Talk:Companion
From WoWWiki
Correct naming
I moved this to it's proper name, Minipets - also removed the thotbott links - wiki principle, internalized ETC - internalizing of links might just be my first community collaboration *CHEER!* (-:
-- Silver\Side 11:20, 1 Dec 2005 (EST)
What you call collaboration is unilateralism in some ways. Also, I'm sure how you came by "Minipet" as the –proper– term for these pets. In the BlizzCon swag page they called them "in-game pets".
- --Fandyllic 3:27 PM PST 1 December 2005
- I'm probably gonna reword this page and move it to Small Pet, since the term Minipet seems to have come from nowhere in particular. Blizzard calls them "Small Pets" on there official site, so I figure they're the authority. --Fandyllic 4:45 PM PST 1 Mar 2006
The model viewer has some models of a tiny zepplin, steam tank, and other such things. Are these vanity pets or something else? --Iavas 16:07, 18 March 2006
- I cannot speak for the zepplin (model name of the tiny zeppelin), but the miniature steam tonk is an engineer-made item that can battle with other steam tonks with players who have them in duels only. Which means you can only whip one out during a duel, so I wouldn't call it a small pet. They are also available to play with at the Darkmoon Faire, but once again do not follow you around as a small pet would. I'm not sure what other such things you speak of. There are a multitude of small and baby animals in WoW, but many of them are not available as non-combat pets... such as bear cubs and skunks. Lilyth 06:31, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
People are definitely being confused by this page. I'm getting hits from the google archive of the old URL. I would personally change it back, this change seems arbitrary and anal. NickGray 22:48, 27 April 2007 (unsigned)
- Realizing this is an old post, still, it seems that it would reflect current concerns, so, here's a response:
- Badly named articles are confusing, and make the site less useful. Using Blizzard's terms facilitates lookup by players, who are already familiar with Blizzard's terms. The goal is functionality, and it is more important to wordsmith names, where bad wording may miss a connection, than in the articles, where it is possible to read between the lines and extract meaning.
- Arbitrary would be, 'let's call it what my guild/friend/other local culture call it'. I don't see anyone making that argument.
- Anal? Maybe so, but that's just Freud's negative spin on detail oriented, which is something you want here.
- The getting hits argument is perhaps the most relevant, but is 'small pet' or 'companion' hard to find? Are they not getting hits?
- It might be helpful if Blizzard used consistent terminology. Madkaugh (talk) 01:32, 20 September 2008 (UTC)
In patch 2.2 all these pets are now being called "companions", maybe that would be a better page name? Oahkoah 10:57, 12 August 2007 (UTC)
- There is another fitting name for them, said in the article itself. "They are purely for show, providing no bonuses." so show pet could be better too. This small pet is quite unfitting. I would like to see a vote for companion or show pet. Both are more accurate than small pet. BlackSmith 15:08, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
- When a character has one of these deployed, if you enable the names for companions in your interface, it says 'character name's companion' as the name for the pet. So the official Blizzard term in the interface is companion.
- A few of them are conceptually closer to companions than pets - Green Helper, Red Helper, Snowman, Kwee Q. Peddlefeet, Tyrael.
- So, they're not exactly all 'pets', nor 'small, nor 'mini', not exactly just for 'show' (see article), nor 'vanity', which also presumes a judgmental aspect that is not really appropriate.
- non-combat pet might be a good choice, it is technically accurate (mostly, some of them are intended to duel); a bit wordy though. Could be called passive pet, but that could mean a combat pet set to passive.
- By moving the subtypes of pet to their own terminology, Blizzard is disambiguating the term pet. Temporary, uncontrolled combat pets are now guardians. The subjects of this article are now companions. Warlock pets are minions. That leaves hunter pets as pets. If Blizzard is consistent, and the terminology takes root, future discussions will have less need for disambiguation. If I say pet, you don't think of mounts, do you? Madkaugh (talk) 02:03, 20 September 2008 (UTC)
- I like name companion for the class, it is conceptually more inclusive. A pet is a companion, but not all companions are pets. In an article, I would use a pet name (non-combat pet is fine) if the creature type is critter, and companion if the creature type is a humanoid. I guess by default anything that isn't clearly a pet, the wisps, the elementals, would be a companion. Madkaugh (talk) 08:59, 27 September 2008 (UTC)
Magical Crawdad
The information about Magical Crawdad pets seem to be moving out of the the realm of "unsubstantiated rumor", so I've updated the page with info from the best page I've been able to find on them yet [1]. Hopefully it isn't just a hoax. :-) // DarkRyder / 
/ 
// 14:31, 7 February 2007 (EST)
Indenting
I tried to fix the lack of indenting and bullet on the Alliance pets line for the Great Horned Owl. I could not find anything wrong and was unable to fix it.
Madkaugh 00:48, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
- I just ran into the same problem with the Ancona Chicken and the Disgusting Oozeling. I managed to fix them. What was needed was onlyinclude brackets on the tooltip in the item articles, or both also had an empty noinclude pair on the first line, just before the tooltip, which I also removed. Not sure which of the two changes or both were necessary. The body had noinclude brackets, which I left intact. Madkaugh (talk) 01:07, 20 September 2008 (UTC)
