Suggestions for New Genre 101 Series

[noiseredux]

Rack, you are doing everything right already!
please no point and click or rgb stuff here, let´s not turn this into what hg101 turned into.
arcade stuff only!

wait, wait, wait. I've complained about HG101 focusing so heavily on Point N Clicks lately. But my complaint is just that month after month it's been one genre. I have no problem with Point N Clicks. I like them a lot in fact. I've never viewed Racketboy as an "arcade only" site. I think Point N Clicks are welcome here. RPG's even more so. The only thing you'd want to avoid is doing the same theme over and over again.

[RCBH928]

I guess if you are talking about a genre
you should be writing at least top 3(or 5) games that are the best in that genre on any platform and any time in history.

[noiseredux]

I guess if you are talking about a genre
you should be writing at least top 3(or 5) games that are the best in that genre on any platform and any time in history.

I don't know... then you end up with lists of shit similar to every other website out there. Think about it. Top 5 RPG's: Ok, I guess we'll have some Final Fantasy, some Dragon Warrior, maybe Pokemon or whatever. Games we all already know about, have played, and have seen listed on every other site out there.

[crux]

Truthfully, I'm not always a fan of the 101 series. There's plenty of information that's hard to find on video games, but general info is not one of those things. Wikipedia is a tremendous source for a lot of general info, for instance (eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_horror). My first thoughts for genres went to the two genres I'm most obsessive about, shoot 'em ups and rhythm games. Wikipedia covers them both.

I was excited to see the 3DO article pop up, because when I bought mine it was hard to find many resources on it. Then I read it and saw a lot of information that was easy to find elsewhere. That's NOT to knock the authors of said articles - they're well written and concise, but I think they play to the casual reader rather than the readers seeking out information.

What Wikipedia doesn't cover is opinionated subjects, such as best or obscure games. I've always thought that's where racketboy shines the most, as those are the articles I've gone back to the most. In fact, genre approaches could go a long way with comprehensive "best of" lists, as most professional websites or hobbyist websites tend to stick to top 10s. It gets especially hard to find such lists with older, more retro genres.

Regardless, if you want genre recommendations, I'd say stick to something retro. Platformers is a classic choice and a number of arcade genres have three decades worth of history to stand behind. That's where I'd start. I'm personally fond of shoot 'em ups and racketboy already has a few good shoot 'em up articles for specific systems. Wouldn't be a bad choice. It's also a subject I know a lot about (I have shooters on probably 25 different systems), if you need any references.

[crux]

Double post rather than editing that last behemoth

I forgot to mentioned that the most recent articles I really enjoyed were Ack's contributions like N64 fighting games and SNES light gun games. I'm not a fan of fighting games and even less of a fan of N64 fighting games, but where in the hell else am I going to find that article on the internet? They're ultra specific, sure, but they are articles that Wikipedia sure as hell can't handle. I remember researching Super Scope games years ago and hardly having ANY information to draw from - mostly just the games I already knew I liked as a kid.

I'd love to see more articles like that. I've spent a ton of time researching obscure games, systems, and peripherals. I have a lot of systems, a TON of controllers, and, of course, games for those obscure systems and controllers. If there were any articles to help narrow my search, they were on a hundred different websites buried beneath the abyss of the internet, frequently in the form of forum posts. Not everyone is into the same subjects as myself, but suffice to say that some subjects are far better covered than others.

And speaking of, I really should write some of these articles myself...

[BlackDS]

I guess if you are talking about a genre
you should be writing at least top 3(or 5) games that are the best in that genre on any platform and any time in history.

I don't know... then you end up with lists of shit similar to every other website out there. Think about it. Top 5 RPG's: Ok, I guess we'll have some Final Fantasy, some Dragon Warrior, maybe Pokemon or whatever. Games we all already know about, have played, and have seen listed on every other site out there.

thats why its called RPGs 101, it is for people who know nothing

[noiseredux]

I guess if you are talking about a genre
you should be writing at least top 3(or 5) games that are the best in that genre on any platform and any time in history.

I don't know... then you end up with lists of shit similar to every other website out there. Think about it. Top 5 RPG's: Ok, I guess we'll have some Final Fantasy, some Dragon Warrior, maybe Pokemon or whatever. Games we all already know about, have played, and have seen listed on every other site out there.

thats why its called RPGs 101, it is for people who know nothing

yeah. I guess.

[J T]

I'm also hesitant about ideas for the future because those end up a bit too speculative, and I don't always like considering the future prospects of certain genres, especially survival horror(some news commentators have already labeled it as dead or disappearing).

This is why I left that point with a question mark.

However, I should note that I'm not thinking of this as trying to be predictive of what may or may not happen in the future. I'm thinking more of providing some commentary on ideas we would like to see fleshed out more, under-utilized gameplay elements, under-represented themes that need to be tapped into.

For example, in Survival Horror, I love that the game LifeLine doesn't have you directly control the main protagonist. Instead, you interact with her so that she can save you from the locked room you are in. It increases the sense of personal helplessness while simultaneously creating more concern and care for the main character. Unfortunately, the microphone controlled user interface was executed rather horribly and the game was ruined. It's still a great idea that hasn't been done in any other game that I know of, but it appears doomed to fade away because of poorly implemented voice controls.

In light of crux's point that we should inject these 101 series' with some expert opinion to differentiate them from wikipedia pages, I am liking the idea of adding a "What we would like to see more of" section at the end of these articles. It would also be likely to generate more discussion in the comments aside from the typical "i liked it/i hated" kind of comments.

[jp1]

I would like to see more "Top titles that still matter", "Hidden Gems", or "Pushed the limits" articles. It seems like those could use an updating. I like all of the articles but the 101 series is not my favorite.

[AppleQueso]

...For example, in Survival Horror, I love that the game LifeLine doesn't have you directly control the main protagonist. Instead, you interact with her so that she can save you from the locked room you are in. It increases the sense of personal helplessness while simultaneously creating more concern and care for the main character. Unfortunately, the microphone controlled user interface was executed rather horribly and the game was ruined. It's still a great idea that hasn't been done in any other game that I know of, but it appears doomed to fade away because of poorly implemented voice controls.

hey you pikachu?