Genre of Games
When describing what a game will be like to a friend most of as will, at some point, mention the genre of the game. When you do this the person you’re talking to will instantly get an image in their head of what the game will be like. Unfortunately this can usually lead to disappointment when the person buys the game and finds out that the game doesn’t really fit the genre they were told it was part of.
This is due to the fact that we have limited descriptions for genres. RPG, FPS, RTS, God game, Sim, 3rd person shooter, Adventure, Casual; these are just a few of the many, many genres that a game can full into. Unfortunately because the general public aren’t walking thesaurus (really they’re not) we end up being given just the basic description as a genre, so we end up with Final Fantasy and Baldur’s gate being tagged with the same genre of RPG. This isn’t an incorrect description as you do indeed play a role in both games, this of course can be said of anything interactive as you cant really interactive without a “role” but the point is with these two games putting then in the same genre would lead you into the belief that the games had a similar play style which of course they don’t.
So what’s the solution? well one solution I propose would be have some sort of logo system akin to what is used for software ratings where you would have a different design for each genre. There are problems to this solution though such as the fact of the vast number of different genres and the problem of experimental game play as well as the solution not really allowing for new genres to emerge.
The is one other solution that I can propose and that is to separate the problem into to parts. You could have a logo for each basic genre such as; rpg, fps, strategy, experimental and 3rd person shooter. And along with this you could have an experience logo so you would have logos for action, turn based play, etc.
To be honest I would go with the first solution even though it does have flaws, mainly in design, it is the most simple idea. And you should all know simple ideas are always the best.
,INT13h – Stay in Control.
October 26th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Your solution seems to be to replace the names of genres with logos. Surely you will still have the same problem, as there are still genres? I struggle to see how you can describe a game by a logo, surely a genre by form of word makes a lot more sense. Sorry If I’m missing the point. Likewise the best way to describe a game, is to describe it and compare it. Saying “it’s another halo clone FPS, but this time you can slow down time” works fine, much like you would describe an album in music.
Adam