Talk:Plot

Merge

This seems extremely redundant and could likely be folded into the introduction article, and I think the structure of the game is elaborated on in other articles; commentary on roguelikes and sparse plots could be saved for that article I'm sure. --Umbire the Phantom (talk) 14:33, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

Not to mention Story --Aximili (talk) 19:35, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

Ugh, that's a whole other can of w right there - that's basically just reciting the structure of the game, which I'd feel like we would have covered on a strategical level and would probably fit in the main NetHack article with some changes. Thing is, I know I'm not the only one who feels some kinda way about this and I don't plan on making such drastic changes without some significant consensus as on how to approach dealing with this unnecessary spread of info. --Umbire the Phantom (talk) 20:17, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

I wrote most of story relatively recently: for years it was pretty much the same as plot, but had a todo complaining "This page should explain storyline of NetHack as a whole, because everything about it is currently on dozens of different pages". I had no idea that plot was a separate article at that time. Neither of these articles are linked from many parts of the wiki so I suspect very few people read them anyway.

You are right that these article(s) should not recite the structure of the game, since all the levels are covered in detail by Mazes of Menace. However NetHack does have some plot beyond (and even contradicting) the introduction:

• the Quest limitations (on angering the leader, XL and alignment record) force the player to be a hero to their people (at least until the quest is unlocked)
• the player can change alignments (with sacrifice or the helm) and serve another god (with the notable exception of Moloch)
• the Amulet of Yendor is actually not that 'powerful' from a player's perspective
• the ascension text

There are also certain characters with a bit of flavour about them, particularly Moloch and the Wizard of Yendor. So I don't think both plot and story can just be merged into other articles. Maybe something more like "The beginning of the player's story is described in Introduction. However the actual story deviates from the introduction because ... . The plot of NetHack is rather limited because ... . The exact layout of the dungeon is described in Mazes of Menace." --Aximili (talk) 00:00, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

Yeah, that sounds a lot more viable. For what it's worth, this is very much due to me taking a "once and only once" approach to wiki matters and try to minimize redundancy where possible. The fine details of a subject should be covered on that articles subject, but general mentions elsewhere would be fine as opposed to needlessly reproducing every single bit of info in every remotely applicable article. --Umbire the Phantom (talk) 04:08, 25 March 2020 (UTC)