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I really feel like the "Can I run gametitle on my machine" questions are popping up a bit too often and from what i've seen so far there is no easy accessible information about this topic except for this meta post (and honestly... most people don't visit meta until they have 300-1000 rep).

So what I'm requesting is a close reason for this very topic and maybe also a note in the "What should I avoid asking" section and the Tour.

Text example in the close dialogue (might need to fix grammar my english is bad):

Questions that ask about whether a specific system is or isn't able to run a certain game are off-topic. If you want to know whether or not your machine is able to run a specific game you might want to follow the answers in this question or read the system requirements provided by the game publisher.

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  • I haven't seen too many of these recently. Can you provide examples? Also, the number of close reasons we have is apparently very difficult to get increased, and each one already serves multiple actual close reasons. I don't see us being able to also fit this into one of them.
    – Invader Skoodge Mod
    Commented Feb 19, 2015 at 15:01
  • The linked question should actually also be closed; it's a service recommendation question, and isn't a good example of the type of questions we want here.
    – Frank
    Commented Feb 19, 2015 at 15:05
  • 3
    @Frank That you don't want here. Apparently the community finds the question useful.
    – Jutschge
    Commented Feb 19, 2015 at 15:08
  • Irrelevant; a question being popular does not make it immune to closure and upholding site standards. But regardless, my main point is that if we do get a close reason for this, let's not point to a question that would get closed if asked today as a good example.
    – Frank
    Commented Feb 19, 2015 at 15:10
  • @Frank yeah. I just didn't want to link tho the site directly because I have no idea if this would cause legal trouble (the FAQ is kind of "official" I guess).
    – Jutschge
    Commented Feb 19, 2015 at 15:12
  • @StrixVaria 1 , 2 , 3. Well those are the first 3 I could find quickly. But it really feels like every second question in the close reviews is either about minecraft crashes or "Can I run".
    – Jutschge
    Commented Feb 19, 2015 at 15:16
  • @Frank - I thought that's what Historic Lock was for: questions which don't really uphold site standards but are valuable enough to the community to warrant keeping it around: "This question is bad, but it brings in the money" kinda thing.
    – Robotnik Mod
    Commented Mar 5, 2015 at 23:27
  • We don't have historic locks here at Arqade. Not sure why we don't use them, but generally, I think they cause more trouble than they're worth. New questions always get asked along their lines, and everyone ignores the fact that it's got a historic lock.
    – Frank
    Commented Mar 5, 2015 at 23:28
  • Huh, that explains a lot. I figured the only reason we hadn't used h-locks is because we hadn't gotten a question that we liked enough to warrant keeping. Anyway, these questions will get asked regardless of whether an old one exists or not - the people asking them generally aren't the type to Google around first
    – Robotnik Mod
    Commented Mar 5, 2015 at 23:38

2 Answers 2

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I have been flagging such questions with a duplicate flag. I am using the following question:

How can I check if my computer's powerful enough to run a certain game?

The answers provided in the link above help people find a solution to their problem. The answers seem generic enough to cover any game.

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We are allowed a maximum of 4 custom close reasons. Currently these are:

  • Questions that ask for recommendations of games, software, or hardware are off topic. For more information on why these sorts of questions don't work here, see "So, what actually is a Game-Rec?" and "Q&A Is Hard. Let's Go Shopping!"

  • Questions about unreleased or illegal content are off topic on Arqade. We only support questions about games available to the general public through legitimate means.

  • Questions about Game Design and Development are off topic. This includes speculative questions about developer intent, with respect to both mechanics and narrative. You might want to ask over at GameDev.SE, but be sure to read their FAQ

  • Questions asking for help identifying a game, whether based on a description, or feature list, or any other set of criteria (i.e. "What was the first game to…") are off-topic; this blog post might help. We allow an exception for identifying games based on an actual piece of the game, such as screenshots or audio clips.

IMO, the third one of these (Try on Game Dev) is rarely used, and if it's an appropriate question for gamedev anyway then migration is the correct course of action anyway.

I'd be happy to replace that reason with the above, if people reckon it's a more common occurrence than GameDev questions. All of our other custom close reasons are very common, so I wouldn't think replacing them would be a good idea.

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  • 6
    Speculative questions used to be a huge problem and are definitely entirely off topic. I'm not too comfortable removing that half of the close reason.
    – Invader Skoodge Mod
    Commented Feb 19, 2015 at 17:07
  • 7
    I wish it was feasible to have a close reason along the lines of 'this is an unhelpful minecraft crash dump which doesn't help us help you'.
    – shanodin
    Commented Feb 20, 2015 at 10:36
  • @StrixVaria / fredley - tangentally related, but in regards to the convo above between myself and Frank, do the mods have a stance on historic locks?
    – Robotnik Mod
    Commented Mar 5, 2015 at 23:38
  • @Robotnik There is rarely a good reason to use a historic lock vs. just closing/deleting.
    – Invader Skoodge Mod
    Commented Mar 6, 2015 at 1:08

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