Deacon Blues wrote: ↑Thu Aug 12, 2021 1:56 pm
I get the impression that you don't have a very vast library of material to draw from, which is probably why you decide to reach for this book first every time. You can find scanlated versions of other material online quite easily, you know that, right? Combine that with a little easy Googling and you'll find that some people have even made mini indexes of what exactly appears in the books/material so you can look up stuff quickly and easily. So I guess that begs the question of how you can discredit it if it doesn't make sense? That at least implies you'd have to have other sources to draw from?
I mean, to be fair, Gundam Officials only has a limited number of publications it cobbles together its information from. It's only parroted information that has existed prior to 2000 anyways, and still only draws on stuff from the late 80s. It's a good starting point, but I do have a suggestion. You can use the Japanese Wikipedia entries to springboard into much more recent sources of information. Their hesitation in doing so doesn't stem from the fact that it was an expensive book (I've seen 9th edition reprints, and you can buy it for as little as 1800 yen on Mandarake), I think it comes down to tracking down the original source that GO cites.
I have been citing various other sources constantly, like the Rapport deluxe books, the Enterbrain MS Encyclopedia pack, the model manuals, B Club, Bandai Channel's MS videos etc.
And yes, I have also quoted a lot of the Japanese wikipedia sources as well as the cre Gundam and SRW wiki, especially I don't bring Gundam Officials nor any of those above physical sources to work.
And I am quoting Gundam Officials more because it is the most extensive database to date, and it is called Gundam Officials so I put it as the top source to draw from.(and it also happens to be right in front of me along with those other sources I have listed.)
I discredit it when it does not make sense, like contradicting itself, which I just mentioned earlier in this post. If you contradict yourself, you don't make sense, I don't have to draw from any other material to discredit that because that is simple logic. You make no sense when you claim a type of gun isn't reliable but every major ship of the line has only that type of gun installed as their main weapon, how on Earth can that make sense?