Miitopia Central:Citations

This policy covers the guidelines of citing sources and references in articles.

About sourcing

On Miitopia Central, most information displayed are taken directly from the Miitopia games, whether they are directly shown to the players or they require examining the games' code. Miitopia information are also taken from official publications, from social media posts by Nintendo to official press websites reporting on the game. To ensure that all these information are official and not speculations by fans, we have to cite the sources.

While creating or editing an article, you may come across the following situations. This lists the recommendations for a given situation:

• If the information is a basic one taken directly from the games (game mechanics, the game's plot, jobs, items, enemies, etc.), then you will not need to provide reference.
• If the information requires examining and interpreting game code, most of the time you will not need to provide reference. However, if you are unsure, you may cross-check with the public datamine or the game files by yourself if you know how. It is recommended that certain terms only known from the game's code to be stated to be "internally named" or similar.
• If the information is more obscure and its validity may be questioned, then citing the specific text from the game, manual, or some other official guide book will help maintain credibility.
• If the information is controversial or is a complex topic, then it is recommended to cite direct quotations.
• If the information only came from fan speculation, then it is recommended to avoid displaying this information. This is especially important for any article's Trivia section which is prone to this kind of information.
• If a source cites another source, then keep searching through until the original source is found.
• Beware of rumors and misleading information. Even a professional outlet is not mistake-free.
• For translations from non-English sources, it is recommended to have them translated by Miitopia Central contributors fluent in the language, or even better, contributors that have said language as their native language.
  • It is forgiven to use third parties including translation tools, but exercise caution and do not insist that your translation is the more accurate if you are not knowledgeable in the language.

What to put as references

To cite a written source, as in one that can not be linked to, like source from a guide book unavailable digitally, you only need to state it exactly.

To cite external websites, please at least include the following when available:

• Author
• Publish date, written in parentheses
• External link to the source with the article title or web page title as the link name
• Publisher name, written in italics
• Date in which the reference was retrieved

Here is an example of citing an external website:

Ike. (November 30, 2016). Miiを1人も作らずに遊べる！？『Miitopia』の「みんなのMii」機能をご紹介。紹介映像も本日公開！. Nintendo. Retrieved on July 30, 2023.

To cite a YouTube video, then the format is the following when applicable:

• Channel name
• Upload date, written in parentheses
• External link to the video with the video title as the link name

Here is an example of citing a YouTube video:

Nintendo 公式チャンネル. (November 30, 2016). Miitopia(ミートピア) 紹介映像. YouTube. Retrieved on November 3, 2022.

Here is an example where some information was unavailable:

Miitopia for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site - Help wanted. Nintendo. Retrieved on October 31, 2022.

When an archived version of the source is cited, a note should be included that it was archived on which date. For example:

Miitopia for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems - Your Quest (archived on July 29, 2017). Nintendo. Retrieved on November 3, 2022.

How to add references

Similar to Wikipedia, the tags to use are <ref></ref> and <references/>.

Here is an example of putting the <ref></ref> tags in an article whose information does not come from the Miitopia game itself. In this example, the information came from the digital manual included with the Nintendo 3DS copy of the game.

However, Post is disabled on Mii characters that are either downloaded from the Mii Central to begin with, categorized as Special Mii, or received from another player even if edited.

On the editor, the above looks like this:

However, Post is disabled on Mii characters that are either downloaded from the Mii Central to begin with, categorized as Special Mii, or received from another player even if edited<ref>[https://www.nintendo.com/consumer/downloads/Miitopia_3DS_e-manual_en.pdf Instruction Manual - Miitopia]. ''Nintendo''. Retrieved on July 30, 2023.</ref>.

At the end of an article is where the References section is placed, which contains the <references/> tag. This displays the sources cited through <ref></ref> on the article. For example:

As long as the tags are typed properly, the references list will automatically add the citation to it.

If multiple parts of the article cite the exact same source, then the <ref> is given a "name" parameter. The name parameter accepts alphanumeric input, but not numbers only. By doing this, the other part of the article referencing the same source can simply have the <ref name="name"></ref> instead of a full citation. Example:

The Mii characters listed are based on all players' votes done via [[questionnaire]] in the Nintendo 3DS version of ''Miitopia''<ref name="noj-article">Ike. (November 30, 2016). [https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/article/4a3a5298-b5f5-11e6-9aaf-063b7ac45a6d Miiを1人も作らずに遊べる！？『Miitopia』の「みんなのMii」機能をご紹介。紹介映像も本日公開！]. ''Nintendo''. Retrieved on July 30, 2023.</ref>.

The automatic casting depends on other players' casting data and [[questionnaire]] votes that determine Mii popularity, meaning a higher popularity Mii for a certain role will be more likely to be picked for that role<ref name="noj-article"></ref>.

Requesting a source

You can place the {{Citation needed}} template next to any information that requires properly documented source material. Example:

The [[Adventure Armor]] is inspired from ''Attack on Titan''.{{Citation needed}}

Which results in the text below, featuring a link that goes to this page.

The Adventure Armor is inspired from Attack on Titan.

Unless the information is easily accessible in-game, references should not be removed. However, if a citation leads to a link that no longer works, please find a replacement link or an archived version of the broken link.