RH Wiki:Naming
With the multitude of subjects in the Rhythm Heaven Series series, it can sometimes be difficult to find the right way to name an article. Generally, the best source for naming will come from the game itself, but when subjects are not named within the actual game or the subject doesn't appear in video games at all, you may need to turn to secondary sources for an official name.
Naming an article
There are several steps to follow when naming an article:
- Rhythm Heaven Wiki is an English language wiki, so the name of an article should correspond to the most commonly used English name of the subject, which, given our user and visitor demographics, means the North American name. For example, the North American title of "Rhythm Heaven Fever" takes precedence over the PAL region's "Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise" title (although as the PAL name is also an English source, it is acceptable as a redirect).
- If a subject isn't released in North America, but is released in another English-speaking region (i.e. Europe or Australia), the name they provide should be used for the article. If there is a conflict of which source to use, the region where the game was released first will have priority (i.e. the first international English name will be used).
- If there is no official English name, then the first international name from a non-English region is used. For example, the venue the Love Posse feat. MC Adore make their debut does not have an official English or French name. However, the official Japanese and Korean names are romanized as "Live House OGU", the German and Italian names are known as "Club OGU", with the Spanish name being "Sala de conciertos OGU". As the Japanese release came before every other release, the Japanese name "Live House OGU" gets the article title (or in this case, the redirect, as the venue did get localized as Rock 'n' Roll Hall in the previous game). However, if an official English name is found, then it becomes the article's title. Usually, this means the Japanese name is used in the absence of an English one.
- If a subject's name has changed over time, the more commonly used modern name should be used as the title, rather than the historic name. For example, Jumpin' Jazz's original English name was "Frog Hop 2", however, the name "Jumpin' Jazz" is used in the latest release, so that name is used.
- If there is no official name in any language, the subject is mentioned in the closest relevant article. For example, the page Glass Tappers covers the gameplay of the Endless Game in question, but as the characters within it are never named (outside of the not very descriptive internal names), the page doubles as a character page.
- When naming an article, do not use game abbreviations. (e.g. use Reading Material (Rhythm Heaven Fever) as opposed to "Reading Material (RHF)").
Acceptable sources for naming
This is a list of acceptable sources when it comes to naming an article. If a source is not present, keep moving down the list until you have found the right way to name the article, and only create a conjectural title as a last resort.
- Name provided in-game or in the enclosed instruction manual - Ideally, the subject is named in the game itself, but whatever instruction material is enclosed with the game is also considered a primary naming source. If there is inconsistency between the manual and the game itself regarding a name, the game's version takes precedence.
- Name from a Nintendo Player's Guide or a Prima Games guide - A name from a Nintendo Player's Guide (also commonly known as a Nintendo Power guidebook) is an acceptable alternative.
- Name used in officially licensed media – A name from any officially Nintendo-licensed non-video game media source. This includes cartoons, movies, magazines, comics and web content (if any). Like games, North American media names get priority, followed by the first international English name and finally, the first non-English source.
- Development name - Any name used during the development of a video game or other Nintendo-licensed media source. This type of name usually comes from unused data, developer interviews or development documents.
Please note that regardless of the source, the official North American name takes priority, followed by the first international English name if no North American name is available, and finally the first international non-English name if no English name is known. For example, if a subject is given a name in-game in the Japanese version only, and not in the English localization of the game, but an English strategy guide names it, that English name is used, rather than the Japanese.
Please also note that general and lengthy descriptions of a subject that are clearly not intended as the subject's name are not suitable sources for the article's title. For example, while straightforward titles like "Girl" are fine, if the subject is described as "this sad little lady" or "a kangaroo filled with a variety of fruit juices", that should not be the name of the article.
English and non-English sources
English regions on Rhythm Heaven Wiki are defined as regions where the games are officially released in the English language, and commonly includes the American, European, and Australian regions. Non-English sources on Rhythm Heaven Wiki are defined as regions where games are not officially released in the English language (but which are released in one or more other languages). English sources generally have priority over non-English sources, with non-English titles being used when no official English name is available. The region where the game was released first provides the name, meaning Japanese is often used for the title.
Japanese
Rather than using the actual Japanese characters, we use romanizations, such as Mahō Tsukai (for 「まほうつかい」) or Iai Giri (for 「ゐあひ斬り」). However, if a Japanese word is itself a transliteration of an English word, simply use the original English word, for example, Toss Boys (for 「トスボーイズ」). Similarly, names that were transcribed slightly differently from the proper romanization when the games were translated from Japanese to English should use those official transcriptions (i.e. "Rizumu" should be written as "Rhythm"). Therefore, 「リズム天国全曲集」 is given the title Rhythm Tengoku Zen Kyoku-shu, even though the direct romanization is "Rizumu Tengoku Zen Kyoku-shū", to reflect how users instinctively want to refer to the familiar words in the title.
Conjectural names
Any name from a source not covered above is considered unofficial and conjectural. Generally, conjecturally named subjects don't have articles because they are either not noteworthy enough to have an article or don't have much information to cover. However, subjects that are detailed and noteworthy enough to have articles still have to adhere to certain guidelines.
Conjectural names are usually decided upon by the users of Rhythm Heaven Wiki or commonly used names by the Rhythm Heaven community. When deciding on a name, the name must be simple yet accurate. Currently, the only applicable example is Tanuki & Monkey, an unused game in Rhythm Tengoku with no title found in the code, with the name coming from a List of Scrapped Rhythm Games which fits the description of the game.
Name changes
In certain cases, names may be changed because the old name is replaced with a newer name. An example of this is how games like "The Clappy Trio" were changed to The Clappy Trio 2 in Rhythm Heaven Megamix. In these cases, the newer name will replace the older one with certain exceptions. Exceptions include naming errors, translation errors, the use of aliases/nicknames, or if a newer release is simply a rerelease of an older game (such as the Wii U Virtual Console version Rhythm Heaven Fever). When mentioning subjects whose names have changed overtime, the newest name generally takes greater priority, except in the context of older media where they went by previous names, in which case those are used instead. For example, the list of games on Rhythm Tengoku's page lists the game as Pachi Pachi Sanninshu, while the one for Rhythm Heaven Fever lists it as The Clappy Trio, as the game was known in those games.
Capitalization
The words in the title must be capitalized the same way they are from the source, unless it is a proper noun. Proper nouns are capitalized no matter how it is in the source. The wiki software makes it so that the first letter of the title is capitalized regardless. Exceptions to the proper noun rule can be made if there is some special reason why the proper noun is uncapitalized. Also, words that aren't proper nouns in conjectural titles should not be capitalized.
It is possible to come across a subject which shares the same title as another subject, in which case identifiers must be used to show which one of the same-named subjects is covered in each page. If there is one subject that is clearly more popular than the others, the popular subject will keep the original title while the others use identifiers. For example, the game gets the Rhythm Heaven name, whereas the building's article is Rhythm Heaven (location). If the subjects are equally likely to be linked to or searched for, both articles are given identifiers while the plain subject title is made into a disambiguation page (marked with {{disambig}}). For example, Samurai Slice is a disambiguation page linking to all the other uses of the title (or similar enough titles), such as Samurai Slice (DS) and Samurai Slice (Wii). If there are five or more pages sharing the same name, a disambiguation page must be used. When disambiguation pages are used, the articles should only link to them in {{about}} when necessary, but if a disambiguation page is not used, the articles can merely link to the other same-named page.
Determining the identifier
If an identifier is needed, the text in parentheses is determined by:
- What type of thing it is (e.g. game, character, location). For example, Cheer Readers (characters) is correct.
- The identifier "character" is used when differentiating a character from non-character(s) which share the same name (e.g. The Clappy Trio (characters)).
- If the same type of thing shares the same name across multiple games, use each game title as the identifiers. For example, Reading Material (Rhythm Heaven) and Reading Material (Rhythm Heaven Fever) are both features from different games.
- If two different games share the same title but appear on different consoles and the identifier needs to distinguish between them, the game name and console are used in this format: [{game name} ({console})]. For example, Built to Scale (DS).