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https://rpg.stackexchange.com/q/94646/1204 has come with the creation of the tag . Based on Are questions about roleplaying within a video game context on topic? roleplaying situations that occur in video games are not inherently off topic.

However, "video game" is two words, not one. Can we rename the tag to ?

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I don't think we need a tag for this. We have , , and indeed itself. (I've suggested an alternative name for if we do keep the tag, but this post should be considered support for removing it altogether.)

If video game roleplaying is on topic because it's not distinguishable from play-by-chat, then distinguishing it via tag is a bit of a contradiction. We don't make such a distinction for other platforms for playing by chatting.*

Putting it another way: are we expecting to have experts now? No, we aren't! And a singular tag for them to be experts in would be absurd anyway: no-one can be expert in that tag because the scope of video games is ridiculously large. Expertise in roleplaying within one video game can't translate to expertise in roleplaying within a different video game… unless the video game itself is irrelevant, in which case so is the tag. For the same reason that we have system tags, we would need specific-video-game tags, which development would make it obvious how off topic the whole thing is.

As a secondary problem, it will likely encourage people to misinterpret the tag and submit questions about CRPGs.


* Though we do have, e.g., , that's because questions specific to that software's features are on-topic by its own merits, like 's relationship to , or both to .

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    \$\begingroup\$ I'm not so confident we don't need a tag. Per your own writing: "The platform someone is using to roleplay will obviously have a practical impact on their situation and the relevance of solutions the answers might present, but that's par for the course here." I agree with you it has a practical impact, but if it has a practical impact that the situation occurred within a video game, isn't that relevant enough a detail to have a tag for? (I haven't voted on this yet.) \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 19:29
  • \$\begingroup\$ “…but that's par for the course here” is the relevant part there though: it's normal for platform to matter, and hence be explicitly part of the question itself rather than hidden in the tags. And on-point, we don't distinguish different play by chat platforms, just that they're play by chat. We only have a tag for, e.g., [roll20] because it is also RPG-specific software with features that are on-topic to ask about. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 19:30
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    \$\begingroup\$ Re: "it should be video-games": I don't know if you mean we should add a hyphen (per my original suggestion) or replace the tag entirely with [video-games], but I'll caution we probably don't want to add a [video-games] tag, for fear of implying that we answer questions about video game RPGs! The role-playing part of [video-game-role-playing] is important! \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 19:32
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    \$\begingroup\$ Thanks for that clarification. I like [roleplay-in-video-games] even more, and I'm OK with standardising on "roleplaying" without the hyphen. :) \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 19:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ @doppelgreener We don't tag non-video-game questions as [roleplaying] questions, so it seems that [video-game-roleplaying] is a bit redundant perhaps? I'm of the opinion that we probably shouldn't have a [video-games] tag at all and use what we already have, per SSD's post, but I'm not particularly confident about that. Edit: Comment was added before SSD updated his post to include the possible tag [roleplay-in-video-games]. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 19:35
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    \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie Could I suggest you split your answer into two different answers, one saying "yes but furthermore rename it into [roleplay-in-video-games]" (no mention of removal) and one saying "we don't need a tag for this" (no mention of rename)? If I upvote or downvote an answer that simultaneously suggests a rename and a removal I have no idea what that's meant to indicate to anybody, and I don't know which course of action a positive or negative score should indicate. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 19:35
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    \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie The platform is very, very relevant, since most games used for such RP allow you to fight very quickly using game mechanics, because lots of games were not actually designed for RP, and they are normally special rules to limit fighting etc. I was going to actually make a couple of other self-answered questions about them, right after I understand what makes people so opposed against that particular one. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 19:44
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    \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie Thank you for taking that request on board and acting on it. I've edited this answer to further disambiguate it from the other one. Please check you're OK with it. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 19:44
  • \$\begingroup\$ @doppelgreener Oh, that's much better! Thank you. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 19:50
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    \$\begingroup\$ Keep the tag [video game] off of our site. All it can do is confuse people, users new and old. The last sentence is the bottom line. What is going on is on line RP, ERP, or whatever. Why are we not using the term "on line" or "internet enabled" rather than video game? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 20:33
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If we must have a tag with “video game” in the name, it should have the hyphen between the two words.

And * would be better and clearer, seeming less like a tag about CRPGs and more obviously about using them as a platform.


* We appear to have standardised our tags on roleplaying rather than hyphenating it, despite our title.

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Tag gone. Boom! The can has been kicked down the road for us to tackle this some future day.


It's been a couple of weeks, and the votes have settled down to be pretty close. I think what they mean is that the community hive-mind generally thinks we can do much better than [video-game-role-playing] as a tag but also we feel that we don't really need the tag at all. (Not right now at least, if ever.)

We also have only two questions around this topic cited so far, both of which have not-insignificant quality issues and which are closed.


I suggest we go for a kick-the-can-down-the-road approach: remove the tag entirely, and if/when it seems like we should have it because we've gathered at least a couple of solid on-topic questions for which it seems totally appropriate, we can figure out what it should be called — probably [roleplay-in-video-games]. (This might never happen.)

Unless there's some strong objections I'll accordingly remove the tag from the only question it's on a week from now.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Given the number of votes, the hive mind doesn't give a flying fart. A few interested people, however, do. 8^D \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 26, 2017 at 20:28
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    \$\begingroup\$ @KorvinStarmast Interested representatives of the hive mind then, which is all we ever get on Meta except in exceptionally rare circumstances. The ones who don't care, well, don't care. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 26, 2017 at 20:44
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    \$\begingroup\$ I, for one, am grateful to be a servant to the Queen of the Hive Mind. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 26, 2017 at 20:47

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