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We have two tags, one for and one for its addon . This makes sense, as one is the original base game and the other is the version that basically most players are playing, as it's typically accepted as being a net positive upgrade from the original.

However these tags don't seem to be applied consistently. Some question about BTS have both tags, while others only have the BTS tag. Of course question that are about comparing these two versions should have both tags, but what about question that are only concern with BTS? Should they only be tagged with the tag of the addon, or should they also get the tag of the base game, as the addon is just an extension of that game? How is this handled for other games? Do we have an example for another game with a separate tag for an addon and how that is handled?

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    gaming.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4438/… I think this answers this - and I think my answer on this post aligns with it. I read that linked post as "it should have the main game tag as well as the expansion pack tag" (if the expansion pack is significant enough, which for most civilization expansions is the case)
    – Timmy Jim Mod
    Commented Jul 15 at 23:32
  • @TimmyJim That other question is about when to create a new Tag for a DLC. This one is about how to correctly use an existing Tag for an Expansion Pack.
    – TreeSpawned
    Commented Jul 16 at 9:01
  • I might have been the root of some of the confusion, as I rejected some of the additions of the base game tag edits suggested by you (and intended to bring it up here..). I was "taught" that tags which by their very nature implicate other tags don't need those other tags specified. Also: my apologies, it seems I was wrong :)
    – Joachim
    Commented Jul 16 at 18:44
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    @Joachim Yeah no problem, I saw the confusion and that's what meta is for.
    – TreeSpawned
    Commented Jul 16 at 19:16
  • I went the other way :D
    – Joachim
    Commented Jul 16 at 19:18

3 Answers 3

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They probably should have both tags.

Civilization games on our site all seem to have their respective DLC's as separate tags. I looked at as an example, and it seems all questions (that I saw) also had the tag.

There is only a handful (I think five) Civilization 4 BTS tagged-only questions. That should be quick enough to manually add the Civilization 4 tag to via edits.

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From what I've seen, questions about DLCs, expansions, mods, or any other add-ons are almost always tagged with the base game tag. The only exception I can think of is .

So yes, it should have the base game tag, since this doesn't seem to be a DotA-like situation where the mod is so different it's basically its own game.

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Actually, I think I'll try to make a case for the opposite: remove the tag of the base game from the question, keep only the one from the expansion.

If a DLC, expansion, or mod differs from the base game to such a degree that it requires its own tag, that tag should be sufficient to encompass the topic of the question.
Especially in this particular case, where the name of the base game is an explicit part of the expansion's tag. But that kind of information is what the tag wikis are for.

If a DLC (say, The Knife of Dunwall) apparently doesn't require a separate tag, it signals this question can be solved using information (logic, lore, gameplay) from the base game, even when it asks for something particular to the DLC (like an achievement). Where exactly this line is crossed, I do not know, but, as TreeSpawned points out, i.c. Beyond the Sword is "a net positive upgrade from the original" (which I interpret as it having a lot of QoL updates to the gameplay of the base game, whereas my example TKoD is merely an additional questline).
(Or perhaps it has to do with the amount of questions.)

In the Help centre, in the section What are tags, and how should I use them? , it is stated that "Every tag you use should be able to work, more or less, as the only tag on a question."
Here the base game tag would mostly, if not fully, encompass the tag of the expansion. Generally, we should minimize overlaps like these when using tags.

And the other answers appeal to tradition, which I think is too weak an argument, anyway (no offense :).

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    Are you sure you mean get rid of the base tag and not the Expansion tag? We definitely need the base tag, for when someone asks a question about the base game and some of the questions on here already are only about the base game.
    – TreeSpawned
    Commented Jul 16 at 19:20
  • @TreeSpawned Of course the tag shouldn't be deleted, and obviously the base game tag should still be used for questions about the base game, but for questions about the expansion, the tag for the base game is redundant.
    – Joachim
    Commented Jul 17 at 0:27
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    DLC tags are very specifically considered subtags of the main game tag, for the purposes of 1) grouping a game's questions together, 2) tag statistics (and badges) and 3) "related tags" functionality. There's very few examples where this was not the case eg Fortnite/Save The World, LoL/TFT and GTA5/Online - but that's because the subject/gameplay is drastically different between game modes, such that SMEs might not cross over. See this answer I gave a few years back. I might write an answer at some point, just wanted to share some insights while I got a sec :)
    – Robotnik Mod
    Commented Jul 17 at 6:31
  • The Help center says that "every tag should be able to work as the only tag" that IS the case for BTS tag. It absolutely can work as the only tag. However that doesn't mean we HAVE to you it as the only tag.
    – TreeSpawned
    Commented Jul 17 at 8:58
  • @TreeSpawned True. But, similarly, that also doesn't mean we have to use both tags :)
    – Joachim
    Commented Jul 17 at 9:38
  • I recently asked a question about a Marvel TV Series on the Scifi Stack. There they tagged it with both the MCU and the Marvel Tag, in addition to having the tag for that show. Meaning: adding "headertags" to classify questions together is not uncommon on stackexchange.
    – TreeSpawned
    Commented Jul 17 at 9:41
  • @TreeSpawned No, you're right, that has become abundantly clear since I posted this :) I honestly still don't know why I had that preconception after doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work on the platform, but I guess it made me question the tradition all the same..
    – Joachim
    Commented Jul 17 at 9:43
  • I think you should rephrase this. Currently you are saying "delete the base civ 4 tag from this site" but what you mean is "remove the base civ 4 tag from BTS questions"
    – TreeSpawned
    Commented Jul 17 at 13:42
  • @TreeSpawned It's a direct answer to your titular question, which is often how I phrase my answers. But I can clarify it. Thanks for the heads-up!
    – Joachim
    Commented Jul 17 at 14:33
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    The biggest issue @TreeSpawned, is that there's no way to associate tags together other than to tag them on questions together. So if we split the base game and the DLC tag, then anyone clicking on the base game tag will not see any of the DLC questions, and vice versa. This fragments the knowledge around "Civilization 4", and makes it harder to identify subject matter experts (SMEs) (their tag participation would also be split across tags, instead of combined on the main game tag).
    – Robotnik Mod
    Commented Jul 17 at 23:31

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