact that an active AN discussion brought the page's existence to light proves that there is the potential for the deletion to be controversial.

Admittedly, things operated differently a decade ago when Daveh created the page, was the sole editor on UESP before the wiki started, and added those characters he did, but this is now 2014 and we've changed quite a bit. We have no similar pages on the wiki for Daggerfall, though an old site page exists, evidently either ignored because of the switching to a wiki while bracing for Oblivion or because it wasn't deemed to be encyclopaedic.

My opinion is that the page offers minimal encyclopaedic value to the site as it was seemingly created to assist in the creation of the save files for upload, which themselves are something we wouldn't have found noteworthy in the wiki-era if it had not been done in the old days. And, as has been brought up in the past with mod discussions, there is no benefit to the information on the site to act as a host for user-created content, not to mention that in the history of UESP's days as a wiki, only one user has actually uploaded a save file, and one user is proposing to do so on the AN. It's a fair indication that the page might not be missed.

Time to cast your "yay" and "nay" votes, lads.---      &hearts;    23:06, 30 October 2014 (GMT)

 
Merge and redirect: I'd like to see this integrated with . The instructions are potentially useful, and the hacked save files would be useful for testing. —Legoless (talk) 23:37, 30 October 2014 (GMT)

Keep: While the save-games are files (rather, you have to upload a collection of files), I think that  and  should be kept separate because this would help to differentiate between files such as save editors and things like ArenaSuite, and just regular save games. Also, and somewhat expanding upon the previous statement, some people may just want to mod the game, whereas others may just want to play a character that someone else created. Anyway, as for actually keeping the page (and not merging it with another), some people may not be sure of which class/race/gender is right for them, so I'm at least offering to upload my characters so that others can try them out and see which ones suit their play-style. Personally, I would miss the page (should it be deleted) as I believe that it can help new players (who are probably used to creating custom classes in later games) learn the mechanics of true role-playing that the early Elder Scrolls games emphasized (e.g. restricting armor sets that can be worn, preventing spell-casting for classes that don't use magic). --Gandoril The Spell-Binder (talk) 00:58, 31 October 2014 (GMT)

Merge and Redirect: Agreed, it isn't exactly wiki material, but it could be useful for testing and/or anyone who still actually plays (which isn't many people).        01:28, 7 November 2014 (GMT)

Merge and Redirect and Userfy: I think that the information on save import/export seems unworthy of a full page by itself, though a more detailed page on the formatting of saves in Arena might be interesting (albeit unlikely to ever happen). As it stands, the import/export info should probably be incorporated into something like  or possibly the "Running Under" pages. The saves themselves seem like the kind of thing that should be banished to their creators' userspaces, since they are essentially original creations (rather than the patches/utilities on the Files page). spweasel (talk) 05:23, 7 November 2014 (GMT)

:*Comment: Spweasel, I just wanted to let you know that the first two files on  come from the old UESP web-site (hence the sky-blue text); you can tell when you click said links. More likely than not, the people who uploaded those files didn't create accounts on the new UESP, having completely forgotten about them when the new site rolled out to make way for the fourth installment in the main series, Oblivion. Again, I'm not criticising, just giving you a heads-up. ;-) --Gandoril The Spell-Binder (talk) 07:08, 7 November 2014 (GMT)

::*Comment: Having never seen the pre-wiki site, I was under the impression that the first two files were Daveh's doing (I knew they came from the pre-wiki days, but didn't realize that user submissions were a thing back then). If they belong to some long-lost person, the files might as well just be orphaned unless claimed, in my opinion. Incidentally, I can't see a color difference between the links without squinting - which is just as well, since the difference between being hosted on the wiki and being hosted on the old site is largely semantic. --spweasel (talk) 08:40, 7 November 2014 (GMT)

Merge and Redirect: Per WoahBro and Legoless. ~     18:49, 7 November 2014 (GMT)