What is and isn't an "additional effect"? Do we even need a field?
As per this ruling on TMs, self discard clauses are effects. [1] Meaning that a whole bunch of cards here are labelled as having no "additional effect" when the rules say they do. This applies to self discarding Energy, so the Rapid Strike Energies, Aqua Energies, Triple Acceleration Energies, Double Dragon Energies, Double Magma Energies, and probably plenty of other Special Energies all have an "additional effect" and this should be reflected in their infobox.
This does further raise the question: "How much value is displaying a field that only mentions that a card has an additional effect" even add? It's really vague, and the text box is right next to the infobox and fully reads out the card text. I guess it helps APIs getting information off of Bulbapedia and provides additional information slightly earlier for people using screen readers? I do think, however, that excluding self discard clauses from the definition of "additional effect" for usefulness is a case of making up terms that best fit the group fans want to apply them to instead of making functional terms. Which I dislike.
(Oh yeah, and there is an actual Rapid Strike Energy ruling too [2] Hey, thanks Temple of Sinnoh!) Salmancer (talk) 16:08, 19 February 2024 (UTC)
- If the field must be kept, a reasonable way to make it say what Bulbapedia wants it to say is to split things up by what the effect is affecting. (Describing all cards as having "effects" sometimes leads to sentences like that.) "Effect on Pokemon", "Effect on Player", "Effect on other Energy card" "Effect on itself", "Effect on Opponent", "Effect on Opponent Pokemon" covers every case the game has to offer and more usefully classifies things. "Effect on itself" ends up being "self discards" 90% of the time, but that is how the game works. And it frees up the other fields to say what Bulbapedia wants them to say. Salmancer (talk) 11:57, 22 February 2024 (UTC)