better game genres

Check out the full video on my channel! You can probably define a horror game or a puzzle game, but what is a “thriller game”? You might not think of Alan Wake. It’s usually classified as “action-adventure,” whatever that means. In fact, the only person I’ve ever seen define Alan Wake as a “thriller game”... is Sam Lake, the lead writer of Alan Wake. And what does that guy even know!

[TheGodOfInsanty]

I agree, though I think there needs to be a distinction between horror and Halloweeny

[FlorentChardevel]

You kinda learn to do this when people ask you what kind of indie game you're making

[annieabsorbsaqua]

Fully agree! I like to also use "Dollhouse perspective" rather than just "sidescroller".

[qwirkt]

If the PS Store or Steam filters classified stuff right according to existing genres it would already be an improvement

[mckinneym.]

I 100% agree
This is spmething Ive more or less been thinking ala games

[scyence]

I could listen to Jenna talk about anything.

[LivelyPaint]

I have noticed a quiet undercurrent if this; just never expressed in such a way that it was discretely showing tone and function clearly

[Boco_Corwin]

I liked the original black label NES games, cuz they were the first time I had a name for the kind of game I liked.

[hemangchauhan]

Wikipedia does 2 markers in many cases

[ravnston]

yeah, maybe even an optional fourth marker for content, like "a gorey sci-fi first-person boomer-shooter" or "a 😳😳😳 pixel sidescrolling roguelike" but it's ommitted when the game's got no content to worry about
steam tags are already Almost like this but the fact they're largely community based is because there's so many synonymous tags that people pile onto each other (not to mention joke tags)

[fitz]

Where's that utopia image of like. "The world if x"

[felipenachmanowicz]

Not horror, lets say "dark fantasy"?

[bsmarques]

Hell yeah! But what about games that are stylish but not full cartoon? Or something that is not photorealistic but also isn’t exactly pixel art? Zelda Breath of the Wild would be cartoonish or something else? And Windwaker? I think the idea is fantastic but needs refinement

[pixelbro]

Kind of the inherent problem with video game genres is that while they can act as shortcuts for our brains to picture the experience we will get from playing said game, such (even one-word) descriptors will almost always be superfluous to simply comparing said game to another. This is simply because we as a human race are addicted to shortcuts. Why was the wheel invented? To use as a shortcut for moving stuff! Why were computers invented? To use as a shortcut for storing vast amounts of information! Why was the internet invented? So that people like Jenna can make money off of ad revenue by making carefully curated content for consumers like us! Like and Subscribe! You get the picture. Lol.  
It is this addiction to making shortcuts that makes it possible for terms like Metroidvania or Doom Clone to persist within gaming culture to this day despite our realization that they are nonsensical outdated terms at this point. So while I can agree with the sentiment of updating descriptive terms for video games, it likely is never going to defeat the biggest boss(es) of gaming: our brains. However, that does mean we shouldn’t at least try and do better, as the video suggests. Who knows? Perhaps there is hope that one day mankind will resist the urge to be like, “Yeah, it is basically blank with an extra dose of blank.”

[blastard]

I'm not exactly sure why, but for some reason I actually find Jenna Superhot™

[seltsameseeds]

co-signed and will be intentional about this going forward!

[TimRomero]

nobody learned their lesson after “Doom Clone” went out of style. i hope in a few years people are embarrassed to say the words Metroidvania, Roguelike, or SoulsBorne. we have so many adjectives and verbs we could be using instead.

a Metroidvania is a Search-Action game. a Roguelike is a Run-Based game. a Souls-like is a Careful Action game. Animal Well is a Knowledge-Based Search-Em-Up.

“RPG” has also become meaningless as a descriptor as well because it conflates like three totally unrelated elements of DnD: buildcraft (level-ups and equipment), turn-based battles, and story roleplaying. if your game has one or two of those you now have “RPG mechanics” and it is unhelpful.

[kathylennerds]

Bethesda-ass RPG I will for sure use from now on

[platypuspracticus]

It is frustrating to buy a game advertised as a soulslike and it's a sekiro game. I want meaningful build variety, not a game where you just stand in place and wait to parry things.