How do you wiki?

[Seth M. Drebitko]

I have been trying to do different things with wiki lately and was just wondering if any one had found any ways to use it to push their company or maybe game? I am not all together sure how I want to use it but I am trying to figure out a way to make wiki benefit my  work, any suggestion/examples would be great.
Regards, seth

[J B Bell]

The successful uses I've seen wikis put to with games have been in the area of optional rules and add-ons, clarifications, and errata. This seems to have been a benefit for both The Shadow of Yesterday and FATE particularly.

--JB

[axonrg]

The problem with Wikis is that their strengths are their greatest weakness. Wikipedia demonstrated that wikis enable everyone to working collaboratively on content and people really respond this. Utilising this openess for your own projects could really drive it's popularity.

Unfortanately, in my experience most people have a hard time coming to terms with the openess. People are very possessive about their own work and frequently react negatively when others can freely edit it without regard to them. See the constant edit wars and hostilities that rage across Wikipedia. A lot of patience and bridge-building is probably required to ensure your wiki doesn't vanish in a blaze of flame wars.

Finally, the "truism" that all bugs are shallow with many eyes is simply not true for large projects. Volunteers just don't bother with boring but vital jobs like checking spelling and grammar, or even basic research and fact checking. A little quality control is probably required to ensure that the content coming into you wiki is actually usable.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

A Wiki with many contributors, but is also effectively managed by one person, is an incredible - perhaps even close to indispensable - asset to a role-playing publisher.

See Doyce Testerman's Sorcerer Wiki for a shining example. I'm not sure how else to answer your question, Seth, except to say "like that." Ricardo, I also think it provides a good example of working toward a Wiki's strengths and minimiizing its weaknesses.

Best,
Ron

[axonrg]

Hi Ron,

Actually, I've seen a lot fan-based wikis such as Sorceror Wiki and they do seem to work, but I believe not by playing to a wikis strengths but playing them down. Typically, such wikis are edited by a small group of regulars who tend to keep to their own sections. In other words, they use the wikis more as a content management system than as a collaborative editing tool.

If you want users to upload their own content to your site than that's absolutely fine (The Library model you might call it). However, preludetotheend seems to suggest he wants to use a wiki to create a better game, hypothetically taking advantage of the collaborative elements of a wiki. In which case I would note that the Wiki model does seem to work for collaboratively editing seperated small pieces of content, such as one-page encyclopaedia articles or house and optional rules for existing games (with the provisos above).

However, I've yet to see a wiki work for the linear, narrative form of most books such as a roleplaying game book. First, seperating your book into lots of little wiki pages destroys its structure. Some wikis come with tools to link articles together in book form but they are a clunky hack to the problem.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Ricardo, I'm pretty intolerant of people not reading carefully.

"To push their company or maybe game" is the phrase we're working with.

If you want to discuss the use of Wiki for actual game design, then talk about that; you don't have to discover a way to argue with me or anyone else, in order to make your point.

Seth, as you can see, we're all wondering a little about what applications you are talking about. Please clarify.

Best,
Ron

[Seth M. Drebitko]

Many apologize I have been a little busy and was not able to check up on the thread to much. I was thinking of using the wiki as a constant updatable resource for individual games where the fans of the game would get to have input on the resources placed to make sure they get what they want in. I was also thinking of using it as a source to get people into the game that don't know to much about it and might be a little sketchy about picking it up. Sorry about not being so clear on the questions thanks for the great input so far though.
Regards, Seth