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A Definitive List of Gaming Genres?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the captain-of-categories dept.

An anonymous reader puts forth this challenge for the Slashdot readership: "Construct a definitive list of game genres for PC and/or console that doesn't dribble off into silly categories like 'licensed movie franchise,' or include redundancies like 'action', '3D adventure' and 'platformer.' My friend and I have been messing around with this for awhile, trying to do a better job than the game news sites, but we're finding it's harder than we thought."

5 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. wikipedia strikes again... by BlahMatt · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_and_video_ga me_genres

    It's a good place to start. If you can think of more, you can always add them.

    --
    To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion...
    1. Re:wikipedia strikes again... by Repton · · Score: 2, Informative

      Interesting that the Wikipedia artile misses out "roguelike"..

      --
      Repton.
      They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
  2. wikipedia "seriously" strikes again... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Serious Games

  3. Incredible Machine by SIGFPE · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, Incredible Machine is probably the prototypical example of a 'construction game'. This is basically the genre of game where the player is given a kit of parts and they're free to build stuff with it - often with some goal in mind. Lego might fit this category if it were a video game. I wish there were more examples of this genre, there are only a handful.

    --
    -- SIGFPE
  4. you will fail by fish+waffle · · Score: 2, Informative

    There is no such thing as a definitive list. Genre is fluid, and incorporates feedback; as soon as you think of a genre someone else has thought of how to combine and/or distort that genre to create a new genre.

    I offer you the following theorem:

    Any genre-based categorization of computer games will either be too generic or too specific to be useful.

    Same thing applies to movies, books, etc.