What I've learned from the various responses below and @goldPseudo's comment above is that the word "recommendations" is a bit of red herring. The norm is actually "Any question whose answer is a list or a solicitation of opinions is not welcomed here." The "opinions" part was always obvious to me, but not the "list" part. So it's okay to ask for what defines a game as being a certain type of game, so long as a list (of more than a few examples just to illustrate) is not associated with the answer. Maybe the FAQ could be revised to make that clear? – Joe Golton Jun 14 '12 at 22:28