Pikipedia talk:General content guidelines

Family name capitalization

Currently, family names are written in lowercase on the wiki. However, as of Pikmin 4, family names are consistently capitalized in game, even in text otherwise taken from previous games, so it would make sense for the wiki to follow suit, right? 2 B (talk) 18:43, January 5, 2024 (EST)

In this case I think it'd be best to follow what real-world taxonomy does. From a quick look at Wikipedia it seems that common informal family names are written in lowercase, while formal family names are capitalized, but all the family names in Pikmin seem to be of the informal variety. So I think considering this inconsistency between games, it's better to keep doing what we currently do because it better matches real-world taxonomy. — Soprano_(talk) 03:37, January 14, 2024 (EST)

Here's a quote from you on the Wollyhop Family talk page: “We need to document what is in the games, not what should be in the games.”. The whiskerpillar family exists, in Pikmin 2, but not the Whiskerpillar family. The Polyocular Slug family exists, in Pikmin 4, but not the Polyocular slug family. Mama09001 (talk) 14:19, January 2, 2025 (EST)

The wiki should use names from the games, but I don't think the wiki always has to match the in-game capitalization of those names. The wiki is an encyclopedia covering multiple games, and different games can capitalize similar things differently. Obstacles are an example of this, with Pikmin 3 capitalizing obstacle names in lock-on text and Pikmin 4 not capitalizing them in dialog. In a situation like this, it's often better for the wiki to use consistent formatting for all the games, even when it doesn't match some in-game formatting, because it makes the wiki look more consistent, and the difference is not especially significant. When it is possible to match in-game formatting without resulting in too much inconsistency on the wiki, it's a good idea – it's becoming common to write "bomb-rock" when discussing Pikmin and Pikmin 2 and write "Bomb Rock" when discussing Pikmin 3 and Pikmin 4, for example, though the difference in this case is slightly more significant than a capitalization difference. But I think that when it's possible for a type of name to use consistent formatting, it's a good idea to do this. — Soprano_(talk) 10:42, May 14, 2026 (UTC)

Personally I feel like capitalized is the way to go. Its weird to stick with real grammar for families while capitalizing species, especially when some of them share names directly; Goolix in the goolix family, Candypop Bud in the candypop family, Ravenous Whiskerpillar in the whiskerpillar family. And it seems Nintendo agrees as of Pikmin 4. --PopitTart (talk) 17:55, October 25, 2024 (EDT)

I second PopitTart -Gulliblepikmin 15:22, May 14, 2026 (UTC)

A related topic: should enemy-related terms that are not the names of enemies be capitalized? Olimar's notes in Pikmin 2 don't capitalize terms like "bulborb" and "bloyster", so based on this, the wiki sometimes doesn't capitalize these terms either when they're not part of enemy names, though it's more common for these terms to be capitalized. This use of these terms looks inconsistent with enemy names, which are always capitalized, so should these terms always be capitalized? — Soprano_(talk) 10:42, May 14, 2026 (UTC)

That's more of a quirk of Pikmin 2's script. Apart from the Pikmin and their Onions, it just doesn't capitalise any proper nouns associated with the game's creatures, outside of the name displayed above the Piklopedia's viewing window, the intro of Olimar's Piklopedia logs, and a few scattered instances in the Treasure Hoard which were changed to full lowercase in the Switch version for consistency. That is to say, I do think enemy-related terms should be capitalised. -Gulliblepikmin 15:22, May 14, 2026 (UTC)