Wikipedia:Peer review/Firewatch/archive2

Firewatch

Previous peer review

This article last got a PR in advance of a successful GAN candidacy back in 2016. Ten years later I've gone through and done a somewhat substantial overhaul, with the aim of possibly reaching FA status, and would love feedback to that end across all aspects of the article. Thanks in advance. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 16:02, 24 September 2026 (UTC)

Comments from Mike Christie

After one read-through the main issue I see for FAC is the reception section. I think it needs another copyedit pass. The reception material is organized well enough, but the sentence-by-sentence flow is a bit clunky in a couple of paragraphs.

I'll have another read through the article with an eye to FAC some time in the next couple of days. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 07:53, 30 September 2026 (UTC)

• "Henry interacts with his supervisor Delilah using a walkie-talkie, with the player choosing from dialog options to communicate. His exchanges with Delilah inform the process by which their relationship is developed". Suggest "Henry interacts with his supervisor Delilah using a walkie-talkie, choosing what to say from dialog options, and developing his relationship with her".
• "certain events are set at different times of the day": perhaps "certain events are set to occur at different times of the day" or just "certain events occur at different times of the day". Now I think about it I'm not even sure of the intended meaning -- I think it must be that there are some events that repeat every day at set times? Rather than at varying times, which is how I initially read "different"?
• "the cause of the station fire": is this the fire near the government camp? The word "station" has not been used for it.
• "In creating the painting, Moss emulated National Park Service posters from the New Deal era in both color palette and iconography.". The source does not support this for the color palette.
• "Ng disapproved of the tools for creating trees and therefore hand-modeled the 23 kinds of trees that would be placed within the game 4,600 times." The source has "Ng noted that she didn’t get on well with automated tree making tools, so created the 23 different models in the game by hand.". This is tricky to paraphrase but I think this is a bit too close to the original. (And let's avoid implying there were exactly 4,600 trees when the source is less precise.
• And the next sentence, about a custom shader, is also somewhat similar to the original, but also slightly inaccurate -- the source specifies that it's how the trees look in the distance to the player that drove this choice; the article doesn't say this.
• "Likewise Dahlia could not inform the player...": typo for Delilah?
• In the paragraph starting "Anderson recalled ..." we say both that the game had to be nearly finished to be playtested, but we also say that a benefit of the way playtesting worked was that they had time to fix problems because the game was not nearly finished. Having read the source I understand what Anderson meant, but it doesn't come through very well and sounds like a contradiction as it stands.
• You have both "dialog" and "dialogue".
• You have links from "dialog options" to dialog tree; you might consider repeating the link when the phrase "dialog tree" shows up towards the end of the article.

That's everything. I think this in pretty good shape overall. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:26, 1 October 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the initial comments, Mike Christie. I've taken a stab at addressing everything above; in particular, simplifying what is being said with the technical points you brought up so hopefully it flows a little better and seems less confusing or contradictory. I've done some edits to the reception section as well, but look forward to any more feedback on which parts were the clunkiest for you. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 18:05, 7 October 2026 (UTC)

The changes look fine to me. I'll have another read through if I can find time but I think this is FAC-ready. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 19:34, 7 October 2026 (UTC)

Vacant0

I'd love to take a look at this article but I'm like very busy right now, I have four FAC nominations to review. I'll either take a look at this next week or if this gets archived by then at FAC instead. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 20:44, 7 October 2026 (UTC)

@Vacant0 I'm not planning on taking this to FAC imminently, so I'd appreciate your feedback whenever you have time. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 20:49, 7 October 2026 (UTC)

OK, good. Next week it is. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 20:53, 7 October 2026 (UTC)

Hey Vacant0 just checking in. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 19:51, 23 October 2026 (UTC)

Sorry, I wanted to take a look at this yesterday but I was barely at home. I'll take a look at this now. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 12:50, 24 October 2026 (UTC)

Infobox

• This might be a hot take but I do not always cite who worked on the game. In most cases I do, but sometimes I don't. So, I don't find it personally as an issue. However, some might. Therefore, I recommend finding a source that backs up that Gabe McGill produced the game (it can be a RS or credits, don't really care).

Sources

• Ref 6 (Jorgensen, 2022) is missing a pgage.
• Ref 30 (Thon, 2025) cites a page range, 32 pages in total. Please specify which pages are supposed to back up "Firewatch differs from many of these games by offering two-way communication that the player has (partial) control over, and in the depth of its dialogue trees"
• Ref 41 (Campo Santo: The Art of Firewatch) is missing a timestamp.
• Is WinBeta really reliable?
• Ref 67 ( Attributed to multiple references: pcgamesn is a bare url)
• We do not include news awards in the accolades table. this should be in the prose.
• Ref 79 (The Edge Awards) cites a page range, 11 pages in total. Please specify which page is supposed to back up the edge awards 2016 best storytelling category winner.
• Names of creative works should be italicised within reference titles.

Images

• Alt text is now required at GA level, and as you might know, FAC editors consider this a must do at this level too.

Lede

• "adventure game" → "adventure video game" (per Gog)
• The lede about the development is really barebones now, I'd suggest expanding it with more useful info.
• "Metroidvania," jargon
• Rest looks okay

Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 21:41, 24 October 2026 (UTC)

MSincccc

Prose

• "with translating Moss' work" → "with translating Moss's work"
• "At one point in the development" → "At one point during development"
• Because the events of the game happened concurrently with the player exploring the wilderness, the developers could not rely on the usual options of relying heavily on notes or manmade objects to communicate information to the player, lest it disrupt suspension of disbelief.
  • How about "approach" in place of "options"? Also, could we avoid "rely...relying"?

@David Fuchs: That's all from me for now, but I'll be happy to take another look. Best, MSincccc (talk) 15:23, 25 October 2026 (UTC)