Half-Life Wiki talk:Point of view

Is it just me, or does this idea seem to be dead in the water? Personally, I don't go out of my way to point out that any given element is fiction, but I write with an encyclopedic, documentary style nonetheless. For example, where a Wikipedia article might say:


 * "The Coast is a fictional location in the computer game Half-Life 2"

I'd usually write:
 * "The Coast is a location seen in Half-Life 2"

I've seen a lot of examples of peculiar usage of past tense in various articles here and I'm thinking maybe misinterpretations of this guideline had something to do with it. Personally, I think it's fine to refer to specific events that have already happened in the series' plot in the past tense - for example, "Gordon and Alyx escaped from City 17", or "Bridge Point was overrun by the Combine" - but I feel it's inappropriate in most other cases, such as when describing gameplay elements like weapons or even enemies. For example, I've seen articles describing enemies in the past tense, like:


 * "Civil Protection officers were  humans who volunteered to work for the Combine, they were armed with pistols."

Use of past tense in that context comes across as awkward and cumbersome in my opinion. So I guess the question is, should we rewrite this 'style guide' so it's not misleading? --MattyDienhoff 07:33, 24 February 2008 (UTC)