Bandipedia:Manual of Style

The Manual of Style is the style manual for all articles. It is used to establish consistency across the project, but is not applicable to every situation. This guideline doesn't spell out all English rules, wiki editing, typical wiki conventions, etc. Rather, its primary focus is on historically recurring style issues or style issues specific to the, while also covering some of the most important, if general, rules.

Wikipedia's Manual of Style may be referenced for typical general guidelines, but with discretion, as some elements may not be consistent with this community's standards. The most glaring contradictions may be covered in this page, though this guideline is not intended to be a fork or diff of Wikipedia's Manual of Style.

General style

 * The only exception to this is the preference of logical quotation over American punctuation. This is to maintain an encyclopedic style and is not a preference based on regional style.
 * When titling articles, use proper English capitalization rules rather than going by in-game capitalization. Proper nouns should use title case, while common nouns should use sentence case.
 * The only exception to this is the preference of logical quotation over American punctuation. This is to maintain an encyclopedic style and is not a preference based on regional style.
 * When titling articles, use proper English capitalization rules rather than going by in-game capitalization. Proper nouns should use title case, while common nouns should use sentence case.

Representation

 * Articles should be titled according to their topic's most representative name (i.e. the name most commonly used).
 * For characters, their full names should be used. Omit prefixes, titles, and honorifics (such as "Doctor" Neo Cortex).
 * For characters with spelling variations or multiple identities, the latest assumed name should be used as the article title, with redirects created for other names.
 * The main image of an article should be of the subject's most recent canonical appearance.

Article layout
There are no strict guidelines concerning the layout of an article, as each has different needs. However, there are ideal and typical layouts.

Generally, every article has a lede section and a body. The lede section is a condensed version of the article:
 * The first sentence of a lede should include the article's name and any alternative names in bold, the type or category the topic belongs to (e.g. "character", "faction", "location"), and the games in which it appeared. The first sentence should be as brief and definitional as possible.{
 * The lede should not be used exclusively as an introduction or preamble, nor should it include any unique information. However, the lede should also not contain the same level of detail as the body. It should convey all the most important information in a summarized manner.

The body contains the article's comprehensive, detailed, and organized information:
 * Sub-topics should be contained under the appropriate section header. For example, information about a topic's appearance in the games should go under a "History" section, information about the topic's appearance or behavior should go under a "Characteristics" section, etc.
 * Subsections may be added for further organization, such as individual games under the "History" section, or "Appearance" and "Behavior" under the "Characteristics" section. The creation of subsections should be proportionate to the length of the parent section, similar to the notability standards applied for the splitting or merging of articles.

Note that for shorter articles, the body may not be separated from the lede by a section header. For significantly short articles, the lede may be fully detailed and serve as the body.

Articles are usually organized as follows:
 * Lede
 * Body
 * History
 * Characteristics
 * Behind the scenes
 * Gallery (see File use &sect; Galleries)
 * See also
 * Notes (see Verifiability &sect; Citing sources)

Game scripts
Game scripts are full verbal transcripts of a particular game. They are not the original scripts, but instead transcriptions from the final product.

The exact formatting of a script should be consistent with the most complete script. Individualized guidelines and notes concerning the way in which a transcript was made and organized should be placed in the lede of that article. Otherwise, all scripts may abide by the following guideline:
 * Transcribe dialogue based on the actual spoken words with proper English punctuation and casing. Do not go by the in-game subtitles, which are often erroneous.
 * Script page section headers should be named after their cutscene names (found in scene players), or their corresponding mission names (found in mission lists, level select, or in-game prompts).
 * Lines should be separated based on their execution. Just because consecutive lines are spoken by the same character does not mean they're part of the same line.
 * Descriptions of non-verbal actions (or cinematic context) should not be included. However, trigger- or context-dependent lines should be indicated in parentheses.
 * If multiple lines may be spoken by the same character at random or in a repeating cycle by the same trigger, use a bulleted list with the character's name as a description term (using ).
 * Never capitalize, embolden, or italicize emphasized words within the dialogue. Emphasis is subjective and prone to inconsistencies; however, if consensus determines that something should be emphasized, use italics and never the former two.
 * Enclose words in square brackets that may or may not be spoken depending on the variation of the line.