Talk:Herdling

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Herdling (video game)/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Sddarealone (talk · contribs) 11:28, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: Tarlby (talk · contribs) 22:13, 7 July 2026 (UTC)

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose, spelling, grammar, and understandability): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable, as shown by a source spot-check.

   a (reference section): b (inline citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism):

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free content have non-free use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

toby

I loved playing the Far games. Expect me to begin soon! toby ^(t)(rw) 22:13, 7 July 2026 (UTC)

@Tarlby: Thanks for starting the review of my WP:GAN. I expect this to go well as I see one of your improved games article being promoted to FA-class. That is truly a good sign for an experienced reviewer. That being said, I will improve the article within 1 week so in return I would like you to be active too. I don't want to slow down GAN editing unless there are big issues to fix. Now let's do this.

P.S. I got a GAN reviewed and another GAN promoted to GA while you started the review for Herdling, all in one day. The sheer luck and coinicidence :) Sddarealone (talk) 06:18, 8 July 2026 (UTC)

@Sddarealone Alright, everything looks to be done. Good job. sina pali e lipu pona a! toby ^(t)(rw) 21:42, 14 July 2026 (UTC)

Image captions

• The infobox caption should be removed per MOS:VGCOVERART, as it is sufficiently clear what is shown without the caption.  Done
• Via, holding a staff, takes the herd of calicorns in a journey to the snow-laden mountains up ahead. -> Via, holding a staff, takes the calicorns to the snow-laden mountains. Calling it a "staff" also mismatches with the body.  Done

Lead

• Lede sentence should clarify it is a "video game", not just a "game".  Done
• The path features forests, plateaus and valleys... No oxford comma was used here despite the earliër sentence having one. These should be consistent throughout the article.  Done
• environment hazards -> environmental hazards  Done
• You can link stealth.  Done
• provide -> provides  Done
• 3D game currently leads to a disambiguätion page, and I would prefer it be spelt out as three-dimensional game.  Done
• Publisher Panic had...  Done
• It received generally positive reviews, with praise for its visuals, music and emotional connection with the calicorns, though some faulted the lack of storyline, short playtime, and the Switch version's controls. More oxford comma inconsistency.  Done
• Must the player heal found calicorns? The section currently says "can". Reply - Per the reviews, it's not a defined objective to continue in the game so the player can wander off the city without rescuing all the calicorns in there.

Gameplay

Gameplay is supposed to go before Plot, so I will read this section first and decide whether it's best to conform.

• First sentence should say "video game".  Done
• Third person perspective leads to a disambiguätion page. A better link would be to third-person (video games).  Done
• I would link stealth.  Done
• Nitpick, but perhaps the predator names can be put in quote marks.  Done
• You can link progress is saved.  Done
• ...which are typically found near shrines and also serve as spots to bond with the herd. Does this relate to the gameplay?  Done; yes :) I added "in the game" phrase to make it further clear just in case.
  • Sorry I should've been clearer with what I wanted; you can remove "in the game". What I meant was that the effect of "bonding with the herd" isn't touched upon. Is it possible to explain how this directly affects gameplay? It's ok if you cannot. -t  Done; I clarified on the "bonding with the herd" in the gameplay section with the methods that player can use to bond with the herd during gameplay.

Plot

• Gameplay reads fine without Plot, so I would reccomend moving this section after Gameplay.  Done

Development and release

• Mentions of other videö games should be followed by their release year: "Far: Lone Sails" -> "Far: Lone Sails (2018)"  Done
• Would prefer spelling out "intellectual property".  Done
• 3D game leads to a disambiguätion page.  Done; changed it to three-dimensional game.
• Link Panic.  Done
• ...stated his team's inspiration as being "inspired by... -> ...stated his team was "inspired by...  Done
• You can link indie.  Done
• A trailer was released on Steam... -> A trailer was released on the digital distribution service Steam...  Done

Reception

• You can try to tone down the "[person] of [publication] said..." or "[publication]'s [person] did..." wording. Reply - Can you check if this User:Sddarealone/sandbox/Herdling and Terramax § Critical reception sandbox section where I created the draft for the reception (and now heavily edited with a few reviews just removed) has a better tone and style that addresses the WP:MOS concerns? If not, I'll try to change the critical reception in the current revision.
  • I like the variëty of the wording more on the draft (like having a context clause before Polygon). I should clarify that this is more of an FAC standard, so you should not stress on this too much.
• Some criticisms state opinions as fact.
• Otherwise, this section looks fine.

Sourcing

The citations chosen were based on this revision.

• 1 I missed where the reviewer calls it a stick.  Done; Added the video games are good source which supports the given sentence.
• 2 This website looks charming! Reply - Indeed :)
• 3
• 4 I missed where this or 5 describe how the calicorns can help break open gates.  Done; Replaced given sources with the shacknews source for the claim.
• 5 See above.  Done
• 7
• 8 Says that Oko and Panic partnered in December, not August.  Done
• 10
• 18
• 22 Forgot FT needs a subscription for some articles, so I will assume good competence. Reply - Yes, it was a AGF edit. In lieu of character development for the red-coated protagonist come the personalities you impose on the calicorns — by naming them, bestowing trinkets on them and saving them from harm. Otherwise, the interface is minimal, the controls barely demanding more than two buttons.
• 27
• 28
• 30
  • The quote should have Herdling's in brackets.  Done; I'm a bit unsure about this.
  • I do not see where the soundtrack was nominated for multiple awards.  Done; I reused the sources from Herdling (video game) § Accolades section for all the award nominations.

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Requested move 19 July 2026

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. With the second page being moved to Herdling (surname). While the concerns pointed out in opposition to the move are not unfounded, the other participants in the discussion consider the page views together with the fact that the other pages are partial title matches for surnames as being enough to overcome those concerns. (closed by non-admin page mover) –Maltazarian ^{ᚾparley$\lor$investigateᛅ} 10:57, 3 August 2026 (UTC)

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• Herdling (video game) → Herdling
• Herdling → Herdling (disambiguation)

– Denied G6 CSD request by User:Significa liberdade. Per Wikipedia:Article titles the video game is the only subject which satisfies the naturalness criteria, and does not require any further title disambiguation. The article traffic to the other Herdling entries are trivial , and are suitably covered with a hatnote to the disambiguation page should readers forget the name of the person they're looking for. - hahnchen 12:13, 19 July 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. 1isall (talk | contribs) 22:48, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

• Move 2 to Herdling (surname). 162 etc. (talk) 16:39, 19 July 2026 (UTC)
• Support Herdling (surname) the other 2 entries are PTMs anyway. Crouch, Swale (talk) 17:46, 19 July 2026 (UTC)
• Support while moving the 2nd to Herdling (surname), it's clearly not the primary topic though. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 17:54, 19 July 2026 (UTC)
• Neutral as the article's creator, I tried to add the video game as a disambiguation link in surname page but found the dab syntax to be inconvenient so didn't take it from there. Sddarealone (talk) 18:56, 19 July 2026 (UTC)
• Wait a second, you only linked the last 60 days of statistics. If we look at the all-time graph there, the picture looks substantially different - there's been substantial reader interest in the biographies. I don't think we should move anything based on such obvious WP:Recentism. The video game article was only written this month. It's hard to fathom how its long-term significance would automatically eclipse that of the people named that way. And the whole idea that surnames are somehow not a natural way to refer to people is just weird and wrong. (Oppose) --Joy (talk) 14:40, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
  • Your stats show the vast majority of readers did not navigate through the page Herdling to reach the biographies. The video game best satisfies the naturalness and conciseness criteria per Wikipedia:Article titles. There is only one topic which is unambiguously Herdling, without any further disambiguation, the tiny fraction that require a biography are best served through a hatnote. - hahnchen 22:54, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

    Yes, because all of our statistics show that the majority of readers do not navigate through our navigation elements - they show that the external search engines are mostly used to navigate to articles. This is sadly largely orthogonal to the matter of how our navigation should look like.

    With regard to article title criteria, the key issue here is precision - is the title for the video game precise enough without a modifier, even if it's apparently ambiguous with a surname and several other topics that predate it and seem to have long-term significance of their own? I don't think we've seen a great argument for that.

    More fundamentally, I don't think there's evidence that in the group of average English readers looking up "Herdling" or "herdling" there would be a massive majority that would be less surprised to see a recent entertainment topic than to see a list. Rather, I think it's more likely that a fair few of the readers would be more surprised.

    And that's average readers - not video game fans, not comics fans, not football fans. --Joy (talk) 08:47, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

    @Joy is right about the statistics part here as readers will be guided towards recent results in google search engine which is a combination of SEO and click-through rate but that shouldn't let us be deceived by the statistics. A 2025 video game with a new page created in 2026 is more likely to be viewed this year than an article (even if that's BLP) created in 2010s unless something notable happened.

    I find it rather strange that a dab link discussion has been made for an article with such a well understood title. The BLPs are significant enough on their own and the same applies for Herdling (video game). I did an incognito google search for Kai Herdling and the subject, and both show up well in search results. The best option would be to keep the titles unchanged and the dab page with all the articles that have the word Herdling. Sddarealone (talk) 10:27, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

    I'd say people in general don't particularly like having to use disambiguation markers, as they seem artificial. But you're right, this one is fairly mundane. --Joy (talk) 11:45, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

    It is artificial, and the people looking for the game will naturally not use it. Such as when you googled the game, you googled "Herdling", but to find the football player - you needed his full name. Google caters to the "average reader" and so should Wikipedia. - hahnchen 20:45, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

    This is immaterial because Google Search caters to the reader by using information about them that they have, so they will be able to guess what each person is searching for and tailor the results with far more accuracy anyway. Likewise, they cater to whichever topics may bring them more engagement, which will lean heavily in favor of recent popular commercial topics.

    The idea that readers are prone to doing single-word searches and that they expect them to be unambiguous is a function of how well the search engine functions, not of any sort of a natural tendency for the reality to be unambiguous. The encyclopedia is supposed to describe reality, not prescribe it.

    I went to check Google Trends for Herdling terms and the game isn't even in there as a recognized topic, so we can't see more information about that. This does tell us about our obvious recentism bias, though. --Joy (talk) 06:34, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

    These are not tailored searches when logged in, you can try a competing search service, which has no individual information about you, and is merely serving the "average reader". Do you want likewise want Wikipedia to serve the "average reader" right now, or do we need to continue confounding their expectations, lest we be accused of recentism? - hahnchen 01:03, 27 July 2026 (UTC)

    What is the definition of an "average reader" here? A reader looking for a retired football player can also just search Herdling football if they can't find them by one-word search and that can still get them the required search results. Not one mention of the video game in there other than the "eat everything regurgitate nothing" named AI overview of course. Sddarealone (talk) 06:34, 27 July 2026 (UTC)

    The key point about any search engine is that they're serving the average reader of the search engine. Whereas, this is still not a search engine, but an encyclopedia. Does the average reader of Wikipedia distinguish between those two contexts? I don't really know, but I think it's fair to assume they do.

    Wikipedia does include a search engine, and it's probably fair to expect the readers to have the same expectations of that as they have of an external search engine. When they type "herdling" in the search box, it should bring up a link to the video game - and it does.

    But the encyclopedia also has its own function, being a summary of knowledge, and that implies that it as a whole doesn't work based solely on search-engine-related concerns. Hence WP:PT2 etc. --Joy (talk) 08:33, 27 July 2026 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Mountains of the Alps and WikiProject Video games have been notified of this discussion. 1isall (talk | contribs) 22:49, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

• Support 1st, Move 2nd to Herdling (surname). -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:40, 27 July 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.