Talk:Pixel Piracy

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Pixel Piracy/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Vacant0 (talk · contribs) 22:34, 15 August 2024 (UTC)

Reviewer: A412 (talk · contribs) 02:15, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

I'll take a look at this one. ~ A412 ^talk! 02:15, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

• Non-prose done. ~ A412 ^talk! 03:46, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
  • Prose done. ~ A412 ^talk! 05:45, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
    • On hold. @Vacant0: let me know when this is good for another pass. ~ A412 ^talk! 05:47, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

References

As of this revision.

Spotcheck

• [1] - Fine.
• [6] - "The game's goal can be completed in approximately 20 hours" - referencing a specific publication's playtime on a sandbox game feels like an odd detail to include, and I don't know if their playtime can be generalized without attribution in this way.
  •  Done
• [11], [16], [21], [26] - Fine.
• [31] - I'm not seeing where the source supports "Kirpu remained the sole developer of the game".
  •  Done
• [36], [41] - Fine.

RS

What are the following, and are they reliable?

• [13] - Enemy Slime
  • Removed
• [14] - everyeye.it
  • It is an Italian authoritative source, so it is reliable.
• [16] - PPE
  • It is reliable. They have a detailed authors list and a statute detailing their work.
• [18] - Gamer.mag
  • Defunct Polish publication from what I remember.
• [23] - Gameblast
  • Popular Portuguese gaming website. They also have a detailed authors list.
• [44] - Mondo Xbox
  • Removed.

CV

Earwig is clean besides quotes.

OR

Fine.

Broadness / focus

• Fine.

NPOV

• Fine.

Stable

• Fine.

Images

• Infobox: Fine.
• Gameplay: Fine.

Prose

Lead

• First paragraph
  • In the indie game - Awkward. I'd merge the descriptor "indie" into the description of the developer, or omit it from the lead.
  • The game features several difficulty modes. - Is this the most important detail of the gameplay to mention in the lead?
• Second paragraph
  • General comment: The 2016 console release is mentioned before the 2015 update. Also, there's just a lot of dates presented in rapid succession; it's hard to follow.
  • one downloadable content - I don't think downloadable content is countable. (Per the downloadable content article: Downloadable content (like content in this sense) is generally treated as a mass noun).
  • with the praise going to -> praise
  • specially due to the addition of sea shanties in the game -> either specifically or especially.
  • Its repetitive gameplay, mechanics, primarily the controls and combat system, and user interface were, however, criticised - It's really hard to parse what's a clause and what's part of a list due to there being five commas. Can we reword this?

Gameplay

• First paragraph
  • Fourth generation of video game consoles is a bit of an WP:EASTEREGG for 16-bit via the 16-bit era pipe.
  • beat four notorious pirate captains -> defeat for a less jargon-y word?
  • explore the game as they wish -> I'd suggest the game's world.
• Second paragraph
  • After customizing the player -> unless they're literally customizing themselves as a person, I'd say the player character or rephrase this and the next sentence so we can say the pirate captain.
  • where players can build their own ship using a set of blocks and hire a crew with coins obtained at spawn - Bit jargony. Maybe reword to where players are given a set of blocks to build their own ship and coins to hire a crew.
  • The game has a day-night cycle - This feels like it should be part of the next paragraph.
• Third paragraph
  • General comment: This paragraph could use a sentence to tie its ideas together. Something like Gameplay consists of sailing the ship between islands, fighting foes, and interacting with the inhabitants of islands.
  • The computer controls the actual sailing - What does this mean? Does the in-universe ship have a computer? Is this just trying to say the player doesn't have to mechanically sail the ship?
  • To embark, the player can select a destination on the world map and if its route crosses an occupied map node - Without an explanation or a picture of how the world map works or what's on it, I can't visualize what this means.
  • the islands could also contain -> can also for tense
  • with a mix of the game's four stores - What does this mean?
• Fourth paragraph
  • General comment: This paragraph feels like it's listing a lot of gameplay concepts that aren't particularly related to each other. I don't have a concrete suggestion on how to improve that though.
  • Crew stats, including health, morale, and supply level and the crew new abilities, such as swimming, cleaning, cooking, and fishing - Are these the same stats and abilities discussed in the previous paragraph as acquired stats and the crew's size and abilities? Should the stats and abilities be described the first time they're mentioned?
• Fifth paragraph
  • Pixel Piracy previously offered an "arena mode" - The source doesn't support that the mode was previously offered.

Development and release

• First paragraph
  • No comments.
• Second paragraph
  • began in mid 2013 - I think this is usually hyphenated mid-2013
  • The game was launched in early access on Steam - I don't care that much, but technically this is the second time Steam is linked in this paragraph as Steam Greenlight is just a sectionlink.
  • free pirated torrent - I'd link just the word torrent to BitTorrent. And is it pirated if it's released by the developers? I think it's just a free torrent.
• Third paragraph
  • The developers issued a formal apology, acknowledging their failures and assuring players that much work had been and would continue to be done to meet all development promises and fix all the game's issues - This is very jarring. This is the first time the reader finds out that the game was perceived to have failures or unmet promises. Can we include some detail on that before this? Actually, moving the next sentence Poysky said that the team "felt it wasn't up to snuff with our standards" when the game was first launched up to the previous paragraph or at least before this sentence would help a lot.
  • The Enhanced Edition - Either consistently quote or don't quote it.
  • The game was later released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 16, 2016. Abstraction Games developed and 505 Games published the games for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One - Pretty redundant, can be combined to Abstraction Games developed and 505 Games published the games for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, where it was later released on February 16, 2016.
• Fourth paragraph
  • Optional suggestion: I wonder if this section might flow better if the content about the online version and sequel were moved to a separate Legacy section.
  • Pixel Piracy continued to receive incremental updates until February 2016 - This has the same confusing chronology problem as the lead. The date mentioned immediately before this is May 2023.
• Fifth paragraph
  • No comments except above optional suggestion.

Reception

• First paragraph
  • the final result is so modest and unconvincing that it leaves one speechlees - is this a [sic] error or should this say speechless?
  • praised the overall game for its innovative and enjoyable elements - this has a MOS:SAID issue, where we're saying in wikivoice that it's innovative and enjoyable.
• Second paragraph
  • described the game as uncomplete - Is this a quote? Otherwise incomplete or uncompleted as uncomplete is archaic [1].
  • the game lacked tutorials that explained the game's mechanisms. -> its mechanisms?
  • upon their addition, the tutorial does not -> its unless you mean to say that the existing tutorial did not introduce newly added mechanics. (I assume what this sentence is saying is that the newly added tutorial did not explain the existing mechanics).
  • Scott Craft of Player.One said that "the game fails to offer players any real incentive to keep playing after their first couple of sessions". He noted that the gameplay was initially entertaining but that the game quickly becomes dull - Does the quote say anything the second sentence doesn't?
• Third paragraph
  • General comment: This paragraph is strange. It leads off with The game was praised for its graphics and textures, but a lot of its actual content describes criticism of the graphics.
  • makes it unfriendly for console versions of the game - Should we be saying this in wikivoice?
• Fourth paragraph
  • Lawton, however, claimed that the overall soundtrack is repetitious and annoying - If you move this after the praise of the soundtrack, the sentence can be written with fewer prepositional phrases.

Good Article review progress box

Criteria: 1a. prose () 1b. MoS () 2a. ref layout () 2b. cites WP:RS () 2c. no WP:OR () 2d. no WP:CV () 3a. broadness () 3b. focus () 4. neutral () 5. stable () 6a. free or tagged images () 6b. pics relevant () Note: this represents where the article stands relative to the Good Article criteria. Criteria marked are unassessed