Trivia question discussion

MBraedley

Jan 28, 2020 18:03

@Lazers2.0 Yep, this is a repost because the previous question was closed

Lazers 2.0

2

Q: What are the video game references in these books?

I saw this screenshot of a bookcase from the upcoming DOOM Eternal being passed around on a Discord I frequent recently (numbers added by me): Clearly, each book is a shout-out to another video game - I can recognize several of the references, but not all of them, and it's left me curious what...

Unionhawk

@Lazers2.0 >:|

Mage Xy

Didn't we ban these types of list ID questions? I vaguely remember a meta discussion about it.

MBraedley

Jan 28, 2020 18:18

@MageXy Unbounded list questions were banned. I'm not sure about this type.

Wrigglenite

This is a puzzle, and last time I checked puzzles were off-topic

MBraedley

@Wrigglenite huh?

Wrigglenite

10

Q: Gaming 'Puzzle' Questions

Recently (and in the past), there have been questions about gaming related puzzles. Things such as the following (I don't think this is an exhaustive list): What's the name of these games? Which games do the 'K' and 'U' come from in this logo ensemble? Puzzle - Gears of War Cheating/Nintendo Pu...

discussion allowed-questions

The fact that the question got tagged as game identification makes me scratch my head

Unionhawk

At least this one is slightly less arbitrary than "I found a thing on reddit that some random reddit user made", but only slightly

murgatroid99

I think this isn't exactly like those puzzle questions because the "puzzle" itself is in a game

Mage Xy

Jan 28, 2020 18:25

I don't think it's really a puzzle question. Those "puzzles" are artificially created by cropping out other identifying marks. The new question is more of a trivia/reference question about easter eggs, which I think is fine?

MBraedley

@MageXy This is my perspective as well.

Mage Xy

I'm trying to find the meta discussion I mentioned earlier but if I can't find it/it doesn't exist, I'm fine with leaving the question open.

Unionhawk

Doom Eternal is also scheduled to release 3/20/20 which also makes this fun

overall >:|

murgatroid99

Another thing, am I the only one bothered by the fact that about half of the answer is in the question?

Mage Xy

@murgatroid99 At least they've done some research beforehand? :P

MBraedley

Jan 28, 2020 18:31

@murgatroid99 I mean, I would have answered while asking, making the answer CW, but that's just me.

Mage Xy

@MBraedley That's probably the correct way to do it. (CW optional)

Wrigglenite

@MageXy Is this not a puzzle?

I mean, it's found in a highly anticipated game, but it's still a game identification puzzle with no visual artifacts

If anything, it's worse in that regard than cropped images

Mage Xy

I guess I don't really see it as such. It's similar, sure, but I think the core of the question is about what each book is referencing, like an easter egg.

Wrigglenite

In fact, I've seen puzzles exactly like this over on Puzzling.SE

They're riddles

Trivia

All I ask is that we're consistent, and not just allow this one question because it's about a game that people like

Unionhawk

It's definitely a kind of puzzle/trivia, but I still think it's slightly distinct from the reddit ones because it appears in a game (unless I'm missing another "appears in a game" example that we destroyed)

murgatroid99

Jan 28, 2020 18:43

I think I actually agree with you now that it's game identification. It's literally "what game is this" 17 times

Mage Xy

Yeah, I can see that.

Then again, this is a screenshot from a [soon to be released] game, so it does kinda have a valid artifact?

murgatroid99

A screenshot of a list of "what game is this" hints is not a valid artifact

The artifact has to be from the game you're trying to identify

Mage Xy

It has to be an artifact that people can reasonably assume references a game and not some other media. Doesn't have to be from the game itself.

murgatroid99

I'm pretty sure it does

Wrigglenite

It has to be from a game or, at best, official art of that game

Well that's not quite true

We do allow fanart when it's reasonable that it's of a video game

(and that's the tricky part)

But those books are not from the games they're referencing

Wipqozn

Jan 28, 2020 18:51

We wouldn't even need to be discussing this if we just banned all questions

Wrigglenite

The fact that they're books, or the fact that they're found in a game, doesn't mean much

murgatroid99

@Wipqozn Or at least all game identification questions

Wrigglenite

I could ask the same question without the screenshot, with the same information

It's a list of hints

It's game identification without an artifact to me

Wipqozn

@Wrigglenite Being in a game makes a difference. Not saying it shouldn't still be off topic, but something being in a game vs just not a game is a different, given our topic.

Mage Xy

@murgatroid99 I'm all for this tbh. Either don't allow any, or allow them all.

Currently we have to re-discuss every time an edge case comes along, and that's quite often

Wipqozn

Jan 28, 2020 18:54

Yeah, it is annoying needing to keep deciding where we draw the line

I'd certainly be fine with it, but the community overall seems supportive of the exception

murgatroid99

I just hate that we have this overly complex rules surface. It creates a lot of feel bad moments of people not really understanding why their question was closed, or why one was closed and another is open.

Wrigglenite

The rule is pretty simple

Do you have something we can see or hear that comes from that game?

In this case, the answer is no

Unless you're trying to identify the game the books are from

murgatroid99

@Wrigglenite My point is that we have this rule like "you can ask questions about this topic, but this subset is disallowed, but this specific subset of that subset is OK"

And as this conversation demonstrated, neither of those subset boundaries is entirely clearly defined

Unionhawk

yeah ID is often in a weird place

This one is, I think, more simple

relatively speaking anyway, we're not in any "I promise this is from a game" or "this may or may not be a game" weeds

Wrigglenite

Yeah this case seems pretty clear to me

Invader Skoodge

Jan 28, 2020 19:08

Blame this one for the confusion:

38

Q: "Here is a thing. Look at the thing. Do you see the thing? I would like to know what this Thing is Called." A plea for sanity

identify-this-game was a Bad Tag. It was applied to Bad Questions. It is gone forever, and I could not be happier. But it appears, that we have been throwing some babies out with our admittedly filthy bathwater. So, before I move on, I want to talk for a second about why identify-this-game is b...

discussion allowed-questions game-identification

That was posted shortly after ITG was banned wholesale and led to un-banning of artifact-related questions.

I downvoted it when it was new but it's at +38 despite that.

murgatroid99

Apparently I upvoted that post. I guess I don't really remember how I felt about this issue 7+ years ago

Invader Skoodge

I was more passionately anti-ITG at the time than I am about almost anything nowadays.

GnomeSlice

Jan 28, 2020 19:39

I'm like just never here any more

I haven't checked the site proper in weeks

MBraedley

Bending conan (package management) to my will sucks!

MBraedley

Jan 28, 2020 20:19

Dear Visual Studio: Please fucking tell me when you're trying to use a property sheet that no longer exists (i.e. try to reload all property sheets when a solution is compiled). Also, please save changes to property sheets when a solution is compiled. And give me some fucking indication that a property sheet isn't loaded without having to reload a solution. Property sheets are really useful, but you need to make them easier to use.

Tim Stone

Jan 28, 2020 20:34

> the escalator of the fry’s in campbell broke and they “fixed” it by just filling it with gravel. absolutely baffling

Incredible

Wipqozn

@Wrigglenite or if the picture appears to be part of some online trivia game...

I essentially agree 100% with @murgatroid99, including the fact I upvoted that WAY BACK IN THE DAY.

That post made more sense before we put the rule into practice, but as time has gone on, we've realized more and more issues with having this exception.

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