So I just noticed that the video_games tag is currently set to cover video games, people playing video games, and video game characters. That seems a bit strange to me, in that it seems like that'd really hamper your ability to search just for posts that contain video_games or characters playing video_games.

I would imagine that this has been discussed before too, but would it not make more sense to split this up, so that video_games would show you just video games or people playing video games, and then create the tag "video_game_characters" for posts that contain a character from a video game? (There are currently many video game titles that imply the "video_games" tag; these would be switched to imply video_game_characters instead (or should it be singular instead of plural? Currently video_games is plural itself)).

Thoughts?

Char said:
[helpful stuff]

Sounds great to me. It would certainly make it a lot more functional to find either type of results. Especially since the video_game_characters type of results tend to flood the tag, making it hard to find anything else. There's just a lot more pics of pikachu getting laid than there are of people sitting on a couch playing some unknown video game. All in all, I think this sounds like a good concept.

As a whole, the idea seems much more convenient than having the whole collective mashed in together. As for whether or not it should be plural, you could make it plural and simply imply that a single video game character is being noted under "video game characters", just like any regular implication on say, a wiki for example. video_games is plural but maybe in the picture only one is being played - regardless the tag is plural, right? Makes sense simply to do it as video_game_characters regardless of if there's one or many, because it's encompassing all without specifics.

Cool idea though, all in all. Would require a bit of work to re-tag a lot of images like that, but I think it would make searching significantly easier with purposeful tags as opposed to super-all-encompassing ones.

Sounds good.
Although... Just a quick mention, since I'm too busy right now to write a full reply: there's a related tag gaming, which is already mostly used for people playing video games. While_playing_videogame is also somewhat common and used for, well, click it and see.

I've already suggested a new tag for game elements such as gui and things such as post #103688 and post #4614. Maybe video_game_elements?

Genjar quickly said:
(Things that are also suggested by me)

Gaming seems to be the most logical tag in this situation.

Killingsworth said:
Gaming seems to be the most logical tag in this situation.

Ah well, seconded.

Good to know about the gaming tag. That could work for the act of playing a video game. And tags like console and controller already cover some of the equipment used in gaming.

I still think the video_game_characters tag is a good idea though. Maybe change the video_games tag ---> video_game_characters? Mainly because both consoles and the act of gaming are commonly referred to as "video games/video gaming". Which makes for a natural confusion when our video_games tag is actually NOT to be used for playing a video game, but instead is used as an umbrella tag for any character which comes from a video game source franchise. It's almost more of a copyright usage than a general tag, since it's not actually IN the image, but is background originating info for the characters depicted in the image. Video_game_characters is at least more what-it-says-on-the-tin for what it's being used for and it seems like an improved version of the tag.

furrypickle said:
Good to know about the gaming tag. That could work for the act of playing a video game. And tags like console and controller already cover some of the equipment used in gaming.

I still think the video_game_characters tag is a good idea though. Maybe change the video_games tag ---> video_game_characters? Mainly because both consoles and the act of gaming are commonly referred to as "video games/video gaming". Which makes for a natural confusion when our video_games tag is actually NOT to be used for playing a video game, but instead is used as an umbrella tag for any character which comes from a video game source franchise. It's almost more of a copyright usage than a general tag, since it's not actually IN the image, but is background originating info for the characters depicted in the image. Video_game_characters is at least more what-it-says-on-the-tin for what it's being used for and it seems like an improved version of the tag.

This seems both easily understood, and implamented. I like it

I think there's too many types of images under the video_games. It doesn't seem useful when it covers so much: characters, settings, gaming, backgrounds, anything that is even remotely connected with games.

So what is the the general consensus on this? Can we start using the video_game_characters tag?

Genjar said:
I think there's too many types of images under the video_games. It doesn't seem useful when it covers so much: characters, settings, gaming, backgrounds, anything that is even remotely connected with games.

So what is the the general consensus on this? Can we start using the video_game_characters tag?

Why would we?
We can already look up individual characters, through their tags.
(Mario, Sonic, Master Cheif, Link,ect.)
It would be pointless to have such a general tag.
Even if you wanted more general search results, say all the Nintendo characters, you just look up Nintendo.
The same goes with most other companies and franchises, they almost all have their own searchable tags.
The video game characters tag just seems too ambiguous to really catch on.

Although things like tagging settings as you suggested seems very feasible and useful.

＼(^o^)／