According to the video_games page, it is to be used whenever an image shows "a video game, or characters from video games." Besides the oddity of those two elements sharing a tag, video games are the only ones to receive such a tag. To wit, cartoon and movie are defunct, anime is unhelpfully vague but seems to only refer to characters drawn in an anime style (maybe?), and comic_book and book only apply when a physical book is seen. Even if you want to argue that there are enough gaming-based images to warrant the tag, I don't see why they're the only ones to get the special treatment. Beyond that, is anyone actually searching for "video_games" expecting to see images of random characters without a physical video game in sight? Personally, I'd like to see the category retooled to be more in line with the book tags.

Not to mention how many video game characters and franchises are present in those other forms of media. There are people out there who don't know that Pokémon is a video game franchise because they've only seen it in trading card form.

yes, it does seem very broad. i doubt there is anybody who hates video games enough to blacklist them, and the cartoon and movie tags are also unhelpful. perhaps it's time to retire the tag.

BlueDingo said:
Not to mention how many video game characters and franchises are present in those other forms of media. There are people out there who don't know that Pokémon is a video game franchise because they've only seen it in trading card form.

I'd personally associate it more with the anime, especially considering there are plenty of anime-original characters. This post is tagged as video games even though it features an OC dressed as Ash Ketchum.

edit: On that point, I'll also bring up the sonic_(series) tag. Even though the Pokémon tag implies video_games (through Nintendo, but still), the Sonic tag does not.

I've been complaining about that tag for at least three years.
But there's not much that can actually be done about it. Too many posts and too many implications, impossible to disambiguate.

My advice would be to tag just gaming and playing_videogame where applicable, and ignore the video_games tag.

Edit: ...and game_background. That one's severely underused.

Genjar said:
My advice would be to tag just gaming and playing_videogame where applicable, and ignore the video_games tag.

It's kinda hard to ignore when so many things imply it. Perhaps we should start cutting off the implications.

Genjar said:
I've been complaining about that tag for at least three years.

it was easier to fix three years ago, and it will be harder to fix three years from now. perhaps it's time to bite the bullet and see what can be done about it today.

the posts won't be a problem if one can convince a moderator to mass remove the tag, without the messiness of aliasing it to an invalid tag.

removing the implications and aliases would be simple enough, as the majority of them are characters and series accumulated over the years. one must wonder why "sega" is an alias, but "nintendo" is an implication.

Question: Why exactly we haven't a umbrella tag exclusively for videogame consoles such as 'videogame_console'?

Wouldn't it be less messed up if we at least split the 'video_games' tag into 'playing_videogame' and 'videogame_console', using the original just as a copyright tag, which would include exclusively videogames titles?

Exemplification:

• animal_crossing → nintendo.
• animal_crossing → video_games.

• nintendo_ds → nintendo.
• nintendo_ds → videogame_console.

• nintendo /→/ video_games.
• playing_videogame /→/ video_game.
• videogame_console /→/ video_game.

Genjar said:
I've been complaining about that tag for at least three years.
But there's not much that can actually be done about it. Too many posts and too many implications, impossible to disambiguate.

All the more reason to do something now, before it becomes even more overwhelming.

O16 said:
Question: Why exactly we haven't a umbrella tag exclusively for videogame consoles such as 'videogame_console'?

We already have a game_controller tag, so it would make sense to have an umbrella for the consoles too.

Though it'd be hard to get everyone to agree on exactly what's the difference between a console and a handheld (...and a tablet), and how those tags should be split.

Genjar said:
We already have a game_controller tag, so it would make sense to have an umbrella for the consoles too.

Though it'd be hard to get everyone to agree on exactly what's the difference between a console and a handheld (...and a tablet), and how those tags should be split.

Handhelds are portable consoles, so you can put them all in with the consoles (or have a subtag for them if people want to be picky). Tablets, smartphones, etc. have their own tags.

Genjar said:
We already have a game_controller tag, so it would make sense to have an umbrella for the consoles too.

Though it'd be hard to get everyone to agree on exactly what's the difference between a console and a handheld (...and a tablet), and how those tags should be split.

Initially I also thought about this, but (as BlueDingo mentioned) handable consoles are still consoles.

But what about my second question? Wouldn't be less confusing if we split 'video_game' according the aforementioned method?

p.s. Does someone know how to type the logical symbol for negation using a cellphone/tablet? It would be 'alt 170' in a computer, but I don't even know how to use 'alt' in my cellphone/tablet.

O16 said:
p.s. Does someone know how to type the logical symbol for negation using a cellphone/tablet? It would be 'alt 170' in a computer, but I don't even know how to use 'alt' in my cellphone/tablet.

iPhone and iPad doesn't have that character, but for future reference for all apple product users: you can hold down on the specific letter to bring up a list of any/all special characters.

O16 said:
[...]

at home you can also use the US International keyboard and type grAlt + \, as well as a bunch of other neat symbols.

O16 said:
Question: Why exactly we haven't a umbrella tag exclusively for videogame consoles such as 'videogame_console'?

Wouldn't it be less messed up if we at least split the 'video_game' tag into 'playing_videogame' and 'videogame_console', using the original just as a copyright tag, which would include exclusively videogames titles?

Exemplification:

• animal_crossing → nintendo.
• animal_crossing → video_game.

• nintendo_ds → nintendo.
• nintendo_ds → videogame_console.

• nintendo /→/ video_game.
• playing_videogame /→/ video_game.
• videogame_console /→/ video_game.

I think videogame_console could be shortened to gaming_console or even game_console. playing_videogame could be shortened to just gaming.

And WTF does exemplification mean? Is that the word of the day? Are you saying they should be removed? They should be saved? What is this. And your use of → and /→/ is just confusing me further.

Dyrone said:
And WTF does exemplification mean?

it means examples are being shown.

Dyrone said:
I think videogame_console could be shortened to gaming_console or even game_console.

This is a possibility.

Dyrone said:
playing_videogame could be shortened to just gaming.

E guess not; 'gaming' is a tag already in use and refers to characters playing any kind of game.

Dyrone said:
And WTF does exemplification mean?

The act of exemplifying or its direct result (pretty much what fewrahuxo said).

Dyrone said:
Is that the word of the day?

I am not sure if understood the question.

Dyrone said:
And your use of → and /→/ is just confusing me further.

Paraphrasing:

• 'videogame_console' would be used exclusively for videogame consoles.

• 'playing_videogame' would be used exclusively for characters playing videogames.

• 'video_games' would be used exclusively for videogame titles and franchises.

• 'video_games' would be used neither for companies that owns multiple franchises nor for gaming consoles nor for the act of playing.

glossary:

O16 said:
I guess not; 'gaming' is a tag already in use and refers to characters playing any kind of game.

Wouldn't a search of gaming and video_game get basically the same results as playing_videogame? Just seems weird we need 2 tags, both gaming and playing_videogame whenever a character is just playing a videogame.

O16 said:
The act of exemplifying or its direct result (pretty much what fewrahuxo said).

I think the word "examples" would have worked fine.

O16 said:

• 'video_games' would be used exclusively for videogame titles and franchises.

No, that tag should just be deleted...it's too general. We don't group any other form of media in the same way, so why video_games? There isn't a film tag or a tv_show tag to be used whenever a title or franchise comes from either of those outlets. The tag should be removed, but I think the video_game tag (no "s") should stay around for whenever an actual video game is present in an image.

i'm still in agreement that the video_games tag is very general, and suggest the creation of more specific tags relating to video games (such as playing, the possession of, accessories for, and specific consoles), the removal of implications from this tag, and the removal of the video_games tag from all posts.

Dyrone said:
Wouldn't a search of gaming and video_game get basically the same results as playing_videogame? Just seems weird we need 2 tags, both gaming and playing_videogame whenever a character is just playing a videogame.

If there are two videogame characters playing battleship the tags 'gaming' and 'video_games' would be applicable, however 'playing_videogame' wouldn't.

Dyrone said:
I think the word "examples" would have worked fine.

Possibly.

Dyrone said:
No, that tag should just be deleted...it's too general. We don't group any other form of media in the same way, so why video_games? There isn't a film tag or a tv_show tag to be used whenever a title or franchise comes from either of those outlets. The tag should be removed, but I think the video_game tag (no "s") should stay around for whenever an actual video game is present in an image.

I understood perfectly this issue, however since all attempts of getting rid of the tag were unsuccessful we should at least organize it better.