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I've played a lot of games in the past, and sometimes I forget their name but am curious of finding it again.

Here's an example of such a question I have asked

Now, I consider these sort of questions very useful - they are very gaming related, and they might be of interest to other people as well, and I think a gaming Q and A website is a very good place for them. But my question has garnered some close votes which I fully understand - since it's not something which was specified earlier, and it is a bit different from other question types.

However, if I try to thing on other trilogy sites, a question such as

I remember a Java library that is able to convert pdf files to zipped image files, but I forgot its name - can anyone help me?

Would be perfectly legit (I think) on StackOverflow, so I think this strengthens my position - but I would like to hear what the community thinks.

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    I don't see any problem with this type of questions. For me they are valid and legit.
    – user59
    Jul 7, 2010 at 22:22
  • @Joe: it was already changed to [identify-this-game], which is far more informative in my opinion than either [looking-for-game] and [lost-and-found].
    – Oak
    Jul 12, 2010 at 7:17
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    Looking for game quesions received 20 on-topic votes during the definition process, btw. Just mentioning.
    – badp
    Jul 12, 2010 at 14:54
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    @badp, @͏͏‍​Oak, Hmm, anyone mind summarizing what's the current policy now? I'm seeing that all questions with that tag had been purged. I've an old game I'm trying to look for right now, (and I've got way enough information on that game to create an elaborate precise post of quality) but is this site still the place for posting it?
    – Pacerier
    Sep 27, 2015 at 15:32
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    @Pacerier Only ask here if you have an actual screenshot, piece of music or the such.
    – badp
    Sep 27, 2015 at 16:03
  • @badp, What's the reason for that catch-22 requirement? How many percentage of people looking for old games actually have those old screenshots and audio files? The author of this rule had likely wrongly thought that the game industry consist only of games like PvZ.
    – Pacerier
    Sep 29, 2015 at 10:55
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    @Pacerier this rule has been the end outcome of a very long debate. See meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/…, meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/10118/…, meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/4168/…, meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/5081/…
    – Oak
    Sep 29, 2015 at 13:17

4 Answers 4

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I think Looking-For-Game is great. However it can be closed as 'not a real question' if not enough information is provided.

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The problem I see with these questions is that they have to be curated. If comments request more information and the info doesn't get added, it's probably [not-a-real-question]

Plus you can basically ask this question Jeopardy style for nearly any game and thus get a question. So while yes it should be allowed, the site shouldn't be flooded with these sort of questions

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  • So, basically, it should be allowed on the real site, but try to keep down the number during the beta phase?
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Jul 7, 2010 at 22:31
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    And keep it down afterwards as well, but they do serve a purpose and if they're fun AND useful, why close them all?
    – Ivo Flipse
    Jul 8, 2010 at 22:11
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I think it's okay in moderation. There are currently five questions tagged identify-this-question. Most of them have lousy titles like "Name of this SNES game?" and "Name of this old PC game?" (IMHO your question has the best title, btw.) The title should at least briefly mention something identifying about the game.

Some people will enjoy the challenge of these questions, and some people like to see other people answer them. (For example, the Joystiq Podcast has an occasional "Stump J.C." segment, where people send in these kinds of questions and Joystiq writer J.C. Fletcher answers them.)

But we have to be careful not to seed the site with garbage. I think if people look down the active questions page and see a bunch of them they're going to be annoyed. And when the site opens up for public beta I don't think many of us want to deal with lots of these questions flooding in from people who are just asking the same kinds of questions they see on the front page.

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Why should someone vote to close Your question??? I have the same point of view like You on this topic. Especially considering, that one of the on-topic-exmaple-quesitons had a similar format!

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  • Oh, I wasn't aware that there was an example question with similar format.
    – Oak
    Jul 7, 2010 at 22:02

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