Category talk:Factories

Create a supercategory of this page for mechanical themed areas that aren't factories

This talk page section contains an unresolved talk page proposal. Please try to help and resolve the issue by voting or leaving a comment.

Current time: Sunday, January 11, 2026, 21:29 GMT

So... according to this category Fleet Glide Galaxy is a factory. You know, the spaceship shaped galaxy. Weird, right? Why would a spaceship also be a factory? I guess it also has some conveyor belts...

Tick Tock Clock and World 7-4 (Super Mario 3D Land) are also factories, in spite of the first outright being a clock and the second being almost entirely about gears.

Luigi's Engine Room is a factory despite its name outright saying its an engine! Engines, needless to say, aren't factories.

What about Feel Fuzzy, Get Clingy? There are conveyor belts, it very much feels like a factory stage, but arranging heavy machinery, gears, and conveyor belts in a pattern shouldn't make something a factory, at least in the way the wiki is asserting it. But then again, otherwise the course article would have no location categories other than its game based ones, and that's weird.

I think I know what's going on. Remember Category:Outer Space Locations? Wait actually you shouldn't remember it because this 2018 proposal changed it to "Cosmic Locations" and then we would later move it to Category:Cosmic areas. That change happened because the phrase "Outer Space" was implying that everything in the category was literally in space, while things like Cosmic Adventure and Superstar Road that were in the category even though the former outright is not in space and the latter's "in-space-ness" cannot be conclusively determined. This is very similar to the current problem of Category:Factories having things that are not factories and things whose "factory-ness" cannot be conclusively determined. Similar problems call for similar solutions.

I believe we should create a new category whose job it is to encompass the "They involve an industrial backdrop or otherwise feature hi-tech machinery or gadgets that must be interacted with." part of the current definition of Category:Factories. The exact name of this new category isn't important, and we can probably settle on something in the comments, but for example's sake lets call it "Category:Mechanical areas" to match "Category:Cosmic areas" and Category:Volcanic areas. This new category would make fewer statements about what is true about its contents, so it wouldn't have the "square peg, round hole" problem Category:Factories has in its inclusions. In fact, all of the examples of articles that are odd to have in Category:Factories listed in this proposal would fit just fine in "Category:Mechanical areas". Thus, I believe introducing "Category:Mechanical areas", or an equivalent category with a different name, will serve to decrease the amount of speculation regarding what is or isn't a factory on Super Mario Wiki. Reducing speculation is a good thing because it makes the wiki more reputable.

Normally this is where I'd sign off, but there's one other catch. Some locations are associated with factories but have not been directly stated to be factories. The most obvious example are the levels of the Factory (Donkey Kong Country Returns) world. I think we can all agree that Gear Getaway is hardly a factory: its an group of gears and other assorted mechanisms that probably do something elsewhere in the greater factory complex of the Factory world, but not a factory in itself. But Gear Getaway is within the Factory, granting it an association to an actual defined factory that things like Feel Fuzzy, Get Clingy do not have. So we've got to draw a line. The first option support will allow locations that are not directly called factories but are in some way linked to something that is a factory to be within Category:Factories. The second support option will not allow locations that are not directly called factories but are in some way linked to something that is a factory to be within Category:Factories.

Proposer: Salmancer (talk)
Deadline: January 24, 2026, 23:59 GMT

Support (lenient): Create Category:Mechanical areas but be lenient regarding what is allowed to be in its subcategory Category:Factories

1. Salmancer (talk) I actually don't like being the category police that much, so I think letting Gear Getaway and friends slide is okay.
2. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) - There's a fine line between Tick-Tock Clock having gears and conveyor belts and it actually being a facility that ostensibly exists to make something. This categorization always bothered me, it feels like it's in this category to "make up" for the fact that mainline Super Mario games are rather low on factory stages. We might as well consider Pinna Park or the Toy Time Galaxy to be "factories."
3. Arend (talk) I actually think stages like Feel Fuzzy, Get Clingy are "factory-esque" enough to be factory locations, but there are also a handful of locations that don't feel "factory" enough at all. It's kinda funny that clockwork locations (such as Tick Tock Clock, both the SM64 course and the MKDS race course, as well as Old Clockworks and the clock tower courses in 3D Land, are being considered "factories" (honestly, you might as well make a Clockwork locations subcategory if there's even more out there). The category also seems to pin down mechanical aircraft/seacraft/spacecraft locations as factories; while kinda factory-esque, Luigi's Engine Room takes place in the engine room of a flying ship; World 7-Airship (Super Mario 3D Land) and its Special World counterpart are also seen as factories for some reason, as are various stages within DK94's Airplane world. Though, I think it would be fine to call the stages within Castle Bowser from Wonder factory stages, given that the internal filename for its music seems to call it a factory.
4. Yoshi18 (talk) Per all.
5. Ahemtoday (talk) Per proposal.

Comments (Create a looser supercategory for Category:Factories)

Starting the name bidding. I pitch "Category:Mechanical areas", the broadest way to refer to the thing the category is trying to track. (This proposal was originally going to use "Category:Industrial areas", but that would include things like warehouses and exclude something like cartoony Rube Goldberg machines. Figured it was better to stick to the heart of the gaming trope: the presence of gears and conveyor belts.) Salmancer (talk) 20:51, January 9, 2026 (EST)

I assume that a "Category:Mechanical areas" would also be a supercategory to Category:Airship areas, given all the Burners, Bolt Lifts, and Rocky Wrenches as well as Bowser Jr.'s mechanical inclinations. But no, the hypothetical relationship between "Category:Airship areas" and the hypothetical "Category:Mechanical areas" is not part of this proposal.
— The preceding unsigned comment was added by Salmancer (talk).

I'm also backing the creation of "Category:Clockwork areas", which seems pretty useful. I'm gonna put a list of articles that could go there below this comment and y'all have my express permission to add to it: Ahemtoday (talk) 04:25, January 11, 2026 (EST)

• Ludwig's Clockwork Castle
• Ludwig's Block-Press Castle
• Tick Tock Clock
• Tick-Tock Clock (race course)
• Clockwork Ruins Galaxy
• World 7-4 (Super Mario 3D Land)
• Special 4-1
• Special 7-3
• Clockwork Castle
• Clockwork Room
• Old Clockworks

I think Clock Tower from Donkey Kong Jungle Beat can also be included. Maybe the Clock Tower from Princess Peach: Showtime! as well, but I'm not entirely sure. rend (talk) (edits) 16:29, January 11, 2026 (EST)