Reconsidering how we tag games in a series

Question

As of late there has been a lot of discussion in chat on how games in a series should be tagged, and it is a topic which has come up in the past. However, we have never been able to reach a consensus on how we should tag games in a series, and some games were discussed in the past and never decided on.

I'll use Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as an example. Should we tag it as:

modern-warfare-2
or
cod-modern-warfare-2
or
call-of-duty-mw2

Furthermore, if we did decide to tag it as modern-warfare-2, should questions be tagged a just modern-warfare-2 or should they be tagged as call-of-duty-series and modern-warfare-2?

How should we tag games in a series? For that matter are we even able to agree on a general rule, or should we decide on a case to case basis?

Answer 1

Requirements

1. One tag per game. Two tags for a game is not how SE rolls.
2. The game name should be understandable/googleable when SE chooses to put it at the start of the question page title.
3. We shouldn't shorten where we can help it.
4. Tag radixes should be consistent (e.g. all tags for the same game series should have the same start.)

Conclusions

1. The game series should be spelt in extended form: half-life, not hl; prince-of-persia, not pop.
2. Sequels/DLCs should keep the same radix as the parent game's tag, and add to it: from need-for-speed we should form need-for-speed-mw, not nfs-most-wanted.
3. Questions about the over-arching series of the game should be tagged by adding -series to the tag name: half-life-series plot, not half-life half-life-2 half-life-2-ep1 half-life-2-ep2 plot.
4. Deviate from this whenever it makes sense to (see requirement 2); if being consistent would result in a stretch, we can use synonyms to redirect things the way we want to. Mostly.
   For example, we have already decided that we should have nfs-most-wanted instead of need-for-speed-mw after all.

Answer 2

Simple rules can solve this:

1. Don't use acronyms, they cause ambiguity!
   _{i.e. Is PoR Path of Radiance or Portrait of Ruin? Is SC StarCraft 2 or Supreme Commander 2? And so on...}

2. The series tag should only be used when the question is about the series.
   _{i.e. call-of-duty-series}

3. The tag should not contain the series name if the tag represents the edition by itself.
   _{i.e. modern-warfare-2 Search for it on Google, it is pretty well known that Modern Warfare 2 is a CoD.}

4. If you do need the series name, make the series name long and not the edition.
   _{i.e. call-of-duty-mw2 Don't go for a fish like cod. If you don't know what modern-warfare-2 is on it's own, cod-modern-warfare-2 might not help make it clear. Google Call of Duty as it you will help you find the meaning of mw2. The other way around does not always do this. But in this case, modern-warfare-2 should be just fine...}

5. Make sure that appropriate synonyms are made for auto-completion purposes.
   _{i.e. cod-6, cod-mw2, call-of-duty-6, call-of-duty-mw2, and so on...}

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Things to remember about tags:

1. An user should be able to uniquely and unambiguously identify the topic the tag is about, thus Google by itself should be able to guide the user. But of course, the tag wiki is there to make the job easier and guide the users for in which cases the tag should be used.

2. They should auto-complete well, use synonyms to help correct the common odd cases.

3. They must be useful when searching, as that feature is used a lot.

   I don't want to be wandering in individual games when I want questions that apply to all games...