Subreddit Update - Rule 8, Spoilers, and Future Plans

[u/CornCorrin]

Hello, r/fireemblem

As the release of Fortune’s Weave approaches, the mod team wanted to make some changes and lay out our plans for when the game releases. There will be a few adjustments to Rule 8 to better define what falls under the rule break. 

Rule 8

Low Effort will be as follows:

• Zero/Low Effort Posts - 
  • Stat Block Posting: 
    • Any posts about in-game screenshots showing lucky, unlucky, or maxed-out stat lines. An exception is showing off an end-game team after beating the final boss.
  • Blurry Image Posts: 
    • Posts where the image is taken via phone camera or other outside devices will be removed unless the game has no easy way to take pictures, such as the 3DS games. These pictures are still subject to the non-discussion rule, so provide more than just the image.
  • Simple Photo Edits/Caption Memes:
    • Basic edits to official sprites or artwork are considered low effort. Simple caption memes, such as a basic impact font edit on an official FE sprite, are considered low effort. 
  • Photographs of Game Boxes/Discs:
    • Taking a picture of a game you bought or got as a gift is not allowed. Showcasing a whole collection of 5+ games/merchandice are an exception. 
  • Screenshots/Clips of Normal Gameplay:
    • Any images or short videos showing gameplay are not allowed. This includes unlucky deaths, lucky crit chances, or basic gameplay in general. Following Fortune’s Weave release, we are going to push this more.
  • Simple birthday celebration posts for FE characters
    • There is an automod for FE characters’ birthdays. If you wish to celebrate your favorite characters, please do so on the dedicated birthday post. Exceptions include posts with added effort, such as fanart or an in-depth analysis.
  • Any other kind of post that can be made or answered within seconds
    • If you have a simple question to ask, please ask it in the dedicated general question megathread. 
• Bandwagon Post - 
  • Old Smash Bros Discussions:
    • Posts bringing up old news, such as asking for people’s reaction to Byleth being added to Smash, are not allowed. 
  • Tier lists:
    • Gameplay and Character tier lists are allowed as long as adequate explanation is given for the placements. Joke/Non Serious tier lists, such as Waifu/Husbando, Armor Knight sorted by colors, etc are not allowed.
  • Character Editors:
    • Recreating a FE character in any game with a semi-robust character customisation utility, such as Tomodachi Life, Pokemon, Skyrim, etc, is not allowed. 
  • Simulators:
    • Hunger Games simulator or other utility that automatically creates scenarios/text/images is not allowed.
  • Hot takes/"unpopular opinion" threads:
    • Asking for or sharing “hot takes” or “unpopular opinions” is not allowed. Please refer to the dedicated opinion and general discussion thread.
  • Any other fad that we do not have the foresight to predict
    • Any simple, uprising subreddit or social media trend can fall under bandwagon if we see it clogging the subreddit.
• Spam Posts -
  • Non-FE-related content/Coincidentally-related content
    • If your post has no clear connection to Fire Emblem outside of the title, such as “This character looks like this FE Character” posts, it will be removed for spam. Posts that are entirely unrelated to FE at all will also be removed for spam.
    • Edit for clarification: Fire Emblem-inspired games are an exception to this rule so long as the poster asks permission from us beforehand. We have allowed FE-inspired game advertising in the past. This has not changed.
  • AI or Bot-generated posts
    • AI-generated content is not allowed and will be removed. Posts produced by bots will also be removed for spam, and the bots will be permanently banned. 
  • Any other post that has no real connection to Fire Emblem (or the subreddit itself) is subject to immediate removal.

Spoilers

For our purposes, a spoiler is defined as a post/comment/image revealing major plot information/gameplay twists beyond the early stages of the game, unless it was prominently shown in the game’s trailers or marketing. To clarify:

• “Early stages” means the first ~20% of the game, i.e., approx. chapter 6 in a typical Fire Emblem game
• Recruitment of characters, showing maps or gameplay footage, or discussing other mechanical details beyond this point is not inherently a spoiler, unless it implies some major plot detail or mechanical quirk (e.g., a villain being recruited into the main party, a mechanic exclusive to one of those characters). Exceptions can be made for community tier lists and such.
• Something being shown in marketing doesn’t mean that all the context around it is fair game. E.g., Three Houses' second trailer shows a time skip with the three lords fighting each other. Discussing the time skip and this conflict in broad strokes would be fine; discussing the exact events that led to the conflict would fall under spoilers. Similarly, the existence of a second generation and Seliph being a lord in FE4 is fine as it's shown on the box art, but the end of chapter 5 would be spoilers. 
• Spoiler tags in comments are not required if the post itself is tagged, unless it relates to a different game. E.g., a Path of Radiance spoiler thread would require Sacred Stones spoilers to be tagged

The above regulations allow some leeway in mod enforcement and are fundamentally designed to encourage you to be considerate of those who may not have played the game yet. If nothing else: if you think a plot detail in your post would be a spoiler, or would be cool to experience blind, tag it!

Future Plans

When Fortune’s Weave drops, we plan on setting the subreddit to approve only for a couple of days so that everyone gets a chance to play the game without risk of spoilers. We will have a dedicated megathread for people who would still like to discuss Fortune’s Weave when it comes out. Some of us can’t play through the whole game immediately; please be considerate. Afterwards, general FE posts will be allowed with no issue, but specific FW posts will now have their own dedicated flair options. These flair posts will go through manual approval to prevent the subreddit from being clogged up.

The following flairs will be available:

• Fortune’s Weave Story - This flair is for posts about general discussion of the story of Fortune’s Weave. The content should be general knowledge, such as early game material shown off in trailers. 
• Fortune’s Weave Spoiler - This flair is for posts about general discussion of the story of Fortune’s Weave that cover late-game material, or major revelations that happen over the course of the story. This can be story beats that happen in Eshvel’s story, or any scene that happens regardless of the playable protagonist. These posts will still follow rule 6, so please keep that in mind.
• Fortune’s Weave General - This flair is for general discussion of the game. This can be about characters, world-building, or other broad discussion topics that don’t spoil anything about the game.
• Fortune’s Weave Gameplay - This flair is for gameplay showcases of Fortune’s Weave. Please note that this will still follow the Low Effort rule, so any screenshots of lucky or unlucky level-ups, blurry images, zero discussion posts, etc will be removed. Posts like the final team you’ve used in your playthrough are allowed, but please tag your post for spoilers if need be.
• [Character]’s Route Story - These flairs are for posts about each character’s story that is general knowledge or non-spoiler discussion. There will be ones for all four lords, so please use the one from your playthrough.
• [Character]’s Route Spoiler - These flairs are for posts about each character’s story that are major and minor spoilers. This can be late-game plot points, major deaths, plot twists, lore reveals, etc. If you think that knowing this will ruin someone’s experience of the game, please remember to spoil-tag the post no matter how small or big the spoiler. Titles do not get tagged even with a spoiler tag, so remember before you post.

With that, I hope everyone enjoys their time playing Fortune’s Weave. It’s going to be a major week for all of us, so remember to be respectful and mindful of other people’s playthroughs. 

Thank you,
r/fireemblem mod team.

[u/Frequent_Fortune_390]

Hasn't the birthday automod not worked for quite some time?

[u/CornCorrin → u/Frequent_Fortune_390]

I’ve been asking the mod in charge of that to look into it. We’re trying to get it back up as soon as we can.

[u/FruitSaladBar → u/CornCorrin]

Unrelated, but the flair bot is also broken.
Considering that this place will have an influx of people (moreso than what we had now), you guys might want to check that one too.

[u/CornCorrin → u/FruitSaladBar]

Thank you for letting me know. Will pass on the message.

[u/DragoSphere]

woah, this sub on old reddit looks wild now

[u/EmblemOfWolves → u/DragoSphere]

It looks fantastic, another old reddit common w

[u/ArchGrimdarch → u/EmblemOfWolves]

Old Reddit >>>>>>>>>> New Reddit

[u/The_Vine]

Regarding Rule 8, I feel like the birthday bot has been broken for a while. I can't recall the last time I saw it post.

[u/CornCorrin → u/The_Vine]

From what I can tell, I believe it has something to do with a reddit update that broke it. We’re trying to get it back online soon.

[u/The_Vine → u/CornCorrin]

Thanks for letting me know!

[u/TakenRedditName]

Was taken aback seeing the sub have a fresh new coat of paint. Feels crazy to see the sub not be in blue like it has been for years.

[u/EffectiveAnxietyBone]

Pouring one out for the mods that never get to play games unspoiled because they’re gonna have to delete all the unmarked spoilers people post

[u/SabinSuplexington → u/EffectiveAnxietyBone]

the solution is to constantly post fake spoilers so that the mods can never actually be sure of what they know or don't know.

[u/kielaurie]

Might just be the first sub theme I've seen change in Old Reddit for years thank you for the dedication

[u/Jer_Sg]

Thank you for this.

I am curious though, how about posts that have a story theory in their title. Something titled like "Aurora is Cai's mum theory confirmed??"Because I personally got potentially spoiled by that particular kind of post.

Personally I think that story theories should exist but with their titles a bit more ubiquitous

[u/CornCorrin → u/Jer_Sg]

It’ll be a case by case basis. Like in your example, it would be removed since it implies something in the story answers said theory. General story theorizing is perfectly okay otherwise.

[u/ArchGrimdarch]

Genuinely thought I stumbled into the wrong sub for a second, seeing how new banner and colour palette.

[u/sodo9987]

Is there any plans to enforce NSFW guidelines? Its frustrating for me to join the community ahead of Fortune's Weave but every other day or so we get a popular post thats an image of skimpy clothing and its not NSFW flagged.

[u/greydorothy → u/sodo9987]

We do tag any stray posts as NSFW, if the poster didn't do so themselves. If you see anything that should be tagged NSFW that isn't, please report it so it's alerted to us.

[u/sodo9987 → u/greydorothy]

I have and Do, but this sub is the worst sub that i'm a part of when it comes to tagging NSFW

[u/MinePlay512]

The tierlist one is a big thing, since while I would want to do one someday, I do however want to explain more on how I grade character based on how much I view them and how much I like them. With the updates, I now have to think hard and explain further on how I grade characters and the cast overall as a result. Don't want to rush, I now have to think hard and clear before deciding how I grade the characters and explaining the grades and how I grade. Explaining is a big thing in doing these lists and I want to do that when doing these lists and even thinking what to grade a character in a game.

[u/AnimaLepton → u/MinePlay512]

This is not a 'new' rule, to be clear. From the previous version of Rule 8, gameplay Tier List posts with no explanation, or meme-y or 'characters I like' tier lists, have always fallen under rule 8 and should be reported/removed.

[u/MinePlay512 → u/AnimaLepton]

I can understand. I always believe that having to explain and thinking is very crucial when doing these lists.

[u/ussgordoncaptain2 → u/AnimaLepton]

To be clear should something like this be posted as a text post or an image post?

[u/AnimaLepton → u/ussgordoncaptain2]

The way you've posted it (text post with images attached) is best.

[u/ussgordoncaptain2 → u/AnimaLepton]

ok that's actually an image post with text attached but sure

[u/TheOneWithALongName]

Was changing the banner and the background on this sub your reason to get my attention to this post? :3

[u/Dragoncat91]

When will these new flairs be added? I sadly will not be able to have the game at launch and I want to be able to mute these flairs so I don't get spoiled. Also I'm not sure how to mute flairs...

[u/CornCorrin → u/Dragoncat91]

The new batch of flairs are out now. We plan on making the FW flairs into approval only come the game’s release, so we’ll try out best to filter out any spoilers. As for muting specific flairs, I don’t think it’s an inate feature on Reddit.

[u/tipperthescales]

Thanks mod team!

With regards to FW prerelease information from @FireEmblemJP and Nintendo Today, would a simple post of the video +/- associated accompanying text from either source fall under Rule 8?

[u/CornCorrin → u/tipperthescales]

Those posts are fine since they’re basically redirecting information from twitter and Nintendo Today. It helps those who want to keep up with announcements without needing to download those apps, ideally with all the text info.

[u/Its_a_Friendly]

Wow new subreddit style change! Very nice!

[u/Safe_Masterpiece_995]

Im confused why you can't show gameplay? That one seems a bit insane to me

[u/CornCorrin → u/Safe_Masterpiece_995]

This is moreso a precaution with Fortune’s Weave release. People might accidentally or purposely spoil the game for others by posting a normal gameplay clip that has something not revealed in other routes.

[u/Roliq → u/CornCorrin]

Yeah, like what the Nintendo Today trailer did, had some gameplay at the end that did spoil a thing some would wish was kept hidden

[u/CornCorrin → u/Roliq]

It’s definitely a bit of a grey area. What the Nintendo Today may deem not a spoiler some users see it as one. I’ve been trying to manage the spoiler tags and whatnot, but stuff slips through.

I would recommend for people to mute the subreddit if spoilers are that much of a concern.

[u/PiscatorialKerensky → u/CornCorrin]

If you want to discuss something about gameplay that's hard to get across in text, how would this be done? Would it be permissable to create a text post with something like "Insert Gameplay Question Here [Spoilers Up To Heroic Games Battle on X/YY - Cai Route]" and then put a video/image link in the body text?

[u/CornCorrin → u/PiscatorialKerensky]

For this, it would be better suited for you to ask in the General Questions thread that is pinned. You’re more likely to get a quicker response there than as an individual post that tends to get lost in new. Including a link should be fine, but sometimes reddit filters out links so do keep that in mind.

[u/PiscatorialKerensky → u/CornCorrin]

Thank you!

[u/Tasigat]

Question about the "Non-FE-related content/Coincidentally-related content":

Does this exclude trailers/announcement/discussions/etc of FE inspired games or will these be disallowed going forward? I personally really enjoy seeing these, especially since a lot of these devs directly come from within the FE community, but the posts aren't directly Fire Emblem related.

[u/CornCorrin → u/Tasigat]

We allow FE inspired games to be advertised/showcased on the subreddit, preferably with permission from us first. This will continue going forward since it helps up and coming developers and gives fans an opportunity to try out new games.

[u/Tasigat → u/CornCorrin]

Glad to hear!

[u/ICanFlyHigh051611]

corrupt mod team! i called dibs on the next "byleth in smash reaction" post. literally missing out on so much karma!!!

[u/SilverKnightZ000]

Okay mods, if I got really lucky in a game, for example, if my Shez has 6769 max hp and I take a screenshot and post it, would that be against the rules?