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Dominator
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Post subject: How to create a good guide. Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 3:41 pm |
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Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:34 pm Posts: 9 Gender: male
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Introduction: The reason I'm making this is because BattleDawn is a great game with great gameplay but unfortunately the gameplay can be confusing and new players need guides. I noticed some of the current guides are decent with most information included but not written as well thus taking more time to read the entire guide to find something. Hopefully this guide can help new guide writers to make easier to read guides.
Contents:
•Beginning
-Before you Start -Starting a Guide
•Parts of a Guide
-Writing -Pictures -Links
•Developing
-Organization -Explanations
•Ending
-Conclusion
•Others -Credits -Extra Notes
Beginning:
•Before you Start When you are planning to write a guide, make sure the guide you are writing is needed or other guides of the subject are outdated. You would also need to have an in-depth knowledge and/or experience of the subject you are planning to write. An inaccurate guide is simply a waste of time for both the writer and reader.
•Starting a Guide To begin your guide, you should write an introduction of your guide and the things you will be explaining in your guide to catch the readers' attention.
Parts of a Guide: •Writing In any well written guides, you should ALWAYS use proper grammar and spelling (avoid slangs). Keep in mind that a guide should be like a newspaper (in my opinion). You should to keep everything in order from the beginning to the end with the most important facts to the top of each section and less important details to the bottom of each section.
•Visual Aids Anything other than text are probably the most eye catching parts of guides since explaining can be hard without visual aids. Pictures/Maps should be used to explain. You can either upload attachments or use another image host and link your images. Personally, I dislike guides using image hosts that only provide a thumbnail version of the original image and you would have to open a new window/tab to view it.
•Links
In your guide, you should provide viewers with further reference to the subject.
Developing:
•Organization
Organizing is key to a good guide so use a table of contents! Use color coded sections if you need to but you should NEVER use hard to read colors such as yellow or pink. Dividing into chapters like a book is also useful (section 1.1-1.9 2.1-2.9 etc). Anther technique is to give each section a special code ([A001]-[F009] etc) if your guide is long so people can just press Ctrl+F and find the section they need.
•Explanations
This is the hardest element of a good guide. You need to throughly explain the subject to avoid questions. You need to be as accurate and detailed as possible. If you left something out and somebody asked about it, you should get it fixed/added immediately. You can also try getting one of your friends to read your guide and see if they can understand it without playing the game.
•Examples Give examples of the subject your are writing about encourages readers to actually try your guide instead of just read it and forgetting it 5 minutes later. Videos and pictures or yourself or others are very encouraging.
Ending:
•Conclusion To end your guide, you should write an overall conclusion and maybe an overview of everything (simplified version).
Forum Codes:
You should use the forum codes.At least these ones: Bold Text Italic Text Underline Text Quote Text List Insert Image Insert URL
•Credits
<Reserved>
•Extra Notes
-This is basically a guideline or tips of how to write a good guide. -Please don't be offended if I listed your guide in the bad guides section. -Keep your guides updated! -Use Excle or other organizing programs if you plan to make a big table of data and take a screenshot or two. -Use the preview button to check for errors before posting. Type it all out on note pad if you have to but don't post up a guide until it's complete. -Save a backup copy just incase
**Should this guide be sticky? Thank you=D**
_________________ "Mess with the best die like the rest..." TIP: Build first your resources structures like Farm,Metal Mine and Oil.It will help you very much =P
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ARF
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Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide. Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:50 pm |
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Joined: Sun May 31, 2009 8:47 pm Posts: 362 Gender: male
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good guide.
guide to writing a guide.
_________________ ヽ(◉◡◔)ノ I'M TRAJIC AND I HAVE DOWN SYNDROME ヽ(◉◡◔)ノ
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pablof858
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Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide. Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:05 pm |
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Specialist |
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Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2009 12:21 pm Posts: 27
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Actually yellow rocks with a black background.
Colors should be used like levels of informations, the same as Font size.
Something like green, large font for titles; red normal for subtitle.
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Alexander
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Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide. Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 9:29 am |
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Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 6:41 am Posts: 4629 Location: The Netherlands Gender: male
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Good guide, I do suggest replacing the yellow and pink for darkgreen and darkblue/black .
I would sticky it, but for some reason my mod powers are failing at these forums
_________________ Best Regards,
Alexander Product Manager Battle Dawn
Skype: dreamerofdestruction
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Shion
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Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide. Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 1:08 pm |
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Joined: Sun May 31, 2009 9:29 pm Posts: 1016 Location: Your Nightmares
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Junior mods can't do a lot of things Jasper
I'm going to sticky this, I beleive this is truly important and can help others when they beleive they can write a good guide.
-Shion
_________________ --------------Retired January 2012--------------------
Personal Rankings [Old Client] E6A2 #2 M2A1 #9 E3A1 #16 E6A4 #24 E5A3 #24
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mchl481
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Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide. Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 10:30 am |
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Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:02 pm Posts: 313 Location: Look behind............ BOO! Gender: male
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I agree - certainly helped me create my guide: ByE4 Guide
_________________ - RAT - BUL5 - NAUF - KOG- IOS - SAH - XrG - ByE4 - NeOn - REVB -------------
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mat2207
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Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide. Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:04 am |
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Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 12:32 pm Posts: 12
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good guide of how to create goods guides
_________________ Sorry
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Numair Mujeeb
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Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide. Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:34 am |
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Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 9:22 am Posts: 3857 Location: Spam Section Gender: male
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Nice guide. How long did it take you to write it?
_________________
Quote: After months of not speakingNumair: You still alive? This was my only way to actually see if your online Zhester: *You're
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mchl481
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Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide. Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:42 am |
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Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:02 pm Posts: 313 Location: Look behind............ BOO! Gender: male
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His guide on how to make a good guide probably 15 mins.
My guide using his instructions took me an Hour.
_________________ - RAT - BUL5 - NAUF - KOG- IOS - SAH - XrG - ByE4 - NeOn - REVB -------------
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Reven
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Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide. Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 7:56 pm |
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Joined: Fri Jun 19, 2009 8:18 pm Posts: 189 Location: Area 51 Gender: male
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