Impact on Wiki for Star Wars publications

As much as you know, I'm often fond of saying, is more that you don't. I'm fairly sound when it comes to SW lore and what I don't know is what I haven't purchased, or can't obtain here in my non-American abode. But I'm finding what I need to look up is quite readily available on Wiki.

What are the legal ramifications of this? They're not reproducing the exact material of products, which I gather is how contributers are getting away with it. But it does mean you would have a less reason to buy when you can simply data dig.

How has this affected SW sales, and has your need to buy things like mags and articles reduced? Where once I'd have expended effort to peer into an alien guide, say, to perv on Thon's rhino species, his bio stats and more is a fingertip away.

 

I don't know about affecting my book buying any, but I hafta say I sometimes feel a bit cheated that I read SW books for years, gained a vast knowledge of a galaxy far, far away; and now, my semi-encyclopedic knowledge of a fictional universe is pointless since there's an easily accessible and very well known SW encyclopedia available for any noob off the street with an internet connection.

Guess there's nothing left to do but fix some redlinks.

 

How is knowing the information yourself pointless just because it's available elsewhere? If that's true, then Wookieepedia makes every Jeopardy contestant a loser. I tend to believe that there is inherent value to knowing information without the need to research it.

As to Wookieepedia's effect on my purchasing of SW materials, I've found that being a regular contributor has actually caused me to try harder to find books I don't have, either add new information, to verify what others have added, or to learn more about some new obscure fact hinted at. Granted, what I've mostly been seeking is out-of-print stuff that no longer impacts Lucasfilm's bottom line, but not all of it.

 

The Wookiepedia is the incarnation of Star Wars (fans and authors included), it's like a holocron if you will.

It doesn't make sells go low, it doesn't have the comic/novel after all, if anything it makes people want to find something and buy it even more.

It keeps Star Wars alive, and it will. Not to mention it will help prevent continuity errors in the future.


But in the end it's just an encyclopedia, people are as likely to read at the wookie to not buy as someone is to read about a vacation spot they love and not go. Some things you need to experience, and this helps you know which you want to experience.

 

Realistically, I think people should treat wikis as less of a content source and more of an index. If you're interested in a subject, the wiki will tell you what books you need to have in order to learn about that subject.

Which is why I find myself buying books more and more often. And comic books. I never even touched a Star Wars comic book until I became a Wookieepedian.

 

Yeah, for example, it doesn't matter how many times you read on the wookie that Chewbacca died on Sernpidal, it will never have the full effect as reading and experiencing it. It will however possibly make this of interest to you.

Heh, sounds like an advertisement

 

A mere database will never replace the real thing. It's like saying people will watch the movies less now that they have seen the script and screenshots on the internet. Nobody will do that.

And it's not like Wookieepedia is the first online Star Wars database. There have been a few of them around for years, not to mention dozens of websites that post their own summaries, timelines, etc.

I think fan sites, including Wookieepedia, strengthen the support for the saga rather than detract from it.

PS. As a contributor to the wiki, I am spending MUCH more money on Star Wars than I ever did before.

 

I'd be more inclined to think that the information collected by the company in charge of the franchise, being upkept by a single person, would be more accurate than a free-for-all collection. Especially since they get to decide what actually is and isn't part of continuity.


Anyway, yes there would be some interesting legalistic issues in regards to things like Time Tales, the CUSWE, Wookiepedia, etc. if they ever actually wished to press the point. But it's unlikely to happen based off the current climate of fandom, and the impact that a fight like this might have on the general public perception (since it would get a bit of general press).

 

Well the wookiepedians don't decide what is continuity and what is not, that is decided by LFL, and wookiepedia follows their policies.

It's all good, and there's nothing wrong with it in reality. Wrong would be if they had complete transcripts and videos and scans of novels/books/movies/tv series/comics etc... But it isn't like that.


Wookiepedia is not the feast, it's just a very detailed Menu

 

By your logic, Ex, the JCF is also hurting sales. Why would I read the JAT when I could hear it from a thousand posters here that all of KJA's SW lit is drivel? Why should I read Novel X when everyone here is telling me that they mischaracterize Character Y in it?

I was kinda hoping from the title that this would be a discussion on whether authors use the Wookie or the Database or the Holocron or whatever. That could be potentially interesting.

 

There is a tremendous difference between a thing and the knowledge of a thing. For instance, think about your best friend. Would you prefer to have your best friend, or a computer full of information about him?

 

If all SW is to you is information then things like Wiki do undercut official product, but I'd say you're missing something if your perception of SW is so.

I can read a synopsis of ANH but won't get the effect of those much analysed opening shots by doing so.

As a comics fan I can say the net summaries are very useful for tracing routes through complex continuity that makes Star Wars' look simple. Does this mean I don't get the stories, no - it means once I find out about tale X and its components, I start seeking means of acquisition.

SW EU is layering stories atop each other to span eras and times, worlds and galaxys, characters and places, wonders and nightmares. No synopsis or summary can do this.

Now if we were to get some new EU material based on some of the summaries, like the Ackbar-Pellaeon war...

JB

 

I personally hope it has very little impact. You are reasing a sanatized, NPOV, recollection reached by concensus of what happened, not examining the original source material itself. The result is a vast difference. For example, technically it shouldn't be the Imperial II star destroyer, but the Avenger class, because in the ESB novel it refers to a group of Impstar2s as "Avengers". That's using a stupid little point as an example, but there are bigger ones - consider the character butchering we have seen from some authors. And that's sidestepping the bruhaha resulting from one author refusing to read other material in favor of the holocron and their instinct.

I think wookiepedia best serves as a place where you can find something obscure, see the reference, and then go read the reference yourself.

 

I had trouble enough trusting Timetales and the Unofficial Encyclopedia, which had (has?) a couple dedicated editors; some things one wouldn't expect to be affected by someone's point-of-view are drastically reinterpreted through another person's eyes. Wookieepedia has a virtually infinite amount of editors, which is good for obscure tidbits and quick updates to articles; but anything remotely controversial is reduced to an editing war (the point-of-view thing) with "compromises" being made (which is really just one side giving up). At least with Timetales I knew NightOwl and The Gatherer's points-of-view, but I don't know who the hell wrote the Wookieepedia article I'm reading. I don't want my sources being the equivalent of one side of a SSD debate thread in Lit.

 

The Wooki is a great reference and I use it as an index of sorts, but it has a tendancy to speculate a bit more than I'd like.

It's also annoying when new sources come out, since often alot of stuff gets mucked up from the start since so few initially have the sources-- making me want to buy them when I should be waiting for prices to come down.

 

I find wiki is a ready source of info even compared to factfile which I have about 80 issues of. The problem with printed reference guides is that they can date VERY quickly, like factfile has nothing of ROTS, the latter half of the Clone Wars or DN whereas wookiepedia is constantly being expanded.

Yet even Wookiepedia is no substitute for reading the novels, the entries can only give you an outline of what they contain which is as it should be.

Wookiepedia is the closest thin we can have to a comprehensive SW encyclopedia that is ALWAYS current, something that LFL is reluctant to give us as the databank on sw.com is incomplete.

 

Wookieepedia only makes me want to read the EU faster. I'll read something and go "NO WAY!" then run out and buy the book.

I've never heard of anyone who just sits and reads Wookieepedia all day, but won't go out and read a book.

 

Me.

 

Sikon doesn't count - he never owned any Star Wars stuff to begin with .

 

Well, with the exception of movie DVDs and KOTOR and KOTOR II CDs, indeed I don't. And can't, living where I do, except for occasional books translated into Russian, which I don't buy as a matter of principle.