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Are questions asking where to buy games appropriate? For example:

https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/25473/where-can-i-buy-battlefield-2142-with-paypal

It seems that a question like this is not going to be helpful for all that long as well as generally not seeming like a useful question for this site at all (well it doesn't really fit any of the which questions can I ask here FAQ section).

The FAQ also lists the following clause as a prohibited question subject, but I'm not sure that it covers it exactly:

Shopping advice and recommendations

Was going to flag the question but some fairly high rep users have edited it, so am presuming it is ok?

2 Answers 2

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I'm not sure there's any explicit policy for or against them. They can be pretty useful, particularly for old and hard-to-find games. I'm also not sure they should really be considered as "shopping recommendation" questions, though they are admittedly close.

However, I do feel like those types of questions almost always fall under the "too localized" criteria and should be closed - just because a game is available now from some retailer doesn't mean it will be available next year from the same retailer.

Additionally, those types of questions invite answers of the sort of "I have a copy that I'm willing to sell, contact me at [email protected]", which is something that we probably really want to discourage.

Similar questions include:

... and more. Some of those are certainly very useful, they just make me uneasy over their time localization.

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  • Is the question where to get old classical game really too localized? Like the one with Planescape Torment or this question of mine: gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/73019/… the answer really helps me, and has potential to help other people too! Don't you want to reconsider?
    – Hurda
    Aug 15, 2012 at 14:07
  • @Hurda I hear you. But I never claimed these questions aren't useful - they most certainly are - it's just that I believe their temporal nature make them likely to rot after a year or two, which is something I'd like to avoid on the site.
    – Oak
    Aug 15, 2012 at 17:04
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Looks to me like that FAQ excerpt covers it. It is shopping advice, but, unusually, not about the what, but about the where.

I've voted to close it as off topic, but the fact that it had two community moderator edits with no action taken and no prior close votes does strike me as a bit odd.

Maybe there's some sort of precedent or consensus we're not aware of.

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