Creating NamespacesEdit
Obviously, any official TES video game deserves it own namespace, and "mod" namespaces have been created for each game in the main series since TES III: Morrowind. The expansion of the TES franchise into a new medium may warrant a new namespace (see, e.g., Books:Books).
Deciding which items of downloadable content (DLC) are deserving of a new namespace has sometimes proved controversial; see here, here, here, and here. Historically, in the game data, Bethesda has always referred to all DLC for any given game with the same term, without distinguishing between minor or major DLC (although the name given to DLC in general has varied with each game).
These guidelines are provided to help the community determine whether or not a new namespace is warranted for upcoming or newly released TES content. A preliminary decision can sometimes be made by the community based on pre-release information, but a final decision must necessarily wait for some content to be released (notably DLC).
A DLC namespace insulates the vanilla namespace from information about that DLC.
- DLC for which a DLC namespace is suitable should (1) add significant amounts of content, and (2) the vast majority of that content should be well-suited to being insulated from the vanilla game. Historically, this has meant that the DLC has added new, insulated landmass where most of the new content is focused (as was the case with Tribunal, Bloodmoon, Shivering Isles, and Dragonborn). Some DLC which was substantial but which was relatively integrated into the vanilla gamespace did not receive separate namespaces (such as Knights of the Nine and Dawnguard).
Creating namespaces is done solely for the sake of the convenience of the UESP community.
- UESP readers who do not possess a game's DLC do not want to be exposed to a great amount of content which is irrelevant to their game experience. UESP editors cannot substantially fact-check or contribute to pages which are heavily related to DLC they do not possess. So separate DLC namespaces serve the same purposes as any other namespace.
Creating namespaces should not be construed as attempts to reflect the game creators' intentions or to disparage any content.