This week I wanted to talk about my experiences at PAX 2015 and how it reshaped my evaluation of genres. There will be no reference link this week, as this is a summary of my personal thoughts based on my interactions with the developers I spoke to.
I used to think genres were a really important part of gaming. And I think when video games were emerging, especially when they were transitioning into 3D and when video stores were still a think, genres were important. It's how you categorised, located and discussed video games when describing it to another friend. For example: Friend A: "I like 3D Platformers?" Friend B: "OH then you'll love Platformy the 3D Platformer in: 3D Platformer Land!" Humans often need categories to understand, perceive and figure things out. However the video game industry has grown so much now that it's hard to slot games into genres. I may have been in denial about this, not willing to accept that the ways I discussed video games as a child are now not fitting. However after attending PAX this weekend, I realised that now more then ever, there are SO many video games, especially indie games that are really difficult to fit into a category. Games like Mushroom 11, where you control a circle of light pushing blocks of slimy fungus around. It's some kind of puzzle platformer but it's set in a post-apocalyptic world and is vaguely story driven. Cuphead is some kind of bullet hell platformer shooter with 1930s cartoon animation. Dungeon League (as pictured above) is a dungeon crawler that is also a party/team competition sport game. I even played some kind of a compeitive death match game where one team plays as first person divers swimming about while the other team plays as 3rd person sharks mauling them. Totally different genres for each team! My experiences were broadened as I realised it's not so clear cut any more. There are so many different styles and experimental concepts among the young indies that trying to categorise game in the traditional means is hard. I chatted to some of the developers about this. Some did not like being roped into a genre because it spread misconception for them, whilst some devs loved it because it helped them find their niche audience. Ultimately I think the use of genres is still important to describe some of the mechanics in a game, like I have above where I tried to describe a game based on experiences you may have already had. But I don't think we should fully define a unique game by a genre that it totally doesn't fit. Rather then be dualistic about it, I think we need to take a holistic approach and talk about what the game is, rather then what it isn't.
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AuthorBen Spanos is currently playing Undertale, Uncharted: Among Thieves and Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes. Archives
March 2018
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