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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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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?

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  • 9
    Yes. Please, Yes. Nov 14, 2010 at 16:11
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    I'll take 1 Game-rec over 100. I'd like for 0, but I can settle at 1
    – tzenes
    Nov 14, 2010 at 23:07
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    IN THE GRIM FUTURE OF [GAME-REC], THERE IS ONLY WAR.
    – Brant
    Nov 15, 2010 at 18:47
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    Grace, I think you should be lauded for continuing to put considerable effort into this problem. The rest of us can't manage to do much beyond occasionally arguing. (Also, I think this is a good idea.)
    – sjohnston
    Nov 15, 2010 at 22:27
  • Yes, I think this would work nicely. Nov 16, 2010 at 18:39
  • Strong endorse. +1 Nov 17, 2010 at 14:14
  • Since game-rec questions are now off-topic, should this be closed as well? Or can we still maintain it?
    – Mana
    Dec 24, 2010 at 1:49
  • Notice how the last clause is "Obliterate game rec".
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Dec 24, 2010 at 11:26

5 Answers 5

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I think that this would absolutely work, if maintained well. I'm imagining something like this right now:

The title of the question would be Gaming Resources, or something to that effect. The body of the question would contain how the question works, and a guideline as to how to post resources.

Now I think this would work best if we had one genre / topic per answer. So there would be an RPG answer where RPG specific resources would go, a General FAQs answer where sites like GameFAQs would go, and so on. Since there won't be millions of answers with one resource each, we could keep an alphabeticalised list of with each answer hyperlinked for easy access to each answer. So if somebody stumbled upon a great strategy game resource, they could click the Strategy hyperlink in the question body, and then edit in their resource.

If we end up doing something like this, I'd be more than happy to be one of the people who consistently helps maintain it.

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  • I like splitting the answers up like this, although if we want categories other than genre, it may be difficult to sort out. Maintaining an index of all answers (categories) in the question body might help.
    – sjohnston
    Nov 16, 2010 at 14:59
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    Part of me thinks that rather than doing one-per-genre, that we instead have a single post dedicated to Genre-specific stuff. I don't really expect that there'll be enough resources per genre to necessitate separate answers. That also lets us instead use an index of answers to refer to different classes of resources, like a single post for platform-specialized resources. To save maintenance issue, it would be ideal that we file things where they are most appropriate (Is it more of an XBox site or more of an FPS site?). What do you think?
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Nov 17, 2010 at 13:40
  • @GraceNote -- Agreed. There can be "genre" specificity in the answers, no need for multiple questions. Nov 17, 2010 at 22:07
  • @Raven Sorry if my wording was a little unclear, I meant having 1 question for all the resources, and multiple answers under that question.
    – Kevin Yap
    Nov 17, 2010 at 23:01
  • @Kevin Y -- actually, I think I misread the question, reading "answer" as "question". So yeah... my mistake! Nov 17, 2010 at 23:14
  • Which is to say, I misread the answer... bah! See? I'm still confused. Nov 17, 2010 at 23:21
  • Been mulling over this proposal for a few days now to try to sort out how I feel about it. I think that I generally approve, except I'm wondering what other kinds of resources we're looking at listing? Mostly, I wouldn't want to have this be only a blanket answer that we throw over any question relating to RPG strategy/FPS tactics/etc. or something. I think there's still room (and a use) for single, detailed questions/answers to keep existing even if we put this in place.
    – FAE
    Nov 18, 2010 at 22:22
  • the only thing we need for technical [game-rec]: mobygames.com (the oldest, largest and most accurate video game database for games of every platform spanning 1979-2010.) Dec 6, 2010 at 22:20
  • @alex Feh, every single game I've input there has failed to turn up. So much for accuracy!
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Dec 7, 2010 at 16:27
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The current policy is IMHO too arbitrary, we should either completely allow or disallow game recommendations.

The StackExchange system just does not work well for this kind of questions, it may be better if we focus our efforts on the strengths of the Q&A system.

I agree with Oak, that the proposed list cannot replace individual game recommendation questions. But I've come to the conclusion that those questions should be off-topic on this site. The resource question is a good idea if we do that.

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The thing is, I really wished that gaming.se itself would have became one of these sites that might be a valid answer to such a question :(

In addition, I'd argue that since the "what are good resources for game recommendation" question is already on-topic, at least in my opinion, then what you propose can be summarized as "leave everything unchanged except for making all game recommendation questions off-topic".

Now, if we do decide game-recs are off-topic, then I agree with you a comment linking to that resource question should be posted along with the close reason. But I don't see such a question as a valid replacement.

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    I wished that when the site was first launched. But we picked a site with an engine dedicated to authoritative, comprehensive Q&A. Building repositories simply doesn't work in the system when housed alongside the rest of our content, and it's come to the point that changing the system to adapt for recommendations transforms it to the point we might as well use a completely different engine. Either that, or we rely on all users to use things non-intuitively and not in the ways people would like.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Nov 14, 2010 at 16:15
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    It isn't a perfect replacement, and I'm not going to propose it as one. But it's something I feel has a better chance to end this war.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Nov 14, 2010 at 16:17
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    I definitely share your opinion that knowledge of games for recommendation is also a sort of expertise that is useful. Unfortunately, the majority of the community here doesn't agree, so I've pretty much decided just to give up on the fight. :/ This is better than nothing.
    – FAE
    Nov 18, 2010 at 22:24
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I'm all for cherry-picking game-rec questions and have these truly community-wiki style maintained.

Perhaps we can just start with one question, to see how it goes as a proof of concept?

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    There is a lot of cross-applicability between the resources we can provide and what questions we currently have. Rather than spend our efforts trying to specify individualized resource lists for specific scoped questions, I think having one general resource that we compile everything together with will be far more useful. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Super User does something similar with a general "What do I do if I get a virus?" question.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Nov 14, 2010 at 16:22
  • Yeah we have one, though we didn't maintain it as well as might be possible, we'll see how it fares here
    – Ivo Flipse
    Nov 14, 2010 at 16:53
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This question can now be found here.

Let's see if it works.

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