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The tag has an empty tag wiki and 9 questions. Of these, 4 are closed, one isn't really an RPG question, one doesn't actually appear to be about simulation at all, these two are game-recommendation questions where simulation was a requirement, and one is a question genuinely about simulation in RPGs.

Should something be done about the tag? At the very least, I believe it should have a tag wiki explaining how it is meant to be used, since it is clearly unclear as it stands. My assumption of the purpose of the tag is that it is meant to be used for questions like the last one. The game-recommendation questions also seem like a possible legitimate use, but requirements for recommendation questions are usually specified in the question rather than in the tags.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks for volunteering! Yes, it needs a tag wiki and cleanup. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brian Ballsun-Stanton
    Oct 23, 2014 at 0:25
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    \$\begingroup\$ @BrianBallsun-Stanton Yes, but do we need the tag? If my analysis is correct (feel free to tell me it's wrong), we have exactly one question that uses it properly. \$\endgroup\$
    – Miniman
    Oct 23, 2014 at 0:31
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    \$\begingroup\$ Those all look like legit questions about simulation to me. \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Oct 23, 2014 at 20:05

2 Answers 2

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My general answer to questions like this is as follows.

Tagging is a folksonomy. This is why people are free to create and apply any tag to a question. We have some limited guidance about tagging (no meta tags etc), and in certain places where a hierarchy is kinda needed (D&D game naming, WoD game naming) we set up some structure. But otherwise, overzealous curation of tags is somewhat against the point of a folksonomy. I see a dozen tags every day that I think are stupid. Here, let's go look into page 15 of 21 of our tags, and see the junk out there that 2 random questions are tagged with. Nine questions for a tag, that's in the top 50% of tags! But intervention is best kept to issues that are significantly degrading or would significantly improve the site.

Deleting tags and/or setting them up so "people can't use them" isn't something that should be done just because someone has misapplied a tag. It really also isn't worth much time unless it's a pretty popular tag.

So in this particular case, my general line of thinking is "I just spent way too much time on even discussing a 9-question tag, all of our time on site curation could be much more profitably spent."

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The judgement is death

Actual simulation would inevitably be physics, sociology, or history based questions outside our scope. Simulationist game play is a part of many RPGs but rarely is terribly important to mention separate from the actual system in question. If it were really necessary as a tag we'd see much higher usage, I say kill it/burninate it.

Dredd

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    \$\begingroup\$ Simulation has no inherent ties with physics or history or sociology because you can simulate magical narrative just as much as historical narrative. In the RPG context simulation is about the contact point between narrative and system: how we take the story, setting, or concept and merge it with a set of RPG mechanics to create a game. \$\endgroup\$
    – BESW
    Oct 24, 2014 at 0:59

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