This is something I've been dwelling on for two weeks. The migration of this question has inspired me to post this now.
Game recommendations... it's been a trying subject but we've come to absolutely no consensus.
Many users dislike allowing them free-bounds because there is a scale issue associated; this scale issue is identical to Seasoned Advice's "recipe swapping" threads. As well, the ratings done for those questions conflict with the rest of our system, and it has been proven unfruitful to devise a scheme where people will not vote out of popularity.
Many users dislike completely barring them because they are entry point for more people to provide help to their community. As well, the information contained in objective lists is a very useful resource which the removal of would limit our ability to help people.
Many users dislike the pseudo-enforced "too broad" clause for one of two reasons. One, it is difficult to enforce because there is no clear definition that can be consistently used, as how narrowing a specific feature might be is entirely subjective. Two, it is an elitist clause that is antithetical to our mission because the more capable we are of actually answering a question, the more likely it should be closed under this clause.
To top it off, any other manner of "narrowing" the quantity would be completely arbitrary once we extend past genre/platform specification (a ruling that was decided very early on to be insufficient). Arbitrary close reasons would insult users even moreso than whatever we currently do.
I've argued repeatedly that handling these on-site is filled with impossible problems of management and quality. But there exist resources out there which do not have these problems: websites all around dedicate themselves to hosting repositories. Some of the existing game recommendation questions have even been answered by linking these outside resources. Fact is, we are a community built into a specific engine which outside resources don't have to deal with. Instead of trying to adapt our engine to perform something which we are entirely not designed for, why don't we leverage what we find outside our own bounds to assist those who come to us?
Thus I propose the following avenue that we take our site.
Open up a gaming resource question (well within our scope) that asks for resources on finding the next best games with certain criteria. We can do this either by posting a new question, or reopening the earlier mentioned migrated question.
Pool together an initial list of whatever resources we know (for example, I'd contribute RPGamer, a very comprehensive resource on RPGs). Create a big CW answer that we use as the launching point. Denote each resource with helpful notes on how much data they provide.
As time passes, everyone can contribute what resources are available to all different kinds of needs. From general review sites to platform/genre specific sites, there's a lot that exists out there which we can link.
Optionally, include a link to our chat facilities for people who might want something quick instead of sifting through lists upon lists.
And ideally, I'd think the following would be the best termination point of this process.
Decisively make all game recommendations from this point forwards off-topic. No more closing as "subjective & argumentative", no more "too broad" clause. Establish in our FAQ, like Seasoned Advice did in theirs ("So instead of trying to explain why every individual recipe request was closed, we have simply designated the entire category as off-topic."), that these specific questions pose too many problems and thus have been deemed off-topic. Direct users to our general rec question for a list of resources, and/or our chat facilities once again if users want something quick.
Do we think this kind of solution has a chance to work?
