User:Relyk/sandbox/availability

Availability

In documenting content, the wiki has a desire to inform readers of the availability of the content. That is, whether the content is of relevant concern to players. Players are concerned with availability because:

• They may not be aware content was removed.
• Whether they can access the content within the game.
• How the content is related to the lore of the game.
• To inform them on how the game has changed since its initial release.

Possible cases

• Permanent - Content that exists in the game. This content was available since some period from the initial release of the game to its current state.
• Recurring - Content that exists in the game for a period of time. The period of time is usually the duration of a special event. Special events are tied to releases but not necessarily limited to releases. This is the definition used by ArenaNet.
• Discontinued content - Content that exists in the game but can no longer be acquired through conventional means. This means the only method to obtain the content is through content removed from the game or through the Trading Post.
• Historical - Content that does not exist in the game. This content was available at some period between initial release on the current state of the game.
• Unimplemented - Content that does not exist in the game. The content was never available for any period of time.

Content

Content is defined and organized by our infoboxes. For a full list of types of content, see {{Property:Has game context}}.

• Open world content - This is all content that can be accessed at any time, such as zones, cities, and instances.
• Personal story instance - This is content accessed through the personal story. These are a type of instance that can only be accessed once the requirement for the personal story is met. This content is permanent in the current state of the game as once a player has access to the instance, the instance lasts indefinitely until the player completes the instance. To access the instance again, the player will need to start a new character.
• Living World content - This is content accessed through the Living World. A Living World instance is a type of instance that can only be accessed while the Living World chapter is available. A Living World chapter is available for the duration of a release, typically around two weeks to a month.
• Special event content - This is content that is available for a period of time defined by the special event. This content is made available annually. This content includes Halloween, Wintersday, Crown Pavilion, Dragon Bash, and Zephyr Sanctum. These events are stated as recurring by ArenaNet.

Availability of Living World content

The period the content is available is defined by the game update the content was introduced and the game update where content was removed. We cannot use the period when the release starts and ends because content from the release may persist of the the release is over, such as the case with Tower of Nightmares. Content introduced as part of the Living World and subsequently removed from the game is historical content. Consequently, content introduced as part of the Living World and remains in the game is not Living World content because it is content that can be accessed at any time.

We may wish to tag Living World content as temporary, to notify players that the content is available for a limited time. We know that Living World instances are only available for the duration of the release. It is reasonable to tag this content as temporary. We do not know the game update that any other content will be removed from the game. In this case, we should not tag this content as temporary as we may misinform readers on the availability of the content and may have to remove the tag later.

Once the temporary content is removed, do we need to notify the reader that this content was available? The content is now historical content unless the temporary content is introduced in a later date, as which point it becomes recurring content. We established all Living World content is either permanent or historical content. We can see that we need to inform users that Living World instances are only available for a limited time, but other content requires no notification of availability. The other content is considered permanent content and will only be tagged as historical at whatever point it is removed from the game.

Availability of discontinued content

Discontinued content is content that was available to be obtained for a period of time but can no longer be acquired through conventional means. This means the only method to obtain the content is through content that is no longer available or through the Trading Post.

Do we need to notify the reader that this content was discontinued? Content introduced as part of Living World content often can no longer acquired as the means to obtain the content is removed from the game. The Trading Post may have a limited quantity of an item to allow players to obtain the item, but this quantity is finite and will never increase. In this case, we do desire to notify the user of availability, such as the Category:Discontinued items. Since all Living World instances are discontinued, we do not need to notify the reader of its availability. Living World instances all have lore related to the Living World as they are the main delivery of that information. Readers will already know that the content was removed and that the content is related to the lore of the Living World.

Availability of recurring content

Recurring content is content that can be accessed for a certain period of time. All recurring content in the game is related to special events. We then ask whether we need to notify readers that content is recurring. We are then concerned that players may not be aware the content was removed and whether they can access the content. Readers will understand that the content is removed if it is part of a special event, which only lasts a period of time. In this case, content is not discontinued but delayed. They do not need to be notified that the content was removed or that they can access the content in the game. In this sense, we can consider recurring content as permanent content. We may not know whether recurring content is discontinued or removed until the special event occurs again, so we may assume the content is permanent and therefore doesn't need notification.

Notification for uninformed readers

Notifying a player of the availability of content is only required if they do not know whether the content is available. Players not reading vital information that the content is related to is not a reason to notify them. We would be notifying them that they need to inform themselves, which is done through wikilinking and structuring the articles. We do not need to notify players that an item is obtained from a personal story instance because it's detailed in the acquisition section. We do not need to notify readers that an achievement related to particular content can no longer be obtained because the article and the achievement category will do so. We do not need to notify the reader that a skill has a skill type.

Tags

To this regard, we can categorize content as needing a tag as such:

• Permanent - No tag
• Recurring content - No tag
• Discontinued content - Tag required
• Historical content - Tag required
• Living World instance - Tag implied, not required
• Unimplemented content - Tag required

We do not need a tag for permanent content, but we need a tag for discontinued content and that doesn't exist in the game. The {{temporary}} tag needs to be replaced with a {{discontinued content}} tag, historical content with {{historical content}}, and unimplemented content with {{unimplemented content}}. These tags are mutually exclusive, content cannot exist in the game and no longer be obtained but not exist in the game. Living World instances to do not need a discontinued content tag as it will appear at the top of every instance article and be redundant.

Since the availability is associated with the content, we can use the infobox to define the availability of the item and wrap the historical parameter in such. We may explore whether we need to supply the period the content was available, although this is defined in the game updates and the page history of the content and not of importance to the reader.

Implementation

<!--
AUTOCATEGORIZATION
-->
{{#switch:{{lc:{{{availability|}}}}}
| historical = {{historical content}} {{#set:Has availability=Historical}}
| discontinued = {{discontinued content}} {{#set:Has availability=Discontinued}}
| #default = {{#set:Has availability=Permanent}}
}}{{#if:{{NAMESPACE}}| |{{#ifeq:{{{categorize|y}}}|n| |{{#ifeq:{{lc:{{{availability|}}}}}|historical| |

<!--AUTOCATEGORIZATION implementation-->

<!--#endif historical-->}}<!--#endif categorize-->}}<!--#endif NAMESPACE -->}}