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I'm having trouble finding out where to go with some of my questions regarding game design, and was wondering if GDSE was the right place to go. The reason being that most of the questions I've seen seem to be mostly about programming, not as much about design.

Topics like:

  • Difficulty balance/escalation
  • Game monitization
  • PVP mechanics
  • Game psychology, skinnerboxing ect.
  • Game community management

Would these topics be welcome here?

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Yes of course game design questions are allowed. However, like every other question, they must be asked in a good subjective way:

Some subjective questions are allowed, but “subjective” does not mean “anything goes”. All subjective questions are expected to be constructive. What does that mean? Constructive subjective questions:

  • inspire answers that explain “why” and “how”
  • tend to have long, not short, answers
  • have a constructive, fair, and impartial tone
  • invite sharing experiences over opinions
  • insist that opinion be backed up with facts and references
  • are more than just mindless social fun

For more detail, read about our guidelines for great subjective questions and blog post about how real questions have answers.

You can see these related questions:

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    \$\begingroup\$ I would like to point out I think we more of these sorts of questions but we also need stricter moderation regarding the answers around them. \$\endgroup\$
    – ClassicThunder
    Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 19:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ IMO these are often the sort of questions that attract the higher quality contributors, the same contributors complain the site lacks interesting questions. More abstract and softer questions benefit from real word experience and expertise. \$\endgroup\$
    – ClassicThunder
    Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 19:49
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    \$\begingroup\$ Unfortunately they also attract some of the worst answers I've seen on the site, but this is because the answering user is being lazy, not an inevitably caused by the softness/grayness of the question. \$\endgroup\$
    – ClassicThunder
    Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 19:50
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    \$\begingroup\$ When you say "stricter moderation," I just want to point out that that really has to be community moderation (via downvotes). It really can't be unilateral diamond moderator intervention in most cases (nonsense/spam/non-answers excepted). \$\endgroup\$
    – user1430
    Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 21:05
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I would say yes !

These things are entirely relevant to game development as they most certainly effect the code required to deliver.

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The biggest issue with game design questions, is that they often veer into opinion based questions. But if it is a game design question with a straight objective answer, then it fits Game Development.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't think it even needs to be an objective answer. If we restrict GDSE to purely objective answers then the allowed questions would be a subset of SOs. \$\endgroup\$
    – ClassicThunder
    Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 19:26
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    \$\begingroup\$ Most of these questions fall into "good objective". Unfortunately this site suffers a bit from by-the-book mods which follow the rules to the letter, not to the intention. \$\endgroup\$
    – Philipp
    Commented Sep 27, 2014 at 18:32
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While the vast majority of questions you encounter are technical in nature, the more theoretical topics you mentioned are also asked here from time to time.

There aren't many questions like that, but when they are asked they are usually those questions which get the highest ratings, showing that they are very welcome in this community.

My highest rated question (172 upvotes) was about balance and player psychology. Only one person thought it was a bad question for this site (unfortunately that one person also happened to be a moderator, so the question is closed now).

My second highest rated question (73 upvotes) was about community management.

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