Talk:Spiral Knights

Too many non-free images

While its generally accepted that one, perhaps two screenshots of a video game can be used to discuss gameplay, four is far too many without having secondary sources critically comment on the gameplay aspects being shown. (See WP:NFCC#3a, "minimal use" for non-free media). Really, at this point, none of the images used are aspects of the game that need visual explaination (with the Blast Network being like Bomberman, readers can refer to that article for it). The better image, if narrowing down to one, would be at some stage during dungeon exploring to show 1) how the game is stylized, and 2) what dungeon crawling looks like in this game.

(Of course, if it were possible to get free content (CC-BY-SA) from Three Rings for these screenshots, that's no long a problem...) --MASEM (t) 13:16, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for your input; I'm new to this kind of Wikipedia article, so I do need to have the standards explained to me. (See Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Article guidelines for questions I posed before uploading.) I was going to add one more image of exactly the sort you describe (dungeon crawling). As far as deleting these other images, would you please clarify?

• The article does not mention Bomberman, and the Bomberman article has no screenshots, so the reader has little sense of what Blast Network looks like, or how it is different from the rest of Spiral Knights, without an image. Is the optimal solution simply to leave the reader with little sense, because Blast Network is too minor a detail to warrant non-free content?
• The media coverage seems to focus on two aspects: (A) the old-school, Zelda-like look and feel, and (B) the restrictive energy system. So is it fair to have one screenshot illustrating each of these, with the text explicitly referring to the screenshot when it is relevant? Or is (B) not legitimate, because a screenshot is not strictly necessary to illustrate the energy system?

Thanks again for your help. Mgnbar (talk) 15:28, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

I understand the reasoning behind your protests, but i must raise this important fact concerning the issue at hand. This game is free to play, meaning that any person with an acceptable P.C. and a steam client installed on that P.C. can download and play Spiral Knights at no charge to themselves. As such I see no reason as to why there cannot be an ample supply of screen shots. Here is the steam page to prove it.[1] Resolutionsmasher (talk) 21:53, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Our use of "free" vs "non-free" involves the copyright nature of the screenshots, not the cost of the game. Even if the game is free to play, all the content is still copyright to Sega and Three Rings, and unless they offer to release those works to a free license compatable with Wikipedia, we treat them as non-free, and require them to adhere to non-free content policy. --MASEM (t) 22:27, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Masem, I stopped work on this issue when you did not respond to my post above. Now I plan to mail Three Rings to obtain permission for some of these images. I agree that a new image showing gameplay better would be preferable to some of the current ones. Mgnbar (talk) 11:41, 28 October 2011 (UTC)

In my recent re-write, I fixed this issue by removing all of the images (which were all in violation). Mgnbar (talk) 05:36, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

Guild Hall Update

The new update in Spiral Knights has lead to new changes for guilds. The guild section is outdated, specifically this sentence, The lowest ranks — Recruit, Member, and Veteran — do not possess any special abilities. The new update gives many new privileges to veterans. Even members can now access the member storage now. (I am very new to wikipedia, so please excuse any mistakes I make in the syntax and structure of the talk page. Thank You.) TheSpiralKnightEditor (talk) 02:29, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

There was too much detail on guilds already. This isn't a detailed guide to Spiral Knights, but rather a brief overview of the game, primarily for people who don't play the game. So I removed some detail, and the maintenance tag. Mgnbar (talk) 04:08, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Thank You. TheSpiralKnightEditor (talk) 18:15, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

Update 31/07/2013

this page will need to be reworked for the update (most probably) taking place tomorrow, 31st of july. this update will change almost everything, from the looting system to crafting. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thunder the bright (talk • contribs) 15:01, 30 July 2013 (UTC)

Mmhmm. There are lots of parts that need to be updated or corrected and some parts that simply need to be listed with less detail. For the former, the last paragraph in the "World" section has glaringly outdated and obvious flaws. I do recommend that if you (the reader) are not familiar with the game that you do not attempt to correct the errors in gameplay mechanics. There is also an excellent wiki for the game available to either cite (if it can be used as a source) or to use as a reference in confirming accuracy. http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Main_Page

There are also two other potential fixes to this article. One of these are the four images provided. These are all from 2011 (props to Mgnbar) and no longer accurately reflect the appearance of the game. I believe we can use the images under the Fair Use Clause of U.S. law, but this kind of thing is not my specialty so I digress.

The other thing is the sort of summary-in-a-box at the top. Just what does this mean:

"Mode(s): Multiplayer/Solo (mission only)"

Multiplayer or solo, but solo is mission only... I think that this needs to be corrected to say that the game can be played alone but is inherently a multiplayer game with multiplayer features at every turn, aside from those that only affect your player. I dunno, maybe it does say that but it just doesn't seem worded right to me. 184.179.24.178 (talk) 19:29, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

Yes, lots of the page is obsolete. And we still have the problem of non-free images. I'm planning a complete re-write. Mgnbar (talk) 01:24, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

The recent re-write addresses all of the issues raised so far in this section of the talk page. Mgnbar (talk) 05:36, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

How do the developers make money from the game?

The article talks about this as a free-to-play game but doesn't cover how the game developers make money from the game. Is it a purchase premium content game, in game advertising, purchase to make the time taken to do some activity quicker or something else? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.171.105.165 (talk) 08:38, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

The article mentions that players buy energy with real money, but you are right that the funding of the game should be better explained. A lot of this page has gone out of date. I'll try to pass through with systematic improvements soon. Mgnbar (talk) 13:55, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

The article now clarifies exactly what real money now buys in the game, and that there is no advertising. Mgnbar (talk) 05:36, 18 February 2014 (UTC)