About Nintendo console and cartridge questions

Question

Hi, there's this thing that's been bothering me a bit about PokeBase questions. What annoys me is how people ask questions about cartdriges and DS systems, rather than the games or information about pokemon or the anime/manga.

Basically, questions like this:
http://pokemondb.net/pokebase/247350/why-are-weird-things-happening-to-my-emerald

This is technically breaking the rules, but I never see these questions flagged so I get confused as whether to flag them or not.

There was this question from a year ago, this was about the DS:
http://pokemondb.net/pokebase/186155/not-necessarily-pokemon-but-question-about-the-game-systems

Another type of question is
http://pokemondb.net/pokebase/186158/pokemon-hg-music-changes
while it could have been about the game, it was about the DS. In certain circumstances it may not have been (like if there was something special about the game making it have different music depending on the system it was in), but this case was just about why the music seemed to sound different.

My most recent question: http://pokemondb.net/pokebase/246984/why-is-there-a-save-and-quit-feature-in-rumble-world is somewhat similar (i guess) but it is asking about ingame stuff and "does it save all this junk etc. etc.", not about the system or game cart. Therefore, I'd think that questions for my type would be allowed, but questions like the first 3 wouldn't.

So I'm gonna talk a little about each of them:

The first one i mentioned, about the emerald game (this also goes for the second question i linked)- It isn't at all about Pokemon, ingame questions, tcg, manga, or anime. it is asking no information reguarding any kind of Pokemon story, glitches, how to do stuff ingame, etc. And is technically breaking the rules by asking a question about the cartridge, not the game.
If this was happening to the their Zelda or Mario cart, they wouldn't be posting about it here. Just because it is a Pokemon cartridge doesn't mean it is any different than other franchise games. All cartridges are the same, the games that are inside them is what is different, and the cart being broken has nothing to do with the actual Pokemon game.
Are Nintendo console questions allowed and I just didn't know?
Another thing is that the problem is obvious: the game and/or DS is broken somehow. Obviously the Emerald game is broken... so what exactly is it that they want to know?

For the HG sound question - That was about the sound of the game sounding different when on 3DS than on DSi, and was about the systems.

My question was about Rumble and ingame stuff, and it wasn't really about the system, but asking about the save and quit function inside the game.

So finally, I want to ask...

Are these questions allowed? Are questions like mine allowed but not still sort of "rule-breaky"? I"m pretty sure mine is perfectly fine with the rules, but questions like the others seem to break them, especially the emerald question.
So do I flag these or leave them alone? I feel the problem should be addressed. What's your opinion? Is it really a problem or am I just easily annoyed by silly things?

Comments

In my opinion they're fine, as long as they're specifically Pokémon games / related to the operation of Pokémon games, and obviously NOT Zelda or Mario. They do "bend" the rules a bit, I guess, but they're not exactly common questions either. If they began to become a regular occurence, then it could become an issue. But for now it's fine. That's my two cents :/

---

^ I'd agree with everything there. They aren't a real problem, and pertain to the device which directly affects the Pokemon game itself. I'd probably give it a pass.

Answer 1

I think the difference is whether the person asking the question knows (or should know) that it's not related to the games.

If this was happening to the their Zelda or Mario cart, they wouldn't be posting about it here. Just because it is a Pokemon cartridge doesn't mean it is any different than other franchise games.

The first one i mentioned, about the emerald game (this also goes for the second question i linked)- It isn't at all about Pokemon

Not sure about the Emerald one, but in the second one they thought it was something specific to Pokemon X since it only happened with that game. Although in reality it probably wasn't, I think it's a fair question to ask. You can't fault the user for that.

For the HG sound question - That was about the sound of the game sounding different when on 3DS than on DSi, and was about the systems.

But it's certainly possible that the game could be doing something slightly different on different systems (there were some additional DSi features in BW2 I think).

My question was about Rumble and ingame stuff, and it wasn't really about the system, but asking about the save and quit function inside the game.

Yes this is specifically about a game feature so I think it's fine.

---

So in conclusion, questions about hardware are fine as long as it's reasonable for the asker to think it's specific to Pokemon.

Perhaps for some of these we should have one "catch-all" question about tech problems, e.g. "How can I fix problems with game cartridges?" with answers like "Just blow on it" :) Future questions can be hidden as duplicates then.