17
votes
Accepted
Community self-evaluation: How are we doing with game recommendations?
Our guidelines serve two masters, and neither well:
Helping the asker find a game or games that will suit what they are aiming to do.
Ensuring that we can meaningfully judge and vote on the answers.
...
- 242k
17
votes
Accepted
Is it good to use a Q&A to help other users discover a system?
You can ask real, relatively specific questions (and answer them)
Quoting from Brian Ballsun-Stanton's answer to "I want to write a Q&A: how do I go about doing that?":
Find real, ...
- 49.2k
14
votes
Game-rec and designer intent
No, game-rec wants what actually works, not what is supposed to work
The game-rec rules rely on one simple premise: you, or someone you can point to, has actually tried what you recommend, and it ...
- 338k
13
votes
Can we respond to a closed recommendation question by self-answering another question?
To SSD's points:
Does [this Q&A] avoid the problems, and so make it ok?
It might. If nothing else, it's a new approach to an old problem: users want to ask game-rec questions, users want to ...
nitsua60Mod
- 100k
12
votes
Two Answers - One Deleted - What's the difference?
It's absolutely crucial that game-rec questions draw on experience (your own or someone else's) with the querent's criteria. In your answer I see your experience with DFRPG, but no mention of having ...
- 53k
12
votes
Is it good to use a Q&A to help other users discover a system?
No, do not use a self-answered game-id question for this
We don't do game recommendations any more, and trying to "sneak in" game-rec questions as game-identification will just end up causing trouble ...
- 174k
11
votes
Community self-evaluation: How are we doing with game recommendations?
The current guidelines promote objectivity and answers backed up with experience and rationale. Having been on open forums that discuss the same topics, I think this isn't just a good thing, it's ...
- 734
11
votes
I want to ask for recommendations, but that's off topic. Is there any way to ask my question?
There are two major ways to get your recommendation question asked and answered.
1. Rephrase the request as a problem to be solved
Recommendations can almost always be rephrased by stepping back and ...
- 242k
10
votes
Accepted
The policy change regarding game-rec questions needs review
The mods were surprised by the overwhelming support for the view that "the guidelines don't work and should be abandoned" (+19/−3, and twice the score of any other feedback).
Given the steadily ...
- 242k
8
votes
The policy change regarding game-rec questions needs review
I agree this was unfortunate and inappropriate from the standpoint of jurisprudence. Nonetheless, it's not clear to me that proper procedure would have yielded a different result and the ...
- 66.7k
8
votes
Two Answers - One Deleted - What's the difference?
What Makes A Good Game-Rec Answer
As we have said many times in our guidance on game-rec questions, they (like all subjective Q&A on the site) need to adhere to core SE guidance on Good ...
- 174k
8
votes
Community self-evaluation: How are we doing with game recommendations?
(Note: Please read the entire FAQ linked below on game-recs, including the Meta.SE blog post and linked Arqade metas linked from it, to be sufficiently informed for your opinion to be taken seriously ...
- 174k
8
votes
Can we clarify Game Recommendation/Shopping questions further?
I've added the following summary to the top of Are Game Recommendation Questions On Topic, Revisited:
This means the following kinds of questions are off topic:
I want to play (details) ...
- 36.2k
7
votes
"Grim & gritty" in game recommendations
The Question You Asked But Don't Really Have - "What's Grim And Gritty?"
It means what it means to the poster.
Whenever any poster uses a term you think is ambiguous, ask them to clarify it.
That ...
- 174k
7
votes
Community self-evaluation: How are we doing with game recommendations?
This answer does not entirely reflect my personal opinion, but I feel that it is important for the community to be able to vote on the idea of banning game-recs entirely.
We should ban game-recs ...
- 143k
7
votes
What actually is a shopping question?
This question seems to imply that the terms "shopping question" and "game recommendation" are synonyms. A game recommendation is exactly what it says, a question asking for a recommendation on what ...
- 1,358
7
votes
Accepted
Community Cleanup Duty: Game Recommendations
We are equipped to handle this through community moderation.
We have pretty low volume review queues here. SSD wrote in this answer:
Reviewers can just take bites out of it, and bow out when decision ...
- 139k
7
votes
Accepted
Does asking for a list of reference books within a typically interwoven set of systems that contain a specific rule count as "shopping for games"?
Game-recommendation questions were closed because everyone kept just recommending their own personal favorite game system for every question, and didn’t back up those claims the way we needed them to ...
- 338k
6
votes
Accepted
Are the game-rec guidelines strictly equivalent to GS/BS?
The article Good Subjective, Bad Subjective is targeted at questions. But it's advice provides an outline of what we want out of answers (i.e. The Back it Up! Principle).
Specifically:
Back It Up! ...
- 44.7k
6
votes
Community self-evaluation: How are we doing with game recommendations?
I think our current guidelines are working well and the moderation is effective. I have had a game-req question answered usefully this year, and learned a lot from other people's recommendation ...
- 66.7k
6
votes
Game-rec and designer intent
Game-rec guidelines allow citing other people's experience using a game for the exact use described in a question. Designers are people too.
In practice it's very rare for there to exist clear, ...
- 242k
5
votes
Is this question about a site listing absurdly powerful D&D 3e/3.5e characters really a recommendation question?
The question does not have enough details; close it
Is the OP looking only and specifically for the site that they remember or will any similar site fit their bill? This is unclear, and as such, what ...
- 74.2k
4
votes
Voluntary banners for game-rec answers
This answer refers to a banner now removed from the suggestion. I now support these banners wholeheartedly.
I don’t think the third banner leads to good answers
If someone just googled the question, ...
- 338k
4
votes
How do we handle "game survey" questions?
Why overviews can't save "looking for a game" questions
There are two kinds of overview questions:
I want to understand an aspect of the hobby. This is an existing aspect of the hobby that is ...
- 242k
4
votes
Community self-evaluation: How are we doing with game recommendations?
I see two problems with our game-rec questions (and answers) as they stand.
It is perfectly possible to write what you think is an excellent question, with well thought out criteria that you think ...
- 17.7k
4
votes
"Grim & gritty" in game recommendations
Game style requirements, sure: we're not going to legislate what people can say about how they successfully play certain games in certain play styles.
Game recommendations, however, have very tight ...
- 242k
4
votes
Can we respond to a closed recommendation question by self-answering another question?
No, it is not acceptable.
This just turns us into a weirdly encrypted discussion forum, where newer questions can be used to sub-rosa answer previous closed questions. The problems with this aren't ...
- 174k
4
votes
Changing the tag description for game-recommendation
The tag's excerpt and full description were edited in August when game-recs became off-topic, and currently read:
“Shopping” questions asking for a recommendation on a game system, product, tool, ...
- 242k
4
votes
Can we respond to a closed recommendation question by self-answering another question?
I posted the "responsive" question and answer. I don't think there is harm in it (obviously, or I wouldn't have posted it) but I'm not sure it was the correct course of action. We probably don't ...
- 24.2k
4
votes
Accepted
I really don't think this question on how to get feedback on homebrew material was a shopping question
Asking for how to get feedback is fine
How to get feedback is fine. Asking how to get feedback is fine because it's something we can handle, with voting for the objectively best experience-backed ...
- 242k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible