Forum:Stage themes

Some of you have probably noticed that we have some new articles, describing themes/elements that are common across multiple stages in different games, and listing stages that use these themes. I think these pages are great. It's hard to deny that these common themes exist and are intentionally referenced, and it's both nice and useful to have a list of similar levels that allows us to see commonalities but also to track how the themes have developed over time (some, like the underwater theme, came into existence fully formed; others, like the amusement park theme, needed several games to find their footin).

However, some people don't like them (see Talk:Fire theme). It's been suggested that they should be categories instead (which is what Sonic Retro do, incidentally), or deleted outright. I have to strongly disagree with the use of categories. The themes might exist, but they are not hard-and-fast and the context and description of their application to individual stages is vital. Also, some stages might have more than one theme (White Park Zone has three), so they'd have to be categorised more than once, which would be ugly and unwieldy.

I want to keep them as they are. What do you think? -- Supermorff (talk) 08:34, August 5, 2012 (UTC)