User blog:HopelessNightOwl/An Update Regarding Lost Episodes and Haunted Gaming

Recently, myself and the other admins decided to revisit the ban on lost episode stories and haunted gaming stories and concluded that it is time for an update.

Historically, we have banned lost episode and haunted gaming stories due to their tendency to be highly cliched and unoriginal, and the fact that at the height of creepypasta's popularity, this wiki was flooded with them, most of them being of poor quality.

However there were always problems and ambiguities with the way the policy was articulated. The lost episode ban applied not just to stories based on real TV shows and movies, which is usually what people think of by "lost episodes," but also to any stories that follow the "lost episode formula" in any way, even if the show of interest is fictional. Candle Cove was previously under Lost Episodes for this reason but has now been moved to Television.

The exact scope of the video game blacklists was also a subject of controversy. It was often erroneously said that we had banned all video game stories. The ban was supposed to only be on haunted gaming stories and a specific set of blacklisted game franchises, but the confusion over what exactly constitutes a haunted gaming story had the effect of making people afraid to go anywhere near video games as a topic, and the list of blacklisted franchises was unclear as well since the content and title filters contain terms blacklisting more franchises than appear on the explicit blacklist (Sonic stories, for example, were not explicitly blacklisted, but "Sonic" is a blacklisted term.)

Over the past couple years, at least, few of our regular users have even attempted to post television or video game stories, and we believe the historical spinoff rule is to blame. Therefore, we are amending the spinoff policy concerning lost episodes and video games, in order to hopefully alleviate the stagnation our television and video games genres have undergone.

The Changes
To start with, we have narrowed our definition of lost episodes to apply strictly to stories centered on real television shows and movies. Television pastas centered on fictitious shows that somewhat resemble lost episode stories are now explicitly permitted.

HOWEVER, the purpose of this revision is to encourage creativity, so highly cliched television stories are still banned. Basically, your story can be about a fictitious show or episode of a fictitious show (or a generic show, e.g. "the news") that has been "lost," but it can't be a beat-for-beat retread of the typical lost episode story format from the bad old days. If your story too closely resembles a 2013 era lost episode clichefest, it will be deleted as a lost episode story even if the show of interest is fictitious.

Concerning video game pastas, we are replacing the select franchise blacklist with a blanket ban on all stories centered on real games or game franchise/series. However, we are rescinding the ban on haunted gaming stories.

Haunted gaming stories based on fictitious video games that aren't part of a real gaming series are now allowed. However, as with television stories, the caveat is that your story can't be riddled with cliches. Stories that blatantly rip off Sonic.exe or even BEN Drowned will still be deleted, for example.

We hope these changes will encourage people to write creative television and video game stories, while avoiding the problems that plagued such stories in the past.

TLDR

 * Television stories based on real shows and movies are blacklisted.


 * The lost episode category and blacklist now applies only to stories based on real shows and movies.


 * Stories based on fictitious shows that somewhat resemble lost episode stories are now allowed, as long as they aren't too cliched.


 * Stories centered on real video games, game franchises, or IPs are now universally blacklisted.


 * The haunted gaming story ban is now rescinded, but all video game stories, whether they involve haunted elements or not, must not be centered on real game IPs, and must not be too cliched.


 * Since stories centered on real TV shows and video games are now banned, television and gaming "theory" pastas are now blacklisted.


 * The other spinoff rules and blacklists of this wiki remain unchanged.


 * As always, you can make a spin appeal if you really want to post a story with a blacklisted subject.


 * The general quality standards of this wiki still apply to all television and video game stories.