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Plain and simple, are Hearthstone questions considered "off topic" here?

It's a card game, albeit a digital one. I often hear it talked about side-by-side with Magic the Gathering nowadays.

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They are off-topic because they while it is a card game it is a purely digital one. They are on topic over at Arqade however.

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  • Is that just a general rule-of-thumb for this site then? Anything purely digital, even a digital board or card game, is to be considered for Arqade instead of this site? I'm fine with that - I'd just like to know for sure.
    – Ethan The Brave
    Commented Dec 24, 2015 at 16:28
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    @EthanTheBrave From out On Topic page: "Questions about computer implementations of board games are fine." and "We're not the right place to ask questions about: Computer games" So if you are asking about an electronic version of Chess it would be on topic here, but if it is a game like Hearthstone that doesn't have a physical version it is not.
    – diego
    Commented Dec 24, 2015 at 16:45
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    Not that I think this would ever happen, but if, in theory, they ever somehow made a physical version of Hearthstone, would I be correct to assume that this answer would change?
    – Dan Henderson
    Commented Dec 26, 2015 at 6:59
  • @DanHenderson - I think it would yes. Hearthstone is a definite edge case that points out that our line is arbitrary. However, the line is fairly clear and serves as a reasonable guide most of the time.
    – Pat Ludwig Mod
    Commented Dec 28, 2015 at 15:43
  • The World of Warcraft TCG was the physical version of Hearthstone
    – Neil Meyer
    Commented Jan 1, 2016 at 16:17
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    @Neil The World of Warcraft TCG was not at all similar to Hearthstone and was developed by a different company.
    – bwarner
    Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 14:24
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    While I understand the sentiment, I can't help feeling like this is a fringe case. Let's take the hypothetical where WotC decides it's losing money on printing and distribution of physical MTG product, so for all future sets they are going to be released digital only (I know this sounds crazy). That would mean any questions regarding mechanics in these sets would be off-topic on B&CG.SE because there is no longer a physical implementation of the game. However, given the structure of MTG as a game, it fits more closely with this community than Arqade. This would also seem to hold for HS.
    – SocioMatt
    Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 18:57
  • @SocioMatt If WotC did that MtG might still fall under the 'computer implementation of board games', we'd probably have to talk about it if it ever did happen
    – diego
    Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 19:43
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    @diego I assume that would spark quite the conversation in Meta. My basic point is that the strict delineation of games based on where they're played (physically or digitally) might be less useful to users than the mechanics of how they're played. As we, as a society, move more into digital space, games that may have been produced as physical products may be created digitally instead. What we're essentially saying here is that we are separating the sites based on distribution rather than game mechanics, and I'm unsure if that is the most logical separation.
    – SocioMatt
    Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 19:54

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