Video game genre
A video game genre is an informal classification of a
History
Early attempts at categorizing video games were primarily for organizing catalogs and books. A 1981 catalog for the
Within the personal computer space, two publications established a small number of categories based on the best-selling software in the early 1980s: Softalk, which ran its Top Thirty list from 1980 to 1984 with the genres of strategy, adventure, fantasy and arcade; and Computer Gaming World, which collected user-submitted rankings. Computer Gaming World initially used three categories in 1981—arcade, wargame, and adventure—but by 1989 had expanded its genre list to strategy, simulation, adventure, role-playing adventure, wargame, and action/arcade. Comparisons between computer and console games showed that players on computers tended to prefer more strategic games rather than action.[7]
Chris Crawford attempted to classify video games in his 1984 book The Art of Computer Game Design. Crawford focused on the player's experience and activities required for gameplay.[8] He wrote, "the state of computer game design is changing quickly. We would therefore expect the taxonomy presented [in this book] to become obsolete or inadequate in a short time."[9]
Consoles manufacturers that followed the NES followed similar behavior in requiring licenses to develop games for their systems. To assure they would get these licenses, console developers tended to stay with gameplay of previously published games for that console, thus causing groups of games within the same genre to grow.[2][14] Subsequently, retailers displayed games grouped by genres, and market research firms found that players had preferences for certain types over others, based on region, and developers could plan out future strategies through this.[2]
With the industry expanding in the 1990s and budgets for video games began growing, large publishers like Electronic Arts began to form to handle the marketing and publication of games, both for consoles and personal computers. Targeting high-value, low-risk video game genres were key for some publishers, and small and independent developers were typically forced to compete by abandoning more experimental gameplay and settling into the same genres used by larger publishers.[2]
As hardware capabilities have increased, new genres have become possible, with examples being increased
Definition
Due to "direct and active participation" of the player, video game genres differ from literary and film genres.[8] Though one could state that Space Invaders is a science fiction video game, author Mark J.P. Wolf wrote that such a classification "ignores the fundamental differences and similarities which are to be found in the player's experience of the game".[8] In contrast to the visual aesthetics of games, which can vary greatly, it is argued that it is interactivity characteristics that are common to all games.[1]
Like film genres, the names of video game genres have come about generally as a common understanding between the audience and the producers.
Genre names may evolve over time. The
New genres emerge continuously throughout the history of video games, often due to the cross-pollination of ideas borrowed from different games into new ones. For example, the seminal
The target audience, underlying theme or purpose of a game are sometimes used as a genre identifier, such as with "Christian game" and "serious game" respectively. However, because these terms do not indicate anything about the gameplay of a video game, these are not considered genres.[2]
Classifications
Video game genres vary in specificity, with popular video game reviews using genre names varying from "action" to "baseball". In this practice, basic themes and more fundamental characteristics are used alongside each other.[24]
A game may combine aspects of multiple genres in such a way that it becomes hard to classify under existing genres. For example, because
Elements of the role-playing genre, which focuses on storytelling and character growth, have been implemented in many different genres of video games. This is because the addition of a story and character enhancement to an action, strategy or puzzle video game does not take away from its core gameplay, but adds an incentive other than survival to the experience.[26]
In addition to gameplay elements, some games may be categorized by other schemes; such are typically not used as genres:[1]
- By platform: generally to the nature of the computer hardware that the game is played on and not the specific branding. This would include game genres like mobile games for smartphone, tablet computers, or other similar portable devices; and browser games that can be played in a web browser. Identification of the type of hardware a game is played on implied certain limits to the type of gameplay that is available; a mobile game will typically lack as much action compared to a game playable on a home console or computer due to limitations on player input.
- By mode: referring to whether a game is massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, cooperative games, player versus environment (PvE) or player versus player(PvP) games, and so forth.
- By narrative: Classifying video games by their narrative style, such as science fiction or fantasy, is typically not used within the field, with the key exception of horror games, which broadly cover any game dealing with elements of horror fiction.
Popularity
According to some analysts, the percentage of each broad genre in the best-selling physical games worldwide is broken down as follows.[27][28]
Genre | Softalk 1980-1984 |
VGC top 100 | ESA | Sta | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||||
Action | 61 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 15 | 27 | 25 | 22 | 29 | 22.5 | 26.9 |
Adventure | 11 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7.8 | 7.9 |
Fighting | 15 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5.8 | 7.8 | |
Platform |
10 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 9 | |||
Puzzle | 9 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||
Racing |
6 | 6 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 3.3 | 5.8 | |
Role-playing | 18 | 18 | 25 | 7 | 16 | 12 | 15 | 17 | 12 | 12.9 | 11.3 |
Shooter | 11 | 1 | 8 | 14 | 22 | 24 | 19 | 13 | 27.5 | 20.9 | |
Simulation | 6 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 2 | |||
Sports |
9 | 19 | 17 | 16 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 13 | 11.7 | 11.1 | |
Strategy | 10 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4.3 | 3.7 |
Misc | 4 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 4.1 | 4.6 |
In the last decade, puzzle games have declined when measured by sales, however, on
References
- ^ S2CID 17373114. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
- ^ Gamasutra. Archivedfrom the original on 2014-12-17. Retrieved 2014-12-03.
- ISBN 9780133435719.
- ISBN 978-1849961578. Retrieved 2014-12-19.
- ^ "Atari VCS Catalog English - CO16725-Rev. D". Atari Mania. 1981.
- ISBN 978-0553201642.
- ^ Lessard, Jonathan (2015). Early Computer Game Genre Preferences (1980-1984). Proceedings of the 2015 DiGRA International Conference. Vol. 12.
- ^ ISBN 978-0313338687. Retrieved 2014-12-03.
- ^ Chris, Crawford (1982). "A Taxonomy of Computer Games". The Art of Computer Game Design (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-10-15. Retrieved 2014-12-03.
- S2CID 53358125.
- Nintendo of America. 1987.
- Nintendo of America. 1993.
- Nintendo of America. 1991.
- ^ Mochizuki, Takahashi; Savov, Vlad (August 25, 2020). "Epic's Battle With Apple and Google Actually Dates Back to Pac-Man". Bloomberg News. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
- ^ "Why video games are so expensive to develop", The Economist, 24 September 2014
- ^ ISBN 978-1584506072. Retrieved 2014-12-03.
- ISBN 978-1285427065. Retrieved 2014-12-03.
- ISBN 978-0668055208.
- ^ "The Player's Guide to Climbing Games". Electronic Games. 1 (11): 49. January 1983. Archived from the original on 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2015-03-19.
- ^ "Reviews Explained: The Game Categories". TV Gamer. London: 76. March 1983.
- S2CID 62171492.
- ^ "10 Undeniable Ways Doom (1993) Shaped The FPS Genre". TheGamer. 2020-02-05. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
- ISBN 9781136290503.
- ISBN 978-1136300424. Retrieved 2014-12-03.
- ^ "ManaPool Guide to Roguelikes". ManaPool. 2010-11-21. Archived from the original on 2014-11-06. Retrieved 2014-11-06.
- ^ Clements, Ryan (2012-12-12). "RPGs Took Over Every Video Game Genre". IGN. Archived from the original on 2014-12-08. Retrieved 2014-12-03.
- ^ Lessard, Jonathan (2015). "Early Computer Game Genre Preferences (1980-1984)". Proceedings of the 2015 DiGRA International Conference. 12. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
- ^ Lola (April 22, 2017). "ESA Report: Best-selling video games and super genres of 2016". MWEB Gamezone. Archived from the original on 2017-12-27. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
- ^ Hill, Simon (16 December 2014). "Games rule the iTunes App Store: Most popular genres revealed". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 2017-12-28. Retrieved 2017-12-27.
- ^ Hill, Simon (2021-05-28). "Games Rule The App Stores: Most Popular Genres 2020-2021". LocalizeDirect. Archived from the original on Jun 2, 2023.
External links
- Media related to Video game genres at Wikimedia Commons