Wikipedia:Wisps' Law

Quoth the Raven: ...Nothing! The Raven talks enough already! We don't always need to quote him!

Quotes are one of the most widely used citation types in articles related to video games and video game characters, and for good reason: they reference specific points in the game that readers may remember from playing the games and, if not, can look up to confirm with relative ease. It's still possible that a quote is being used out of context—which is one reason why secondary sources, where available, are preferred—but citing a quote is still more objective than citing the full game alone, though this is also an accepted format. Quotes, as probably the most precise primary source possible, are quite useful for subjects on the lower end of the notability scale, since there may not be adequate coverage in secondary sources for all of the information necessary for a reasonably comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.

Don't overdo it, though.

Named for the alien race that debuted in the game Sonic Colors for the Wii and Nintendo DS (ever played it? Tezero recommends it), Wisps' Law, as this guideline is called, states that individual game quotes should generally only be included in articles for game characters (including species, groups, organizations, and lists) insofar as they corroborate information that is likely to be seen as controversial, spurious, or especially specific. Wisps' Law is an extension of an often-overlooked tenet of WP:V: that Wikipedia does not need citations for everything (see "the sky is blue"), despite the general atmosphere's frequent implications otherwise.

By 2014, over-referencing in certain game-related articles had been drawing complaints for years. It was making another such appearance at Wisp (Sonic)'s FAC in April 2014 when Tezero, having had enough after an Oppose vote based on excessive primary citations, asked editors at WikiProject Video games to help form a consensus they would be okay with and that could be referenced for future articles. What was most agreed upon was that many citations in that article were indeed superfluous and, more generally, the aforementioned point of WP:V was stressed. Setting his personal reservations aside, Tezero drew up Wisps' Law so that future uncomfortable discussions could be truncated by a handy reference to a decently respected standard.

So before you add a quote citation to a character article, consider the following general points:

• CUBE! – Does it noticeably increase the "depth" or "thickness" of referencing coverage, citing an important detail?
• ROCKET! – Is the information it verifies somewhat "explosive", rather than mundane and uncontroversial?
• HOVER! – Does it contribute to an already excessive number of references in the article? The reader should be able to "hover" over the list and find a given reference without too much trouble rather than getting lost in a sea of them. (A neat, low number of sources isn't always practical across Wikipedia, and shouldn't be prioritized over adequate sourcing; this is for when the sourcing is already more than adequate.)
• SPIKES! – Does it contribute to a "spike" of little blue (or purple) numbers at the end of a sentence or clause, or a generally high concentration within a body of text? This can be aesthetically unappealing.
• LASER! – Does it contribute to an overabundance of little numbers in a paragraph or section as a whole? This can disrupt the reader's ability to easily "scan" or quickly boost through a block of text.
• DRILL! – Is the article's continued existence being "screwed" by having too high a ratio of primary to secondary sources? While in theory the ratio shouldn't make a difference, it can create the impression to potential AFD-ers that basically only primary sources are available, and make the article seem more gamecrufty as a whole. Alternately, it may attract more negative comments on the article in GANs and FACs (due to some editors' biases) should you choose to pursue them, through the same crufty atmosphere.
• FRENZY! – All in all, are you going a little "nuts" by adding too many?

While these seven tenets aren't a be-all-and-end-all for adding a citation ("Ignore all rules" exists for a reason), they are general guidelines that help with articles' readability and accessibility and their likelihood of winning credentials you may want for them.

Wisps' Law was originally intended for game character articles due to the unique way they summarize the characters' appearances in various games and other media, but is also applicable to, say, individual games, series, and characters native to other media (insofar as quotes are used there), as well as to excessive citations of a style other than quotes.

See also

• Wikipedia:Citation overkill – a similar guideline that focuses on the problem of excessive sources being unreliable or subpar, rather than redundant or ugly
• Wikipedia:You don't need to cite that the sky is blue
• Wikipedia:Bombardment
• Wikipedia:Masking the lack of notability