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There is a current trend of games being released that re-use its original name. For example, Doom. The current method for creating new tags for duplicate game names is to append the release year to the game. Therefore, we have the following tags in my example:

- the original
- the recent release.

A user wants to ask a question regarding "Doom". It is very likely that they are referring to the new release. The correct tag is . However, there is a chance that the user will select because that is the name of the game. The user may not know about this tagging method. The user may not carefully read the tag options as they type "doom" (there may be more "Doom" tags for each game in the series). The question then requires further edits to correct the tag.

I have made edits and accepted suggested edits on such questions in the past. Here are some examples of Doom questions that have been fixed:

Are we making it harder on ourselves and users in general by using this method of tagging?

Please note, I am not referring directly to Doom, but to the general way we tag new releases. Tomb Raider, Battlefront and plenty of other games in recent times have re-used their older names. You can type in years between 2010 and 2016 in the tag search to see other examples. I am confident that this trend of reusing game titles will continue. Here are some examples for other games whereby a tag edit was required because the user had selected the "original" game tag rather than the year suffix version:

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  • So...whenever we get yet another rehash, we should rename all questions that use that tag, to make way for the new one?
    – Frank
    May 20, 2016 at 22:08
  • @frank - Is it hard to rename an existing tag? Is it hard to add a new tag? Seems like a little effort to keep things running smoothly for future questions.
    – user101016
    May 21, 2016 at 9:35
  • 1
    I'm not seeing an issue. There doesn't seem to be a problem we're solving, here. Tags are supposed to serve three purposes: 1) Group expertise, 2) Denote the subject matter, and 3) Be searchable. For SEO purposes, adding the year, works just fine, as far as I can tell.
    – Frank
    May 21, 2016 at 13:00
  • It's actually named DOOM, but tags aren't case sensitive.
    – Dallium
    May 22, 2016 at 22:36
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    And, now that I think on it, there'd be a huge argument on which one gets the name and which one gets the year each time this came up. Doom is one of the most influential games of all time, helping to define not just it's genre but the media as a whole. No matter how much fun DOOM might be (and it's a blast), there's no way it'll even approach that level of importance. It'd be like saying "This PM is also Winston Churchill, the other one is now to be referred to as Winston Churchill (1940-45, 51-55)"
    – Dallium
    May 22, 2016 at 22:40
  • @dallium - "There'd be a huge argument on which one gets the name and which one gets the year each time this came up" - no, current system is new game gets the year of release. I am proposing the old version gets the year. That should be clear in this meta.
    – user101016
    May 23, 2016 at 11:12
  • @frank - I added examples to the meta of where the problem has occurred. This is only a sample by clicking down questions with that tag and checking edits. The problem we are solving is just this... users using the wrong tags, and then the community fixing it.
    – user101016
    May 23, 2016 at 11:14
  • @camelCase to my understanding you can't just rename a tag in one spot unless you have access to the site's database (even then who know how tags are created in it). the only way non SE Employees can rename an old tag is to go through every single question and edit them. this could easily be done with an automation script like a Selenium PHP Unit Script but is there going to be anyone on Arqade who knows how to do that and willing to give up the time to make a perfectly functional and reusable script
    – Memor-X
    May 23, 2016 at 11:18
  • @Memor-X - is this your speculation or fact?
    – user101016
    May 23, 2016 at 11:26
  • @camelCase speculation based on observations when editing tags myself.
    – Memor-X
    May 23, 2016 at 11:37
  • @Memor-X - I would be very surprised if stackexchange didn't have a behind the scenes process to rename tags. It would need someone higher up to confirm whether or not any implementation was possible via automated means as opposed to a mass (manual?) edit.
    – user101016
    May 23, 2016 at 11:41
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    I get the feeling that we're tripping over ourselves here, just to fix a "problem" that rather minor and temporary at worst.
    – DJ Pirtu
    May 25, 2016 at 8:50
  • @DJPirtu - not a major problem, but it does look common with regards to the games that re-use the same name for a later version.
    – user101016
    May 25, 2016 at 8:55
  • Related: How to handle multiple games with the same exact name?
    – galacticninja
    May 12, 2022 at 0:50

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
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I do not think altering the old tag name is a good idea, as it's far too much work. As I stated in my comment, it's not as simple as altering the tag name in one place, not unless one is a Stack Exchange employee and has access to the database, but even then, we don't know how tags are created. To change a tag name, it's more or less editing every question with the old tag by making a new tag1.

While currently, only has 24 questions, what happens if this happens with ? Is anyone willing to manually go through all 6,796 and alter every question like that? Is it possible to do this via an automation script, but who's willing to make that?

My suggestion would be to leave tags, as they are where new remakes/re-releases get a new suffix (whether it is the year, had, or a subtitle). Instead, I suggest we update the tag excerpt since users should be using these just to confirm the tag they are using.

With the example of , it currently has the year the original game was released. I would suggest appending this, saying something like

a futuristic horror themed first person shooter developed and published by id Software in 1993. for questions about the 2016 game use doom-2016

and also update the tag wikis to include this as well.

1: My basis for this is that I have never seen an option to change a tag name when editing tags myself on Anime and Manga SE, and I have all the privileges a non-mod can have. I also confirmed with one of the community team (JNat) on Maid Cafe.

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  • This is the same as an existing answer "We keep the existing system and continue to manually handle questions with the wrong tags."... with the reason you believe it would be too much work. Retagging 24 Doom questions vs. future proofing user confusion and edits on Doom-2016 questions doesn't seem like a bad trade.
    – user101016
    May 23, 2016 at 13:19
  • Using Minecraft is a bad example, as I am talking about when 2 different games have the same name, not when a game has multiple versions.
    – user101016
    May 23, 2016 at 13:20
  • @camelCase "Please note, I am not referring directly to Doom, but to the general way we tag new releases. Tomb Raider, Battlefront" and who says that if a new Minecraft comes out it'll be named any different. i used minecraft as an extreme example as if a new Minecraft came out which was just called minecraft, as you have indicated in your question this would apply to this extreme example where it would be easier just to update the tag excerpt and wiki
    – Memor-X
    May 23, 2016 at 13:25
  • @camelCase i should point out this is not the same as the one of your existing answers. while yes i do suggest we keep the tags as they are your answer suggests we do nothing more while this answer suggests that we alter excerpts and wikis
    – Memor-X
    May 23, 2016 at 13:34
  • I am not trying to guess a problem to solve (e.g. a new Minecraft, called Minecraft), but how there is a trend for a new game in a series to use the original name in the series (and from what I can gather, the time difference is likely at least a decade between the original and latest).
    – user101016
    May 23, 2016 at 13:39
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    For Minecraft to fit this argument, you would most likely see "Minecraft 2", "Minecraft 3" then a new release called "Minecraft". This is the situation I am referring to.
    – user101016
    May 23, 2016 at 13:40
  • "I should point out this is not the same as the one of your existing answers. while yes I do suggest we keep the tags as they are your answer suggests we do nothing more while this answer suggests that we alter excerpts and wikis" - I agree. I've removed my answer because it was an attempt to catch all "no change" answers.
    – user101016
    May 23, 2016 at 13:50
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There is evidence to suggest the current method is a source of edits that fix questions being incorrectly tagged.

In order to avoid confusion for question askers, we should always append the release year where 2 games have the same tag.

In the example for Doom, we would have:

- for the original release
- for the new (2016) release.

There will be no tag, if possible.

This way, new questions for "Doom" will require the user to select the exact version by release year.

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Another Method would be to merge tags. however this should be planned ahead of time as the longer you wait the more work you may need to do if you mess up and lets not forget Smith's Law.

Smith's Law: "Murphy was an optimist."

from what i have learned probing JNat on Maid Cafe the Process would involve

  1. Merging into with the second tag having need to be used once since tags don't exists unless they are used in a question.

  2. then all need to be merged into which needs to be recreated in another question (since it'll no longer exists after the merge).

this is the same order of operation you would follow with future instances. you have to do this in this order otherwise all the questions for the 2 tags will be in the one tag and you'll have to manually go through editing questions. not good if you accidentally merge into before it's questions are merged into and have to go through over the 6000 questions looking for which ones to edit

this method however can only be done by mods and SE Employees unlike the previous method which can be done by anyone with the privilege to edit tag wikis and excerpts

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  • This covers how to impement 2 of the 3 possible solutions I have provided. Again, Minecraft is a bad example because I am talking about 2 different games that have the same name, and not a game that has multiple versions.
    – user101016
    May 23, 2016 at 13:23
  • Also, this may be 1 of many different ways to implement a solution.
    – user101016
    May 23, 2016 at 13:23
  • @camelCase just like in my previous answer Minecraft is an extreme example for a future case. especially since given Smith's Law and being a programmer myself i firmly believe that someone will stuff up this process in the worst possible case. also this doesn't have to be with minecraft, i can make the same arguments with Steam or League of Legends since we can never truly know the future.
    – Memor-X
    May 23, 2016 at 13:31
  • I am specifically talking about when a game is released that re-uses the game title from [insert year from a past decade]. These games appear to have numerous titles (Doom, Doom 2, Doom 3...) before the new release then re-uses its original title (Doom, Doom 2, Doom 3, Doom).
    – user101016
    May 23, 2016 at 13:35
  • I am not talking about hypothetical problems, just the current situation based on our current model for handling such cases.
    – user101016
    May 23, 2016 at 13:36
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This cropped up for me the other day with this question about Spider-man 2 on Gamecube.

How do I unlock/do a Falling Twirl?

For me, I initially thought it was a question about Spider-man 2 on PS5, due for release in Oct 2023.

I think adding a platform tag would help here, but it brought me to this question because of the potential usage of the same tag for games of the same name on different platforms.

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  • 1
    Platform tags are only for questions about the platform or games’ platform-specific interaction, as stated in the Arqade policy on platform tagging. If and when Marvel's Spider-Man 2 gets released, it will have its own separate tag from the 2004 Spider-Man 2, so there's no need to tag questions with platform tags to differentiate it from other questions. Tags should describe what the question is about, not just what it contains.
    – galacticninja
    Jun 23, 2023 at 11:12
  • Righto, thanks for the update
    – Neon1024
    Jun 23, 2023 at 13:23
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There is evidence to suggest the current method is a source of edits that fix questions being incorrectly tagged.

I am proposing that we convert the original name tag to use the year of release as a suffix, and not the new name tag.

In the example for Doom, we would have:

- for the original release
- for the new (2016) release.

- could be synonymous with .

This way, new questions that are almost certainly concerning the latest version of the game will require less problems for new(er) users, and therefore less edits by the community to get the tagging right.

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  • 2
    If we're attempting to disambiguate here, why not just have [doom-2016] and [doom-1993], and just drop [doom] entirely? Users with < 300 rep can't recreate the 'doom' tag and (generally) given the option of those two choices noone should be making any mistakes.
    – Robotnik Mod
    May 23, 2016 at 13:28
  • @Robotnik - which is the basis of this answer: meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/a/11594/101016
    – user101016
    May 23, 2016 at 13:43

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