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Top Ten Dying Game Genres

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-miss-my-tetris dept.

Ant sent us a fun link to an article running over at GameSpy discussing the Top 10 Dying Game Genres. Although I don't think Puzzle games have died - I think they've transformed: Pikmin is just a fancy puzzle game, after all ;) But I still want Dr Mario for my GBA.

12 of 537 comments (clear)

  1. Screw the list... by creative_name · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Galaga is still one of the greatest games ever!

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    Posting as directed.
  2. Right by mao+che+minh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I could have sworn that there were only about 5 or 6 genres total. FPS, strategy (both real time and not), puzzle, sport, RPG (which includes MMORPG), adventure epic, and simulation. If ten genres are dying, then in five years we won't be playing anything.

  3. Graphic Adventures by Kajin_X · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The graphic adventure game brings back lots of memories... Ahh... King's Quest VI, Quest for Glory I-IV, Full Throttle. Games that actually required thought to play. I really wish they would start (re)making some cool adventure games set in a 3D world (Unreal 2 engine anyone?) I mean, who could say no to 3D Day of the Tentacle?

    --
    Beatings will commence if towels continue to be eaten...
    1. Re:Graphic Adventures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You forget we're talking about LucasArts here. This isn't Sierra where you have one or two puzzles at a time and often die if you don't get them right. In LucasArts games there was always a lot of freedom, and you couldn't die, so you had the chance to walk around and talk to people and use silly things with each other to get bizarre and often hilarious red herring results. I'm not sure what exactly you mean about RPGs being "free" nowadays, because all the computer RPGs i've ever played have had far more linear stories and puzzles than adventure games ever did. That said, it's all semantics really, because RPGs are basically just graphic adventure games set in fantasy times where you get to kill monsters and level up. And graphic adventure games are basically just RPGs set in the future and/or a cartoon world where you pick up and use stuff and talk to people. I'm sure if someone made a cartoon "Monkey Island" world version of Baldur's Gate lots of GA fans would play it, and if someone made a fantasy "D&D" world version of Beneath a Steel Sky lots of RPG fans would play it.

  4. Growing up by btornado · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All of these genres seem like something that a young kid in the 80's grew up to. As the technology has advanced, so have the games. I mean you don't see any text based adventures anymore except with MUDs. The same with educational games. Many are still made but as we get older we tend not to play them anymore and therefore pay little attention to them.

    I would have to agree with the puzzle genre dying. No one wants to slap down $50 when you can play the same game online for free. A puzzle game has to be more complex and have more detail than just moving blocks in order for me to buy it. I personally bought Pikmin and I loved it but I don't play it that often anymore.

  5. Tetris? by DaemonGem · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am very surprised to see Tetris on this list. I had thought that Tetris was still very much alive. Perhaps it is just the geek background in which I work at college, but for some of the people I know, Tetris is the only game they play. Tetris still has versions coming out (mainly looks, not playability), but still, if there are new versions out, surely that must mean there is still some demand?

    Duck Hunt is dying out? Perhaps. I have an old Win95 games CD with Gunboat DuckHunt on it. That was fun ;-).

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  6. maze games by andih8u · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't know why they say maze games are dying. Games such as Doom, Quake, Unreal, etc all utilize the basic maze strategy...albeit you have to frag your way through the maze, but it is still just a maze.

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    slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
  7. not a good article... by krahd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    here are the genres that are supposedly dying:

    10. Space Shooter or "Shmups"
    It's not dying: it has been dead for quite a long time.

    9. Puzzle
    What??? Lot of people still plays solitaire... even minesweeper!
    What might be happening is that there are not new types of puzzles...

    8. Light Gun
    They're not really dead as they weren't really alive... aside of some people playing on nintendos, there were not a really market for they. I always thaught that the problem was that there is only one way to play with this things... aim and shoot.

    7. Text Adventure
    They didn't die: they evolved! quite long ago they became graphic adventures.

    6. Maze
    rrright, they died. But that is not a game genre, just a kind of puzzle.

    5. Virtual Reality
    Again, that's not a genre. I thing much of us would love to play a FPS with a helmet or somthing truly immersive... but most of us can't afford it, and (AFAIK) the real good ones are way too expensive

    4. Educational
    They would be right only if Educational games had ever been alive. But i still think that they would be a good idea

    3. Full Motion Video
    And then again... this is not a genre, it's just poor designed video games with a bad transition/gaming ratio...

    2. Beat 'Em Up
    They are right (at least!). RIP. We'll miss you (i loved double dragon).

    1. Graphic Adventure
    They are right again. Why did Graphic adventures died? I really really enjoid Maniac MAnsion, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island (I II & III)... why aren't new-3d-full-of-eye-candies-graphic-adventures? Perhaps there's a need for a new Roberta.

    --krahd

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    mod me up scottie!
  8. Some responses from the terrible author by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "I love the Sierra strategy games. It always seems that their games come out and within two months the price has dropped to $10-$20. GameSpy claims in this article "...but now their days as a game developer are pretty much over." Is it really that bad? Am I the only one left that loves their new titles? Empire Earth anyone?"

    Empire Earth was Created by Stainless Steel Studios, http://www.stainlesssteelstudios.com/

    My point was that Sierra primarily publishes other people's games now, like Half-Life. Most of Sierra's Adventure games were developed in-house.

    "All of these genres seem like something that a young kid in the 80's grew up to."

    Guilty.

    "how was side scrolling platform games not on this list. haven't seen one of them in a long time."

    I didn't include side-scrolling platformers because platformers are still around, they're just 3D.

    Sure, this article isn't perfect and I probably should have included Pinball, but oh well, life's tough!

    -Kevin Bowen

  9. Genres based on technology and it's limitations by justin_speers · · Score: 5, Insightful

    8) Light Gun
    7) Text Adventure
    5) Virtual Reality
    3) Full Motion Video

    All of these shouldn't be considered game genres, they're just a description of the technology involved. Any "genre" based on a technology is a fad, and that technology will eventually be replaced.

    Text Adventures were "Text" Adventures because they didn't have the graphics horsepower around back then that they have now. If the creators of Zork started out today, they'd make a game with a simliar design with 3d graphics.

    You could have a virtual reality shoot'em up, a virtual reality rpg, a virtual reality adventure game, and so on. Again, it's a description of the technology used to implement the game, it's not the genre. It was a fad.

    Full Motion Video is the most obvious non-genre here. Again, based on a technological fad. We can put movies in a game, so why not turn the "game" into a movie? There were different kinds of games that had a lot of FMV in them, I wouldn't put them all in the same genre. Though they did all pretty much suck.

    And as for puzzle games, if they don't cost $50 anymore, does that mean they're dead??? No! Puzzle games are probably the most alive and kicking genre there is today! They're everywhere, even your Grandma probably plays a couple of them!

    I do agree with the article on one point at least: Oregon Trail for the Apple II most certainly did rock.

  10. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  11. Re:Article is full of mistakes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd say that though gun games aren't dead, they're certainly dying. You mentioned Time Crisis 3 and World Combat. I'd probably add Police 911 to that (The one where it tracks your real movements). That makes a total of 3 games over the past few years, which isn't exactly booming.

    Bust a Move and Puzzle Fighter, though still popular, are old. There aren't really that many new puzzle games coming through the pipeline. And classifying DDR as a puzzle game is iffy at best.

    Same with the side-scrollers. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, AD&D, and Gauntlet are all old and not a lot of new games are being made of that genre, hence it's dying.

    I think you're confusing good genres with dying genres. Even though a game may be really good, if no new games are being made for that genre, then it's dying.