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Help center
FAQs - Site and registration issues
- Can I log-in with a user-name and not my e-mail?
- Something on IGN is wrong. Who do I contact?
- How do I contact the author of a guide on IGN?
- Our goal.
- Using MyIGN to submit YouTube content.
- Video & mixed-media content (PDF, Excel, etc.)
- Sending non-English guides to IGN.
- Plagiarism - what is it?
FAQs - Good habits for technical writing
- Data gathering.
- Planning & layout.
- Fact-Checking & verification.
- Updates & corrections.
- Accountability & communication.
- Tools & utilities.
Can I log-in with a user-name and not my e-mail?
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IGN's method to log-in was changed in May 2008 to better improve your unique online identity. If you used a "user name" to log into IGN, Gamespy, etc. and did not log-in when this change was made, please click this link to "update" your log-in:
https://login.ign.com/IgnAccountUpdate/AccountUpdate.aspx
If you already used the email address you have on your User Name on another login (GameSpy, FilePlanet, an IGN alt-name, etc.) You will see the following Screen:
At this point, what you do will determine what happens to your identity on IGN. Please read the following carefully.
Choose either to change your e-mail address by entering a NEW e-mail address in the 2 fields (this new e-mail will serve as your point of contact, and log-in email from now on) ...
... or ...
Choose to "Reclaim Existing" (reclaim an existing account) and it will show you that you are changing the OTHER account on the following page. Please note that if you use an e-mail address that you cannot access anymore, the first option is a better idea.
When finished you will now login with the e-mail address you chose to submit to IGN.
Generally speaking, Customer Service recommends:
If you have any confusion, please contact Customer Service at → http://support.ign.com. Note that the log-in for the Customer Service site is not part of your IGN log-in (it's another system).
Something on IGN is wrong. Who do I contact?
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IGN's site and appearance will change as required to better serve the perceived needs of our audience (which also changes without warning). Occasionally, things break -- we are only human.
The fastest way to let IGN know something is wrong is to send us a URL of the broken page, the browser (and version) you are using (just because one browser views a page fine doesn't mean others do), and send it to faqs
ign.com.
Here is IGN's contact form, in case you don't want to use your browser's mail client.
How do I contact the author of a guide on IGN?
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Individual authors may be contacted through their e-mail address(es) provided within their own walkthroughs or guides. All content within an "FAQ" is the property of its writer.
If you have issues or problems with the veracity or accuracy of a guide, lodge your complaint with the author, not IGN.
IGN will only retract a published article if there is evidence of criminal or pornographic activity.
Our goal
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IGN's goal was to be one of the biggest and best sites for videogame coverage online. We're almost there -- but we also realize that we are nothing without honest gamers like yourself helping us reach that goal.
We're always looking for good guide and tip writers, and archiving the various solutions you find online. After all, when you can't beat a game (in Soviet Russia, game beats you!) then a game is no longer fun; it's work.
That said, IGN wants to help you help us help you. To step a bit in that direction, we'll be using MyIGN as a test-bed for new guide and walkthrough submissions for the FAQs site.
Using MyIGN to submit YouTube content
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MyIGN is our new community platform that's still undergoing beta trial. However, there's a lot of neat things you can do with it -- in the case of FAQs, you can use it as a means to write and submit walkthroughs and YouTube videos with its blogging system.
Access your MyIGN blog by putting http://write.ign.com in your browser's address bar. From there, you can toy around with a blog post (your old posts are on the left side).
With a blog on MyIGN, you can use the built-in image utility to upload images (like maps and screenshots) to IGN's servers.
Additionally, the system works with video embed codes. You can just paste embed codes into your blog and your videos will show up in your "FAQ".
You should know though, since the system is set-up to do blogging as opposed to an earnest guide or walkthrough, you will need to submit your work to IGN for archival and proper indexing.
Here's how you do that:
Some things to remember:
This is a trial of sorts, and we'd like to hear your thoughts about making the process better and more integrated. You may always reach the staff via faqsign.com.
Video & mixed-media content
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One of the easiest ways to show people how to beat games would be videos -- or some cases, PDFs (since they are easily created with some free open source programs on the web) or Excel spreadsheets (for tabulation and detailed records keeping).
While MyIGN's blog system handles video embeds easily (just copy/paste the embed code into an article and send it our way), it doesn't work well with PDFs or Excel sheets. For those, you can either email them as attachments to faqsign.com or upload them to the public FTP.
Additionally, if you're writing guides in a language that's not English, you need to use email or FTP.
Sending non-English guides to IGN
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IGN gladly helps you publish FAQs written in any language so long as they appear as the author intended. Because non-English languages require a different set of symbols from the Romanized alphabet, steps need to be taken to insure they display properly.
If you are writing Japanese, Chinese, or Korean FAQs, you may opt to try a� program like NJStar. All non-English guides should be sent to faqs
ign.com or the FTP -- never through the online submission form.
Additionally, please specify the language (Serbian, Russian, Portuguese, etc.) or your submission will be discarded as "unreadable".
As usual, the staff at IGN are here to help. Please contact us at faqsign.com if you are having difficulties.
Plagiarism - What Is It?
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There's been a great amount of confusion about what is plagiarism in terms of strategy guides and walkthroughs.
Originally, the intent of copyright was to protect the creative work of artists, poets, playwrites, and authors from being stolen and attributed to somebody else. If you took a page from Jane Eyre for example, and used your name on the page instead of Charlotte Bronte (the hottest of the three Bronte sisters) that is plagiarism.
Although you cannot reproduce the entire work of someone else and cite it as your own, you may certainly refer to (or copy) a portion of it as part of your FAQ or strategy guide. How come? Because this is due to the different natures of creative and technical writing.
Plagiarism is avoided by citing your source -- basically, by naming your source after listing the part of content you used, you are attributing that piece of information to the person or persons who "created it" and thus you avoid plagiarism.
Besides, in the process of teaching, you are essentially handing down previously learned knowledge to a new audience. Without this exception for education, our knowledge and teachings cannot be improved upon.
Two styles -- the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the Chicago Style -- are most often used in the university, although there are many other good ways to cite sources (APA the foremost among them). All borrowed information should be enclosed in quotes to separate that info from your own, and should never be altered.
Example of a Modern Language Association annotation
"To generate large amounts of Item Pods, first find some easily destructible enemies or projectiles (like bubble bullets and missiles). Next, rapidly use the Enemy Eraser. The multiple EE blasts will destroy the objects and, for some reason, perpetuate and spawn more explosions." (The Guardian Legend Walkthrough/FAQ, faididi, http://faqs.ign.com//articles/381/381361p1.html)
- MLA style lists the source immediately after the information and can get quite long. An abbreviated version that lists all sources in a bibliography will simply cite the number of the source (from the bibliography) and looks very similar to the Chicago Style (see below).
Example of a Chicago Style annotation
"To generate large amounts of Item Pods, first find some easily destructible enemies or projectiles (like bubble bullets and missiles). Next, rapidly use the Enemy Eraser. The multiple EE blasts will destroy the objects and, for some reason, perpetuate and spawn more explosions." (1)
(1.) The Guardian Legend Walkthrough/FAQ, faididi, http://faqs.ign.com//articles/381/381361p1.html
- Chicago Style is probably best for FAQs, since the FAQ won't be straddled by clutter. All the sources may be listed in an endnote. However, unless you don't mind using a unique index behind each line or section you quote, you'll have to learn superscripts in HTML.
Both methods are usually acceptable if you choose to quote other FAQs, and if sources are cited properly, it is not a case of plagiarism. This is very important, so let's repeat:
If a portion of another FAQ, guide, or document is properly annotated and referred to, it is not plagiarism ... so get over it.
On the other hand, don't think you just cite all the contents of another FAQ and use it as a convenient excuse to not write your own FAQ. Any FAQ basically comprised of quoted tactics will not be published when we discover it as being so and many people will e-mail you and ridicule your lazy punk ass.
Before you make any accusation of plagiarisation, make sure that your FAQ has actually been plagiarised. Most games can usually only be beaten in a small number of ways (most designers intend for players to do that anyway), and the information that can be derived from playing the game is not copyright. Only the manner in which the information is presented. There's only so many ways to tell people Mario needs to butt-stomp the next big green switch or mapping using pre-constructed ASCII to create maps or diagrams.
Additionally, there is always the possibility the strategy for overcoming some aspect of a game can be arrived independently by two or more people at the same time, and "published" without knowledge of either party. The result can be two different documents containing similar strategies. The final word is if you wrote it yourself, you should have nothing to fear.
At other times, individuals simply rip an FAQ and drop it off with us under assumed names. IGN has no control over what other people do (if we did, we'd rule this world and move onto the rest of the galaxy -- now, we have to kill you because you know our plans).
While we take some time to read through all FAQs, we only spot-check submissions against FAQs submitted to faqs.IGN.com only on basis of reasonable suspicion - like in True Crime.
This is due to the vast amount of material already online, and the fact the staff is not your personal sleuthing team tasked to track down all your work. Ultimately, you need to manage your own content.
If you find your work has been plagiarised:
(1.) Send an email with the direct URLs of the suspect content, the original content, and a clear explanation, or we won't know why you emailed us. Instead, we'll delete it and get back to playing games and downloading images from IGN Babeology.
(2.) Review your own correspondence and legal section(s) to see if you allowed others to use your work in their FAQs without asking you at all. If you are incautious, you will wind up with more hassle than you can imagine. Take this legal section as an example:
"I'm not a big fan of intellectual property so you may distribute this FAQ in anyway you see fit as long as you stick by two simple rules. Do not change ANY of the content.� If there is a problem contact me at [e-mail removed].� I'll fix it and submit the latest revision. Two, leave my name on it.� I wrote it.� That simple.� All content is copyright of the original author who goes by the [site removed] handle, [name removed]."
Unless you have no compulsion about creating public domain work, then you should not use a legal section such as the one above or expect it to appear very prolifically everywhere. It is as simple as you trying to be your own attourney (don't try it; the professionals will shred you faster than a wet tissue at a snot party).
(3.) All accustations are to be forwarded to the IGN designated agent. See Article I, Section 6E in the User Agreement.
(4.) Be sure to include all URLs, the accused party (ies), your name and a valid e-mail address so we can locate the problem.
(5.) Lastly, IGN does not partake in any litigation or intrudes on other litigious actions on behalf of, or against a FAQ writer. After all, it's your property -- you deal with it.
|
By mail: Designated Agent Attention Legal Department 625 Second Street, 3rd Floor San Francisco, CA 94107 |
By Phone: 415.896.3435 By Facsimile: 415.896.3762 |
By email: [email protected] |
| For user-generated guides and walkthroughs, you will probably get a faster response from the editorial team. Reach the site staff directly through faqsign.com. Here is IGN's contact form, in case you don't want to use your browser's mail client. | ||
Note that you do need to assemble some passable evidence. A simple hearsay accusation will probably be thrown out. Dates of creation are logged automatically on IGN (hey -- we're script heavy -- a good thing). File creation dates can be easily forged. In any case, the copy of your file online is the date you transmitted it (or last modifed), not the actual date of creation.
Other types of evidence may be acquired through Copyscape.com. This subscription service is something IGN has retained, and may be requested by individual contributors on a case-by-case basis.
Data Gathering
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Unlike college dissertations, a game walkthrough or guide has readily available primary source -- the videogame itself. A good writer will make an effort to assemble all the information into a single integrated document in order to present the most comprehensive "final word" on a game possible. There are essentially two sources for your information -- the primary source or a secondary source.
A primary source is basically where all the information comes from. Since you're writing about a game, it is basically your primary source. Irregardless, all guides and FAQs have a game as a primary source, even it you manage to get an interview with the actual development team and got solutions from them.
Since you're playing the game anyway, have a clipboard, some paper, and a pen to jot down notes as you play. Alternately, you may put in notes in Notepad (or your iDevice app) as you go.
Notes are important since you can easily refer to it once you finish playing. If you record video, you can do that as well, and write your guide from viewing your footage.
Hard notes have the benefit of not disappearing if a power outage hits your area, or if someone trips on the power cord. You can also review hard notes when your devices are recharging or otherwise inaccessible (we haven't met anyone with a bathroom laptop ... yet).
A secondary source (in terms of FAQs and game information) would be a game magazine, a website, or another FAQ/Guide or person whereby the information is communicated to you, instead of being directly experienced.
When possible, note where you specifically got your information. If you picked up some pointers from someone on the board or a video, and just attribute it to "the people on the message boards/ video on XYZ.com", that is not enough -- you may as well not mention that episode at all. If you are going to annotate your sources, do it correctly or not at all. If you opt for the latter, rewrite the information in your own words.
Planning & Layout
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Writing about a game is not the same as playing it. The toughest part in writing an FAQ is not simply listing tips for beating a game, but organizing those tips into neatly arranged and understandable sentences and paragraphs.
To begin writing a FAQ or a walkthrough, simply start with what you know - if you are a person who didn't know squat about the game and wanted to beat it, what would you look for? Write about that and you'll have yourself a solid start.
Just be sure to plan out your FAQ. Ask any veteran guide writer, and he or she will tell you that planning out your FAQ is one of the most important things to do. If you're totally lost, you might want to follow the generic style guide used for IGN's guides:
Fact-Checking & Verification
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Once you're done with your FAQ, spend a day or two checking the various details. Are you sure you can earn such-and-such skill just by fulfilling that requirement?
The best technical writers pride themselves on accuracy of information and to communicate it as best as possible to an ignorant audience; checking your work is essential.
Additionally, spending a small amount of time verifying your information can help you avoid making time-consuming corrections and other unnecessary updates.
Updates & corrections
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Updates to your guides and new submissions are always accepted through the submission form or by e-mail to faqsign.com.
If you made corrections on your FAQ and would like to send in corrections, do so with an update. IGN does not update for you -- you will have to manage your own work by managing updates yourself.
Accountability & Contact Information
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When you register with IGN, you may or may not choose to give out your personal e-mail address. The same goes when you enter an e-mail address in the online submission form.
However, if you want to maintain contact with your audience (your readers), you will want to find a way to talk to them in some fashion. Apart from taking responsibility for your FAQ, you also allow IGN to contact you should issues arise with your content on our network.
Here are some additional tips for being a good technical writer:
Tools & utilities
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- HTML Style Guide on IGN. For those who want to know about how to integrate HTML into their preformatted or unformatted text FAQs. This free guide also has a useful IGN Board Mark-Up to HTML conversion table.
- Mark Up to HTML Conversion Table. Replacing board mark-up with actual HTML for FAQs on IGN.com.
- Problem Shooting FAQ. A list of common mistakes on FAQs at IGN.
- Fix It! Tool. Free JSP online application that chops your FAQ into the neat 79 character per line width for the ubiquitous 640 x 480 resolution.
- Extended ASCII Tool. Eldav01's custom program to deal with upperscores, copyright symbols and smart quotes. His instructions are included.
- Barebones HTML Chart 1. Has some symbols and the HTML codes you might find interesting.
- Barebones HTML Chart 2 by James Mitchell. Has some symbols and the HTML codes you might find interesting.
- Barebones HTML Guide by Kevin Werbach. A short and brief tutorial for people who have never coded or written HTML.
Skilled HTML authors even design FAQs that are more useful than a lot of "official" guides in stores. The possibilities for HTML FAQs are almost endless. If you decide to use HTML, be damn good at it or your FAQ will look like something that came out of your butt. Then we get to laugh at you. Study these reference files by James Mitchell and Kevin Werbach in how to properly code HTML.
Here are some good examples of FAQs using HTML on IGN:
External Links: