Hi all,

I'm a new guy to these forums and I thought I'd start-off with a really basic quandary. What do you call some of these gaming concepts? is there an (un)official name for these?

1. With respect to Dwarf Fortress / Minecraft, the act of digging out ground anywhere and building anything out of the mined stuff. This "Lego sandbox" paradigm.
2. Orchestrating gigantic and complex traps or even simulating computer logic using traps and triggers. This is present in DF, Minecraft and Evil Genius.
3. Outdoor worlds with destructible terrain where fragments and spall dynamically interact with gameplay.
4. Outdoor worlds where fluids dynamically affect the world even sometimes in a non-transient manner (flowing sand, flowing water, lava, smoke, steam, cellular automata).
5. Manipulating your outdoor environment on a massive scale such as alteration of the atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere. Your basic Sim Earth paradigm.

As far as I'm aware there aren't universally accepted terms for those, and there's also quite a bit of overlap between the concepts.

[color=#1C2837][size=2]With respect to Dwarf Fortress / Minecraft, the act of digging out ground anywhere and building anything out of the mined stuff. This "Lego sandbox" paradigm[/quote]
I think everyone would agree that these are "sandbox" games -- but that alone isn't a unique descriptor that would allow them to be identified -- Grand Theft Auto is also often touted as a sandbox style game, but is very different from Dwarf Fortress or MineCraft. I've not played Minecraft, but I would also strongly identify Dwarf Fortress as a "simulation", if what I've heard is correct I believe both Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft could be described as "exploration" games.

[color=#1C2837][size=2]Orchestrating gigantic and complex traps or even simulating computer logic using traps and triggers. This is present in DF, Minecraft and Evil Genius.[/quote]
You'' also find these mechanics is puzzle games such as Fantastic Contraption. Depending on the specifics of the game in question I've often seen this type of gameplay labelled as "physics puzzle", "logic puzzle" or "trap-builder".


The remaining 3 all strike me as "simulation".

I don't know how useful that might or might not be, but that's the first terms that come to mind when I try to describe those.

The remaining 3 all strike me as "simulation".

Yes, and #5 is specifically a "god game."

Not sure about what type of game #5 is but what you do is terraforming.

Yeah as I thought there isn't a lot of clarity on these emerging elements yet. Would like to continue this discussion.

1. Most of the feedback I get agrees this is a sandbox game, but as jbadams says it is a vague term. Sandbox seems to imply an isolated and contained environment with no outside influences, whereas I notice a paradigm emerging from the combination of those same sandbox elements in a limitless realistic outdoor world, destructible, permanently alterable, and having opponents with home bases that scale with yours.
2. Trap-builder seems to fit from my angle, a Goldberg machine is an example of this concept.
3. Terrain-simulation?
4. This one is unique in that it interacts with all 4 other elements, for example (in order): heating, lava-traps, digging into a volcano, volcanic exhaust
5. God game seems to fit, reminds me of Populous II.

If you were to come-up with some term to describe a game espousing at least the first four (maybe fifth) elements, what would you call it?
I came up with Spatially Unrestricted Sandbox Environment, but I think SUSE is trademarked, lol, so that's one fail so far.

You might find <A HREF="http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3357/formal_abstract_design_tools.php?page=1">this link</A> useful from an article written many years ago. It talks about the need for a common language similar to what the movie industry has.