Writing tense
Keep all articles in the past tense, new or old games. As details develop or things are retconned, we can add more detail later. Present tense and past perfect make reading things more confusing as live developments are going to be very common.
Third Person Omniscient is the main perspective to keep. Objectivity is key, despite what terminals may read about a character's view on things, keep those views to the character's article or to the Quotes section.
Sourcing
Sources should be used as often as possible. Outside of plot synopsis, everything from AI roles to character origins should have a source. As Marathon tells its story in terminal format with wildly different interpretations, things need to be backed up with terminal entries. Also, make sure you understand the context of the terminal before sourcing.
Theorycrafting
Theorycrafting should be kept to a minimum. I know we all like Marathon, but the series' main appeal is piecing things together yourself and reaching your own conclusions. More ambiguous entries such as KYT, Gherrit White and the Infinity timelines should remain objective as to what transpires directly from the text. The connections between them and how they fold into the larger narrative should be left as open as possible.
References
Marathon Trilogy terminals
In general, Marathon Trilogy terminals should be referenced in this style: game, level, Terminal number. A template is provided below
<ref>[https://marathon.bungie.org/story/ ''game'', '''level''', Terminal number]</ref>
In some cases, one terminal will display different messages during the events of the level. In that case, use Terminal number: message name.
| Article | Editor |
|---|---|
| Marathon (1994), Arrival, Terminal 1 | <ref>[https://marathon.bungie.org/story/arrival.html#M1.00.1.1 ''Marathon'' (1994), '''Arrival''', Terminal 1]</ref>
|
| Marathon (1994), Never Burn Money, Terminal 5: 'Unfinished' message | <ref>[https://marathon.bungie.org/story/arrival.html#M1.02.5.1 ''Marathon'' (1994), '''Never Burn Money''', Terminal 5: 'Unfinished' message]</ref>
|
Repeated references
Sometimes, a specific terminal will be referenced multiple times throughout an article. To save time and space, <ref name = "refname"> can be used instead of <ref> so references can be easily reused.
A suitable ref name would be the subject of the terminal referenced, or an abbreviation of the level's name and the terminal number. For the first terminal in Marathon (1994), a ref name might be <ref name = "arrivalterm1">.
The first reference would be written:
<ref name = "terminal">[https://marathon.bungie.org/story/ ''game'', '''level''', Terminal number]</ref>
Afterwards, the reference would be written:
<ref name = "terminal"/>
Naming Marathon titles in references
Because there are two games titled Marathon, terminals from Marathon (1994) should be referenced with its release year, like below:
<ref>[https://marathon.bungie.org/story/ ''Marathon'' (1994), '''level''', Terminal number]</ref>
Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity should always be written and italicized like so.
The new Marathon game should be referenced as Marathon (202X), until the release year is made known.
Level titles with punctuation
If the level that is being referenced ends with a punctuation mark, do not add a comma after it. For example:
<ref>[https://marathon.bungie.org/story/durandal.html#M1.12.1.1 ''Marathon'' (1994), '''Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!''' Terminal 1]</ref>
This would produce a reference that looks like this:
Marathon (1994), Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Terminal 1
Reference note guidelines
Using <ref> will create a reference note at that location in the text, so it is important that the reference follows punctuation and is put in the right location. A <ref> should always go after punctuation – not before punctuation – and multiple <ref>s for one sentence should have no space between them.