Zelda isnt an rpg? (Its a dungeon crawler isnt it?)

[dunpeal2064]

What poll?

[isiolia]

What happened to the poll? How did the numbers go down?

Looks like it was remade to expand the options?

[nightrnr]

Looks like it was remade to expand the options?

Yeah, Action-RPG wasn't there before. I can now vote.

[o.pwuaioc]

Looks like it was remade to expand the options?

Yeah, Action-RPG wasn't there before. I can now vote.

Action-adventure still isn't there, so again I'm vote "not at all an RPG".

[nightrnr]

Action-adventure still isn't there, so again I'm vote "not at all an RPG".

I'm starting to think that it depends on where a person's from. Action RPG is all I ever heard it called until the last couple years.

I might be okay with Action-Adventure though, depending on what else that puts it with.
I always thought action-adventure is more like Kirby or Banjo-Kazooie, which would both disappoint me if I was looking for a Zelda-type of game. But I guess those are still platformers, right?

[o.pwuaioc]

Action-adventure still isn't there, so again I'm vote "not at all an RPG".

I'm starting to think that it depends on where a person's from. Action RPG is all I ever heard it called until the last couple years.

I might be okay with Action-Adventure though, depending on what else that puts it with.
I always thought action-adventure is more like Kirby or Banjo-Kazooie, which would both disappoint me if I was looking for a Zelda-type of game. But I guess those are still platformers, right?

Yeah, Kirby is a platformer and Banjo a 3D platformer. Action-adventure is a broad term, so usually more is specified. But in the same way RPG is a huge term too. Just because I like Final Fantasy Tactics doesn't mean I'll like JRPGs, WRPGs, or ARPGs.

[Cronozilla]

Now you guys are talking sub-genres.

Action Adventure just means there's both elements of action games and adventure games where you can't choose one over the other because they are both exceedingly prominent in the way you play the game.

You could argue that almost all platformers fall under Action/Adventure, making the Platformer genre a sub-genre of Action/Adventure. I don't think I've ever seen a purely action based platformer you're usually getting some sort of items and making it to some sort of goal. This allows for two games to have the same meta-genre, but different direct genres making them distinct.

But this is why genres in general are sticky situations ... because games you'd consider to be this or that don't necessarily get categorized together if you talk sub-genres, which people would argue are necessary. The alternative is micro-genres, which is an even worse idea.

The other issue is, obviously, you need some authority of games as a whole to make these distinctions. Game companies will label their game whatever will make it sell better and players will usually categorize however they FEEL about a game. Not necessarily what's actually there.

I suppose maybe a better system would be meta-genre (nothing very specific) with defining elements. Then the classifications are much more liberal.

[nightrnr]

Yeah, Kirby is a platformer and Banjo a 3D platformer. Action-adventure is a broad term, so usually more is specified. But in the same way RPG is a huge term too. Just because I like Final Fantasy Tactics doesn't mean I'll like JRPGs, WRPGs, or ARPGs.

Very true. I guess you have to sort out what elements you like in other games of the genre before you know if it's what you are looking for.

Things seem so much more complicated that they used to be though. Once genres started mixing and changing, the once simple way of classifying everything became blurry and grey to me.

The other issue is, obviously, you need some authority of games as a whole to make these distinctions. Game companies will label their game whatever will make it sell better and players will usually categorize however they FEEL about a game. Not necessarily what's actually there.

I'm guilty of this, and I see "FEEL" as a huge part of what a game is, as subjective as it is. But, again, that differs from player to player. So I understand the irrelevance when classifying.

Honestly though, I don't really care what we call things, as long as everyone knows what each other is talking about.
I think I'm just going to reference a well known game or 2 (with an accepted Meta-Genre tag) when making recommendations or explaining a game in the future.

[Cronozilla]

That's pretty much all you can do personally. The only time I could think of really determining the classifications being necessary is if you had software that would suggest games based on what you like ... then those things would need to be very accurate.

One of the problems is people just combine everything they experienced and try to sum it up into a genre ... and it's just impossible to do that with any sort of consistency. You really, to get an accurate classification system, need to extract the elements that make up the game and weigh which are the most influential while playing and then classify each of those elements (in their own sort of media world, being thematic, artistic, auditory, content, etc)

[nightrnr]

Yeah, I think I define RPGs from an "Exploration" and "Treasure hunting" angle. But that's how I attack a lot of games.
Doom for example, is not an RPG at all. But those 2 elements are a big reason I like it.
I guess that's the Nightrnr-genre for you.

Ironically, it's not the 2nd part of the genre name I'm as concerned with when I look for a good Zelda game. RPG or Adventure, call it what is. But that better well have the "Action" part I'm looking for combined with exploration/treasure aspect that I call the 2nd part. Actually, scratch this paragraph, I'm not sure if I'm making sense.

Action-Exploration, I guess that's what I would call the Zelda genre, if I'm being honest to myself. So if I ever asked for similar games, I would definitely have to specify the qualities that thrill me as well.