Wikipedia:Peer review/Legend Entertainment/archive1

Legend Entertainment

I'm hoping to list this for FA status eventually. For this peer review, I'm hoping for some additional feedback on the prose, and a reminder about any issues in the references. I'm happy to offer some QPQ, and I'll be helping out at other PR/FA/GA discussions regardless. Shooterwalker (talk) 18:08, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

Urve

Comments from first readthrough. It's a pretty good article.

• reconsider use of words like "however". it is usually not necessary and can be choppy, such as in this sentence: "The company's expenses for graphics were rising without a similar increase in sales, however, causing Random House to exit the game industry". could easily rewrite to flow better
• Michael J. Lindner is only mentioned in the infobox
• the dates on GT Interactive in the infobox (1998 to 2004) is not in the body, unless I missed it
• what makes this a high quality source
• please consider consolidating or removing excessive citations. second sentence of "Origins" does not need 10. if it does need 10 in your judgment, you can use an explanatory footnote to elaborate on all of the sources and reduce clutter, instead
• clunky, can write in one sentence maybe?: "Activision acquired Infocom in 1986, as the PC game market was transforming with greater market competition.[1] Activision closed Infocom in 1989, due to rising costs, falling profits, and technical issues with DOS.[13]"
• "veterans" may be editorializing
• ditto "evolved"
• "might be too much" - how so
• "Publications took note of Legend for continuing the legacy of their work at Infocom, and credited their titles as part of a rebirth for the adventure game genre" - I don't see how the citation supports this. they say it's under the name Empire. also they don't say that "Publications" took note, but instead that they did.
• "it was possible to even turn off" - "even" is not necessary
• worried that there is too much weight placed on Companions of Xanth

all for now. Urve (talk) 04:34, 8 July 2021 (UTC)

I did my best to address all your notes. This is really helpful and I'm hoping to give the whole thing one pass before trying to nominate it for FA. Shooterwalker (talk) 16:36, 8 July 2021 (UTC)

@Urve: just checking in to see if you had any other comments. Happy to keep working on this. Shooterwalker (talk) 15:03, 20 July 2021 (UTC)

Comments from IceWelder

Just saw that this was still open. A few drive-by comments/notes from my first read:

Infobox and Lead

• Were there no formal role titles (president/CEO/...)?
• "Legend Entertainment Company was an American developer and publisher ..." - Consider linking developer and/or publisher.
• "Their first games, Timequest and Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers Get All The Girls, both had strong sales which sustained the company." -> "Legend's first two games, Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers Get All the Girls and Timequest, had strong sales that sustained the company." - Specifies "first", makes clear who "They" are, and fixes the order and naming of Spellcasting 101.
• The "the" in Spellcasting 101's name should also be fixed throughout the article.
• "Legend secured investment from book publisher Random House ..." - "an investment", and try to avoid the MOS:SEAOFBLUE in "book publisher Random House".
• The lead should definitely mention the GT Interactive purchase as it was Infogrames that ultimately shut down Legend.

History / Origins

• The quote box should credit Verdu as "co-founder".
• Mike Verdu should be linked.
• "... working at interactive fiction developer Infocom, the critically acclaimed adventure game studio." -> "... working at Infocom, a critically acclaimed developer of adventure games and interface fiction.".
• "However, Activision closed the studio ..." - There is no contradiction here, so 'however' should be removed or exchanged.
• "He told investors that "there was still life in the adventure genre, but that it needed more than just text."" - Switch period and quotes at the end per MOS:LQ.
• "For their first titles, they hired other colleagues from Infocom, ..." - 'other' is redundant here.
• The first paragraph contains a lot of investment/investors. Consider using alternatives like "funding" (which also appears more applicable for a not-yet-founded start-up).
• There should be no comma in "Steve Meretzky, and programmer Mark Poesch". Oxford comma only applies for enumerations of 3+ items or 2+ independent clauses.

• "Bates and Meretzky began work on the company's first titles." - 'Titles' is ambiguous as it could just be the names of the games (WP:ELEVAR). Change to 'games' or something similar.
• Link copyright infringement and game engine.
• There should be no hyphen in "text-parser".
• "... despite feeling that they had the expertise to do it themselves." - Any explanation why they still contracted outsiders for the new tech?
• "which expanded on Infocom's text-based adventures by adding graphics for each of the game's "rooms"." – Why is 'rooms' in quotes? Should it say (and link to) levels instead?
• "Meretzky describes this as a " -> 'described'.
• "... which led to greater sales than their former studio." Maybe "than their former studio had."?
• "... with the goal of capturing what he believed in about the adventure games at Infocom." - What was it that he believed in?
• "... which Legend released the following year." -> "Legend released it the following year." to avoid ambiguities.
• "The games earned attention for continuing the legacy of Infocom, and signalled a potential rebirth for the adventure game genre." -> No comma and 'signalled' should be 'signaled' for American spelling.

• "... with the advent of CD-ROM ..." -> "the CD-ROM" or "CD-ROMs".

History / Point-and-click adventures

• "The success of Gateway ..." - Clarify that this is the game's success, not the novel's.
• "... of emerging compact disc technology" -> "of the emerging compact disc technology".

• Computer Gaming World should be in italics.
• "... also ranking it as 9th Funniest ..." - Some of the awards are not rankings of the game, rather of game elements. Use something like "awarded it".

• "... the game sold less than 25,000 copies, and became Meretzky's last title with Legend ..." - No Oxford comma here.
• "we were delighted with our early successes, but always disappointed that we never were able to unseat Sierra or LucasArts." - MOS:LQ and unlink Sierra, which has been linked before.

• "CD ROM based games" -> "CD-ROM-based games".
• "... based on the Terry Brooks book series" - Avoid SEAOFBLUE in "Terry Brooks book series".
• "... more graphically complex than any prior release" - Was it really more complex than any release, or just Legend's releases?
• "Random House decided to abandon its ventures into interactive fiction, and terminated their partnership with Legend." - Remove the comma here as well.

• "In hindsight, Bates also laments ..." -> 'lamented'.
• "Writer Steve Meretzky also felt the shift towards graphics made the games easier and less literary, not to mention more expensive." -> "not to mention" appears colloquial.

History / Transformation and dissolution

• "that was poorly marketed by publisher Take-Two" - 'publisher' is redundant here as Take-Two was already introduced.
• "By 1998, Legend released a game adaptation of ..." - Include 'a' in the link to the game per WP:OFTHESAMENAME.

• Unlink "game engine" as it should now be linked further up.
• "... they were bought out by Infogrames Entertainment." – "Infogrames" suffices as the common name. Also, mention here that Infogrames is French as the next sentence refers to issues of a multinational structure.
• Link Mark Rein to Mark Rein (software executive)
• "Bob Bates became Chief Creative Officer for Zynga" -> "Bob Bates became the chief creative officer for Zynga".

Other

• Chantilly is only mentioned in the infobox and should at least occur somewhere in the body (e.g. that the company moved there/was founded there). Is it coincidental that Legend and American Systems were in the same location?
• I'm very on the fence about the accolades column in the games table. It feels like they blow up an otherwise tidy table and the individual award qualities are unclear (so the column does not speak to the quality of the games).

  If you still want to keep the column, the outlet names should be fixed with links, italics, and sometimes correct capitalization (e.g. "GameSpy").

• Some of the references have "Staff" or "[Outlet] staff" as the credited author. This is redundant and should be removed.

Regards, IceWelder [✉] 14:31, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

• @IceWelder: Thanks for the thorough review. I was able to integrate most of the comments. Good catch on Chantilly being the home of both Legend and their main investor. This should put it in good shape for an eventual FA nomination. I'll keep this open a little longer before closing it, in case you have anything to add. Cheers. Shooterwalker (talk) 18:23, 17 August 2021 (UTC)

After a brief re-review, I have no further comments at this point. I plan to give it another in-depth read during the FAC process. IceWelder [✉] 12:46, 21 August 2021 (UTC)

Thanks again for the review. I'm going to close this peer review, and I will eventually come back to this for a FA nomination. Shooterwalker (talk) 18:28, 21 August 2021 (UTC)