So, you want to write a FAQ...
Well, that's okay. It's a perfectly natural feeling, and you shouldn't be ashamed of it.
Maybe you're considered an expert at a particular game and you feel it's your moral
obligation to share your knowledge with the world. Maybe you're tired of seeing hundreds
of USENET messages begging for help on a game you've already beaten. Maybe you're
struggling through a game and find the best way of beating it is to write down everything
you've done. Or, maybe you're just bored. Regardless, you want to share your work with
the world, and GameFAQs is the perfect outlet for you.
The "Official" GameFAQs submission guidelines
When you submit a FAQ to GameFAQs, it will very probably be posted as long as it meets
the following guidelines:
Format: A single format is preferred for submission to GameFAQs:
ASCII Text: 79 characters per line or less.
Other acceptable formats (which will be converted to ASCII text):
Microsoft Word: Standard letter format (8 1/2X11, 1 inch margins), 10 Point Courier New Font or any other fixed width font.
Microsoft Write/Wordpad: Same as for Word
Rich Text Format (RTF): 79 characters or less per line, Fixed-width font
If other formats are submitted, it may not be possible to convert them into a universally
readable format, and they will not be posted.
Style/Grammar: The file must be readable without too much effort.
Originality: The file MUST BE ORIGINAL WORK. Rip-offs of others
work are not tolerated in any way. If you use someone else's work as a basis for
yours, or if you are taking someone else's work and re-writing it or expanding it,
proper credit must be given. Period. Plagarism is the deadliest sin
at GameFAQs, and is grounds for having all of your work removed from the site
and having your e-mail permenantly filtered.
Language/Tastefulness: Files with excessive foul language or otherwise
tasteless remarks will not be posted.
Quality: Shoddy work stands a much smaller chance of seeing the light of day.
Content: See the title of the site? It's GameFAQs. Quizzes, FWAKs, Fiction,
and anything else that doesn't provide solid gaming information will not be posted.
And that's about it. Simple, isn't it?
What makes a good FAQ?, or "THINGS YOU SHOULD DO"
So, how can you write a FAQ that is worthy of acclaim by your fellow gamers? Follow these
simple guidelines, and you're well on your way to fame and, well, isn't fame enough?
Learn from the Masters - There are several people out there that are well
known in the gaming community for their outstanding work. Read some of their
FAQs and you'll learn a thing or two. Feel free to imitate their style, but NEVER
rip off their work.
Kao Megura - The most prolific
writer known to GameFAQs. Not just an incredible amount of accurate information,
but Kao's FAQs are easy to read, well formatted, and literate.
John Culbert a.k.a. tigeraid -
King of the Character Guides. Comprehensive (to say the least) and well
written guides all the way around.
Joshua Harring -
Nintendo Master. Great NES guides, plus some other good FAQs...
Fritz Fraundorf a.k.a. ErgGibbon -
Great walkthroughs, extremely comprehensive
Of course, thats only a very short list, and there are tons of other great
authors to emulate. Practically any author listed in the
Contributor Recognition page is worth taking
a look at.
Be Detailed - Go in-depth. Explore. Figure out every little facet of the
game. Why? Because if you miss something, people will ask about it. The more
detailed information you include, the better.
Use a Word Processor - If you can't spell, let the computer do it for
you. Spell and grammar-checks not only make you look more intelligent, they
make FAQs much easier to read. Of course, there are pitfalls to using one;
automated formatting can completely mess up your file and make it unreadable to
other users.
Give Credit Where It's Due - If you get some of your information from
someone else, no matter how much or how little, credit them in your FAQ. If
you're re-writing an existing FAQ that needed updating, make the credit very
obvious and put it at the top of the file.
Date, Version, Name and E-Mail - It's amazing how many people don't
think about this. By providing a Date and Version, you're letting people know
when the FAQ was created, when it was last revised, and if it needs updating.
Putting your name (or an alias) and your e-mail address lets people know who
wrote the FAQ and gives them a way to contact you. Putting all of this information
at the top of the FAQ makes it very easy for me to catalog it. :)
PROTECT YOUR WORK! - Once you've written a FAQ, it is automatically protected
by international Copyright law. However, in the past, that alone hasn't proved
much of a deterrent to some people who are more than happy to take your FAQ and
sell it, publish it in a magazine, or put it on a CD for sale. This has happened
to many different authors (including myself). Make sure you place an explicit
Copyright notice in your FAQ ( "This document Copyright 1998 John Doe" is fine),
and provide explicit guidelines for its reproduction and distribution.
What makes a bad FAQ?, or "THINGS TO AVOID"
There are several things you should avoid doing when writing your FAQ, and not all of
them are obvious. Read the list below, and avoid some of the most common pitfalls.
Don't use the TAB key! - In DOS Edit or Notepad, a Tab is 8 characters. In
a word processor, it can be anywhere from 1 to 100 characters. In your web browser, well,
who knows! If you need to create a table or map in your FAQ, use the Space Bar
to line up columns. It takes longer, but ensures that your table will be legible!
Don't use special formatting - Underlines, boldface, and italics don't show
up in ASCII text. A bunch of dashes works just fine for underlines or section
breaks, CAPITAL LETTERS make text stand out, and an _underscore_ on either side
of a word works fine for italics.
Don't use foul language - I personally don't care if you throw in a few
expletives throughout your FAQ, but there are a LOT of young children, not to
mention parents of young children, browsing GameFAQs every day. The former
don't need to see these kinds of words, and I don't need nasty letters from the
latter. As the site maintainer, I'll let a few words slip by now and then,
but don't push it.
Don't use bad ASCII art - ASCII art is a tradition in many FAQs, and some art
shows an incredible amount of time and skill. So, how do you know if your ASCII
art is bad? Well, if your "A" looks like this:
A
A A
AAAAA
A A
A A
then it's bad ASCII art. Any time you spell out the name of the game in block
letters consisting entirely of the same character, you're on the wrong path. If your
ASCII art is larger than the rest of the FAQ put together, you're concentrating on the
wrong thing.
Don't use your FAQ as a political or religious platform - Nobody cares if you're
Republican or Democrat, Pro-Choice or Pro-Life, Christian or
Satanist, whatever. Your personal views may be presented on your personal web
site, but not in your FAQ. The only thing you will succeed in doing is
annoying people who don't agree with your point of view.
Don't act like a four-year-old - No name-calling, no bragging, no whining,
no one-upping, no flaming. You are not impressing anyone.
And, most importantly, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER RIP OFF SOMEONE ELSE'S WORK. Ever.
Not even a little bit. Don't do it.