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A question came up in the review queue, where the user had used the tag. My immediate thoughts were to ask why they were using the tag, as they had not mentioned anything pertaining to an available or custom made engine. I suspect the tag might be being used improperly; but I digress.

What is the actual intended use for the tag?

I can see two common ways this tag might be used:

  • The asker is using a specific game engine.
  • The asker is creating a game engine.

If they are using a specific game engine, I see as a meta tag. It describes that they are using an engine, but the specific engine tag should be used, instead; or , for example.

If they are creating their own engine, I can see how might be appropriate. Game engines differ greatly, but there are a lot of core similarities; I can easily see how somebody would be an "expert" in "engines", in this context.

It appears others disagree; perhaps I am wrong. The current usage guideline tells me what a game engine is, but not how to use the tag:

Game engines are a collection of libraries and tools that provide a framework to create games.

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To me, seems like a meta tag no matter how we slice it. I certainly agree that there's little point in doubling it up with or , et cetera.

It does make some sense to consider it the tag one would use when one has a question about a custom engine or one that there is no tag for, except that

  • for the most part, users can just create a tag for the latter case themselves
  • questions about "custom engine development" in the most general sense (i.e., when no other of our available tags would fit the scope) are almost certainly too broad

So my recommendation would be to blacklist as a meta tag.

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    \$\begingroup\$ @Gnemlock Blacklisting a tag means to remove it from all the current questions, and add it to the blacklist. It also means that we'll have to check once in a while that it has not been added again to new questions. \$\endgroup\$
    – Vaillancourt Mod
    May 5, 2017 at 9:55
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    \$\begingroup\$ Adding a description to the tag to that effect isn't that helpful, since once we remove the tag from all questions the tag eventually goes away and I don't think old descriptions will be preserved if the tag is re-created (and in any event, I don't trust people to read them). \$\endgroup\$
    – user1430
    May 5, 2017 at 15:16
  • \$\begingroup\$ I added the engine tag to the blacklist topic. It is not cleared out though; with 700+ questions that will take some time. \$\endgroup\$
    – user1430
    May 22, 2017 at 15:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ It's cleared now :) i.stack.imgur.com/7VbpV.png \$\endgroup\$
    – Vaillancourt Mod
    Jun 23, 2017 at 0:57

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