Wtf Are You Playing? - The Classification Thread - The Bear and Badger

dynamiteReady

So I'm at the battle cruiser with MK and Hylian, discussing the GOTY thread (as you do), and of course started talking about whether either Journey or TWD are actually games...

And are they?Â

Fuck knows. Perhaps TWD is a game after all (barely). And Journey? Well... it sounds like a game (barely). So then we took to discussing various genres, their archetypal mechanisms, and how certain games might fit into those set categories...

For example, in one interview, Edge once asked Miyamoto to distinguish between Mario 64, and Zelda OoT*... They both looked so similar at the time... I'm convinced that Zelda is an RPG (you have to level up your character to progress), but Hylian doesn't agree (it's an action adventure game). That said, Mario 64 is also very clearly an action (adventure?) game...Â

Do they belong to the same genre?

Portal was also a very interesting subject (FPS or puzzler?). As was Resident Evil (action?), but there are plenty of others**...

* Miyamoto suggested that the two games "feel" different... That mofo would know.Â
**Â Jimmy reckons Deus Ex and Bioshock are RPGs...

TheDJR

The original Deus Ex was definitely an RPG because you couldn't hit shit without levelling up.

This thread will never reach a satisfactory conclusion.

dynamiteReady

TheDJR wrote:

This thread will never reach a satisfactory conclusion.

You already know!

Raiziel

Zelda is most certainly an action adventure game. Â BioShock is first and foremost an FPS with adventure and RPG trappings.

Yossarian

Teaching in Egypt, I found it quite interesting that my students didn't differentiate between different styles of Arabic music. To them, Arabic music was simply Arabic music, regardless of whether it was made through musicians playing instruments or someone sitting in front of a computer sequencing each note. This led me to the conclusion that needing to pigeonhole different types of music into different genres was a very western impulse, and one which much of the world felt no need for. I expect that this is true for games as well.Â

Does it really matter whether Zelda is an RPG or an action/adventure?

Bollockoff

Voice of reason Yoss waving about his unwanted reasoning on the first bloody page.

I want bloodshed here. On this sacrificial altar DR has erected.

Yossarian

Sorry, Bollock, I blame the alcohol. On a related note, I met Shabby McCrabby tonight and he's a lovely person.

Hic.

Bollockoff

Yeah, i'm going to have to shoot him one day with his own Nerf gun.

regmcfly

Is Shabby a Skerret

WorKid

Zelda is a sports sim.

Mod74

Yossarian wrote:

Teaching in Egypt...

So in Egypt if someone says "have you heard the new single by The Mustapha's?" the second guy says "No, what sort of music is it?" the first can only say "Arabic".

Seems a bit broad.

If someone says to me "have you seen the trailer for Strike Suit Zero" and I say "No, what sort of game is it?" they don't just say "video".

fullspectrum

Dark Souls is a fuck you simulator.

Roujin

All fighting games are speed poker/chess crossovers. Deffo.

TheDJR

Troll thread.

mk64

My take is that Portal is a puzzle game in essence over an FPS.

Yossarian

Mod74 wrote:

Yossarian wrote:

Teaching in Egypt...

So in Egypt if someone says "have you heard the new single by The Mustapha's?" the second guy says "No, what sort of music is it?" the first can only say "Arabic". Seems a bit broad. If someone says to me "have you seen the trailer for Strike Suit Zero" and I say "No, what sort of game is it?" they don't just say "video".

Nobody asks what kind of music it is, although it'll more than likely be the new single from Amr Diab or Mohamed Mounir.Â

There are lessons on music that I taught out there and most people couldn't even tell me what sort of instruments tend to feature in rock or jazz.

hylian_elf

Yossarian wrote:

Does it really matter whether Zelda is an RPG or an action/adventure?

This is what I tried to end the night on. Dynamite wasn't having any of it. I'll leave it to him to explain.

Bollockoff

@Yoss how much of it is down to Arabic music sounding quite regimented? Or is it not, generally? I can't think of a piece of Arabic music in my head to compare.

beano

I think I am more arsed if a game is any good before I am arsed about it's genre.

Genre to me is an afterthought.

Defining new IP into a genre is going to be very limiting. I think I start by defing the environment, open, corridor, scroller, etc and then develop the shit out of it.

Coincidentally my afterthought on Bioshock is RPG.

hylian_elf

I agreed that Portal is a puzzler, but no reason why it can't also be called a first person shooter in the literal sense (shooting a gun of some sort in first person mode). This led to the discussion of what the core/essence of a genre is and the defining factor. Dynamite proceeded to confuse the hell out of me with talk of scoring and skill etc.Â

What I gleened from his explanation was that, according to the way he sees it, something like RPG is a very broad genre (a parent supergenre, if you will) with subgenres beneath it (child genres that inherit some of the parent's attributes).Â

I think. I'll let him explain.

WorKid

Tetris is interactive fiction.

Yossarian

Bollockoff wrote:

@Yoss how much of it is down to Arabic music sounding quite regimented? Or is it not, generally? I can't think of a piece of Arabic music in my head to compare.

There is an element of that, although Amr Diab became famous for pioneering a new style of poppier, more modern sounding music that sounds fairly different to the more traditional stuff sung by Mohamed Mounir. Although they both rely heavily on the word 'habibi' (darling, but can be used for men or women).

Here's some Amr Diab:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-hOMAUH4fvc

And here's some Mohamed Mounir:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eGX4BfIaFGg

Edit: having trouble embedding the vids on iPad. You'll just have to follow the links.

Tempy

Thread dredged from the very depths of Tartarus itself

beano

Heh.

Yes lets get back to the crux of the deliberation:

Are games art?

Paul the sparky

Is art a genre?

hylian_elf

Are forum posters art?

Tempy

No, but posting can be.

beano

Sub 'art' for 'game'.

End of thread.

hylian_elf

Yes, but what genre is that art?

beano

Good art.

Paul the sparky

Pop tart.

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