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I think tagging on this site can get out of control very fast. I propose we use the method started by Math Overflow and precede game names with their acronym followed by a dot. This helps the search when people are entering tags because some people will use the full title of a game (new-super-mario-bro-Wii) and some will just put the acronym (nsmbw).

Related to this, I really suggest we increase the tag length limit from 24 to 40 or so. I tried using the tag nsmbw.new-super-mario-bros-wii and it's too long for the system. Many games have very long names like this.

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    there's tag synonyms (and a tag wiki) for that. no need to confuse users by mixing up abbreviation and the full title IMHO
    – Zommuter
    Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 9:21
  • @Tobias To be fair, when this was proposed, there was no such thing as synonyms or tag wiki.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 12:25
  • @Grace: true, sorry @cowgod I only saw Jeff's answer date... Hey, this site's online quite some time now, seems like it started just yesterday :)
    – Zommuter
    Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 13:12

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Questions about specific games should be tagged with their release names and "release identifier". Questions about a game series should instead be tagged with the series name, sans numbers. For example:

  • What makes Final Fantasy games so successful? [final-fantasy]
  • Should I ignore leveling with Aeris in FFVII? [final-fantasy-vii]
  • What's the best strategy to defeat the Final Fantasy boss? [final-fantasy-1]

If a game does not currently have a sequel announced, like Deus-Ex, it is probably okay to just use one tag. The moment a sequel is announced, however, mass tag changes would have to take place.

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    We really should not use both "VII" and "1".
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Jul 7, 2010 at 20:01
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    we should use [final-fantasy] for questions about the first game, and [final-fantasy-series] for questions about the series.
    – alexanderpas
    Commented Jul 13, 2010 at 20:11
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This is actually a suggestion from alexanderpas, from back on Meta. I'm reposting it here as a placeholder, because I think it's actually not too bad of an idea (although it's problematic for those of us big in the indie scene, where there's not so much in the registered IP department).

The way I see the gaming tagging, is the most "natural" tags for example, for gaming, I would say, games per IP (Interlectual Property), per system (if exclusive or applicable), etc... The name of the game should be the least preferable tag in this series.

For non-exact game questions per genre ([rpg], [action-adventure], [shooter])

and some service tags ([spoiler] for example, (to be put in the ignore list)

For example:

  • How Many different versions of the PlayStation 3 are there [sony] [ps3]
  • How do I beat Bowser in Super Mario Galaxy 2 [mario] [wii]
  • Are there any recent old-school Sonic Games [sega] [sonic] [2D] [side-scolling]
  • Should I ignore leveling with Aeris in FFVII [final-fantasy] [playstation] [psn] [spoiler]
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  • I agree mostly with the suggested tags but I'd prefer seeing the game title added. That way I can put the tag of my current favourite game to the interesting tags without adding the whole series (or to ignored if I specifically want to figure everything out by myself for now) edit read alexandrepas's version which actually reflects this, so sorry I -1 you here...
    – Zommuter
    Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 7:49
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While I have previously answered this question on meta actual usage in the private beta has seen some minimal problems with this type of tagging.

The solution of this problem is to give more priority to the game name in the tags, going even as far as making it the most desired tag for questions about the game itself, and reserving the series tag for questions about the series itself.

Still the same is the genre tag for questions about the respective genre, and the console tag to allow identification of which console the game is for.

To differentiate between games questions and hardware questions, the [hardware] tag should be used where applicable.

So, here is my revised list of questions and their corresponding tags

  • How many different versions of the PlayStation 3 are there [hardware] [playstation-3]
  • How do I beat Bowser in Super Mario Galaxy 2 [super-mario-galaxy-2] [wii]
  • Are there any recent old-school Sonic Games [game-recommendations] [sega] [sonic] [2d] [side-scolling]
  • Should I ignore leveling with Aeris in FFVII [final-fantasy-vii] [playstation] [psn] [pc] [spoiler]
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  • At first I was going to delete my post, since I figured you were taking ownership of it by posting it separately. But I realize now that you're posting a different one here, so I'm going to leave my post around just as an example of another suggestion.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Jul 13, 2010 at 20:14
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The idea that you must tag every game, no matter how obscure, is rather toxic.

I would reserve tags for games that actually have some demonstrated popularity, eg, [gta4] is probably a reasonable tag as you can expect a number of those questions, whereas [space-bunnies-must-die] is really just a bad idea.

Search should be sufficient for the more obscure games, not every game should be a tag just like not every word and concept in your question needs to be a tag.

(that is a real game -- go look it up, if you're curious.)

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    Without the game to tag, there is little else to tag, and even less with the absence of context. Plus, who gets to define whether a game "deserves a tag" if we restrict it? How can we really tell our users "Sorry, not a lot of us have heard of your game so we can't give you a tag"? Popularity measurements differ entirely on what communities you participate in, what nation you are in, and what genre you are looking at. If we want to try some ill-defined global scope of popularity, then not even Dwarf Fortress, our second most popular game, deserves a tag.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 3:46
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    But let's avoid theory and settle on practice - Jeff, if you had to tag this question, how should it be tagged?
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 3:59
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    @grace [how-to] [strategy] [cliff] [plz-to-send-teh-help] [jquery]
    – badp
    Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 6:16
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    Are there real languages that don't deserve their own tag on StackOverflow just because they are unpopular? Even APL has a tag, despite only having 2 real programming questions.
    – Larry Wang
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 0:28
  • @grace it's a platformer so I'd tag it [platformer] ; otherwise you're arguing for [space-bunnies-must-die] as a tag which is toxic
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 17:59
  • @kae but there are maybe one hundred real viable programming languages -- how many different games are there across all platforms?
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 18:00
  • @grace how about a policy of creating the tag for the SECOND question? I might remind you that the system auto-deletes single use tags (after 6 months) which never get a second use anyway.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 18:06
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    I don't see why [space-bunnies-must-die] is toxic - it's actually very good for distinguishing the question from others. To point, there's also a game called [bunny-must-die] (which is actually a very difficult Metroidvania style game by PlatineDispostif which can provide a LOT of questions, if I could convince more people to buy it).
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 18:11
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    And if the system auto-deletes single use tags, why bother waiting for the second question? If the second question comes within 60 days then they have a tag they can find in auto-complete. If it doesn't come or it comes after 60 days, the effect is identical, but I think it provides better convenience to have it around for people to use.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 18:14

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