Forum:Poll: did you click all links on this wiki?

< Forum:Watercooler

I started a discussion on Talk:Master_Kaen, but I was advised to move it here.

Basically, the discussion changed to be about use of a wiki: is one expected to click all links before playing? Or is it common to ignore links for words that have known definitions? So, a poll: Did you click all links before playing? Or did you skip links for common things like "sword", "axe", "spear"? Would you click a link for "covetous", or, if you already know the real-world definition of "covetous" -- a strong desire for the possessions of another -- would you skip the link?--Zippy (talk) 15:23, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

It’s been a long time since I started playing NetHack, but my answer is “neither”. When I was a new player, I would start a game, and search for the article of any new item or monster I encountered, including for really mundane items. Sometimes I would do such a search after dying, or wielding a cursed item, or a similarly unfortunate event. There is no guarantee that an item or monster which exists in the real world has the same properties as in NetHack, or that using an item in an expected way would be easy in the interface. An example for axe: without reading any spoilers, I might have never found out how to cut down a tree with an axe, or chop into a shop door.

I also fondly remember making it through the Castle, finally reaching XL14 and being eligible for the quest for the first time. I fought Master Kaen with half an ascension kit… and lost. It’s only afterward that I even bothered to look him up - I probably skipped past the Quest dialogue mentioning Kaen, and became too confident to keep checking the wiki for things.

I don’t recall how I learned what covetous behaviour was. I think a sentence with a link along the lines of “like all quest nemeses, Master Kaen will warp to you” can succinctly describe the challenge and associate between warping and the word “covetous”. —Aximili (talk) 21:01, 21 June 2024 (UTC)