Deus Ex Wiki:Manual of style

Deus Ex Wiki Policies & Guidelines
Content Policy
Canon Policy
Image Policy
Manual of Style

This manual of style outlines a standard of clean and consistent style for articles on this wiki.

General

This wiki generally follows the Wikipedia Manual of Style. Where there is a conflict between the guidelines of this wiki and the Wikipedia Manual of Style, local guidelines supersede those of Wikipedia.
Descriptions should be clear and precise; speculations or uncertain facts should be avoided.
Do not be overly specific when writing, only as specific as necessary.
Do not overlink. Generally, a page should be linked to a given article only once, on its first occurrence. Links may be repeated if the first link is far up the page or if the manner in which the word is used makes it necessary (e.g. in a list in which every entry is linked).
Do not add any attributions (like "written by XYZ") or dates ("written on 18/05/11") to articles. An accurate record of all contributions to an article is available via its "History" page.

Formatting

Capitalization

Section titles and page titles should be in sentence case rather than title case. That is, the first word should be capitalized, but the remaining words should not be capitalized unless they are proper nouns. For example, "See also" would be a correct section title, whereas "See Also" would not be correct. (This guideline follows the Wikipedia Manual of Style.)
Proper nouns such as "Diamond Back .357" should be capitalized.
Common words should not be capitalized unless they start a new sentence.
- This includes common words that appear as part of a term that also includes a proper name. For example, the name "Matsu-Gravas GV-4 Nightingale medical bot" includes the uncapitalized generic description "medical robot." The sentence "A UNATCO soldier killed a with an assault rifle" includes the uncapitalized generic name "soldier" and "assault rifle."
In some cases, a term composed of common words is used in-game in the manner of a proper noun. Such terms should be capitalized. If it is not clear whether a name is a proper noun or a common noun, naming should be discussed and decided on a case by case basis.
Names of skills and augmentations (e.g., Environmental Training and Remote Hacking) should be capitalized when referring specifically to game mechanics.
Species names should not be capitalized. For example, in the same way that "cat" or "dog" would not be capitalized, "greasel" and "karkian" are also not capitalized.

Bold and italics

The article title should typically be in bold the first time it appears in the article introduction, such as when the article title is specifically defined in the introduction of the article. If the article title is a name, any alternative names should also be bolded at their first occurrence.
Use emphasis sparingly and only when necessary. Certain types of emphasis should be avoided.
- Keywords for which readers are likely to be scanning may be in bold for emphasis, but this should be used sparingly.
- Avoid using bold formatting for general emphasis.
- Avoid using ALL CAPS.
- Avoid using quotation marks for emphasis.
- Avoid bolding words for general emphasis.
- Avoid using double emphasis (e.g., combining bold and italics).
Names for Deus Ex series titles and works in general should be italicized (e.g., "Deus Ex: Invisible War is part of the Deus Ex series of games").

Punctuation

Image captions that are not complete sentences but merely sentence fragments should not end with a period. (This guideline follows the Wikipedia Manual of Style.)
Reference tags (i.e., tags within articles that create footnotes) are placed after adjacent punctuation, not before. The exception is if the punction is a dash or a parenthesis, in which case the reference tag is placed before the dash or a closing parenthesis. (This guideline follows the Wikipedia Manual of Style.)
- Example: "Citation tags are generally placed after commas,^[1] semicolons,^[2] and periods.^[3] However, there are exceptions to this rule (such as when used with a closing parenthesis^[4])."

Article layout

Standard article heading

Introduction – The introduction is the opening of the article that introduces the topic of the article in a broad sense. This is the part of the article that precedes any section heading. If an appropriate infobox exists, the infobox should be included at the beginning of the article.
Main article section – The main article section typically makes up the bulk of the article. The specific heading depends on the topic of the article. For character articles, the main article section is "biography," which is further discussed below.
Secondary article sections – Certain article types may have additional commonly used sections. For example, character articles may have sections such as "interactions" and "quotes."
Notes – The "notes" section is used to document additional information within the contents of Deus Ex titles. This section is used for lore-related facts, as well as information pertaining to gameplay.
Trivia – The "trivia" section is used to document information that references information outside of the contents of Deus Ex titles.
- Examples of information that is typically placed in the "trivia" section include:
  - Explaining a real-world reference that appears in a Deus Ex title, such as a reference to history, literature, or other media franchise.
  - Documenting developer commentary that explains the basis for artistic designs seen in a game.
  - Documenting cut content, including prerelease concepts, that do not appear in the final game.
  - Documenting the development history of a character, location, mission, or other
- The Deus Ex Wiki does not use "Behind the Scenes" as a standard section in its articles. Content that would normally fit under this heading in other wikis would typically be placed in either the "note" or "trivia" section.
See also – A "see also" section is used to list articles that are related to the topic of the instant article.
Gallery – If there are images that do not fit embedded into the main article paragraphs, they can be included in a gallery section at the end of the page.
References – The references section should be used in all articles that contain citations. When adding content to articles, a reference to the source of that information should also be added. The references section is where these sources are displayed.

Headings for character articles

Biography – The "biography" section is the plot summary of a character according to the canon of the series.
- This section should not include any information that is non-canon, including events that occur only in optional missions. Generally, the results of alternate outcomes that depend on player choice should not be documented in the "biography" section, but should instead be described in the "interactions" section, discussed below.
- This section should typically be written from an in-universe perspective and in historical present tense, as further discussed below.
Interactions – The "interactions" section documents gameplay interactions between the topic character and the player character in Deus Ex series games. This section typically includes a subsection that documents a list of missions in which a character appears.
- The interactions section is used to document the effects of the player's actions that are open to the player's choice.
- Events and interactions that must occur within a game (and are thus "canon") do not require detailed documentation in this section.
- This section is generally not used for characters that have no interactions with the player, such as characters that only appear in backstories or cutscenes not involving the player character.
Quotes – If a character has notable quotes in the series, such quotes may be documented in a "quotes" section. This section is not used for all character articles.

Perspective

The perspective used in articles can be said to fall into two categories: "in-universe" and "real-world" (or “out-of-universe”). The "in-universe" perspective describes events solely from a viewpoint within the fictional Deus Ex universe. On the other hand, the "real-world" perspective uses the real world as the primary frame of reference, and may make references to real-world topics such as game titles, developer commentary, and game mechanics.

Use of the in-universe perspective

In lore articles, sections that summarize canonical events, including the "biography" section of character articles and similar sections in other articles (such as "history" or "background"), should generally be written in the in-universe perspective. This guideline applies to lore articles, which include articles on characters, factions, organizations, and events, and does not apply to articles on real-world topics (see below).
Sections that use the in-universe perspective avoid making references to real-world information such as game titles. However, game titles should still be used in the reference citations to document the basis for the story summary.

Use of the real-world perspective

In general, article sections other than sections that summarize canonical events use the real-world perspective.
The introduction may include descriptions written from a real-world perspective even if the article is on an in-universe topic and even if the article's main section is written from an in-universe perspective.
- For example, a description that references a game title can be included in the introduction of a character article to clearly establish the context of the topic and to concisely summarize the role of a character or other entity with respect to a specific game (e.g., “Adam Jensen is the mechanically augmented protagonist of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.”).
- The use of real-world-perspective descriptions in such a manner may depend on the nature of the topic addressed by the article. Articles that are of common interest to a non-specialized reader, such as articles on major characters in the Deus Ex series, may use real-world-perspective description in order to assist the audience in understanding the topic.
Articles for games and print media in the Deus Ex series are considered to be directed to real-world topics. Thus, in accordance with the style commonly used in encyclopedias, plot summaries in such articles may make explicit references to other titles in the Deus Ex series. For example, the real-perspective may be used to describe the setting of the work (e.g., “Mankind Divided is set in the autumn of 2029, two years after the events of Human Revolution”).

Verb tense

Story summaries in lore articles (including character biographies)

Article sections of lore articles that summarize canonical events from an in-universe perspective, including the "biography" section of character articles and other similar canonical history sections (such as "history" or "background"), should be written in past tense. Thus, events depicted in Deus Ex series games, books, and other titles are treated as past events that have already occurred.

This guideline was adopted in March 2023, replacing previous guidelines that had specified the use of present tense in such article sections. New articles, as well as large-scale revisions of existing story summaries written under the previous tense style, should conform to the current style of using past tense. However, if the section is already written in present tense under the previous guidelines and only minor edits are being made, then the edit should maintain consistency with the existing tense style. In other words, for purposes of maintaining consistency within individual articles, character biographies and other similar canonical history sections that were written in present tense should be maintained in present tense unless it is fully converted to past tense.

Sections written from the real-world perspective

This wiki generally follows Wikipedia conventions for sections written from the real-world perspective. That is, these sections should be written in present tense by default. Generally, past tense is used only for describing past events or subjects that no longer meaningfully exist, or to distinguish between current and former status of a subject.

Verb tense in specific contexts

Article introductions in lore articles – In general, present tense descriptions are preferred when defining the topic.
- In character articles, descriptions that define the character in relation to a specific Deus Ex series title should use the present tense (e.g., “Adam Jensen is the mechanically augmented protagonist of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.”).
- Using only past tense to define the topic may give rise to an unnecessary or unintended implication that a certain character, faction, or other object is dead or otherwise no longer extant. Thus, using only past tense is not preferred unless the subject is described only in the backstory and is explicitly confirmed to be dead or otherwise no longer extant in any main plot. If past tense is used in this manner, the timeframe in which the subject is no longer extant should be made clear to the reader (e.g., "Yuen Kong was the leader of the Red Arrow Triad in Hong Kong prior to the events of Deus Ex.").
Whole-work plot summaries – Whole-work plot summaries that appear within articles on real-world topics, such as the plot summary in the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided game article and similar plot summaries in articles on DLCs, books, and comics, should use the present tense when describing events that occur within the main plot of the work. Past tense is still used when describing backstory events, i.e., events that occur prior to the main plot of the work. This practice is consistent with Wikipedia conventions of using present tense when summarizing whole works of fiction. Whole-work plot summaries are distinguished from character biographies in that they appear in articles predominantly written from the real-world perspective and summarize the plot of a single work. By contrast, character biographies are written from an in-universe perspective and may be assembled from information from several works.
Timelines – Events within timelines should be written in present tense.
Conditional events – Events that are dependent on the player’s choice may be described using any combination of tenses that is appropriate for the relevant context. For example, conditional events may be described using a mixture of present tense and future tense ("if [character] performs [action], then [event] will occur") or a mixture of present tense and past tense ("[event] occurs if [character] previously performed [action]"), depending on the relevant context.

Miscellaneous guidelines on writing

Referring to the player character

The protagonist character should be referred to by name or pronoun (and not by "the player" or "you") if the context is predominantly lore or story events. This convention is maintained even when describing optional story paths determined by the player’s choice (e.g., "If Jensen [performs action], then [event will occur]").
Terms such as “the player” or "the player character" are appropriate in the context of gameplay articles, including walkthrough articles and articles on game mechanics.
The second person pronoun "you" is not preferred in encyclopedic articles because it does not give an encyclopedic tone. However, "you" is acceptable in instructional articles, such as mission walkthroughs.

Categorization

All content pages (articles and files) should belong to at least one category. Disambiguation pages and redirects are not considered articles in the sense of this rule.
A content page should be placed in all the categories to which it logically belongs.
A content page should be placed only in the most game-specific category (or categories) out of a given branch of the category tree.
- For example, a weapon appearing in Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided should be added to the categories for weapons appearing in those games. It should not be added to the general category "weapons."
An article should always be categorized by characteristics of the topic, and not characteristics of the article. A character article which contains descriptions of bugs, for example, does not belong in Category:Bugs.
An article should never be left with a non-existent (redlinked) category on it. Either the category should be created (most easily by clicking on the red link), or else the link should be removed or changed to a category that does exist.
User pages should not be placed in content categories. They may be placed in certain categories that explicitly allow user pages. Otherwise, they should remain uncategorized.
Please see the category tree for a list of categories currently in place on the wiki.