Game Genres - Help List & Categorize

[racketboy]

This brings up a good side-topic....
Once we get these sub-genres established, we should make up some definitions and then have some examples of each.

I know wikipedia has some genres and subgenres covered -- so perhaps if certain ones aren't covered, I can add some to Wikipedia or something.

[marurun]

Maybe Crunchy RPG or Classic RPG vs Cinematic RPG would be better.

[Gamerforlife]

I'm a little uncomfortable with this topic. Simply because nobody seems to really know what the genres are anymore. There is so much genre mixing these days that a single game can get described different ways depending on what site you go to.

It's like how so many reviews describle Odin Sphere as a brawler even though it has no grab attacks, no combos, no 360, health draining attacks. Plus, there are too many items and magic attacks available. To me it's not a brawler, but that's what everyone seems to be calling it.

People keep calling Zelda an rpg, but Zelda has no parties, no "true" random encounters, stories that fall way short of what is expected of rpgs, no levelling up, few real magic attacks, etc. Is it an rpg? I don't think so, but people keep saying it is.

Ratchet and Clank plays like more third person shooter than platformer, but everyone calls it a platformer

My point is that there are really no hard and fast rules for genres anymore. Even when you break things down by subgenre, you'll still get a lot of debate over what's what.

Is Resident Evil 4 still a survival horror game, or an "action" horror game. Depends on who you ask.

I'm already seeing some genres and sub genres listed here, that I've NEVER seen anywhere else. Does that invalidate them, or does it really just come down to opinion? Who knows?

I can already see how a topic like this can provoke much disagreement

[racketboy]

You bring up one of the main points I want to bring out: overlapping genres.
I want to document the overlapping and I would like to highlight games that blend genres or start new subgenres.

So, if you see trends like that, bring up those specifics in this thread.
I can't pick them all out myself, so that's why I'm hoping to take advantage of the various experts on this forum.

[PacoDG]

I have nothing to add to this thread other than when people ask me what kind of music I like, I always tend to end up going with an answer like "Country Salsa" or "Drum and Bass Rap" or some other b.s. answer. Keeping with the music, if I opened a store, I always felt it would be awesome to just have everything listed alphabetically and have no genres.

Okay, back to this thread and an attempt to add *something* to it.. video games are not like music and definitely need some kind of genre definitions. But then things like the Katamari series go and mess things up by being a game that is hard to define.

*quickly runs out of this thread*

[racketboy]

I have nothing to add to this thread other than when people ask me what kind of music I like, I always tend to end up going with an answer like "Country Salsa" or "Drum and Bass Rap" or some other b.s. answer. Keeping with the music, if I opened a store, I always felt it would be awesome to just have everything listed alphabetically and have no genres.

Okay, back to this thread and an attempt to add *something* to it.. video games are not like music and definitely need some kind of genre definitions. But then things like the Katamari series go and mess things up by being a game that is hard to define.

*quickly runs out of this thread*

Even games like Katamari can fit somewhere between some genres. Same goes with other rather unique games like Pac-Man or Bomberman. And sometimes, when they are popular, they create their own genre (usually of rip-offs) and sometimes die off when they don't innovate enough from the original.

[Faffel]

As a side note, RE4 is not a horror game in any vein. It's not scary whatsoever, and barely survival-oriented.

[Mozgus]

As a side note, RE4 is not a horror game in any vein. It's not scary whatsoever, and barely survival-oriented.

100% truth. It's strictly a third-person action game.

[Jade]

I also am working on a progject that will need to classify games into what I call game "Genres".

About Western VS. Japanese RPGs:

This works for the most part right now, but may not work long-term. What if a Japanese developer eventually decides to make an open ended Oblivion style game. (Japan has already made MMOs) Or if a Western developer makes a very linear game in a style considered to be Japanese. You could argue Sudeki is an example of this.

I think classification based on location is a mistake. Therefore I say Open-ended or something similar VS Linear or story driven is a better RPG classification.

Also not knowing your project makes it hard to say if this would work for you but you might want to consider not placing a game into only 1 category but instead create a series of properties that can be assigned to the game.

Such as: On-line, Shooter, 2D, 3D, Platformer, Co-Op, etc. and then be able to attach as necessary these properties to the game.

If you don't do this and try to pigeon-hole things into just 1 category I think you'll always find examples where it's not a perfect fit and you'll just have to make some sacrifices and choose the category that is the best fit you can find. That or make 800 gazillion different categories

[racketboy]

My project revolves around finding similarities in games.
And typically, I want to have two or more sub-genres assigned to a certain game unless it is a very straightforward games like Super Mario Bros. or Unreal Tournement.

Some games may have three or more subgenres assigned to it...