Board Thread:Consensus Track/@comment-32767830-20190221210044

Greetings everyone! In this thread I would like to propose a change to the usage of Characters and Creatures templates, mainly for ESO, as there is no Creation Kit for it and most of the entities in the game technically don’t have any difference between a character and a creature. This distinction is further complicated by the fact that some of the hostile characters (beings belonging to Races) use the creature template. Therefore, this subject can be divided into two parts:"Are hostile characters creatures?" and "Are some of the creatures characters?".

The current stance on the first question (dating back to February 20, 2012) is "Most hostile NPCs should use the above templates [Characters]. In some cases, these NPCs are simply named enemies and should be treated as Creatures. Follow the creatures style and formatting for these articles, using the creature templates". This explanation is highly vague: the NPCs which should be treated as creatures are decided based on their hostility, which, in my opinion, is not related to the being’s type. The suggestion about this part of the "Style and Formatting" is that hostility should not affect the decision, should the being be considered a character or a creature.

Another part of this topic is the actual decision whether the being is a creature or a character. At this moment, most of the creatures and characters from other games are discriminated between each other on the basis of the parameters in Creation Kit. This approach cannot be taken to characters and creatures from ESO as there is no CK for it (or rather it was not publically released). Therefore, there should be another way to distinguish between a creature and a character. I suggest developing some list of requirements to decide a being's type. For example, making this decision based on lore or interactions with the being (e.g. a Dremora would be a character because he is sentient). 