Every new idea designers come up with can always be classified in one genre or another. If its not a war game, its a sim, if you learn something its a education game and so on...what I want to know, is there a new genre. Now I know thats a super hard question....but what I''m trying to find out is, what are games lacking, is there something lacking in way you interact with a game? etc.. I''m trying to get lots of info so maybe someday I might find a completely new idea to toy with. (sorry if it sounds a bit weird, its a hard question to ask)

the genres we have now are so broad it is relatively easy to pigeon hole games. ''Action''... ''Role-playing Game''... ''Strategy''. All pretty vague. I think the next ''move'' in genres is basically doing away with them. take games like deus ex which incorporate so many different elements; these are hard to label. is it an rgp? a first person shooter? adventure game? all of the above? as we see more and more of these ''genre-blending'' games, the genres themselves will lose much of there meaning.

It may be like calling a film a drama. Like maybe se7en, that''s a drama. so is 2001: a space odyssey. do these films really have any relavant similarities? no. max payne is an action game. pac man is an action game. are these two at all similar? no.

i think designers would do well to free their minds from the shackles of genres. once we stop thinking about games in terms of other similarly labeled games i believe we will see some genuinely original entertainment.

<(o)>

MMOG-Role Playing-Flight Sim-Sci Fi-Action Adventure.

i tink thats a new one.

quote:

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Original post by Anonymous Poster
MMOG-Role Playing-Flight Sim-Sci Fi-Action Adventure.
i tink thats a new one.

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Hey, I''m programming one of those right now!

As mentioned above games are blending genres together...this is a GREAT things as limiting a particular genre to certain conventions would quickly spell doom for the industry (ex: RPGs must include a magic system) as this causes stagnation and game design duplication...nothing new would occur as genres would create a "hard line" proventing innovation...

But like films, music, and books...you will soon be seeing "trends" within each given genre...take Horror films...in the late 70-early 80 they tended to focus on "psycopath serial killers"...then in the late 80s they added hugely elaborite death sequences and bits of comedy (Nightmare on Elm Street, etc..)...then in the 90''s they went back to focus on the serial killers but with lots of ironic ''film within a film'' elements (Scream, etc..)...note not all films during this time fit into these themes...but it was the ''trend'' during those times...

games will be no different...

What I don''t want to see (or even play) are games that try to "please everyone"...like a RTS that has the option to be turn basied...or a FPS that has the option of being played in 3rd person view...this sort of screams "I DON''T TRUST MY OWN GAME DEVELOPMENT DECISION ABILITIES" from the people makeing the game...

It seems to me (although I haven''t done any real research into this) that new game genres are a result of new technology (i.e. computers become fast enough to approximate 3D -> 1st person shooters, computers get enough memory to hold lots of graphics and a story -> Sierra-esque roleplaying, etc.). I think that the next genre will follow this pattern. My bets are on AI improving to the point where you can have real interaction with the characters and they can interact well with each other (the soap opera genre?).

FragLegs

I would have to agree with FragLegs, as soon as computers got fast enough, Ultima Underworld, Wolfenstein, and Doom began the ever popular first person shooter (not so much UU) genre. Even The Sims was though up not long after the original SimCity, but they weren''t able to make it until computers were fast enough to handle it. Black and White is also a genre breaking game, with its virtual pets (at least on this level of sophistication), nothing was quite like this before. I also believe that developers will continue to toy with mix-and-match genres, like mentioned before with Deus Ex. I''m not even sure what you would call Majestic (is that how they spell it?). Virtual reality may someday provide us with possibilities we can''t even imagine, though thats pretty far off for the consumer level (i think).

Anyway, thats what I have to say, sorry if I sound like a 2nd grader typing this, its late .




Is that a pokeball?

__________________________________________
We get signal.
There are bombs exploding all around us!!

quote:

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Original post by Anonymous Poster

Original post by Anonymous Poster
MMOG-Role Playing-Flight Sim-Sci Fi-Action Adventure.
i tink thats a new one.

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Hey, I''m programming one of those right now!


I think that the game Earth & Beyond covers just about all of these

It isn''t the developers who think in terms of genres - it''s the critics. The developer makes a game, and the critics label it.

Uhh, I like games that have both FPS and 3rd person views. Like Jedi Knight. That was good. Sometimes I play Unreal Tournament in 3rd person view to add challenge (I''m a piston whomper...)