Halopedia:Canon policy: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:02, January 23, 2011

This page is an official Halopedia policy
Please read through the policy below to familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page.

Template:Policies

What is Canon?

Canon is defined as characters, locations, and details that are considered to be genuine (or "official"), and those events, characters, settings, etc. that are considered to have inarguable existence within the fictional universe. Halopedia operates strictly as a collection of Halo canon information. "Official" Halo canon can only be created by developers of the Halo universe. Therefore, any material added to Halopedia must be official, sanctioned canon that can be cited from a work created or sanctioned by Halo's creators, Bungie Studios and 343 Industries. Better put, Halopedia is not a site for fanfiction.

The general rule of the canon policy is fairly simple, as explored in the canonical case of i love bees, that "the content should be considered canonical unless contradicted by more authoritative sources".

The Hierarchy of Canon

The editors of Halopedia work tirelessly to present facts of the Halo Universe in the best possible light: these Halopedians strive by interpreting canon in a way that makes the most sense in the context and causes the least problems and allowing readers to thrive with the interpreted information. As such, the wiki often gets criticized for not able to present the information as the officials intended it to be.

Often times, one source of canon may say something different than other sources. There are many reasons why this may be so; ranging from a typo to a line taken out of context. Therefore, a policy of "superior canon" is in act to make sure that the content of Halopedia reflects the most accurate canon of the Halo universe. Thus, a "ladder" of canon sources exists, with the sources higher on the ladder having "superior canon" which is considered more "official" than the sources below them. Illustrated below are the two tiers of canon along with descriptions to explain how Halopedia's Canon Policy works:

Bungie-canon (Tier 1)

Though Bungie Studios is no longer an active party of the Halo franchise, it is still appropriate to recognise their efforts and contributions throughout their 10 years of involvement in building and expanding the Halo franchise. With that said, only contributions made in those 10 years are of canon value.^[1]

The following is a simple list of sources of canon:

The Halo Trilogy
Halo 3: ODST
Halo: Reach

Note: Bungie's involvement in the Halo franchise began in 1999 and ended in 2010.

Note: The novels were part of Microsoft franchise-expansion project headed by Microsoft Development Team (now known as 343i) since 2001, and Bungie was a passive party throughout the course of the project, whose roles were to supervise and provide suggestions to improve content.^[2]^[3]

Microsoft-canon (Tier 2)

Microsoft-canon, also known as 343i-canon, is the continuity/expanded project of the Halo Universe. 343i, approved by Microsoft, would be the primary source under Microsoft-canon and anything released by them will be considered as official canon. Anything created by Microsoft and its affiliates would have been considered as being approved automatically by Bungie, thus making them canon.

Under Microsoft-canon, it would have a secondary canon hierarchy; the games would be superior, followed by the novels, other literatures, the marketing campaigns and other promotional items, in that exact order. Because Halo is essentially a game franchise, game titles would be the superior source of canon in each category.

Bungie-canon (Tier I)

↓

Microsoft/343i-canon (Tier II)
343i games

↓↓

Novels

↓↓

Comics and other media

↓↓

Marketing content

What are the sources for Halo Canon?

Below is a simple list of sources that are sources of Halo canon, and thus any material from these sources is content that can and should be added to Halopedia. Do note that this list does not present the entirety of sources of canon, but simply a general overview of sources of canon.

Bungie-canon

Video Games

Halo 3: ODST

Halo Reach

Literature

Halo Graphic Novel^[4]^{[note 1]}

References

The Art of Halo
The Art of Halo 3

Miscellaneous

ViDocs

Microsoft-canon/343i-canon

Video Games

Halo Wars

Novels

Comics

Halo Graphic Novel
Halo Wars: Genesis
Halo: Uprising
Halo: Helljumper
Halo: Blood Line
Halo: Fall of Reach
- Boot Camp
- Covenant
- Pillar of Autumn

Animation

Halo Legends

Marketing

Halo: Landfall

References

Halo Encyclopedia

Miscellaneous

Notes

^ Halo Graphic Novel was a stand-alone project led by the Art Team of Bungie Studios with the approval of Microsoft and publishing support of Marvel. With the success of HGN, Microsoft soon took charge over Bungie and played an active role in the literature project

Sources

^ IGN: Beyond the Ring: Bungie's Renegade Development of Halo's Fiction (Joseph Staten: ""Bungie was maintaining creative oversight over all these initiatives -- we really did have a lot of control over what stories got told. Historically, over the decade of Halo storytelling, Bungie would maintain creative ownership and direction of these various projects." ")
^ IGN: Beyond the Ring: Bungie's Renegade Development of Halo's Fiction (Frank O'Connor: "It's pretty fair to say that the Fall of Reach novel was considered a Microsoft project rather than a Bungie project -- I don't think anyone would argue with that...")
^ IGN: Beyond the Ring: Bungie's Renegade Development of Halo's Fiction (Joseph Staten: "We wanted to, as a studio, stay focused on making great games. The novels were great [for Bungie] because we knew we had created this universe that had the possibility for lots of different stories. But we, Bungie, simply didn't have the bandwidth, and honestly the talent, necessarily, to do things like novels or comic books, et cetera.")
^ Halo Graphic Novel, Editor's Notes

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 ==What is Canon?==
 ''Canon'' is defined as characters, locations, and details that are considered to be genuine (or "official"), and those events, characters, settings, etc. that are considered to have inarguable existence within the fictional universe. [[Halopedia]] operates strictly as a collection of ''[[Halo Universe|Halo]]'' canon information. "Official" ''Halo'' canon can only be created by developers of the ''Halo'' universe. Therefore, any material added to Halopedia ''must'' be official, sanctioned canon that can be [[Help:Ref|cited]] from a work created or sanctioned by ''Halo'''s creators, [[Bungie Studios]] and 343 Industries. Better put, [[Halopedia: What Halopedia is not|Halopedia is '''not''' a site for fanfiction]].
+The general rule of the canon policy is fairly simple, as explored in the canonical case of [[i love bees]], that ''"the content should be considered canonical unless contradicted by more authoritative sources"''.
 ==The Hierarchy of Canon==
@@ Line 12: / Line 14: @@
 ;Bungie-canon (Tier 1)
 :Though [[Bungie Studios]] is no longer an active party of the Halo franchise, it is still appropriate to recognise their efforts and contributions throughout their 10 years of involvement in building and expanding the Halo franchise. With that said, only contributions made in those 10 years are of canon value.<ref name="ign0">[http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/112/1126799p3.html '''IGN''': ''Beyond the Ring: Bungie's Renegade Development of Halo's Fiction''] ('''Joseph Staten''': ''""Bungie was maintaining creative oversight over all these initiatives -- we really did have a lot of control over what stories got told. Historically, over the decade of Halo storytelling, Bungie would maintain creative ownership and direction of these various projects." "'')</ref>
-:Sources of canon in included, but not limited to, this tier are the following:
+:The following is a simple list of sources of canon:
 :*The Halo Trilogy
 :*Halo 3: ODST
 :*Halo: Reach
-:*Halo Graphic Novel<ref name="HGN">'''[[Halo Graphic Novel]]''', ''Editor's Notes''</ref><ref group="note">Halo Graphic Novel was a stand-alone project led by the Art Team of Bungie Studios with the approval of Microsoft and publishing support of Marvel. With the success of HGN, Microsoft soon took charge over Bungie and played an active role in the literature project</ref>
+:'''Note''': Bungie's involvement in the Halo franchise began in 1999 and ended in 2010.
-:Note: Bungie's involvement in the Halo franchise began in 1999-2010.
+:'''Note''': The novels were part of Microsoft franchise-expansion project headed by Microsoft Development Team (now known as 343i) since 2001, and Bungie was a passive party throughout the course of the project, whose roles were to supervise and provide suggestions to improve content.<ref name="ign">[http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/112/1126799p3.html '''IGN''': ''Beyond the Ring: Bungie's Renegade Development of Halo's Fiction''] ('''Frank O'Connor''': ''"It's pretty fair to say that the Fall of Reach novel was considered a Microsoft project rather than a Bungie project -- I don't think anyone would argue with that..."'')</ref><ref name="ign2">[http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/112/1126799p3.html '''IGN''': ''Beyond the Ring: Bungie's Renegade Development of Halo's Fiction''] ('''Joseph Staten''': ''"We wanted to, as a studio, stay focused on making great games. The novels were great '''[for Bungie]''' because we knew we had created this universe that had the possibility for lots of different stories. But we, Bungie, simply didn't have the bandwidth, and honestly the talent, necessarily, to do things like novels or comic books, et cetera."'')</ref>
-:Note: The novels were part of Microsoft franchise-expansion project headed by Microsoft Development Team (now known as 343i) since 2001, and Bungie was a passive party throughout the course of the project, whose roles were to supervise and provide suggestions to improve content.<ref name="ign">[http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/112/1126799p3.html '''IGN''': ''Beyond the Ring: Bungie's Renegade Development of Halo's Fiction''] ('''Frank O'Connor''': ''"It's pretty fair to say that the Fall of Reach novel was considered a Microsoft project rather than a Bungie project -- I don't think anyone would argue with that..."'')</ref><ref name="ign2">[http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/112/1126799p3.html '''IGN''': ''Beyond the Ring: Bungie's Renegade Development of Halo's Fiction''] ('''Joseph Staten''': ''"We wanted to, as a studio, stay focused on making great games. The novels were great '''[for Bungie]''' because we knew we had created this universe that had the possibility for lots of different stories. But we, Bungie, simply didn't have the bandwidth, and honestly the talent, necessarily, to do things like novels or comic books, et cetera."'')</ref>
 ;Microsoft-canon (Tier 2)
 :Microsoft-canon, also known as 343i-canon, is the continuity/expanded project of the Halo Universe. 343i, approved by Microsoft, would be the primary source under Microsoft-canon and anything released by them will be considered as official canon. Anything created by Microsoft and its affiliates would have been considered as being approved automatically by Bungie, thus making them canon.
@@ Line 46: / Line 47: @@
 ==What are the sources for Halo Canon?==
-Below is a simple list of sources that are sources of Halo canon, and thus any material from these sources is content that can and should be added to Halopedia:
+Below is a simple list of sources that are sources of Halo canon, and thus any material from these sources is content that can and should be added to Halopedia. Do note that this list does not present the entirety of sources of canon, but simply a general overview of sources of canon.
 {{Col-begin}}
 {{Col-2}}
@@ Line 58: / Line 59: @@
 ;Literature
-*''[[Halo Graphic Novel]]''
+*''[[Halo Graphic Novel]]''<ref name="HGN">'''[[Halo Graphic Novel]]''', ''Editor's Notes''</ref><ref group="note">Halo Graphic Novel was a stand-alone project led by the Art Team of Bungie Studios with the approval of Microsoft and publishing support of Marvel. With the success of HGN, Microsoft soon took charge over Bungie and played an active role in the literature project</ref>
 ;References
@@ Line 120: / Line 121: @@
 *[[:Category:Letters of Canon|Letters of Canon]]
 *[http://forums.bungie.org/halo/archive28.pl?read=847640 Comments by Joseph Staten] on Bungie's internal canon policies
-*[http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=33630397 Guide to Canon in the Halo Universe]
+*[http://nathanpgibson.com/guide-to-canon-in-the-halo-universe/ Guide to Canon in the Halo Universe]
 [[Category:Help|Canon Policy]]