Poll: Genres, are they good or unnecessary.

[Epyc Wynn]

I am curious. No not in that way, I'm curious about what the opinion is on game genres. Should games even have just one genre. Should they have several different genres to keep things diverse or just have a single focus for there game's genre to keep things simple. I suppose there's always the possibility for a whole new genre entirely. What are your thoughts on this. (P.S. there aren't a lot of slots for options in the poll so I couldn't fit every genre. If you care, post your other genre choice.)

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Genres seem to become more and more obsolete as games start to increasingly blend genres together. Something like Deus EX: HR has elements of first person shooter, third person shooter, rpg, stealth games and even a form of puzzles in the form of the Social Battles.

Maybe that's why so many games get lumped under 'action adventure', a genre so broad you could place just about any game under it. Most already existing genres are too inflexible.

 

[Ectoplasmicz]

Genres seem to become more and more obsolete as games start to increasingly blend genres together. Something like Deus EX: HR has elements of first person shooter, third person shooter, rpg, stealth games and even a form of puzzles in the form of the Social Battles.

Maybe that's why so many games get lumped under 'action adventure', a genre so broad you could place just about any game under it. Most already existing genres are too inflexible.

Pretty much this. Gaming genres are slowly blending together into a blur.

Kind of reminds me of the 'Alternative' music genre. What the fuck is alternative?? Pretty much anything that isn't something is chucked there.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

There are 2 genre's of games aren't there? Good and bad

 

[MammothBlade]

Genres seem to become more and more obsolete as games start to increasingly blend genres together. Something like Deus EX: HR has elements of first person shooter, third person shooter, rpg, stealth games and even a form of puzzles in the form of the Social Battles.

Maybe that's why so many games get lumped under 'action adventure', a genre so broad you could place just about any game under it. Most already existing genres are too inflexible.

It's true, there are so many different games under the broad "RPG" label, yet they share little in common save that they consist of vast player customisation and free exploration. Sometimes not even that - compare say, Final Fantasy XIII with Fallout: New Vegas. They are at opposite ends of the scale in the RPG "genre". One is focused heavily on a linear narrative with story-driven character development. The other lets you do whatever you like, and character development is a lot more player-driven. It's about time that we stopped pretending that such games can fit into the same broad genre. Of course, the Japanese and Western RPG divide is nothing new.

The RPG genre in particular is so flexible and versatile that it can encompass a lot of gameplay elements more traditional to other genres. Its horizons are still expanding, whilst other genres are increasingly adding RPG elements. Role-playing elements have colonised a lot of other genres due to the popularity of customisation and personalisation.

Maybe the term "RPG" is a little out-dated, and we need to stop defining anything with customisation or stats by its paper role-playing game roots. It is a rather weak way to describe a game which has so much going on all at once, and at the same time it's hard to define something as an "RPG element" when it just seems like a logical development of gameplay depth.

I'd say drop the RPG genre altogether, or otherwise reclaim the meaning so that it can no longer be applied so loosely.

 

[DementedSheep]

Games don?t need to stick rigidly to one genre or another but you do need to sort them in to different categories somehow even if its only broad. What genre a game is gives you a basic idea of what he game is like and of course makes finding particular types of games much easier. It would be a pain in the ass if they didn?t categorise them.

 

[Acier]

Relevancy Alert!
EC puts it best I feel like.
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/western-japanese-rpgs-part-1
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/western-japanese-rpgs-part-2

 

[WoW Killer]

It's just like in music or fiction. Genres are useful descriptive terms, but they're not meant to be shackles. If something is between genres then it's still useful to describe it as such. Call Deus Ex a "FPS/Stealth game with RPG elements" and people have got at least some idea of what's involved.

Art forms more or less evolve through a process of heredity. You take inspiration from former works and keep the bits you like, work on the bits you don't, and throw in a few new ideas here and there. Over time you get common themes appearing, and we invent words for them. That's all genres are.

 

[lacktheknack]

It's still relevant.

Because as much as they're being blended, it makes it much easier to explain to someone why they shouldn't play Syberia just because I was gushing about it, because they only like first person shooters. Which is better, "It's a point-n-click adventure" or a long winded explanation that no, there's no gunplay, lots of puzzles and almost no conflict beyond "get the train moving further"?

 

[Random Fella]

Probably RPG
But first person comes in close second for me

Also, thank you Capacha for telling me my opinion is hot

 

[Gali]

I'd also say that genres are good to describe (some of) the gameplay mechanics, but nothing more.

Like MammothBlade, I'm also confused by the term RPG itself and the so called RPG-Elements. Furthermore, one should consider the meaning of this word. We basically "play a role" in every game. Sure, RPGs have certain mechanics that emphasize this, like dialogue-options. But, as stated before, they are not restricted to this genre anymore and are not necessary if the game delivers a good experience. I don't need a dialogue wheel to put me into the shoes of the protagonist.

 

[efrafa_6]

Genre's are obviously necessary, they're solely in place to convenience you (the consumer).

 

[Theo Waters]

How the hell do you leave Strategy/RTS off s game genre list?

 

[Tiswas]

RPG. The J sort. Not so sold on the W yet

 

[MetalMagpie]

Wow. I was not expecting the results to be that swung in favour of RPGs. I wonder if it'll even out a bit as more people vote.

OT: Genres are useful in books/films/games because they help people make consumer decisions. I know I like action-focused games, so putting genres like hash-'n-slash or FPS on a game box helps me work out if I'm likely to enjoy it. But they can also be restricting if publishers feel everything they produce needs to fit within just one genre.

 

[Llil]

Genres are a quick snd easy way to let people know what they can expect, at least roughly. Problem is that some genres are too vague, I think. Like with RPGs, compare for example Skyrim to Fallout 1 (I shouldn't have to add the 1, but a lot of people seem to think Fallout means Fallout 3 so there). They're completely different types of games. It would be more useful to have something like "RPG", "action RPG" and "action with RPG elements", but that could get complicated.

And one thing that bothers me is that with movies, "animation" shouldn't be a genre. Animation can be horror or sci-fi or whatever, just like any other movie. So yeah, it could be better, but genres can be useful.

 

[Dandark]

WHERE IS THE RTS GENRE!?!?!?!?

Genres are a good idea as they let you know what kind of game a game is. There is RTS(INCLUDE IT DAMN YOU!!!) and shooter, these are radically different games so they are in different genres. Mixed genres can work well too.

The only problem is that these day's everything wants to be a shooter like Cod or an MMO like WoW so you see a lot of really samey games.

 

[JochemHippie]

It's a nice way to classify games, on the other hand you'll see games being made specially as "Genre X" and that kinda gets in the way of innovation, since they're limiting themselves to a certain genre.

 

[Sonicron]

Genres are a good thing. Categorizing games by genres makes it much easier for people to find games they'll like; I shudder to think about a genre-less system where I'd have to sift through mountains of racing games, sports games, casual games, simulations etc just to finally find some decent 3D platformers.
I applaud the industry's attempts to blend different genres in games, but genres as such will NEVER be obsolete, and rightly so.
(Can't decide on a favourite genre, btw.)