So I took a peak over at the rules page. Doesn't look particularly nice to read though I'm not entirely sure how to approve its appearance. Nonetheless I had a couple of other thoughts...
First thing I was going to say was specification of games titled "Sonic the Hedgehog"... but it seems the site has the original as "Sonic 1". Oh well.
It occurs to me that some rules that are listed as game specific could do with being general rules. As a rule of thumb (pun (if you can call it that) unintended), I would have thought it'd be ideal to have as many general rules as needed and to keep specific rules to a minimum... it seems that, like laws in real life, the rules tend to be rewritten by adding new stipulations and such, rather than being truly rewritten.
Some examples of specific game rules that could/should be general include those that appear for many games, such as "Time attack mode is to be used where possible/available.". I know some games with a TA mode will have an identical main game, given that they lack difficulty settings, but it is still worth considering for general rules. That, and something about times being as the game records them... though I am unsure myself on the priority of recorded records...
Another example I think is worthy of general rules is something from Shadow: "If you die after completing a mission objective, your stat does not count." I can't think of any non-freestyle situation where this is permitted in any game, and a note of "(freestyle where available)" would account for that.
There are probably other examples but I am not instigating an overhaul, just putting things forth for discussion. A major benefit of putting these kinds of rules in general rules is that they are likely to be made illegitimate in future games. Any game with a difficulty setting that is overrided by TA should have the TA rule. And if death after objective completion is beneficial for a 0 or near-0 time then it will be ruled out. This is why some rules that are not in multiple games already could do with being general rules.
Another thing I only just noticed is that there is somewhat a lack of consistency with the way rules are written. The various kinds of statements include:
"A run may not contain [xyz]"
"you may not [xyz]"
"[event] may not happen in a run"
"[event] voids your [score/time/rings]"
"[event] invalidates your [score/time/rings]"
and on the flip side...
"[mode] is to be used"
"[mode] must be used/enabled"
I am of the opinion that all illegal actions can be phrased with "you may not [xyz]" or "you may not [xyz] in a single run" (the latter generally for doing things more than once, though I don't like the word 'run' and would rather 'attempt' or something more... I dunno, specifically meaningful?) and that all mandatory actions can (and should) be phrased "[mode] must be used/enabled" (all the TA ones seem to use "is to be used", what is wrong with "must be used"?).
I also think that the rules page should have an overview of suspension/ban procedure and stuff. At the moment it is stated on the stat submission page, and is fairly common sense, but it's all a bit informal innit. :(
Just some FOOD for THOUGHT. Discuss like.
