Forum:Doctor Who: Worlds in Time

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If this thread's title doesn't specify it's spoilery, don't bring any up.

Opening article for editing

I know I have not edited in ages, but I started playing Doctor Who; Worlds in Time, after seeing it advertised in Doctor Who Magazine, I typed in on google Doctor Who WIT (Short for WorldsInTime). I began an account and started playing, it is a really good game. I decided to do a search on here, but found an article had not been made, It is a really good game, in the game, you can play as a male or female and any of these four species, Human, Silurian, Catkind and Forest of Cheem member. You start of in earth and battle the Autons, then Ember and fight the Clockwork droids (Ember featured, in A Christmas Carol in 2010), New New York where you save ood from being sold and Mars where the Judoon try to find you guilty of messing with the time line. I also have not reached starship UK, but that is also featured. Hope you can help Catkind121 23:29, February 18, 2012 (UTC)

The reason there's no article is that it's not been officially released. As far as we can tell, you're playing a beta or preview version, which means the game is therefore ineligible for an article. See this thread for more.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  14:54: Tue 21 Feb 2012

And just to confirm that they're still in beta, here's twitter exchange:

Michael French @Michael_French

They appear to have softlaunched the new Doctor Who online game - @DoctorWhoWIT - by Three Rings (now owned by Sega) doctorwhowit.com

Worlds In Time @DoctorWhoWIT

@Michael_French Yes! We are still in preview, but there is plenty of game for fans to play through. :)

9:24 AM - 8 Feb 12 via web

Wouldn't it make sense to create an article for it already when it's in beta stage, even if we don't add information from it to other articles yet? After all, we do have an article on Series 7. 78.8.48.6^{talk to me} 01:27, February 23, 2012 (UTC)

According to our previous discussions over the years on this matter, no. Series articles are specifically mentioned by T:SPOIL as the one area of exception within the main namespace for spoilers. This allows people who want to spoil a place to focus their energies. But it also says to those users who don't want to be spoiled a clear page to avoid. We really don't want this wiki turning into a place where spoilers are completely unregulated, so that we can benefit from the contributions of editors who don't want to be spoiled.

I understand the frustration with this particular video game story — because you probably think of it as being effectively released — but wiki administration is simply easier if we have clear rules and we follow them.

We're going to need to have a discussion on what "counts" in this game and what doesn't, anyway. We've never had to deal with an MMORPG, and it brings up a number of issues over what parts of the story happen canonically and which don't. Obviously, different players will have different experiences in such a game. So does your run through the game reveal the canonical "truth" of the game? It's an interesting question that Wookieepedia have to deal with on a regular basis, but which our particular fandom never has.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  02:41: Thu 23 Feb 2012

It has now been officially launched. Can we have the article recreated? 87.105.191.40^{talk to me} 00:25, March 13, 2012 (UTC)

Yes, indeedy. Restored to the point of the last substantive edit.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  22:14: Wed 14 Mar 2012

What about this game will we cover?

Well this how canocity usually works in regards to MMOs. For starters, all the quests are clearly canon and aren't in anyway differed by the outcome. As for the players involvement, seeing as their gender and race is changaable, they can be simply referred to as 'an unknown traveller', 'spacer', 'unidentified companion' etc. which you can see acknowledges they exist but doesn't describe their appearance. --Victory93 ^{talk to me} 01:42, March 4, 2012 (UTC)

As this is the first DW MMO, there is no "usually". And we, as a community, kinda avoided the issue when we were first confronted with it on Attack of the Graske, the first new game following the creation of the wiki. We've never really settled the question of how games "work" as narratives. Sure, we can have pages about games as products. But given that different outcomes are possible, games don't quite work the same way that non-interactive narratives do. The problem is compounded, it seems to me, by an MMO, since you've got other players interacting with you, subtly changing the way that you experience the narrative. And, if it's like other MMos, you're probably not forced to do certain quests, so do all quests count, or only the ones necessary to advancing the plot?

I remember, too, that one big problem of Graske, that surely applies to this MMO, is that they have straight-up first person perspectives. I'm not sure about a lot of things having to do with games, but one thing I'm absolutely sure about is that the player cannot be considered a part of the DWU. For instance, in Star Wars: The Old Republic (that is, the original Xbox game), the player was playing a character within the GFFA. That's fine. We can write about that character. But in Graske, you're blatantly, explicitly playing yourself. The Doctor is talking to you, not a character you're controlling. I don't know how it works in DW:WIT, but if you're playing yourself (that is, if you get to actually name your character) then writing about the game is going to be very difficult, if not impossible. Your solutions of "unknown traveller", "spacer", "unidentified companion" are far too flimsy a disguise for the word "me", and don't work, as far as I'm concerned. The editors of this wiki are not resident in the DWU.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  02:24: Sun 04 Mar 2012

Well then for the time being, we can simply accept that the NPCs, locations, races and worlds exist. Although if you've noticed, the quests in the game are unlocked in order of completeion which include a small narrative. Like mentioned, each quest's story doesn't change pending on the player's choices, it's just experienced differently depending on how the user plays it. For example in The Adventure Games, the narrative is the same it just depends on how the player experiences it or what actions they take with no alteration to the narrative. --Victory93 ^{talk to me} 03:39, March 4, 2012 (UTC)

Not sure how that would work. Let's say there's an Ice Warrior in the game. How would we talk about the Ice Warrior without describing his opposition (you)? What does the Ice Warrior do in the game, if not oppose you? What happens to him, if not that which you do to him?
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  13:59: Sun 04 Mar 2012

Well I suppose we can just talk about the background of the encounter or appearance. For example, (here's a spoiler so be warned) there's a mission where the Vespiform have invaded Sardicktown which happens to be located on the planet Ember. Here's how the article entry could look like:

"At some point in time, one of the shards of time landed in Sardicktown on the planet Ember where the Vespiform had intended to capture it. (VG: Doctor Who: Worlds in Time)"

See it has no mention of the player's involvement apart from the background of the mission. Why no mention of player I don't understand as it isn't breaking the fourth wall but this I suppose is as close to how it could work. --Victory93 ^{talk to me} 03:08, March 5, 2012 (UTC)

Well, the way I had thought of it was this:

The companion you play int he game is indeed meant to be there, but it is basically up to you to decide it's name, gender, and race. So I created Companion (Worlds in Time), with the photo of the character in the shadows befor you choose his features. The way I see it, we could have something like this on a page for Zygon; (Warning, spoilers)

Sometime in the future, the Zygons invaded the planet Messaline to look for the crystals. They encountered the Eleventh Doctor's companions. (VG: Worlds in Time)

This shows what happend wothout showing something the player changed; I.e. the character.

Now, the reason I use the word "companions" over "companion" in the above sentence is of coarse because of the Multi-player option, but there is also other things I would like to point out. You see, when the main player does not add other players (I.e. does a "solo" mission) there are automated players made to fill in the three spots left. These players are previously designed and named, so we should include these as pages, as I have started. Ese charactors include Darren, Gethin, Meera, Noma, Nneka, Silas, Steven, Talia, Camile, Will and Mal. For more info on the subject of these "back-up characters," see Their official WITpedia page.

Speaking of which, do we plan to link to WITpedia on the main page? OS25 (talk to me, baby.) 15:54, March 23, 2012 (UTC)

Well, let's examine this point by point, roughly in reverse order.

Nope, won't be linking to this wiki from the front page. The front page links are reserved for Wikia wikis only. Of course, you may link to it in the "External links" sections of articles, provided that it can be viewed without being signed in. (I haven't actually checked this, since I've been signed in when I've visited.)
WITpedia is in no meaningful sense "official". Yes, it's hosted on the BBC Online servers, but it's not a closed wiki edited by the staff. Were that the case, I'd call it "official". Instead, it's open to anyone to edit, which means it's no more official than this wiki.
Companion (Worlds in Time) has been deleted. That doesn't even rise to the level of discussion, I don't think, since that's just another way of saying "you", and "you" aren't a part of the DWU. Moreover, the multiplayer aspect absolutely complicates the writing of the article to an essentially unworkable degree. In order for the narrative of this game to work at all on this wiki, it has to be relatable from the point of view of the Doctor. Which means, fo course, that this game really can't be written up on this wiki. I don't see how you tell any of the story without referring to the player, and the player isn't playing — as is the case in many Star Wars and Star Trek games, or even The Adventure Games — a named, established character in the fictional universe. Every player is playing a different character that they have themselves named. That just doesn't work for us narratively.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  16:45: Fri 23 Mar 2012

Characters

Nomenclature

For dabed names, would you create Person (Worlds in Time) or Person (Doctor Who: Worlds in Time). Which is "correct"? -- Tybort (talk page) 21:26, March 17, 2012 (UTC)

Name (Worlds in Time). We probably need to have a broader discussion about consistent use of the term "Doctor Who" when it's naming something in its franchise. Sometimes, it seems, we want to put "Doctor Who: <name>" and sometimes we don't. I've never particularly understood why we ever do so. The whole article should probably be at just Worlds in Time (video game), but maybe someone has a compelling argument for keeping the Doctor Who: on the front? For the purposes of disambiguation, though, there's absolutely no use in the prepending Doctor Who:
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  21:59: Sun 18 Mar 2012

General approach

So, some articles have started to appear on these little NPC characters that can accompany you on missions, people like Darren (Worlds in Time) and Gethin (Worlds in Time). As written, they're being declared as "companions of the Eleventh Doctor". Really? I don't know if I'd go so far as to call a random sprite — I've never gotten Gethin when I've played, for instance — a full-on companion of the Doctor. And really, in terms of game mechanics, they're your companion, not the Doctor's. I don't know if these totally insignificant characters deserve any kind of article at all. They don't add anything to the plot of the game. They might not even show up when you yourself are playing. Therefore to even give a broad overview of their "lives" is a bit dubious. When I've been playing, as far as I know, Gethin has not accompanied the Eleventh Doctor to London, for instance. Are we even sure that these names are consistently applied to the same character, or are they just randomly generated? I mean, is Mal always Catkind, Talia always Tree and Gethin always human? Or is that just what happened on the instance that OttselSpy25 took the screenshot?

I think we should resist the urge to start creating a ton of pages before the game has been played more and we really understand things about its mechanics. I also strongly feel that none of the PC or NPC characters seen in this game are in any way companions. They're tools in the game; they have no in-universe significance.

At the present moment, I think it advisable to simply create a real world list called List of NPCs in Worlds in Time and chart the information there. I really don't think we should be treating any of them as legitimately in-universe.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  15:39: Fri 23 Mar 2012

Well, yes, they are always such that you mention. their official WITpedia page lists their gender, race and names. You can also note a repitition of charactors in the images I posted. File:Noma Meera Silas.jpg, File:Noma Mal Talia.jpg, and File:Steven Noma Nneka.jpg all show "Noma" to be a female Silurian in a red coat, for instance.

However, I can see what you mean about the importance of a charactor, so I am up to discussion on weather or not we should make or keep these pages. OS25 (talk to me, baby.) 16:00, March 23, 2012 (UTC)

Do any of these characters get involved in narrative elements or are they just assists to game play? --Tangerineduel / talk 16:42, March 23, 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, they ARE just assistants to game play, never referred to in the plot, but arguably, neither is the main companion...

I still don't see why that (Companion (Worlds in Time)) was deleted, I mean, what the main companion does in each level is basically set in stone, only his name and race is left to question... And no, I don't think it's a way to say "you," similar to Graak. If Graak was unnamed, wed still have it's page! So do we not plan to have a page on this companion on this wiki? OS25 (talk to me, baby.) 17:06, March 23, 2012 (UTC)

Because narrative happens to a particular character. What happened to Jo in The Mind of Evil did not also happen to Sarah Jane in The Brain of Morbius. Or in gaming terms, what happens to Samus in Metroid Prime doesn't happen Sonic the Hedgehog or <insert name here> in <insert game here>. It doesn't happen to millions of different characters. Your approach and success with Worlds in Time is going to be different to mine. I might invite people to play with me, and thereby kick "Darren the Silurian" — which must surely rank as one of the stupidest names ever — out of the narrative. We might face basically the same mission, but it's going to transpire differently, if for no other reason than that I have real players on my side and you have NPCs. For you, the story might be, "The Companion (Worlds in Time) tried to defeat an Auton, but was repulsed several times until he finally overcame the pesky plastic creature on the tenth attempt." For me, it might be, "the three Companions easily overwhelmed the Autons and saved London in the blink of an eye." Which is right? They both are. Which is why this doesn't work. There's no character to the companion. There's no way to describe them except in terms of what obstacles they overcame.

And then there's the vexed question of describing their relationship to the Doctor. Or, worse, what their room aboard the TARDIS looks like. It's an awfully important part of WIT, that room, yet it'll be as individualised as the person playing the game. Because, again, "the companion" is you. It has no back story, no life prior to or after this game, no relationships of any kind. The Doctor merely welcomes it — you — on board and starts telling you what to do. There's no narrative there, no character, nothing to write about from an in-universe perspective.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  17:35: Fri 23 Mar 2012

So then,how are we to write the pages then? Do we say the same as if there was a page? (See my Zygon quote above, but icnore the link) Or do we icnore the character intirely, claiming it was the Doctor?OS25 (talk to me, baby.) 17:50, March 23, 2012 (UTC)

You know, I was writing up some proposed guidelines at User:CzechOut/Video game policy, when it struck me that we've long had on the books Tardis:Canon policy#What is not considered a valid source, and why?

Worlds in Time is a role-playing game. Sure it's a massive, multiplayer online RPG, but it's still an RPG. And RPGs were thrown out years ago. I don't think we can write up anything about the game in an in-universe way. Tangerineduel, is that how you'd interpret that part of T:CAN?
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  18:49: Fri 23 Mar 2012

I don't quite see HOW it's a role playing game... It's just as much a role playing game as Final Fantasy VIII is. Sure, you can choose the characters name, but where you go, what you do, and how is basically set out for you. OS25 (talk to me, baby.) 19:02, March 23, 2012 (UTC)

Well, they ARE role-playing games. There's no denying that. That's what the technical name for both are. However, the aforementioned T:CANON bit was made before Worlds in Time was even announced. We threw out tabletop RPGs years ago, not MMOs. Does the rationale for disallowing the FASA settings really count for Worlds in Time as well, given the divergence computer RPGs have made over time?

Of course, reading T:CANON's reason for disallowing the RPGs, television and prose stories conflict with television and prose stories, but we still allow them. So, could someone who was there at the time explain better for disallowing FASA's settings?

Also, I disagree that we can't write about anything from that game. We can't refer to what the companions did to complete the stories, but we can still say "alien V invaded planet W" or "NPC X belonged to organisation Y and lived in City Z".

Though just to clarify, did the Eleventh Doctor actually do anything in the game's missions, or did he simply land the TARDIS to start of the players' missions in whichever locale? -- Tybort (talk page) 19:51, March 23, 2012 (UTC)

[edit conflict]

To answer in roughly reverse order:

I'm not seeing the Doctor taking any overt actions. He's always in the TARDIS, acting more like "M" to your Bond than Doctor to your companion.
Since the Doctor doesn't leave the TARDIS, does he actually experience the content of the game? If he doesn't then it's only we, the players, noticing that "NPC X belonged to organisation Y and lived in City Z". And that doesn't count.
An RPG is an RPG, whether the computer is throwing the dice and doing the math or you are. As I read T:CAN it's throwing out the concept of RPGs, not just table-top RPGs.
The origin of the ban on the FASA game has eluded me, as well. I asked for its origins a couple a years ago and got nada. Searches lead me nowhere. Nevertheless, I wasn't asking because I disagreed with the ban, only cause I wanted clariy. RPGs should be banned. Any game which centrally has a character you created and uses items you created is fanfic. T:NO FANFIC therefore applies.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  20:24: Fri 23 Mar 2012

[/edit conflict]

Well, he basically drops you off, tells you he's trying to save the planet, and then buggers off. I still think that qualifies as "visiting the planet" though... And I agree with you. to rebut Czech earlier argument about how things change, there are still very set-in-stone things in the game. FOr instance, the correct way to reference the game would be

The Eleventh Doctor's companion went to <planet> and encountered <species>.

Now, that we can't deny. The Doctor's companion DID go to these planets, and DID encounter these aliens. We don't say that he did good or bad because that varies. But, you see, what he/she does does not. That's why I don't rally think of it as a role playing game. You see, role-playing games usually have multiple things that make it such:

1) YOU choose where to go

2) You design and name your character

3) YOU choose dialogue and emotions in conversations

4) YOU choose the path to where you head

WIT does one of these things. Basically you choose what order you do things in, which is not very you-choose-your-fate-ish. Sure, you have a chat box, but that doesn't affect the plot or conversations (the most it can do is get you banned for cursing...) So... the most it does is let you be who you want to be, but, really, the charactor you creates appears before you make it, that's why I used File:Companion.jpg for the image, because it was before you got to choose ANYTHING for the character. So really, you just gave features to an already-there-character. It'd be like if they made a video game centered around Scared Man and let you change his name. He's still be Scared Man, only now he'd also have been in a video game... possibly The Adventures of Scared Man 5 or something...

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's not a role playing game, I'm saying that it doesn't give a lot of freedom to the player, thus making it very easy to write about the game without including info that the player chooses, like name and such. OS25 (talk to me, baby.) 20:30, March 23, 2012 (UTC)

Do we cover RPGs or not?

So despite the fact that OttselSpy25 has just spent a number of posts seeming to argue that WIT is not an RPG, we seem agreed that WIT is an RPG. So, our question becomes much simpler. Are RPGs covered by this wiki?

I say there's been a ban in place for four years or more, and that this game only confirms the difficulty of considering an RPG as canon. Our lives would simply be easier if we classed RPGs outside our remit entirely, put up an {{nc}} flag on WIT and work on hammering out a video game policy to better establish what's in, what's out, and why.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  20:53: Fri 23 Mar 2012

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's not a role playing game, I'm saying that it doesn't give a lot of freedom to the player, thus making it very easy to write about the game without including info that the player chooses, like name and such.Myself, just above.

Now, in truth, I never saw why we don't include some RPGs. I mean, hell, I notice we do! I see no marking calling Search for the Doctor or it's series category marked as non canon, and that story ALSO includes an unnamed character... (Although arguably I understand that she had a back story and gender) and I notice that an image from it appears in the in-universe part Omega...

So, let's look at the official reason we don't call FASA canon... '"..these [books] sometimes contain histories and other information which conflicts with the television and prose stories." That really doesn't fit with this as a reason... Hey, if this is our reason, can we mark Lungbarrow as non-canon too?

In truth, I don't see exactly WHY they aren't canon.. In some cases, where the canon contradicts TV canon to a point of annoyance, we can use that over-used-yet useful phrase "One account suggests...'...

Plus, I see no indication that we made FASA not cannon other than because it contradicted other stuff... And sense WIT hasn't, I see no reason to make it nc. OS25 (talk to me, baby.) 21:53, March 23, 2012 (UTC)