Hey, @Gargon:
I’m posting this to you, but am hopeful that others will see it and use my suggestion.
As a very newish player (three months), it drives me crazy when I look up terms used in the game and find terrific articles filled with a wealth of information about those terms … but there’s absolutely NO explanatory text at the start letting us know what the hell the term means.
That means we not “in the know” haven’t the vaguest idea what on earth is being discussed.
Just now, I’d looked up the term “fated summon” and landed on this, whatever it is.
It sure would help newbs and less-newbish types if every time someone writes about a topic they start with a single sentence defining the the term.
For example, it’d suuure help me and other newbs if your article started “A Fated Summons occurs when you summon a hero and get your 16th copy of the hero who’s a boy with a fish stuck to his head.” (Or whatever; I have no idea what it is and so can’t provide a useful example.)
It’d take just 512 nanoseconds to type a definition not just to help out newbs but perhaps also refresh the memories of more experienced players, and it would even help out people who’re curious about the game and haven’t played it yet. It might just help to tip those folks over into downloading the game (assuming the explanation is tantalizing! )
Obviously, this is just a request that I hope a lotta useful people (and by “useful,” I mean people like you who take the time and make the effort to create and post an informative article, one that might even be pinned because of its usefulness) will see and heed.
The way things stand now, when I look a term up, close to 90% of the time I hafta make a PDF of the post and store it in my E&P database so that when I finally find out what the term means, I’ll already have one or more documents pertaining to that topic.
As things stand, I’m frequently frustrated (and it’s possible to see my frustration in my various comments on such articles; I pretty much have a macro that types out “Terrific article! I’ll bet that someday when I know what the subject matter is about, I’ll find this article really useful and informative! Thanks for posting it!”
It’s such an easy thing to do to include a single sentence defining the term being described that it’s nearly a crime that people don’t do it.
Please note that this is NOT criticism! When one knows a topic really well, it doesn’t often occur to him to define the terms used. (I know this well myself having written all my adult life. When I was writing tech manuals for Addison-Wesley, I was initially dinged a LOT for using terms without having defined ‘em. Urgh. It doesn’t occur to us that our audience may not know what we’re talking about!)
I hope people will consider my suggestion; it takes nearly no time at all to do, and yet makes articles infinitely more understandable for everyone!
Thanks for reading and considering my suggestion before rejecting it. I really and truly value people like you who share your vast knowledge. I just wanna know wat the heck you’re talking about so I can actually use the knowledge. After all, I took the time to search for it, so I want to know what it is you’re trying to help me with!
I appreciate you!
PS to the @admin: Would it be alright if I also post this as a stand-alone message to a section where the majority is likely to see it, and if so, which section would you suggest?