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Game Genres for 2011?
Oeshy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
In the past this would have been a very easy task to undertake. Games tended to stick to one particular area. A shooter was a shooter. an RPG was an RPG. Now it seems every game is using RPG elements or blending multiple genres into the one game.
If you were to create a comprehensive game genre system for 2011 what would it look like? I haven't seen a single system that I would agree with yet. Important to note that the system should be able to cover ALL games. I've seen some systems that might work for consoles, but would not cover other games such as social games on facebook or handheld or DD etc. Is this possible to do? Is there a system already out there that is acceptable for today's gaming?
Curious to see what you guys can come up with.
If you were to create a comprehensive game genre system for 2011 what would it look like? I haven't seen a single system that I would agree with yet. Important to note that the system should be able to cover ALL games. I've seen some systems that might work for consoles, but would not cover other games such as social games on facebook or handheld or DD etc. Is this possible to do? Is there a system already out there that is acceptable for today's gaming?
Curious to see what you guys can come up with.
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I'm not even going to start about the morass of what we commonly called "role-playing games," that's even worse. (I've been known to call Mass Effect 2 the world's most talkative third-person cover shooter myself.)
And heck, look at some of your examples. Why are Facebook games necessary as a genre category? Or handheld? Or even digital-distribution? I don't see why a game's platform or method of delivery has anything to do with how it's categorized at all. I guess some people do? And this is why creating a universal, agreeable system is doomed to fail. No one will agree on shit. And in the end, I don't think the world really gives a hoot.
Keeping that in mind, people will probably continue to define game genres by interface of play (which is really all that the Facebook, web flash games, browser games, console, PC, phone, and all of other distinctions really are), by the number of people playing and how they interact (if at all), and by the typical markers ascribed to the current genre monikers we have today. These markers are going to change constantly as video games increase in sophistication, and they are going to mean different things to different groups of people. Anyone can recognize what a "First Person Shooter" is, for example, because you are in a first person perspective and you shoot things. "RPG" will deliver a different response from a gamer than from a layperson, though (if I ask my grandfather what an "RPG" is, he thinks either a rocket propelled grenade or "That's like Dungeons and Dragons, right?" or kinky sex). "Something Simulator" is probably going to be with us for a while, since a lot of games are simply a way to simulate another activity in the comfort and confines of your home.
Individual distinctions are largely unimportant (zomg, Fallout 3 is FPS AND AN RPG???), because people will somehow label various elements of the game as they damn well please. "RPG elements" is just short hand for persistent statistic tracking and improvement, for most people (rather than "do you get to play an active role in the decisions of the character aside from the mechanics of the gaming construct?"). "Procedurally generated" is a new buzzword lately, which people use to describe "we make shit up randomly as the game progresses" (it used to be "dynamic content!").
This sounds like a stoner topic of conversation, to be honest. Something that is seems "deep", but really just conversation fodder.
Doom had RPG elements: you picked up weapons which enhanced your ability to shoot things. Character advancement.
But, people don't seem to be able to think abstractly very well, so it takes "OH SHIT MY GUN GUY HAS A STAMINA NUMBER OMG RPG" before people notice this.
But seriously: everything is moving towards rpg backends and adventure based gameplay. I totally approve of this. Why play a generic shooter when you can play a shooter with modified loadouts, configurable traits and character roles/identities, for example?
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
You make a valid point, but I'm the kind of weirdo who'd like it if you got points for killing stuff in Serious Sam and could spend said points of silly feats to make the game even more ridiculous
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
Platformer
Sports
Simulation
Racing
Fighter
Third Person Shooter
RPG
Puzzle
Casual
Real Time Strategy
MMO
Adventure
Music
Maybe a combination of general genres and then for games that cover multiple areas giving them a sub genre.
For example Mass Effect = Third person Shooter / RPG
I'm not sure if it is necessary to get too in-depth breaking down the areas such as RPG into JRPG,WRPG,SRPG,ARPG etc. Even those particular areas could be broken down further.
Ideally I am looking for something that is streamlined and covers all games which can be rationalized fairly.
I don't see this working out at all. If you make enough categories, you'll be no better off for categorising a game, since the category name will mean nothing.
It'll be like looking at the ingredients list on food:
'Oh honey, look, this <Stuff> has E264 in it.'
'What's E264?'
'I don't know, but the number is high so it must be good for us!'
That's if you can even get everyone to agree on the definitions of the categories to start with, another impossible task.
Steam
Thats easy enough.
- Games I like
- Other
There! Done! I'm not sure why more people don't adopt the Wassermelone Graded Genre System (tm).
I've been saying this about music for years.
ArmA, System Shock 2, Call of Duty, Zeno Clash: All FPS's.
Dead Space, Gears of War, Jedi Outcast: TPS's
Total War, Starcraft 2, Sins of a Solar Empire, DOTA: RTS's.
You can put games into some fundamental boxes but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
People have a hard time classifying a game like Amnesia as First Person, because almost every other game is a First Person Shooter, and Amnesia doesn't have you shooting anything. So even though it's a first person game it's usually primarily defined as a Horror game.
Similar with Zeno Clash. There's shooting in it so it meets the most stringent requirements of being an FPS, but it's actually based around first-person brawling. Would any classification really make any sense for it?