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A question I ask earlier today was put on hold, and will later be closed, for being primarily opinion-based (and probably too broad, upon reflection). One way that was suggested of narrowing it, while still solving my problem was to pose a new question along the lines of "What heroes work well with Hero A?".

While it would help me out, and as far as I can tell, it would be a good question, it would also potentially open the door for 20 more questions for Hero B, Hero C, etc. So my question is, is this something allowed here and if so, should it be?

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  • It really depends on who you are and what Hero's you like to play as. Jun 21, 2016 at 16:43
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    @alex Agreed and I would not intend to spam a bunch of questions like that, but if 20 different people each like a different hero and saw my question and thought "I should ask that for my favorite hero!", there would be to possibility for a bit of flooding, especially for a newer, popular game like Overwatch.
    – Pants
    Jun 21, 2016 at 16:45
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    Well, as far as question flooding goes, it'd only be 21 questions. Drop in the ocean, in my opinion, and any future questions would be closed as duplicates.
    – Yuuki
    Jun 21, 2016 at 16:58
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    @Yuuki I suppose I meant that we would see a bunch of questions like it from a bunch of different games. Though after more searching, I see that there are a fair amount of "How do you counter Hero Z?" questions, which are in the same vein and don't seem terribly obtrusive.
    – Pants
    Jun 21, 2016 at 17:54

1 Answer 1

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I really don't see a problem with asking a question like this if you really want to know who works well with your favorite character.

Asking all 21 questions rapid fire (or as fast as the rate-limiter lets you) isn't really using the system in good faith, though; our site isn't meant to be a repository of guides and all information, but rather a way to get answers to your questions as you have them. So ask for the hero, or even heroes, that you really like playing, and if other people really like other heroes and over time we finally come to full parity with all the heroes, then that would mean we have a bunch of good content on our site.

tl;dr: A question isn't off topic just because 20 other similar questions could exist.

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    A question isn't off topic just because 20 other similar questions could exist. I want to emphasis this point. I've seen the sentiment of "but someone could ask a bunch of similar questions!" brought up a lot on the site, and there's been a few cases in just the past week, and it's completely wrong. A question having the potential for a bunch of similar questions doesn't suddenly make it off-topic.
    – Wipqozn Mod
    Jun 22, 2016 at 12:15
  • Wouldn't it still be off-topic based on being primarily opinion-based and/or too localized?
    – Mast
    Jun 23, 2016 at 18:52
  • @Mast There is nothing opinion based about strategy questions. You can back up any assertions you make with data, facts, and experience. It's also not too localized because it is a general question that would be useful to anyone playing Overwatch and wondering about character synergies. "Too localized" implies that the asker, and only ever the asker, would benefit from the question. Jun 23, 2016 at 18:55
  • I think this is borderline, but I'd want to see some answer attempts before deciding it was off-topic. I could easily be surprised.
    – DCShannon
    Jun 23, 2016 at 21:10
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    @Mast See the SO blogpost on Good Subjective vs. Bad Subjective if you want more detail as to why strategy questions are allowed. They're "Good Subjective". Primarily opinion-based would be something like "Which Overwatch character is the most fun?" or somesuch, as that is a completely subjective opinion which can't be backed up by data and personal experience. Asking for a hero pair that synergizes well is fine because a good answer will require facts and personal experience to back up the assertion.
    – FAE
    Jun 25, 2016 at 4:40

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