"Do you use Wikipedia for gaming purposes/research?" Topic

I find Wiki a convenient way to find armor, armament and production numbers for vehicles, aircraft, etc., as well as thumbnail views of historical events.

TMPer: Who makes figures for the Third Slabovian War of Independence?

Me: Never heard of it (searches wiki).

Absolutely.

As someone cleverly said,"wikipedia is a great place to start your research, but a terrible place to end it."

With wikipedia you can instantly, anywhere, learn when the TSWI took place and who won. You can get the generally accepted facts. This is good enough 90% of the time. If you want to know production numbers, though, sometimes wikipedia plats fast and loose with the variants.

So I you want to know whether the Ju-87 had forward firing machine guns, wikipedia is the away. When you really need to know which Ju-87s had which machine guns, you need to move on pretty quickly.

Yes

Yes, as a start point.

A starting point

Wot the others have said. A good place to start.

Eric

Yes.

Agreed. A good start and a useful "quick and dirty."

Yes!

Yes. For a lot of things, like the size comparison between an L3 tankette and a Volkswagen Bug glued to the top of my box of Italian WWII figures, it is just fine. . If I were going to put that comparison in a book I wrote, I'd get confirmation from other sources.

Grelber

Wikipedia is a good tool, but I have taken additional steps to improve my search.

My medieval searches provide additional information if I source the original language.

Search the Battle of Shelon (1471) and you will find more information and maps by clicking on the Russian and Bashkir pages (see Language options lower left) and Google translate is useful here.

The number of sources will also differ greatly and many can be found online. Increase your search potential by copying the topic in its original language, Google this to view images. This will display rarely seen source material and blogs.

Good hunting.

Yes, for peripheral research.

Yes.

Wiki yes.

Yes

Yes, as a start, realizing that the entries are only as good as the source material people copy from. There are lots of errors.

Yep. It's a good place to start for ship histories.

Yep especially exotic bios.
Just cross check multiple languages, as they differ AND some contain more accurate, less atrocities, of info.
:-} d

Yep. I will usually use it as a start to find pieces of information to go research in detail.

Yep – great place for an overview and a starting point; also good for quick facts on people/places you have never heard of

Well, that helps to explain a great deal.

Yes of course. It is particularly useful as a quick reference for who commanded which units when and a reminder of the general flow of events. Most of the info is pretty good. Some isn't.

I agree with the idea that it's a good place to start, but one usually needs to research further, depending on the level of detail in, and intended audience for, the game.

Wiki has its uses, mostly for the reference works cited
in some of the articles

Yes. Better than Osprey !

+1 Ed Mohrmann

I usually approach Wikipedia with an air of, at the very least, a basic understanding of the subject I am researching.

I rely heavily on their bibliography and other "go to links" if available and then go from there.

I must admit that over the past decade, WP has improved dramatically and if used correctly and realizing that it's basically a "jump off location" for further, in depth, research…it's very hard to beat, at this point in time.

At this point, it's basically like the Bibliography and Notes section of any well researched Peter Hopkirk book, if you want to learn more, it's the place to go.

Starting point for a general orientation to a subject.

Sure, potted histories and dates. Dates are a big one for me.

Yes