My suggested edit to a game-identification question got rejected. The edit changed the title from
What Game is shown in this newspaper snippet?
to
What game (isometric perspective, showing buildings and trees) is shown in this newspaper snippet?
(In addition, the edit added alt content for the image, replacing the useless default content.)
I asked one of the users that rejected the edit for a reason, and got an answer:
if anyone wants to view the image, they can view it themselves by opening the post. We don't describe image contents in titles.
(ignoring the alt issue here, because the user said they would accept the edit if it were not for the title)
As I don’t want to discuss this in the question’s comments, and as this wasn’t the only case I experienced here (see below), and as the game identification FAQ doesn’t say something about titles, I’m bringing this to Meta.
What kind of titles do we (and don’t we) want for game identification questions?
Other cases
Two more game ID title edits that got rejected:
With this rejected suggested edit (which already got discussed on Meta) I tried to change the title from
What game is this from?
to
What game is this from? (probably an old Japanese arcade platformer)
With this rejected suggested edit I tried to change the title from
Identifying an old game?
to
Old game with character in white cloth, spikes that cause instant death, and a level with a mirror that creates a replica of your character
Of course not all my game ID title edits got rejected:
This approved suggested edit changed the title from
Can you identify this Android game?
to
Android game showing a roboter on a windmill (which is built with Minecraft-like blocks)
This approved suggested edit changed the title from
What game is this picture from?
to
What game is this picture showing a teenage girl wearing a shirt with three yellow birds from?
My point of a view
A title like "What Game is shown in this newspaper snippet?" is bad (and titles like "What game is this from?" and "Identifying an old game?" are even worse):
- It doesn’t give any kind of game-related information.
- The fact that it comes from a newspaper is meaningless if the newspaper isn’t mentioned (and even then it could still be irrelevant).
- It doesn’t convey anything more than what the tag already conveys. The equivalent to a non-identification question would be "I have a question".
- Every user interested in game identification has to open the question to even be able to decide whether it’s interesting for them. This is pure clickbait (which is probably why these sometimes become hot), and bad usability.
- Users that want to ask for a game ID of the same game (maybe even with the identical media object) have no chance to check if it would be a duplicate other than opening all those questions with meaningless titles.
Instead, the title should contain what can be assumed about the game (from interpreting the media object):
- What kind of game does it appear to be? (shooter, puzzle, …)
- What’s the perspective? (ego, isometric, …)
- What is shown? (a tower, underwater world, horses, …)
- On what kind of device is it played? (smartphone, PC, console, …)
- etc.
Or in other words: Give details in the title so that a user, given the media object and all game ID question titles, would be able to find the correct question (without opening them all!).
It doesn’t really matter if the details happen to be wrong (e.g., it could be a 2D puzzle game, but the screenshot shows a 3D cutscene). What matters is that users get an idea what kind of game the ID question might be about.
