I've noticed in the past few months that questions containing the words or the concept of "how to get started doing X" amass some close votes.
If we consider the paragraph of the community-specific reason for why we want to close the questions about "how to get started",
Questions about "how to get started," "what to learn next," or "which technology to use" are discussion-oriented questions which involve answers that are either based on opinion, or which are all equally valid. Those kinds of questions are outside the scope of this site. Visit our help centre for more information.
... we can see elements like:
- what to learn next,
- which technology to use,
- discussion-oriented,
- based on opinion,
- are all equally valid. ¤
These pretty much all relate to the same topic: how can a developer begin their journey in game development.
They're not about "How do I do X where X is specific and scoped but it probably involves a longer-than-the-average-answer?"
If you know how a question could be answered, but it would require many tutorials to do so, then probably the question could be closed for "Needs more focus" (This question currently includes multiple questions in one. It should focus on one problem only.). If the answer could be answered using a single short tutorial, or that any way to tackle the issue asked should be done as a whole (e.g., consider a problem that requires two steps to solve, and step 2 requires step 1 be done in a very specific way), then it should be left open.
Remember that someone else would love to write "more involved" answers to those questions. They do not harm the site, on the contrary. Remember that it's not because one thinks that an answer would be too long to write that it would be the case for another user; one doesn't have to choose between "I can answer it" and "vote to close,” it's also possible to:
- edit it and leave a meaningful edit comment,
- comment and suggest improvements or request for clarifications,
- downvote it (e.g., if not enough research effort is demonstrated),
- leave it alone.
If the question does not fit the description of the other close reasons (as it's outlined here), and you're not sure enough about the topic, then maybe it should be left open.
So requesting tutorial-like answers is not outright off-topic, although the user asking has to consider that they could be asking for a lot and so no one will give them an answer (... they should also show that they have done some research before asking).
Finally, keep in mind the way new users receive feedback when asking a question on the site:
- they don't see close votes until their question is closed,
- they see downvotes but may not "get the message" as they may not be aware that there is a description over the down arrow, and the down arrow has currently three reasons given for using it,
- they can read and understand clear and friendly comments, and they can respond to them, making comments the most effective way to help them improve their question.
We have had past posts about this topic:
- A Close Vote is not a Super Downvote - user1430 covers this very well, it is a "recommended reading.”
- “how to get started making a game” faq link
¤ A side note about "are all equally valid": in computer science/programming, there are often multiple ways to achieve the same goal, and, often, those ways are all equally valid, so of course, to some extent, we expect those. The text here really refers to opinions; the reasons why your favourite colour is Milk and Water are equally valid to your neighbour's reasons to love Goose Turd Green.
