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Initially I thought Arqade (f. Gaming) would be the place, but it seems that they've decided to narrow down the scope, and anything that is not "a real-world problem that you face, requiring a solution" is off-topic.

Doesn't seem to be match for GameDev either, as it isn't really about developing a game.

So is there any SE site that a question about history of video games and gaming would be on-topic?

Example of such a question: https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/11205/which-was-the-first-game-with-bullet-time

Another example as requested by Night Demonbobby, a question I would have asked (actually found answer on Kotaku in the mean time):

Title: What is the origin of head-shot damage multiplier?

Which game introduced head-shot damage multiplier and what was the original rationale behind it?

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    Can you be slightly more specific? I tend to rely on Wikipedia for the history of well-known games like chess or pachinko.
    – Shog9 StaffMod
    Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 8:16
  • @Shog9: made subject more specific to video games, added an example question.
    – vartec
    Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 8:28
  • SE, probably no. Maybe you can try reddit or some gaming forums?
    – Old Checkmark
    Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 8:30
  • Also... wow, MDK... forgot about that game.
    – Shog9 StaffMod
    Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 8:30
  • @Shog me, too. I had to Google some screenshots to remember which one it was. Now what does that tell us about the game?... It had cool graphics, though.
    – Pekka
    Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 8:31

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/r/gaming jumps to mind.

On a more serious note, no, such questions do not belong on the SE network. They're hard to answer for the most part and might yield discussions ("x had it first!" - "But y had a similar effect!" - "z was the best anyway..."). Why are they hard to answer? Well...do you know someone who knows all games? So even if you arrive at a consensus ("Okay, y was first.") who can tell you if that is correct?

And if you now have the idea "well, then let's listen all games with that effect." that's even more then off-topic and not constructive (see shopping questions for a relative).

Your example already shows the problem. Despite that the answer looks valid and good, it boils down to "There were these games with similar effects.".

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    I'm not sure if I agree with that rationale. There is one correct answer. Who can tell you which one? The community using upvotes/downvotes. So it's really not a case of a poll question in disguise. Also keep in mind that example is just that, an example.
    – vartec
    Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 10:24
  • @vartec: In that case the example does not fit your questions (or is a poor example for your use-case)...can you add the question you'd like to ask (including title)?
    – Time Traveling Bobby
    Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 10:26
  • Ok, updated the question with example
    – vartec
    Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 10:55
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I don't know what Arqade's stance on historical questions was 4 years ago, but historical gaming questions don't seem to be off-topic anymore.

There's even a dedicated gaming-history tag for questions like these.

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Questions about the history of games, conventions, customs, traditions and gaming terms, and how they have developed over time.

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