Wow, really? You see no need for genre classifications at all. So I assume you like all video games from Tetris, to Splatterhouse, to Call of Duty, to Madden NFL, to Sim City 3000... right?Hobie-wan wrote:Pfft, why do you douchebags have to subclassify everything past the point of being ridiculous? I mean for fuck's sake, Diablo is an isometric randomly generated maze game with random treasure, random monsters, and a stat and skill improvement system? I mean I've got board games, card games, and field games. I don't further divide and call them a city building board game or obscure fact checking board game. It isn't single player card sorting game and multi player pissing contest betting card game. Launching or carrying a projectile through a goal at the end of a large field game or timed distance traversal with or without obstacles, self motivated or with animal or mechanical enhancement? Bah!
Board game
Card game
Field game
Video game, because they're played on a video screen. Duh.
DONE
Any further sub classification is pretentious.
The reason we have game genres is because different people like different games and it's easier to go into a shop and walk over to the section for RPG's and find an RPG if you like those games, rather than having to guess if you'll like something. We classify all media like this.
Film is classified in genres. Action, Comedy, Romance, Horror etc.
Music is classified in genres. Rock, Punk, Dance, Jazz etc.
Pretention is what happens when people over-classify games. Like with music. If I say I like alternative rock music from the late 80's and early 90's you can get an idea what I mean. Everyone knows what Rock means... but what is Grunge, Ska, New Wave? These are more specific sub genres, and I suppose for an alt-rock fan, these more specific genres are helpful, but what the hell are Baggy, Dunedin Sound, Grebo, Janglerock, Paisley, Psychobilly, Riot Grrl, Shoegaze, Slowcore and Trip Rock... I am not joking, all of those are sub categories of alternative rock. I didn't make a single one up, you can find them all on Wikipedia next to the TWO bands that fit a genre so specific that often two songs on the same CD are different bloody genres. This is pretentious.
It would be pretentious if video games did the same, and it's getting there. People who say "Zelda's genre is Zelda", no it's fucking not, grow up, Zelda is not a unique flower any more than any other franchise your arrogant bloody fanboys. But that aside generally speaking most people know what you mean when you give a franchise description.
I say Platformer you all know what I mean and probably have a game in mind. Some people will think Mario or Sonic, others may think of Castlevania or Super Metroid, others may be thinking of Ratchet & Clank or Jak & Daxter, or some people may be thinking Tomb Raider or Prince Of Persia. But they're all platformers... If I say 3D Action Platformer... chances are you're thinking Tomb Raider or something similar. If I said Traditional 2D Platformer, you're thinking Mario or something similar.
Genre's are there for a reason, it's so I can describe games without too much challenge. I can tell you "Kid Chameleon is a Tradition 2D Platformer" and you already know exactly what I mean without needing to play it, I don't have to say "Kid Chameleon is like Super Mario Bros. but..." and hope you're familiar enough with Mario for the rest to make sense. For some reason we now do the latter, "It's like God of War but..." is far more common than "It's a Brawler" which would be so much easier.
