Genre/Subgenre Restructuring

[Izret101]

Staff and VIP members have already had their chances to make suggestions. Bringing it to the general populace now...

NOT NEARLY A FINISHED PRODUCT PLEASE READ, CRITIQUE AND POST IDEAS FOR SUBGENRES OR GENRES.
Including specific examples of games that could cause problems or might have trouble finding a new home.
I am hoping that we can get this fully flushed out so that in the coming month or year or whenever it is implemented there is (almost*)no confusion as to what game belongs where. (*because lets face it there are always games that cross/blur genres)

Action/Adventure- combine elements of Action and Adventure, as the name suggests. A game in this genre might incorporate a strong storyline, exploration of the game environment, peaceful interaction with non-player characters, and puzzle solving, among others, to complement and give context to its action mechanics. Adventure - 2600! LEGEND OF ZELDA FOR NES IS AN ACTION/ADVENTURE THIS IS NOT FOR DEBATE.
Sandbox – GTA, Crackdown, Assassin’s Creed
Stealth – Chronicles of Riddick, Splinter Cell, Batman Arkham, MetalGearSolid
Survival Horror – Resident Evil, Alan Wake, Blue Stinger, DinoCrisis

Action - is a diverse genre that groups games where the primary appeal and challenge is to test the player’s physical skills, such as timing, precision, or reaction speed.
Beat'em Up - Street of Rage, TMNT, etc
Hack N Slash – Devil May Cry, Dante’s Inferno(? RPG elements), Gauntlet(?), Dynasty Warriors
Shoot 'em Up - Space Invaders, Asteroids, Ikaruga, Defender, R-Type, Castle Shikigami
Run N Gun - Contra
Maze - Pacman and the hundreds of clones
Minigame -  WarioWare, XX/XY,
Pong - Pong and its 10k clones.

Adventure - games where the player takes part in an interactive story. The gameplay typically involves gathering information and items to solve puzzles and advance the plot. Pure Adventure games lack physical challenges, instead proceeding based on a series of choices, especially dialogue prompts, which may result in success or failure.
Text Adventure - Zork, etc
Visual novel – I only know of Japanese Storybook games. Voyuer?, NightTrap? Do those 2 qualify? EDIT: Ace Attorney does!
Point and Click – Myst, Monkey Island, etc

Board&Card&Trivia
Board – Family Game Night etc
Card – Poker, Solitaire, Hearts, Spades, Etc
Casino? – To include things not covered in the above. Dice games, slots, pachinko, etc
Trivia – Scene it, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, etc

Platformer
2D – Mario, Sonic, Trials HD, Joe Danger
2.5D/Isometric – Sonic 3D Blast, Toejam and Earl, Congo Bongo
3D – Crash, Sonic, Mario, Gex

Puzzle
Word/Number – Crosswords, Sudoku, Karuko, etc
Matching – Bejeweled, Bust-a-Move, Tetris, Puzzle Arcade
Physics Based - Portal, World of Goo, Osmos
Platformer - Qbert, Braid
Hidden Object

Music/Rhythm
Karaoke - duhhh
Dance – DDR/Space channel5(?)
Instrument – Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, Taiko Drum Master, Samba de Amigo(?)
Creation - Music Maker, eJay Clubworld

Simulation
Life - The Sims, SimAnt
Construction/Management - Farming Simulator 2013(seriously this is coming out)/Harvest Moon(?), Wall$treet Kid(?) - SimCity, Roller Coaster Tycoon, EverythingElse Tycoon
Vehicular - Flight Simulator, Train Simulators

Sports
Baseball
Billiards/Pool/Snooker
Bowling
Boxing
Cricket
Cycling
Darts
Dodgeball – There are only 20 of these in the DB(as of writing) most of them from Japan I think we could get away with not having this subegenre.
Extreme – THPS, Dave Mirra, 1/2/3Xtreme, SSX, 1080, 720, etc?
Football(/American Football?)
Golf
Futuristic – Cyberball, Speedball 2100
Hockey
Hunting/Fishing
Lacrosse
Management(IMO could be the subgenre of the sport you are managing) I believe NFL Head Coach and some others I don’t care about…
Soccer(/Football?)
Skiing
Tennis/Badminton
Track and Field
Olympic(?)
Rugby
Whatever other godforsaken sports I missed

Racing
F1/Grand Prix
Simulation - Gran Turismo, Forza
NASCAR
Street/Drag – TestDrive, Need for Speed, (Burnout? See vehicle combat)
Offroad – ATV vs MX, DiRT
Rally – (Combine with offroad?)
Futuristic – Star Wars Episode 1, Venetica, Rollcage(?)

Vehicular Combat - MARIO KART, CRASH TEAM RACING, DIDDY KONG RACING ETC
Arial – Ace Combat, JASF, Wing Commander(?)
Automotive – Burnout, blur Carmageddon, Mayhem, Twisted Metal, Vigilante 8
Naval – Shipwreckers, BattleStations,

Strategy
Real Time – Command and Conquer
Turn Based – Civ
Tower Defense
Time Management - [Insert Title] Dash series, etc

RPG
Dungeon Crawler
MMORPG
Tactical?/Turnbased?/Strategy? - Final Fantasy Tactics(?), Disgeae(? Or would there need to be a Tactical/Strategy RPG Subgenre ) - Decide what you actually want this to be called.
Action RPG
Sandbox - Morrowind, Fallout, Borderlands
Game Creation - RPG Maker series

Shooter
First Person
Third Person
Mech
Rail

Fighting
2D – MK, SF, Marvel vs, ETC
3D – MK, Virtua Fighter, Tekken
MMA – I suppose could also be put into sports. I like it here though
Wrestling – could also could get put into sports – I REALLY REALLY prefer this in fighting
Game Creation - Fighter Maker series

Compilation - For compilations that include multiple genres
Mario/Duck Hunt/Track Meet
Sega GT 2002/ Jet Set Radio Future

Non-game - For the things that are not quite hardware but are definitely not games. PSP Media Manager i am looking at you.

Unique - I would like us to try and categorize all the games that fit into this field currently. Unique seems like a cop out.

EDIT
Forgot these
Adult
Edutainment

[mumboking]

2.5D? – Sonic 3D Blast, Toejam and Earl. There is a specific term for the visual style but I don’t know it offhand and I doubt the

Isometric?

[Izret101]

2.5D/Isometric corrected. Thanks

Also added Platformer under Puzzle for Qbert(also isometric ) and Braid and other stuff i can't think of at the moment.

[Duke.Togo]

It looks like there are many "game making games" currently in the Unique category. Could a subgenre for Sim be created for these?

[Izret101]

Simulation
Game Creator - Fighter Maker, RPG Maker

Those are the only 2 i know off hand...

[CoinCollector]

Exciting!  I always thought Action/Adventure was a tad broad.   And it was annoying how many games "Shooter" could apply to, so this is great.  Okay, how about...


Action - Minigame.  I'd say something like WarioWare fits solidly under Action rather than Party.  Aside from the party-focused one on Gamecube of course.

Strategy - Time Management.  I think that's the best way to categorize those pesky Diner Dash & Hotel Dash games.

Puzzle - Hidden Object.  Yep.

Party - Physical.  For games like B.U.T.T.O.N. and J.S. Joust.

Sports - Lacrosse.  Frankly I am shocked you could forget this one.


And I was thinking about the Rhythm Heaven games... none of those subgenres describe it, but I suppose Music/Rhythm does a perfectly good job on its own. 

[Izret101]

Added Mini Game
Added Time Management
Added Hidden Object
Added Lacross

Removed Party Genre
Moved Minigame subgenre to Action
Moved Trivia to Card & Board & Trivia (was initially going to move it to Puzzle but it makes much more sense in Card & Board.)

EDIT
Also moved Dukes suggestion of Game Creator into the genres you create the games for.
Fighter Maker and RPG Maker and eJay Club world and Music Maker and Music Maker Deluxe and whatever other games i cannot think of at the moment you not only create the game but you can actually play it too.

Things like uuuhhhhh.... Excitebike and other racing games or Forge mode in Halo for example or other games with creation modes in them AFAIK all come with racing environments in them. The reason the afformentioned games are distinctive is because the game is entirely about you making your own game.

[bombatomba]

I know you guys want more simplicity, but I'd really like the vehicular subgenre under sim broken up into more descriptive subgenes such as Space Sim, Flight Sim, Combat Sim, etc.

[Izret101]

Combat Simulator falls into either Shooter or Vehicular Combat or i guess Stealth if you are simming a Spy or Assassin or something.

The rest fit nicely into vehicular simulation. Since those are all some form of vehicle and i am really not trying to have every tiny niche have its own subgenre.

EDIT
We could end up with Space Sim, Flight Sim, Racing Sim, Biking Sim, Dating Sim(FALLS UNDER LIFE FOR NOW GAHHH THIS SHOULD PROBABLY EXIST! DAMN YOU JAPAN!) i'm done for now. ...

There are lots of KINDS of sims but every one does not need to be its own subgenre if they fall into a larger umbrella.

[blcklblskt]

LEGEND OF ZELDA FOR NES IS AN ACTION/ADVENTURE THIS IS NOT FOR DEBATE.

Thank you.  Can everyone finally accept that Zelda isn't an RPG?

[Shadow Kisuragi]

I just want to spell this out for everyone that reads this...

GENRE/SUBGENRE for every title in the database will be reset, and it will be up to EVERYONE on the site to fill them back in.

This is not just a staff project.

 

[Izret101]

LEGEND OF ZELDA FOR NES IS AN ACTION/ADVENTURE THIS IS NOT FOR DEBATE.

Thank you.  Can everyone finally accept that Zelda isn't an RPG?

LOL I wanted to make sure i put that in there.
NES_Rules made a post about it awhile back can't find it now. But the LoZ page had like 75 people credited with Genre changes..

[bombatomba]

We should have those distinctions, though!  I mean, I understand your point Iz, but if we can realize a difference between a Hack N Slash and a Beat'em Up (which using the examples seems to be weapons?) what is the difference?

[Izret101]

Because i like the difference between Hack N Slash and Beat'em Ups.

The difference for those has become more clearly defined over the years.
Streets of Rage and GoldenAxe are Hack n Slash or Beat'em Up. I consider them a Beat'em up. Like most of the early games.

But something like Bayonetta or Gungrave Overdose i would not consider a Beat'em Up. They are just too different.


But a Flight vs a Space simulator. They are both just simulators to me. Emulating a Jet is different from emulating a prop plane. Doesn't need to be broken down into Super Sonic Flight sim and Subsonic Flight Sim.

[InvadErGII]

Opinions!

One thing that jumps out to me right away is that there are Shoot Em Ups within the action genre, but 'shooters' are another category. There seems to be a good distinction between them but I could see this being potentially confusing.

Having "Action", "Adventure" AND "Action/Adventure" feels somewhat redundant. The "Action/Adventure" sub-categories seem like they could comfortably fit in under 'Action'.

In the end, there's no universal way to do some of these, but the above are my thoughts.

EDIT: I also suggest Sports->Olympic to be Sports->Compilation. There are a handful of games I can think of that are Olympic-like but aren't actually THE Olympics (Decathlete, Caveman Games, World Games, etc.)