Of Genres and Types - Part 2

Continues from previous post

Two aspects come to my mind in regards to the classification of interactive simulation games in general, videogames in particular, from the point of view of a player: the first being the game's outline, the second being the required skills.

The outline of a videogame (I can't find the right words, it's something like the game's concept, but not considering the mechanics) is what is generally understood at first glance by an uneducated/inexperienced player: 'in this game you have to shoot down aliens to save the human base', 'you have to match items of the same color as fast as possible, to make the most points'. See it as the shortest summary of a game that doesn't use genre definitions or references to other games. An outline doesn't usually specify how the game is played, but is often the primary draw for a casual buyer.

Regarding required skills, what I wanted to say is just that interactive games have a certain balance of 'action' and 'strategy'. An 'action game' is one where you have to think little, but fast: this translates to good reflexes and the ability to quickly acknowledge your situation in the simulated world. A 'strategy game' has you thinking about your next moves most of the time, giving you a reasonable (if not unlimited) period of time to plan your actions.

Pure 'action' and 'strategy' games are rare, as most videogames have a healthy mixture of both: this is both because extremisms can make a game not fun to play (becoming a chore to play because of repetitive mindless shooting or too complex resource management), and because accessibility usually suffers from it. Incidentally, Action Games and Strategy Games are also two macro-genres for videogames (although typically they're not used as a dichotomy).

That's all for now. Maybe I'll get back to this topic later on.

Of Genres and Types

Nowadays videogame experts, as well as a good number of occasional players, know about the main "genres" of games that you can find: it's a very simple classification method which helps a person decide which games s/he might like to play.

The list of videogame genres expanded time by time, thanks to new games which became very popular thanks to their innovative gameplay ideas (often helped by newly acquired technologies). This list, complete with genres and sub-genres, hasn't been growing much lately, simply because:

• a lot of games have been created, and it's getting harder and harder to come up with a genre-defining videogame (i.e. comes up with entirely original rules and becomes popular enough)
• lately technology advancements haven't been significant enough to help in creating new playing mechanics (we're talking about things like realtime 3D rendering, physics processing and so on)

Abstracting from genres even further, we can have a variety of ways to make more general classifications. I want to explain some in this post and possibly the ones to come. Since I'm not an expert of multi-player videogames, I'll start with solitary games.

The reasons for making an interactive videogame rather than another kind of game may be numerous. One is to use the elaborating power of a computer to simulate an opponent (or many) in a known game (from board games to sports); another one is to help the player by simulating the experience of a game or another entertaining action on a screen, experience for which the player would get help from a computer (mixing and placing cards for Solitaire, playing quiz), or which the player wouldn't be able to have (driving an F1 car or a plane, shooting soldiers down without having to kill people... I didn't specify which kind of experience; it's just an example anyway, I'm not saying people would like to experience killing other people).

Another reason to make a videogame is to create an entirely new interactive experience which wouldn't be possible in reality: these range from games like Tetris (similar to Pentomino, but the game simulates endlessly falling pieces to place in order and clear before too many of them fill the board) to science-fiction-inspired games (commanding a spaceship, exploring alien-inhabited planets), to completely irrational games which may or may not even have a clear goal the player has to pursue.

Continuing on Part 2...