Genre & Subgenre Guide

[tactical_nuke]

Adult has been sorted and I need a cold shower.

At this point we need Homebrew and Adult deleted and Edutainment renamed to Education. Waiting on staff. 

[Shadow Kisuragi]

I'll do it today. No pun intended.
Also, Homebrew Adult Edutainment seems like a depressing genre.

[Izret101]

Homebrew Adult Edutainment could be an exciting genre should you have one (or more) willing participant(s).

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Just wanted to mention it didn't get done last night, but not due to lack of want. The university changed their policy and blocked ports on their guest Wi-Fi, so I couldn't even log into work let alone RFGen. I'll try to get the credentials I need for tonight.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

1590 Edutainment titles? Damn.
All done, sir.

[tactical_nuke]

Great, thanks! I'll start up the next part soon. Some research needs to be done first.

[Ack]

I have a question about the genre list, mainly about a few that I consider "traditional games" but am unsure of the subgenre they would fit in.  What sort of subgenres would be applied to games like Shanghai(or other Mahjongg games), Go, or Chess?  Chess in particular interests me because you mentioned it specifically in the description of the Strategy genre.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Genre: Game Simulator
Subgenre: Board Game

Fairly certain on that one, but I'll let Flee confirm.

[tactical_nuke]

Yeah, Game Sim is a fit for pretty much any video games simulating tabletop games. The chess comment does bring up a question of weather a chess video game should be Strategy or Game Sim, but I'm sticking with Game Sim for all board games regardless of the gameplay elements. I think for the sake of tidiness, this is a good idea.

Updated guide to be clear on this.

...Now I'm off to go check if any of the chess games in the DB are under Strategy. (I bet there are)

Update: There are a ton. There's even one under Sports. We might need some opinions on what stays in or out of this Genre.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

It's a Board Game, so leave it under Game Simulator. No need to muck with the type of Board Game.

[tactical_nuke]

Genre Restructuring Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

We still have a few things to address, namely Act/Adv. Wikipedia has some good genre definitions but it does state that they're also not universally agreed upon and broad. Nonetheless I think it's still a good idea to break up some of the genres to not have all the entries lumped up into the same ones. So I'm proposing the following guidelines, starting in this post with Action and Adventure.

Action Adventure

Doing away with the idea of having "Action/Adventure" encompass this huge area of games. Instead "Action Adventure" is now referring to a wide genre that includes both action and adventure elements but doesn't include pure action or pure adventure games. This can be challenging to organize at times but I feel that it's important to have for organizing purposes.

Action Adventure games engage both reflexes and problem-solving, in both violent and non-violent situations.  They may require many of the same physical skills as action games, but also offer a storyline, numerous characters, an inventory system, dialogue, and other features of adventure games. Examples include Zelda, God of War, Tomb Raider, Beyond Good and Evil, Resident Evil, Hitman, GTA etc.

Subgenres:
First Person
Third Person
Survival Horror
Sandbox
Stealth

In a nutshell, the game should have actiony, reaction time based gameplay but also have adventure elements with problem solving, inventory, NPCs, text and stories that influence your gameplay experience.

Action

Pure action games have gameplay based on real-time interactions that challenge the reflexes. There can be some text, story, or NPCs but they are never the main focus. (Think Mario 64 or Banjo Kazooie- if those small Adventure elements weren't there, the gameplay style wouldn't change.)

Subgenres:
Beat'Em Up
Hack N' Slash
Swipe N' Slice
Snake
Run N' Gun
Platformer
Maze
Action Puzzle
Trajectory
Breakout
Pong

In a nutshell, reaction time or reflex games, story elements are non-existent or there to provide context and not deepen the gameplay.

Adventure

Pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve, with very little or no action. If there is action, it is generally confined to isolated minigames. The gameplay revolves around the story elements.

Subgenres:
Point & Click
Choose Your Own Adventure
Visual Novel
Text
Interactive Video

In a nutshell, games that require textual problem solving.

[Izret101]

I would argue Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie have more of a story line than Limbo does.
Technically Limbo has no story...

Also Limbo is a 2d sidescrolling puzzle platformer. So if you DO want it in Action/Adventure you need at least platformer as a subgenre.

[tactical_nuke]

Addressing the Strategy RPG dilemma, I think we need to keep it under the RPG Genre since the only real thing that makes it a contender for the Strategy genre is the way you move around the battlefield and how the story progresses.

Tactical RPG

This RPG subgenre incorporates strategic gameplay such as tactical movement on an isometric grid. A distinct difference between tactical RPGs and traditional RPGs is the lack of exploration. Tactical RPGs instead emphasis on battle strategy. Usually the game will hop you from battle area to battle area with prep sequences in between.

Examples:
Fire Emblem
Shining Series
Langrisser
Master of Monsters
Ogre Battle
Vandal Hearts
Guardian War
Final Fantasy Tactics
Sakura Wars
Disgaea
Project X Zone

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Just curious how far off this differs from other sources...are we starting to wander off too far, or is there other information we could use as a modifier instead?

[Izret101]

^Disgaea?^