Half-Life Wiki:About



Combine OverWiki is a comprehensive wiki encyclopedia focusing on the Half-Life / Portal universe and its related subjects.

Its main purpose is to collect all the available information related to the franchise in an intelligent and analytical way, with emphasis on behind-the-scenes material as well as video game as an art form.

Combine OverWiki his hosted by Wikia, a free web hosting service for wikis, using the wiki software MediaWiki. Therefore, we are not responsible for speed, cache or database issues, or any bug. Wikia also manages the ads independently, and how they are displayed within our articles.

2006
The wiki was started as "Half-Life Wiki" on February 12, 2006, by Chuck182. However, after little time, it fell dormant.

2007
During spring 2007, Donut THX 1138 brought significant work to the wiki, then requested adoption to better revive the wiki.

Wikia Staff member CatherineMunro granted Donut the adoption and instated him bureaucrat on April 11. The same day, Donut appointed sysop RelentlessRecusant.

On May 25, the name "Half-Life Wiki" was officially changed to "Combine OverWiki". Donut THX 1138 thought the name "Half-Life Wiki" was too mundane and started a forum post about possible wiki names. However, after almost a month and no responses, he decided to act on his own since no one seemed to be concerned by the matter. He knew most gamers knew the Combine was a powerful Half-Life enemy faction, so he started playing with words trying to get "Combine" into the name (so gamers would know it is a Half-Life based wiki). Then came the idea of "Combine Overwatch", the name of the Earth-based Combine forces. After several more minutes in deep pondering, Donut was beaten in the face with brilliance: "Combine OverWiki" was finally coined.

2008
2008 saw significant growth and contributor turnover, and it was in this time Donut THX 1138 and RelentlessRecusant, the only two staff members, became inactive. This led to the wiki being adopted once again, this time by EVula, whose leadership gave the improvement drive a boost. He was appointed bureaucrat by Wikia Staff member Angela on February 15.

The following months saw the appointment of two new sysops, MattyDienhoff (on February 21), and Coming Second (on April 11).

EVula eventually ended up inactive like his predecessors, and Klow, appointed sysop by EVula on December 14, started taking up the reins. He established new policies, such as an improved Manual of Style, an improved image management, and came up with a new design for the wiki in December, by using Half-Life 2 texture files and improving the main logo.

2009
On February 28, Klow and MattyDienhoff were promoted bureaucrats by Wikia Staff member Uberfuzzy.

A new sysop, YabbaMyIcing, was appointed by Klow on March 18. The latter then created a much needed layout guide.

Even more changes were undertaken in 2009, and more concrete projects came to life. The first true project was that of general, and badly needed, wiki cleanup. Articles and images were flagged for moving to a higher standard, and fanon and speculation finally started to be spotted and removed. Many new articles also came into existence, such as many behind-the-scenes articles, while the whole walkthrough section was removed, due to requiring a too high amount of fixing and completing for something already existing across the Internet in better written forms.

The official Steam group was also created on April 30, to help promote the wiki and gather more users.

On May 18, it was time to resurrect the featured articles feature, opened by none other than our beloved Free Man. The wiki then started to build its certified safe, good and featured article lists, the featured articles being displayed weekly on the Main Page.

In June, the first official community project, spearheaded by YabbaMyIcing, was started. The goal of it was to take all of the many unused files on the wiki and put them into articles and galleries, or delete them.

On July 6th, the official projects page was created. It was designed to directly inform the community of any and all wiki wide projects that anybody could help out on. In July as well, the wiki got a Wikia Spotlight, which brought new contributors from the other video game wikis.

On September 22, the official Facebook page was created, with an aim similar to that of the Steam group, with emphasis on putting a quote from the Half-Life universe from time to time, mostly for fun only. On September 27, Darkman 4 got at last his sysops status, while he had been deserving it for a long time.

On December 2, as a holiday treat, to part from the old era of the wiki and to better use the space allowed to the logo, a new logo was created and some layout images were replaced by Klow. On December 23, three new rollbacks were appointed, while the two old ones were removed, as they hadn't logged in since 2007. The new rollbacks were Big McLargeHuge, Erickos and JgcxCub.

2010
On February 2, it was learned in comments by Marc Laidlaw on his personal blog that he is aware of the existence of Combine OverWiki and visits it periodically. Although this information was already known, it was not formally confirmed yet. There Laidlaw qualifies the wiki as "clearly creative", and says he admires the energy brought to the creative efforts of the Half-Life community, also citing Concerned and Garry's Mod. He also adds (about himself) that it is "great to be even peripherally a part of so much energy". On February 9, a fourth rollback, Bramblepath, was appointed. On February 22, a bot, DØG, was created to perform repetitive and menial edits in large quantities so as to reduce the workload for both users and administrators.

On March 28, a fifth rollback, Halo-343, was appointed. March also saw the Portal 2 announcement within the ARG promoting it, and new canon fodder started to make its way into the wiki.

On April 1st, Klow and Darkman 4 quickly decided set up an April Fools' Day hoax at the last moment, which led to a new messy main page, a new low-res logo, and other nonsensical articles created by other users. On April 16, Halo-343 was given sysop rights, after his outstanding help.

On May 18, the official IRC channel was launched by Forerunner. On July 19, a fourth extension to the wiki was launched, as an official YouTube channel, its aim being to gather as many official Half-Life / Portal universe videos as possible, and in the best quality when available.

On October 24, Bramblepath was given sysop rights, to help maintain the wiki afloat during Klow's mild absence.

2011
On February 28, SiPlus was given sysop rights. Late March, Klow's absence came to an end.

On April 1st, Master Chief was put as a background image for all articles, just to annoy readers for that special day (obviously not as good as the previous year). Moreover a link to a YouTube video presumably titled "GameSpot Exclusive: Valve's Gabe Newell talks about the awaited Half-Life 2: Episode Three" was shared on the Facebook group and the Aperture Science group, with the description "Gabe gives small bits of info about Episode Three, its close relation to Portal 2, and hints at a release date. He also talks about the upcoming cartoon series featuring Portal 2's Atlas and P-body, and explains the reasons of Kelly Bailey's departure from Valve." Many readers obviously fell for it, but as great as it was, it was alas an hoax, since the video was actually and simply "Trololo", or the "Russian Rickroll". Fijure was also given rollback rights on the same day.

About the use of the Half-Life 2 Beta through Combine OverWiki
As many Half-Life 2 fans know, a lot of material from the so-called "Half-Life 2 Beta" or "Half-Life 2 leak" was stolen from Valve in 2003. Therefore, possessing these files is somehow illegal, although no clear statement by Valve has ever been made. While Combine OverWiki does not encourage piracy and does not provide any direct link to these files, the existence of this material cannot be ignored, as it constitutes a vital source for behind-the-scenes information about Half-Life 2.