The problem with video game genres

Eitan doesn’t know what a Roguelike is.

• • •

This is the first video I made with the new format! I plan to make a lot more videos like this, especially at times where I can’t really film myself. As you can tell, it’s inspired quite a bit by Dunkey- but I tried to add my own flair to it. Please, give me feedback in the comments. I plan to improve this style, since I’m aware that isn’t perfect by any means.

The video’s subject has been haunting me for quite some time. I always saw "Action" and "Adventure" on the genres section of any video game on the 3DS eShop, and I remember thinking- wait, doesn’t every game have action and adventure??? The issue with RPGs is a bit different. This is a genre that doesn’t originate in video games- so it’s hard to classify what it is. In the beginning it was mostly the turn-based ones, but now- who’s to say games like Binding of Issac aren’t RPGs?

Regarding the citations portion, the reason I used Wikipedia alone wasn’t(only) because I was lazy, instead it was due to wanting to reflect how the general audience views video game genres. Wikipedia is pretty much the best source for that.

SOURCES
Citations:
Wikipedia- List of video game genres
Wikipedia- Action-Adventure Game
Wikipedia- Adventure Game
Wikipedia- Role-Playing Game

Videos referenced:

B-Roll used:

Gameplay footage used:
Pac-Man from Old Classic Retro Gaming

Music used:
Eccentric - Phoenix Wright: Justice for All
Encounter with Cappy - Super Mario Odyssey
Main Theme(Ragtime) - Paper Mario: Color Splash
Let Us Sing of a Hollow Victory - Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
Boss Battle - Paper Mario: The Origami King
Royal Sticker Story - Paper Mario: Sticker Star

MY STUFF
Tumblr

Editing: LumaFusion for iOS
Camera: iPhone 8

[firespark]

That Editing is awesome. I love the new style. Great video btw!!!

[frnnxstrll]

We should try to learn from the fields that have already had to classify things very carefully in order for them to work, like "taxonomy" as applied to biology, or "normalization", as applied to databases, or neurology, to understand how we recall information. I can provide these improvements:
1. Imagine you are going to store something in boxes. Therefore, an object can only be in a single box. That's how physical reality works. This manner of classifying fits best if you want to classify by a single category, say, color. You get a single box for blue things, another for red things, another for yellow things. In this case, the CATEGORY on which you are classifying elements is on color, and the VALUE is the color itself. Applying it to videogames, you may choose the CATEGORY to be "Importance of quick reflexes in order to succeed", and the VALUES may be high or low. Why do we need to classify like this? Because we want to find it faster when we are looking for it. If we put everything in the same box, it takes longer to find. But if the boxes are roughly the same size, then we remember the VALUE of the object in a given CAT and avoid looking in other boxes.
2. Now, in reality, you want to classify by many categories. Why? because to confront different situations you need a tool that has a specific characteristic (VALUE) in different CATEGORIES. Tonight you need a PLASTIC umbrella so it repels water, and you need a FANCY outfit to dazzle the invitees. So, what do you do? How do you accommodate this increase in complexity? Well, if you kept using boxes, you might put smaller boxes inside the ones you already had. But then, for every category, the number of boxes increases exponentially. So, it would be very hard to maintain so many boxes. And just navigating them would be cumbersome. Further, the order in which you selected the boxes may not be the same order that someone else thinks is best, which would make it hard for them to figure their way around. A better solution is to use the metaphor that tags lend themselves toward (Gmail uses this). You can freely tag your element with whichever tag/s you want, and when you are researching that tag, some system helps you find all of the elements with that tag. Now, you should be thorough when using tags. You should decide which are all the CATEGORIES you want to classify on, the VALUES that these categories can have, and assign at least one VALUE of each CATEGORY to each and all elements (games) you want to classify. And to help a system figure out if you have not forgotten to assign a VALUE of a given CATEGORY to a given element, perhaps the tags can hold the information of the category they belong to. So that some program goes through each of them and analyzes them. So, some of the tags would be {"category":"reliance on reaction", "value":"low"}, {"category":"reliance on reaction", "value":"high"}, {"category":"number of players", "value":"single"}, {"category":"reliance on reaction", "value":"multi"}. I also think the values for all categories should be a decimal number. At least as a starting point. We can add more complexity as needed. A value of 6.78964 may not tell you how many players can play a game, but at least it tells you it is more multiplayer than a game with a 0.0000 in the same CATEGORY. The benefit of this approach is that you would give a value to all categories, and just by flipping a single value, you can solve a problem you though you could not with that game. For example: chess is not social enough? make it giant!
That's it for now. I've written in more depth, and described several CATEGORIES and VALUES following this idea. I can share it if you'd like. Mainly, I'd invite you to stop thinking about classification in terms you have used before. Notice it is a lazy way of determining expectations. Don't depend too much on expectations. Try to see life anew and fresh at every moment. Why? Because if you pay enough attention to life, your creativity blossoms. Go on a spiritual path. I'm serious. It will teach you to see life as it is and to find profoundness where you couldn't have even imagined it was possible. When you see a 2D character jumping in platforms and shooting, don't immediately compare it to Megaman. When you do that, you destroy both your and the developer's creativity. Focus on the utility of that game in the capacity that it has to solve a specific problem. That is one category. Then try to find a different type of problem that that game can solve. That's another category. For example, you want to hone your reflexes. That is one category. You want to feel relaxed. That's another category. The difference can be subtle, but that's where the magic is. In other words, because a game requires precise reaction doesn't necessarily mean that it definitely has to put you in a stressed/upbeat state. It may relax you instead. Maybe you don't know how. But you should keep open to infinite possibilities in life. The problem with the current way of classifying video games is that we are trying to fit different CATEGORIES as the same one, and that's where the imprecise VALUES arise.
I'll be even more blunt: almost all of the current terms used to refer to game "genres" are bad, mainly because
1) they are not exclusive to each other. It is as if we were classifying all objects in the world by whether they are blue or square. First, there are more colors (VALUES) than blue; second, there are more CATEGORIES that are useful to us; third, something can be both blue and square. Similarly, a game can be an action car racing adventure. "Adventure" loosely refers to the fact that the length of the game is usually long and certain topics are touched upon in the text and ambiance. Or a game can be a roleplaying platformer that is not relying on action/reflexes. You may just not know one yet. You may not be able to fathom how it may be fun. But that's where the magic relies.
2) Also, in the use of the terms we use to classify games, we rarely recognize the hierarchy some terms have in relationship to others, like how "action" is used to refer to all titles with a heavy reliance of reaction times. Many CATEGORIES can be nested within that one.

[zant]

Ok, but the important part is that Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle isn't an RPG

[noicejam]

i fucking enjoy this new style of vidos dude, keep it up

[vidlantrofan]

Probably one of the least informative and most bad videos on the platform. Disliked