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Cause you know, it's such a tricky term. E.g.: there's a question about a good intro indie game. The question's about experimental games, but some people are recommending non-experimental games from small publishers, which are really just as independent as anything anyone from the Forge or Story Games or etc. have done. But I don't like the term experimental, either. We're past experiments -- the people designing these games aren't experimenting any more. Story games? Meh. Too much emphasis on narrative games for me, although maybe that's accurate.

There may not be any good answer to this question, but I figured now is the time to ask it.

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    \$\begingroup\$ A game is a game is a game. If you want a game that does X because of Y state that in the question and then demand solid, objective answers. Indie as a tag should be thrown out. Its meaningles. Its like having a tag rpg or game or question. \$\endgroup\$
    – anon186
    Aug 27, 2010 at 19:42
  • \$\begingroup\$ I just asked people from Story Games to come talk about this one if they have interest in it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Bryant
    Aug 27, 2010 at 20:46

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I don't think we need to be all anal about it, but probably a FAQ/wiki instructing people to use terms/tags specifically - the terms don't have to be mutually exclusive, but the problem is many of them aren't good. "small press" means games from - small publishers? Isn't it a synonym for "not D&D and, maybe, not White Wolf?" And many of the games generally considered indie aren't technically storygames. Experimental games is a fine term - that no one uses in the real world.

I think using "indie" and "traditional" are about as descriptive as one can meaningfully get if you want "those little freaky games" as opposed to "D&D, Shadowrun, and all those roll-dice-to-hit-things games."

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I have to agree. If we had more transparent and clearly defined terms we'd already be using them. To a large degree it falls upon those writing the questions and answers containing the terms to supply some examples of what they mean in that instance. \$\endgroup\$
    – C. Edwards
    Aug 20, 2010 at 4:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ Other than identifying (on this site, with a question) about what is generally considered to be qualities of Indie (noting the amount of discussion), with some of the historical perspective, I agree, "Indie" may be "Best-practises" or "beginner". \$\endgroup\$
    – Tobiasopdenbrouw
    Aug 21, 2010 at 18:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ +1 for the freaky little game crack. A bit argumentative but it made me laugh. \$\endgroup\$
    – RS Conley
    Aug 27, 2010 at 19:01
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    \$\begingroup\$ There is a distinct community of RPG Gamers that play, referee (perhaps), and design RPGs they label indie. It just one of those terms that people adopted with all the benefits and irritation it causes. Much like Old School Renaissance being applied to so who taken up writing, running, and playing older edition of D&D (pre 3.0). Despite the fact there is Traveller, Runequest, etc, etc. \$\endgroup\$
    – RS Conley
    Aug 27, 2010 at 19:04
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    \$\begingroup\$ I agree that both for indie and old school they are valuable tags in that they are terms that people use reasonably consistently in real life. We're not the logic police. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Aug 27, 2010 at 22:55
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I think we should remove the Indie tag from posts that are just about a specific game.

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Both "indie" and "story games" are terribly muddled terms at this point, even for folks who are a part of the Forge or Story Games online/in-person communities. I vote for not using them at all in responses, though of course people will come in with whatever questions that have, phrased however they like.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Oh yeah. I realized after I wrote the original question that screw it, it's stupid to try to police semantics in questions. At the most we'd worry about tags. \$\endgroup\$
    – Bryant
    Aug 28, 2010 at 3:54
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Does it qualify as a dependent tag as per this post? This is not a rhetorical question.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Of course it's not a rhetorical question - it's an answer. At any rate, I'm trying to figure out what kind of question might be tagged with "indie" and no other tags, and the only thing I can think of is "What does 'indie' actually mean?" \$\endgroup\$
    – kodi
    Aug 28, 2010 at 20:37
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There's no good answer. It's a silly, divisive term with many meanings, but as a tag won't it sort of reach a cognitive equilibrium over time? A definition that works by default here, because of consensus? I avoid using it myself but when I first showed up here, I checked out all the questions with that tag and could contribute to all of them, so that's something.

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