How do we categorise games like dear ester, gone home and depression quest?

[Sneezeguard]

So in the last couple of years I've noticed several games appear up that aren't exactly like tradition games and don't really seem to fit any category, games like; dear ester, gone homer, depression quest etc..

And there has been some community backlash over whether or not they are games.

Now I'm not gonna argue whether or not they are games but whats ever you call them they all share similar characteristic and need a category so we better understand them and classify them.

So I guess I'm asking how would you define them?

This is the definition I came up for them:

Interactive Experience

"A Game that has little to no gameplay with a heavy emphasis on story and atmosphere."

If you can come up with a better category name and defintion to better define these games post it.

 

[Seishisha]

That naming convention is the one i tend to see the most, its pretty vague perhaps "interactive narrative" would be better?

Essentialy all your realy doing in most games labeled that way is progessing the story onwards with little to no challenge and it is the challenge element that for me, actualy makes somthing a game, if you can't fail then victory isnt worth anything and you may aswell be watching a movie or reading a book.

I tend to find that whenever somthing is classified as an actual thing, usualy one name or naming convention overtakes all the others and trying to change it is basicly pointless. Interactive Experiance is likly to be the only name those games will need or have for a long time.

 

[Mezahmay]

This is the definition I came up for them:

Interactive Experience

"A Game that has little to no gameplay with a heavy emphasis on story and atmosphere."

If you can come up with a better category name and defintion to better define these games post it.

I don't see why they can't be called games. If vocal parts of the community don't like calling them games, then they're welcome to do that as long as they also acknowledge that their definition of a game is narrow. The widened scope of what a game is does not exclude the games that this vocal bunch of people do like. It's a natural evolution of language as the material it describes evolves. Trying to narrow the definition of what a game is will only further stagnate the industry and the medium as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Sneezeguard]

This is the definition I came up for them:

Interactive Experience

"A Game that has little to no gameplay with a heavy emphasis on story and atmosphere."

If you can come up with a better category name and defintion to better define these games post it.

I don't see why they can't be called games. If vocal parts of the community don't like calling them games, then they're welcome to do that as long as they also acknowledge that their definition of a game is narrow. The widened scope of what a game is does not exclude the games that this vocal bunch of people do like. It's a natural evolution of language as the material it describes evolves. Trying to narrow the definition of what a game is will only further stagnate the industry and the medium as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not saying they can't be call games nor try to define what a game is I'm just trying to given them a better title to define them.

For example like game's in the first view point and based on gun gameplay are called First person Shooters or FPS

In short I'm trying to give it a category with the gaming sphere the same way we do to other games e.g RPG, racing, FPS, RTS...

That's what i'm trying to do

 

[Rabbitboy]

This is the definition I came up for them:

Interactive Experience

"A Game that has little to no gameplay with a heavy emphasis on story and atmosphere."

If you can come up with a better category name and defintion to better define these games post it.

I don't see why they can't be called games. If vocal parts of the community don't like calling them games, then they're welcome to do that as long as they also acknowledge that their definition of a game is narrow. The widened scope of what a game is does not exclude the games that this vocal bunch of people do like. It's a natural evolution of language as the material it describes evolves. Trying to narrow the definition of what a game is will only further stagnate the industry and the medium as far as I'm concerned.

What do you think of "Story focused game" or"Arthouse game"?

 

[Mezahmay]

This is the definition I came up for them:

Interactive Experience

"A Game that has little to no gameplay with a heavy emphasis on story and atmosphere."

If you can come up with a better category name and defintion to better define these games post it.

I don't see why they can't be called games. If vocal parts of the community don't like calling them games, then they're welcome to do that as long as they also acknowledge that their definition of a game is narrow. The widened scope of what a game is does not exclude the games that this vocal bunch of people do like. It's a natural evolution of language as the material it describes evolves. Trying to narrow the definition of what a game is will only further stagnate the industry and the medium as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not saying they can't be call games nor try to define what a game is I'm just trying to given them a better title to define them.

For example like game's in the first view point and based on gun gameplay are called First person Shooters or FPS

In short I'm trying to give it a category with the gaming sphere the same way we do to other games e.g RPJ, racing, fps, rts...

That's what i'm trying to do

Ooohhhh so a genre designation. Gotcha. I didn't quite reach that conclusion based on the topic sentence, hence this conversation. I'm more in favor of a title that emphasizes the narrative portion of the game then. I think the first responder said interactive narrative. Since visual novels are already a thing, I feel interactive narrative fits best.

 

[Mezahmay]

fluff

What do you think of "Story focused game" or"Arthouse game"?

I just replied to the OP about that. "story focused game" and "arthouse game" are too vague in my opinion. Mass Effect as a franchise is largely story focused on top of other mechanics like shooting and exploration, but I'm pretty sure it's generally classified as an RPG. "Interactive narrative" more accurately describes what to expect from the title the same way you know what to expect when someone says this is an RTS or a JRPG or an FPS.

 

[Sneezeguard]

fluff

What do you think of "Story focused game" or"Arthouse game"?

I just replied to the OP about that. "story focused game" and "arthouse game" are too vague in my opinion. Mass Effect as a franchise is largely story focused on top of other mechanics like shooting and exploration, but I'm pretty sure it's generally classified as an RPG. "Interactive narrative" more accurately describes what to expect from the title the same way you know what to expect when someone says this is an RTS or a JRPG or an FPS.

Yeah I agree arthouse or story focused are to vague.

I prefer Interactive experience (maybe because I came up with it ) but I think maybe Interactive narrative is more fitting.

 

[Mezahmay]

fluff

Yeah I agree arthouse or story focused are to vague.

I prefer Interactive experience (maybe because I came up with it ) but I think maybe Interactive narrative is more fitting.

"Narrative" also has the benefit of being one syllable shorter than "experience" on top of being more specific. I'm all about that specificity, yo.

 

[Mikeybb]

This is the definition I came up for them:

Interactive Experience

"A Game that has little to no gameplay with a heavy emphasis on story and atmosphere."

If you can come up with a better category name and defintion to better define these games post it.

I don't see why they can't be called games. If vocal parts of the community don't like calling them games, then they're welcome to do that as long as they also acknowledge that their definition of a game is narrow. The widened scope of what a game is does not exclude the games that this vocal bunch of people do like. It's a natural evolution of language as the material it describes evolves. Trying to narrow the definition of what a game is will only further stagnate the industry and the medium as far as I'm concerned.

Even games have categories though.

We differentiate between an FPS and an RTS, etc.
There needs to be a way of categorizing these kind of games.

To start with, Depression quest doesn't sit with the other two in my opinion.
The experience is a different one and so to are the methods by which they're imparted.
I do recognize they share a similar trait in that the story is the primary element of all three games, but they seem different in that depression quest contains multiple paths while the other two give you the freedom of exploration but not direct impact on the direction of the story.
Plus, the difference in text interface and graphical first person perspective should be recognized too.

Interactive experience sounds like a good catch all, but there still needs to be refinement to acknowledge the specific traits of the games that fall under that category.

fluff

Yeah I agree arthouse or story focused are to vague.

I prefer Interactive experience (maybe because I came up with it ) but I think maybe Interactive narrative is more fitting.

"Narrative" also has the benefit of being one syllable shorter than "experience" on top of being more specific. I'm all about that specificity, yo.

I like that one too.

 

[Lilani]

Playing Dear Esther reminded me of being on a tour, or being set loose in a controlled environment just to explore. So I would call them "exploration games."

 

[Shadowstar38]

I've always liked the term walking simulator. Even though it's a joke it's a pretty apt description. Not sure if it applies to Depression Quest though, or if you even walk in the game. Never played it.

 

[josemlopes]

Depression Quest is text based game, it is far away from the other two.

Dear Esther, you can call it Interactive Experience or Walking Simulator, there really isnt much to interact to in Dear Esther, in Gone Home, Stanley's Parable, Only If or other similar games you can at least interact with stuff, in Dear Esther all you do is really just walk, nothing more.

In the more upthight sense, Interactive Experience should be enough for all of them except Depression Quest (that one is clearly defined as a text based game), but Dear Esther could be called a Walking Simulator and it would be hard to argue with even if its a joke category.

 

[thanatos388]

I think David Cage gave it a good enough name: Interactive Drama. Then again people may not like it because examples of Interactive Drama from David Cage are some of the worst examples but it still applies well. We should just group games like Journey and Dear Esther and Heavy Rain and 999 in the same categories we give to visual novels really.

I also think that they are definitely not "games". Calling it a game implies that there is a skill to learn and improve upon to overcome challenges and that there is a win or lose state. The examples don't really have those so it's probably best to just not call them games. Such they are inspired by games and use programming and design disciplines to make but they are not the same. It's like calling a cookbook or a poem a novel. Sure they both use paper and have bindings, and all three can be found in a bookstore but they are inherently different in purpose and audience. There should be clear distinction and trying to say they are no different is probably what cased everyone to backlash against Gone Home so strongly.

 

[ZedOmega]

Y'know, that's been bugging me also. I'll admit that one of my own quirks is that I've always subscribed to the classic 'adventure,' 'action,' 'FPS,' 'RPG,' things like that. So I did some studying of the three games (in the cases of Dear Esther and Gone Home, without buying them; it's not that I'm not willing to buy them, it's that aside from Depression Quest which is free-to-play with a donation setup, I just don't have the cash for them at the moment).

After studying up on them (and admittedly playing through Depression Quest out of a combination of curiosity and not having the money for the other two games), I've come to the conclusion that DE and GH are both adventure games, while DQ falls more under the header of edutainment.

The first two games, Dear Esther and Gone Home, are purely about uncovering more about the games' respective plots, which you do through exploration. While there aren't any enemies, puzzles or traps in either of the games, the real goals of those games is to get as many details as you can through whatever you find. (That's about as concise as I can get without giving away too much.)

Depression Quest is honestly pretty straightforward when it comes to its stated goal of showcasing one example of depression, through narration of what your character is going through:

The goal of this game is twofold: firstly, we want to illustrate as clearly as possible what depression is like, so that it may be better understood by people without depression. Hopefully this can be something to spread awareness and fight against the social stigma and misunderstandings that depression sufferers face. Secondly, our hope is that in presenting as real a simulation of depression as possible, other sufferers will come to know that they aren't alone, and hopefully derive some measure of comfort from that.

As the goal of the game is to educate players on what goes through someone's mind when they're suffering depression, that puts it squarely in the edutainment category. The first stated goal of the game says as much.

Those are just personal observations, though.

 

[laggyteabag]

I would generally describe them as being "artsy" games. Games that have no real gameplay value, but try to entertain the player through scenery or a message.

 

[Mahorfeus]

Frankly, I would not even place Dear Esther and Gone Home in the same category.

Gone Home at the very least required exploration and problem solving. The latter makes it a game by default - to be honest, I am not even sure how that can be disputed.

Dear Esther required... well, movement.

As for what I'd call them, well, I don't know. Gone Home had a few things in common with your typical room escape games, so maybe call it that?

 

[small]

"adventure game" with depression quest being a text adventure.

works for me

 

[MerlinCross]

"Not a Game". Course that could be taken as insulting to people. Honestly I have no idea what to call them. These types of games are closer to movies, books, and visual novels than 'normal' games.

Course I look at other games and can say that they aren't a 'game' too. The Phoenix Wright series I wouldn't call a 'game' either, or Tell Tale's stuff.

Story Driven, point and click, interactive tour; no idea. Hope someone can come up with a better term that doesn't sound as insulting as 'Not a Game'.