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I'm posting this here before writing up a question because, after reading the about page, I came across this rule:

X - Requests for game identification or recommendations

Now this rule lead me to search a little deeply and as such I consulted the help pages, that state:

Requests for game identification based on personal recollection alone

I also searched meta for posts about this topic. I found several posts, mainly in what appeared to be the policy change regarding these kinds of questions.

Now, are game identifications allowed or not on this site? If they are, how much detail should one place in the question?

As I read some suggestions for ITG questions, if you had something concrete, like a screenshot or a piece of factual data, that would be allowed. Well, due to the ever-increasing data handling capacity of Google, I can just paste my screenshot on there and it will eventually puke out several results that might match what I'm looking for.

If, instead of having factual data, I provided the maximum amount of data that I could recollect from memory (like when did I play the game, what is the game's theme, where did I play it, in what language it was written, if it was an european/asian/american game, any small detail, etcetera) instead of just saying "oh I played a game it let me do cool stuff, help me find it." would that be an acceptable question for this site?

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No, I'm sorry, that is not good enough. We've tried. We have. It didn't work out.

If you'd like, there are other websites that can help you in your search, such as:

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  • Thanks for the answer. I was looking for a somewhat obscure Flash space shooter that I played back in the Windows98 time. Maybe I'll have some luck over reddit.
    – Doktoro Reichard
    Sep 2, 2013 at 11:21
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    @DoktoroReichard also don't hesitate to ask in chat
    – l I
    Sep 4, 2013 at 15:31
  • @spartacus But doesn't chat also abide by the same rules as Arqade (albeit being chat, a little more lax perhaps?)
    – Doktoro Reichard
    Sep 4, 2013 at 15:33
  • @DoktoroReichard nope, chat doesn't abide by the same rules. As long as you are curteous anything goes in chat.
    – l I
    Sep 4, 2013 at 15:37
  • @spartacus Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.
    – Doktoro Reichard
    Sep 4, 2013 at 15:38
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The only game identification questions we allow are those based not on words you can type into the question box, but on specific audiovisual artifacts; that is to say, screenshots or photographs or video footage or soundfiles from the game in question. Obviously, this means that most Game Identification questions are not allowed, because most people looking to ID a game don't have such materials. This is by design.

The exception primarily exists to allow people who encounter a game in other media to figure out what it is; not to assist people in remembering the name of that old game they used to play. As badp notes, there are other resources for that, but we've tried, and come to the conclusion that we are not a good one.

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    ♦ Can you elaborate on "but we've tried"? Because I on SinceFiction.SE, story-identifcation it's very popular.
    – Ave Maleficum
    Mar 19, 2014 at 9:51
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    @Ave they were on topic here for two years. They largely went unanswered, suffered from systemic issues of abyssmal quality, and generally just did not work. Eventually, after much discussion here on meta, we held a vote and got rid of them.
    – LessPop_MoreFizz
    Mar 19, 2014 at 11:37
  • Perhaps a second category should be made: game-id-only-text?
    – Merlin -they-them-
    Aug 9, 2015 at 5:58

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